CurioQuest
wiki/open-questions.md
Open Questions
Source: Project-Objective.md §12 + Research_Synthesis.md §13/§16. Resolved items are tracked as ADRs.
Strategic / decision-level (still open)
- Primary customer wedge — parent-direct vs. gifting vs. homeschool. Current lean: parent-direct / summer-led, but left validatable in the pilot rather than hard-locked. Research leans gift-givers and/or homeschoolers first (proven WTP, low CAC).
- Teacher / classroom B2B timing — deferred, but when? Proven WTP ($95–325/yr
[FACT]) and smooths seasonality; different/slower sales motion. - Exact pricing numbers — bundle-anchored, volume-rewarded is locked as a shape; the actual tiers are set in the unit-economics model (Lane 2). Research guidance: AOV $40–75
[ASSUMPTION]; single $25 is too thin for hardcover. - Shopify ↔ generator-app seam — checkout/fulfillment on Shopify; creation wizard + generation likely a custom app. The boundary is undefined → resolve in the PRD.
Pilot-only unknowns (desk research cannot validate these)
These are the hinge metrics. The concierge pilot exists to measure them; every one is [ASSUMPTION] until then.
| Unknown | Pass / kill threshold | Why only the pilot answers it |
|---|---|---|
| Preview→paid conversion | ≥6% pass; <3% kill freemium entirely | No benchmark exists for "preview→personalized-print-gift"; SaaS 2–3% [FACT] is the wrong proxy for gift-givers. |
| CAC (low-cost channel exists?) | ≥40% non-paid acquisition pass | Whether a cheap organic/referral/homeschool channel actually exists is unproven. |
| Retention / repeat intent | ≥40% intend repeat | Whether the grade-progression + gift-occasion cadence drives real repeat is unmeasured. |
| Willingness-to-pay / realized AOV | ≥$50 realized AOV pass | Real margin at our exact specs (hardcover + activity insert) is unmodeled — may be negative at $25. |
| AI reject rate | qualitative gate (human-reviewed sample to ~20 parents/teachers) | Trust/quality acceptability and "AI slop" risk only show up with real buyers. |
| POD feel | passes hand-feel + durability | Which POD partner delivers premium kids'-book quality at viable margin needs physical samples. |
Rule: the big unknowns (conversion, CAC, retention, WTP, AI reject rate, POD feel) are pilot-only. Do not treat any desk-research figure as bankable for these.
Related
- The economics these unknowns drive
- Validation plan & kill-criteria (§13)
- How we got here