ZenCV 2021-1b

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Private and Confidential. For X-Culture use only.
Updated February 24, 2021
Track: 2020-1a
Company: ZenCV
Country: Italy
Website: www.zencv.com (previously www.zencv.it)
Company Presentation older CV business pitch (early 2020):
https://drive.google.com/file/d/17N_Lrxvy9KhmRscLOmCQZ76oG7HDRKzr/view?usp=sharing
Company Presentation newer CV business pitch (later 2020):
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kF39F8AC2wtB4DAx1AkSiQH-va3_zEZK/view?usp=sharing
Company Business Plan new (early 2021):
https://drive.google.com/file/d/16iVrYHeOwnyirO_TRIhNYoBXxkGGyXnv/view?usp=sharing
Webinars with company representatives: schedule and recordings here.
Questions: If you have further questions, please direct them to Admin@X-Culture.org. Your questions will be
directed to the company representatives.
A note from the company on communication:
On behalf of ZenCV, we promise that we will do our best to reply to your e-mails but we cannot guarantee a 100%
response rate, hence the best way to get answers to your questions would be to come to our weekly "open doors" webinar
held every Tuesday at 7PM-7:30PM (GMT+1) when you can interact with us directly or just write questions on our
Facebook group where we will do our best to cover all queries meticulously or at least prepare answers to be answered
during the webinar. Alternatively, you could join our group on Facebook.
ZenCV XCulture group on Facebook: 
https://www.facebook.com/groups/193851995060161/ 
Topic: X Culture feat. ZenCV Zoom Meeting
Time: Every Tuesday 07:00 – 7:30 PM Budapest
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http://www.zencv.com
http://www.zencv.it
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ttennucaz8d32rq/2020-1%20Webinar%20Schedule.docx?dl=0
mailto:Admin@X-Culture.org
https://www.facebook.com/groups/193851995060161/
Link to Join Zoom Meeting: https://zoom.us/j/95982799627?pwd=aWNXcDNZWUhMZGhnSXRzcnBMWDI3QT09
Meeting ID: 949 9945 3961
Passcode: zencv369
ID riunione: 959 8279 9627
Please prepare your questions by the end of Monday and post them to our Facebook group so that we can answer them on
Tuesday on our Webinar. 
COMPANY DESCRIPTION
ZenCV - Never worry about getting a job again.
The job application journey is one of the most stressful journeys of all. Job seekers experience 5 consecutive
hurdles when trying to find, land and succeed at their dream job. These 5 are:
1. Professional Orientation (Ikigai)
2. CV writing & design
3. Cover letter writing
4. Linkedin Optimization
5. Interview
ZenCV initially started with helping people craft this complicated A4 document called the curriculum vitae
that HRs cherish so much and students and professionals struggle with. However we quickly understood that
there are more steps on this journey than just CVs. That’s why our mission became to help job seekers
overcome all obstacles standing in the way of their dream job. Hence, our vision is “To enable 100 000
companies to hire 1billion job seekers by giving them a job aligned with their inner purpose & company’s
vision in order to create long term value ethically and without stress for both.”
It is a long journey that’s why within this brief we will focus only on the first 2 steps of the journey
1. Professional Orientation (Ikigai) and 2. CV writing & Design.
For professional orientation ZenCV is developing an AI-powered technology that will help young
professionals boost their self awareness, discover their inner calling and choose the right career path.
Specifically we are making a partnership with dotin.us who made a 60 second psychological assessment that
is able to peek into the intricacies of our characters very precisely and deeply in just 1 minute!
We at ZenCV have then connected these character traits to possible job opportunities in the market, giving
our customers and users of our test a 36 page comprehensive PDF report informing them about their
characters and best potential career opportunities. On the CV side our HR & Designers will continue
making CVs for people manually.
The ZenCV is currently consisted of 14 people all working part-time (with the goal of moving full-time soon)
divided into 5 teams (with some overlaps in between):
1. Marketing team (Tatiana Thorel CMO, Beatrice Puccilli Marketing Specialist, Maja Kopanja MKT
Designer)
2. Design team (Tamara Ristic Design Lead, Maja Kopanja, Marija Zivic and Milena Tomasevic)
3. HR team (Marija Vujovic Head HR, Maja Peric, Natalija Petrovic)
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https://zoom.us/j/95982799627?pwd=aWNXcDNZWUhMZGhnSXRzcnBMWDI3QT09
mailto:beatrice.puccilli@zencv.com
mailto:milena.tomasevic@zencv.com
4. Tech Team (Velimir Bulatovic CTO, Vlastimir Bulatovic full-stack dev)
5. Founder - Vladimir Bozovic
6. Project Manager - Marija Zivic
Your focus should be mainly on Ikigai Professional Orientation (70-80%)
Our Story
The story of the company as told by its founder, Vladimir Bozovic:
It all started two years ago when Federica, Vladimir’s ex-fiance and one of the company’s ex co-founders, was
sitting on the couch, desperately scrolling through job posts on Linkedin and Glassdoor. She had just got her
Bachelor's degree and was determined to find a job. After sending her CV to 52 job positions, she started
waiting for a reply. Days were passing slowly, and Federica was getting more and more anxious. Surprisingly,
she got only three emails back. All negative.
That was very discouraging. How can I design my resume so that it attracts the attention of potential
employers? – She was asking herself.
Not only was she unable to write an effective resume, but she also started doubting if she had what it takes both
as a person and a professional. She was skeptical about her skills and capabilities, and she didn’t know if she
had anything valuable that she could display on that darn piece of paper.
It was obvious that she needed help. Boyfriend to the rescue. Federica and Vlad sat together for an hour or 2
discussing what she wanted out of life, why, and how. Following our conversation, we started putting down all
the things she was good at, all the things she liked doing, and then trying to find the intersection of those two
within a role existing in the real world.
Since an average HR receives 200 emails for a job position, we knew that we had minimal chances to grab their
attention. Hence, we organized the data collected in a way designed to arouse interest, and by using passionate
language that matched her character, we created her first new resume for applying to a position in the
Creative/PR/Marketing sector.
It highlighted her key achievements, projects, and
experience while emphasizing her most relevant
skills, hopes, and plans. All accompanied with
unique and sophisticated aesthetics that were
supposed to match employer expectations
(marketing & data visualization) to help her stand
out from the crowd of competition.
The result? She sent 30 applications and got seven
replies, three of which were interview invitations.
She went to each of them and got two job offers.
But it was not only the beautiful layout, original
design, strong key achievement section or even
that impactful personal statement that ultimately
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made her win that job position. No. It was not even that she was able to make a “Wow” impression to the
recruiter.
It was something more profound.
That human touch was all about finding that special thing about her - that little, but unique set of traits, skills,
and strengths that she did not even know she had. Then, once that precious gem of authenticity was found - the
only thing remaining was helping her write it down, brand it, and communicate it to her future potential
employers.
It was merely the process of having a normal conversation together with her, figuring out what she was excited
about, what she cared for, what she hoped for achieving, and helping her understand that there is great value in
her creativity, soft skills, and communication abilities. Ultimately, she realized how she could combine her
passions and strengths, all while doing something that would get her the paycheck at the end of the month. Shewas more than happy.
That is the power we humans have to help one another. An algorithm or a machine could not have done it, and it
needed to come from a deep place that only we humans are capable of accessing. That place is called empathy.
In the meantime, after doing CVs for almost 100 clients, ZenCV team has realised that CVs are not the only
problem people are facing. That’s why we made a plan to cover the problems of each step of the job application
journey, first with services like Linkedin Optimization and cover letter writing and later with digital products
like Ikigai AI Assessment, CV builder, Cover letter AI generator and more. However in this brief we will focus
only on the manual development of CVs + the AI ikigai assessment.
THE CHALLENGE
Section I. Industry and Competition
Please present your recommendations for the following:
1. Industry and Competition Analysis
Start by learning as much as possible about your client’s industry, customers, and competitors. Consider doing
this primarily for Ikigai (professional orientation, career counseling), but also for CVs if you would like. We
recommend that you follow the following steps:
Answer the following questions:
● Who are the competitors of your client company?
● How do they operate? What business model do they use?
● What are their products?
● How do their products and prices compare to yours?
● Strengths and weaknesses of your client compared to the competition?
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● Threats and opportunities these strengths and weaknesses present?
A Google search will allow you to find dozens of companies that offer professional orientation services. Try to
conduct initial research on at least 10-20 competitors. From that list, identify 3-4 most threatening
competitors and analyze their product and business model in more depth.
Present your results in a table that covers the following:
● Do they sell a service or a digital product?
● Who is their target audience?
● How do their products or services compare or differ to ZenCV’s Ikigai?
Consider presenting your competition analysis as infographics or other easy-to-read format, like the following
(you can put your own dimension of course):
This SWOT analysis is for CVs currently but feel free to make one for Ikigai primarily. When assessing your
client’s competitive position, you may find this short guide and this 5-min video on SWOT analysis helpful.
➔ FOR IKIGAI
Please use this form to collect data about competitors for Ikigai (Professional Orientation).
You can access the collected data on this link.
For the Communication & PR questions please refer to this excel file. Please, add a new tab within the excel file
with the name of their group and perform their activities in there.
Make a survey to understand better the competitive environment for Ikigai service from ZenCV.
The questions for your thinking to take into consideration are here.
➔ FOR CVs
Please use this form to collect the data about competitors for CVs.
Access the collected data on this link.
The questions for your thinking to take into consideration are here.
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http://goo.gl/uV3cVg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNXYI10Po6A&feature=youtu.be
https://forms.gle/pWE5g4gVoQiZUZLm6
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/172K488ejgTkwl6HYIzGbwpAYuqQEnFVxRYBh-TQCK-0/edit?usp=sharing
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1JBqYn2H7TlQNC3h9ia3cUrPHb6yl_wV4UCQ_pIstB_E/edit#gid=0
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UzwzHa3AwH7efd_4pcs5h1_xfkdud8kwgEIi9eEKVVg/edit
https://forms.gle/44TSoASoMcd64hTk7
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1O5aY676T2o7EBB7c6bNw0-HC37cr8FZw46Ef9eJk5ck/edit?usp=sharing
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YXei6xu-yy_kh5JMry4YQHiaKTPGW7GG/edit
Section II. Content Creation
2. Product & Business Ideas
Based on your industry and competitor analysis, would you recommend that your client revise their product
offering or business model? Should ZenCV modify its main flagship product (CV design + CV writing) /
Ikigai?
For example, ZenCV is already considering some new options, such as: offering interactive CVs, CVs that have
a video instead of a photo, DIY resume builder, help with designing LinkedIn profiles, help with developing
cover letters, offering candidate pre-screening services to recruitment companies or directly to potential
employers, adding psychological and personality testing of job seekers, etc.
When considering new-product and business model options, pay special attention to client retention. That is,
after the main product is sold (e.g. CV has been designed), can ZenCV continue working with the client and
offer other follow-up products and services? What else could clients need in the future that ZenCV could help
with, perhaps even after they find a job and no longer need a new CV? How can ZenCV continue helping them
at the next stage in their professional careers?
After reading the ZenCV business model, get in touch with your teammates and brainstorm.
Come up with 2-3 proposals for business model improvements. At this stage, crazy ideas are allowed.
Don't discard options because they seem unrealistic; you have no resource constraints at this point.
Now it's time to deal with the real world and limited resources. Vote the best proposal with your team-mates
and run a feasibility study for the selected idea, focusing on the following aspects:
- Assessment of the practical difficulty of that alternative: how hard is it to realize?
- Financial analysis of taking that alternative: what would be the costs? What would be the revenue streams?
- Pros/cons of the alternative
Describe your proposal and the results of your feasibility study by filling out this form: Product Development -
Excel
At the end of the feasibility study it is OK to conclude that ZENCV should stick with its current product/model.
If you believe a modification of the product/strategy is unnecessary, explain in the CONCLUSION cell why
you have concluded the current model is optimal.
3. Content Creation (with Awards)
The best way to make a great career decision in the future is to understand the market thoroughly. ZENCV
heavily relies on content marketing, a type of marketing that involves the creation and sharing of online
material (such as videos, blogs, and social media posts) that does not explicitly promote a brand but is intended
to stimulate interest in its products or services. By helping ZenCV write several blog articles you will gain
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https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScfolBfPfMlBU9XQ5sQUC1d7BjW4fCqlLyftqZbT8auc1AMjA/viewform?usp=sf_link
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScfolBfPfMlBU9XQ5sQUC1d7BjW4fCqlLyftqZbT8auc1AMjA/viewform?usp=sf_link
important industry knowledge that will serve you very well later in your career. Hence, the most important part
in this section are the SEO articles to be written (with awards).
In this section, you will develop your own valuable content for ZenCV customers.
● Keyword discovery & creation:
SEO: Assess ZenCV’s online presence compared to the competition in the proposed market.
Use SEO assessment tools, such as Google keyword planner, Ahrefs free tools, Moz trial free tools, or
Ubersuggest to analyze the keywords used by ZenCV vs. the competitors to achieve favorable rankings
by the search engines. Find 15-25 keywords that ZenCV’s competitors are ranking for.
When conducting your analysis, it may be a good idea to divide keywords into several groups: high
volume search + low competition, low volume search + low competition, high volume search + high
competition.
This article provides a guide on how to find competitor keywords and assess their relative rankings and
SEO effectiveness.
After categorizing your keyword, extract the high volume search + low competition and high-volume
search and medium competition and write a blog article using those keywords. The blog article will be
explained below
We are mostly interested in the Ikigai keywords (not CVs!) hence try to revolve your keywords around
the problem Ikigai is solving:
- Ikigai (How to find yourIkigai, What is ikigai etc.)
- Purpose (How to find your purpose, What is my purpose etc..)
- Professional Orientation (Professional Orientation online, Professional orientation course etc..)
- Meaning (what is the meaning of life etc.., how to discover your meaning)
- Career Orientation (Career Orientation software, service etc..)
- Career Counseling (Online Career Counseling etc..)
Discover and fill out at least 20 keywords per category. Please fill in your results in this
document. When filling out the doc please create a separate tab for your group within the
document so that we can identify the quality of results for your group and give you prizes
accordingly.
● Copywrite 2 articles for the blog (1000-1500 words).
At least for one of the two articles, you are required to choose the topic from the list. Please use this
excel file to reserve your topic (and insert your new topics if you choose to write on your own topic
based on the best keywords from the previous section - high volume and low competition).
For the second blog article instead, you are welcome to give space to your imagination related to
Ikigai/Job Search/CVs(but if you prefer, you can still take one of the topics from the list).
Remember that the articles must be relevant to ZenCV's target audience! Try asking yourself, "What
article would I like to read on the ZenCV blog?".
Writing a good article that is also easy to read on our smartphone or laptop, is not easy at all. Get
inspired by some articles on this blog [ https://blog.kickresume.com/ ].
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https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/how-to-do-keyword-research-ht
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1sI3B0CR3-bVc5Zd7IwxdXSdw_aNOfzWcl2Me1gHt7OY/edit#gid=1754354108
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1sI3B0CR3-bVc5Zd7IwxdXSdw_aNOfzWcl2Me1gHt7OY/edit#gid=1754354108
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EGTn4Bc82VNZ6wD1eMTH6dw6XQV2Gl82/view?usp=sharing
For example, note how useful it is not to write very long blocks of text but to use bullet points to
simplify the reading.
These writing guidelines could also be useful to guide you in this endeavor: SEO Blog Writing Guide
To simplify the reading of your work, we kindly ask you to write the article on a file convenient for you
and, once finished, paste it on this Google Form Content Creation - Blog Articles & SM posts respecting
the division in the corresponding parts.
1. Headline (topic title)
2. Subheadline
(description)
3. Body of text
4. Bullet point overview
summary
5. References
● Transform the summary of two blog articles into social media posts.
Recap the most important facts from the two articles you wrote to make them posts on Instagram and
LinkedIn. Use the same link provided for the previous task (i.e. Content Creation - Blog Articles & SM
posts)
1. SM Caption Linkedin
2. SM Caption Instagram
3. Hashtags Linkedin
4. Hashtags Instagram
● Bonus task - Visual SM post
Take the topic of one of your blog articles and make a corresponding SM visual post & accompanying
copy (you can use Canva, Illustrator, Photoshop, or PPT.) Use this folder with a blog article and
accompanying SM posts as a guideline on how to make the visual! The style should follow ZenCV’s
Instagram style.
4. Market/Product Research (With Awards)
To provide the foundation for your marketing strategy development, start with market research.
ZenCV suggests that you run the following surveys. To collect a higher amount of data and male your research
more reliable, try to share our website (www.zencv.com) and the questionnaire (link available in the first
bullet point) with as many people as possible.
If your group achieves a total of 200+ people surveys contact us for prizes/internships. (You need to do the
tracking yourself and we will double check afterwards).
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https://docs.google.com/document/u/1/d/1zuAJ3Iy6Y_66JKxz8QFf0NdsCnPzSIhT/edit?usp=drive_web&ouid=116608272306184508461&rtpof=true
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1KqF2iCMKrLiLD3oPpPgHjxDXhgCNmSIEitvqCFc_i8M/edit
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1KqF2iCMKrLiLD3oPpPgHjxDXhgCNmSIEitvqCFc_i8M/edit
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1KqF2iCMKrLiLD3oPpPgHjxDXhgCNmSIEitvqCFc_i8M/edit
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1CGR5WdESepUWZOwNoUIg4lBkqair77xI?usp=sharing
https://zencv.com/
To better understand customer tastes and preferences and test the product-market fit please perform the
following:
● ZenCV needs detailed feedback on our new website as well as boosting our Google ranking score. To
help us with that, please go to the website and research thoroughly each page. Make sure to spend at
least 10-15 minutes doing so and make a PPT with screenshots for suggestions.
(Each team member needs to do this individually).
Please provide this feedback in a structured form here.
Excel with collected data for this form can be found here.
● Try to put yourself in the shoes of our potential customer for Ikigai (which you probably are, as a
student). Are you confused on what career choice to make? Are you aware of yourself 100% and of all
the possibilities in the market? Do you know what is the best match between the two? Please do yourself
the survey at this link so we can understand how many people are experiencing these problems. The
survey is here.
Responses collected can be found here
● Please visit our landing page https://zencv.com/ikigai and tell us about your experience. What have you
understood about the service from our landing page? Fill out your answers here.
Responses collected can be found here.
● Once you perform the Ikigai test of ZenCV and get the report, please help us understand the potential of
this service - what you liked, didn’t like, how we can improve it. You can find the questionnaire here .
Important note: The Ikigai PDF test will be available after 14th of February - join our Facebook
group for precise info.
Responses collected can be found here.
● Help ZenCV launch this Ikigai product by identifying 5-10 SM groups with potential early adopters
either on Facebook or on Linkedin or elsewhere with 100+ members that could be interested in trying
out our Ikigai product. Please provide your answers within this excel file.
5. Entry Mode & Partnerships
● University partnerships
ZenCV needs to connect to universities in order to reach a sufficient number of students for their Ikigai
product launch. It would be ideal if you could connect us directly with a person from your faculty that is
responsible for career orientation/career services that would be interested in helping students perform
professional orientation through Ikigai. To do so, please fill out this survey.
Responses collected can be found here.
● Influencer Marketing
Do some research and find 3 influencers who have a solid community with a high engagement rate.
Make sure there's a good fit between the influencers and ZenCV's offer and values.
Where possible, try to find influencers who have somewhat different target audiences and who meet the
needs of Zen CV's buyer personas. The influencers’ areas of interest should be among the following:
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https://forms.gle/4NHJMjMJzDDjwnoo6
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1trhQyxyV6GsjX8PgzJFl2TvK2cKHahYu5UrXKpKKz9w/edit#gid=1336767891
https://forms.gle/HgRCpctEnEvv4pP66
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ZP6_kGe4QWUxFzX_WjR6GoGPiynqbivK5vapJRgC72g/edit#gid=679320489
https://zencv.com/ikigai
https://forms.gle/iP9BgBfi4kd8pw4u6
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1WQpgZCQX6tyBuFs_A5g_TtRlt6DPZ3j2b3scbtxyYCw/edit#gid=194643417
https://forms.gle/SWrhX5cqUkmukW5T7
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1oS_G72nA5AheeCwxnH5ZTjCZ89TDGDgXIgQJIuQ1KHM/edit#gid=1073485540
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13J06pW5_LxdagvxX1yRU9B3-A46diaYaDleu2sH2ESI/edit?usp=sharing
https://forms.gle/Zxs3HpFqLKAvsnN16
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/18y2q6boSBTRySdDQVj060dcH0rrB6reDb-nlSx8-5us/edit?usp=drive_web&ouid=110527630878286193135
- Career coaching
- CV writing
- Recruiting
- Zen
- Spirituality
- Professional development
- Personal development
Explain for eachinfluencer selected what the goals of the collaboration are and all the details of the
proposal. List the outcomes you expect to achieve using congruent KPIs.
Fill out the excel form with all the required data, which you can access by clicking on this link. Make
sure you enter influencers both for Ikigai and for CVs. Please make a separate sheet within the excel for
your group and fill out the results inside using the same structure.
Influencer Marketing - Excel Form
Section III. Operations Management
6. Ikigai Product Development
ZenCV has a top priority of developing a high-end professional orientation software that will help people
discover their Ikigai (dream job and career path).
How will it work? The customer will do a 60 second psychological assessment and, based on their
psychological profile, we will recommend top 5 industries and top 25 jobs for their character, values and type of
intelligence. This will come in the form of a detailed 36-page PDF report covering everything about their
character and best industry fits. To do so, we need a detailed description of more than 250 jobs that will be
displayed within the report.
As you can imagine this is a lot of work for our team of 14 people part-time but with your help, we can do it.
Each group will have to take 10 jobs from the excel list and provide their descriptions in the empty columns for
each category like Responsibilities, Salary range, etc.
The excel file to be filled out with your research can be found here. Each group will have to take 10 jobs and
fill out their research. Remember to reserve your job within the excel file!
Once done, please create a copy of this template and edit it offline. Once you finish and fill in your 10 job
descriptions inside, upload your newly finished PPT into this folder.
Evaluation Rubrics
7 – The marketing strategy is rooted in solid market research, the recommended promotion channel(s) is
cost-effective and allows to precisely target the potential customers, there is a clear step-by-step guide for
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https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1PJYaqiW5yfR4HWDkfTUFUy6PLxgMiepK18atd7xS68A/edit#gid=602948596
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1LOOohtdLp-XU7bQJcFNVTDeGPGpwZuepUKo6kWcgNO4/edit?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/16MCz6vo6ZESVUC-f428NUo9U0y_Kg2Sq/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/11eStAN0nbzc8ioBlKxtKKSG7hW3GrcWN?usp=sharing
how to place an ad there and how much it will cost; samples of marketing materials are appealing and
convincing, all recommendations are supported by convincing arguments.
4 – Good suggestions, but not enough detail and weak supporting arguments, some parts are irrelevant or
redundant, the formatting is inconsistent.
1 - Impossible to figure out what the recommendation is, supporting arguments are absent or entirely off the
point, not supported by credible sources.
7.Social Media Ideas and Strategy
A. Youtube competitors - 3 ideas & 1 narrative
Please check what is the Youtube strategy of the companies that you’ve identified as our competitors.
Develop 3 ideas for our Youtube content and deep dive into 1 idea, developing a concrete narrative.
The questions to consider are the following:
- Do they have the Youtube channel and how actively do they use it (average number of posts per
week/month)? What’s the engagement rate – average number of likes, comments?
- What’s their creative idea and approach? Do they have “serious” videos with a person presenting the
content? Or a character and use a more relaxed, humorous way?
- What are the topics of the content they publish? Educational videos, career advice, etc
- If you were responsible for the creation of the Youtube channel for ZenCV, what would be the creative
concept? What type of videos would you post? How often? Would you consider this channel as a
priority, or not? Why?
- Can you propose the scenario of the first video to be posted when launching the channel?
B. Tiktok competitors - 3 Ideas & 1 narrative
Share your view whether ZenCV needs a Tiktok channel and if yes, what would be the strategy?
Develop 3 ideas for our Tiktok content and deep dive into 1 idea, developing a concrete narrative.
Please, consider the following questions:
- Do the companies that you identified as our competitors have a Tiktok channel?
- If yes, what type of content do they publish?
- Is it appropriate to use a Tiktok channel taking into account the types of services ZenCV is proposing?
- If you were responsible for the creation of Tiktok channel for ZenCV what would be the creative
concept? Why would you publish these contents? How often? What would be the priority of this channel
vs others?
C. Activation calendar for 1 week
Please, imagine you are preparing the activation calendar for ZenCV.
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Develop the calendar for one week taking into consideration the following:
- The SM channels to include: Instagram, Linkedin, Facebook, Pinterest, Blog on the website.
- Youtube, Tiktok (Optional - Do it only if you consider them necessary)
- Define how many times you will post per week in each channel?
- Define the topic of each post in each channel
- Create the posts using the guidelines imitating the style of instagram of ZenCV
8. PR & Activities and Product Launch
● Free CV Strength Report - OPTIONAL - (with Interview & potential Internship Prize)
In this section ZenCV needs your help to help other people struggling with CV making. The goal is to
reach out to a maximum number of people that might need help with CV making and help them by
giving them a free CV strength report. This is one of the most important tasks from our whole brief and
if your group is able to collect 50+ people to receive our free CV strength report we will be interviewing
you for an internship together with other prizes like Ikigai report and CV discounts. Remember, this task
is optional but you will be able to win amazing prizes!
To perform this task try finding people in your network that might need help with their CV and direct
them to https://zencv.com/free-cv-report/ where they can get their free report. Make sure to tell them to
use “X-Culture” in the How You Found About Us sections as well as to put your group number below.
This is how we will track how many people you referred us to.
Tip: If you are struggling to find people with this need in your network - you can always refer to
Linkedin where there are a lot of people looking for a job and help them by telling about our service.
● Free CV Workshop - OPTIONAL - (with Interview & potential Internship Prize)
Similar to the task above, try to invite as many people as possible to our CV workshop
https://www.linkedin.com/events/cvworkshop6760179093938999296/
It will be completely free and people will have the opportunity to learn all the details of CV building.
Groups that will be able to invite 30+ participants will be considered for internships. Please, reach out
to Vladimir on Linkedin if you collect 30+ participants.
● Become An Influencer - OPTIONAL (with Prize)
As a marketing manager it can be useful to experience yourself at first hand what it looks like being an
influencer. If you want, you can join this optional challenge and promote our services to your audience.
As a real influencer, you can create every kind of content you prefer about ZenCV, using the tone of
voice which is more spontaneous to you.
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https://zencv.com/free-cv-report/
https://www.linkedin.com/events/cvworkshop6760179093938999296/
Just remember to mention us (@zencv) if you want to join the challenge and use the hashtags #zencv
#zencvforxculture.
To share your work with us, please click here: Influencer Challenge - Folder for Upload.
Once you are inside the “Influencer Challenge” folder, create a new folder with the name of your
group.
Upload the contents you created and the insights screenshot into your group folder.
The best group will obtain a special prize of a working with the company project based after Xculture
even. Groups will be evaluated on the basisof:
- Creativity
- Insight (performance of the contents)
REPORT STRUCTURE AND FORMATTING
Report structure:
● Title Page must contain
o team number
o client company name
o names, emails, and countries of residence of all the team members and a short summary
(5-15 words) of the role and work completed by each team member.
o If any of the team members dropped out or did not contribute to the report, please still list
them, but add a note “Did not participate” by their names.
● Executive Summary (300-400 words, bullet-list format preferred) that provides a short review of your key
findings and recommendations. The Executive Summary should not be saying what the report will be about
(list of topics), but rather summarize your key recommendations (the proposed new market, key findings of
the industry analysis, key features of the recommended marketing and pricing strategies, etc.). By reading
the Executive Summary, your client should be able to see and understand right away your key
recommendations. The rest of the report should only provide more details and supporting arguments.
● Report sections corresponding to each question listed above.
Start each report section with short bullet-list summary of the key recommendations presented in the section
(2-4 bullets, each 4-10 words long), followed by 2-5 pages of more detailed explanations and supporting
arguments.
● References: if you cite any sources in the text of the report, provide full references in this section. Please use
APA-6 citation style (google how to cite sources using APA-6 if you are not sure).
● Appendixes: If needed, add additional information in appendices, within the page limit.
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https://drive.google.com/drive/u/1/folders/18lykjOVeqeqcTkuk0dcIOe47vWe7fCef
Formatting:
● The report must be 15-25 single-spaced pages (7,000-15,000 words) including the title page, executive
summary, references, and appendices. Each section should be 1-4 pages long. Generally shorter is better, so
be as concise and focused as possible. Design your report for easy navigation and scanning for key ideas.
● Number all pages in your team report.
● Portrait page orientation.
● Margins should be 2.5 cm (one inch) at the top, bottom, and sides of the page.
● Font type should be 12-point Times New Roman throughout the report.
● Single-space all body text.
● Indent the first line of a new paragraph.
● The text should be left aligned.
● All citations used must be cited in the text and in a reference list at the end of each report. In-text citations
should include only the name of the author(s) and the date of the publication. Full references should be
provided at the end of the report. Please use APA reference style.
● A picture is worth a thousand of words, so use of figures, graphs, pictures, as well as tables is encouraged. It
is recommended these are included in the main body of the report.
● Know your client: Which English spelling dictionary and paper size (A4/US Letter) varies based on which
country your client’s business is headquartered.
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http://www.library.cornell.edu/resrch/citmanage/apa
Note About Presenting Academic Frameworks to Business Executives:
Academic frameworks (e.g. SWOT, PESTLE, Porter 5 Forces, etc) are excellent for populating data and
facilitating analysis. They demonstrate a more rigorous thinking process rather than just ad hoc anecdotal
opinions.
However, it is the insights drawn from such academic frameworks that is of interest to business executives. Just
populating an academic framework and placing it in the body of a report without highlighting the insight gained
adds little value for the business executive. The eyes of a busy business executive will skip over a busy
populated academic framework as discrete descriptors within the framework mean little – it is the relationships
and insights that you highlight that is valuable to a business executive (do not have the reader guessing what
you thought was important in the chart – tell them).
The best reports discuss the insights within the body of the report, perhaps supported by a simple chart,
referencing the academic framework in the appendix. Diagrams, charts, summarised tables, etc. certainly are
fine within the body of the report, but there should be an easy to deceiver message from such graphics.
Download a PDF of a report from McKinsey Quarterly (www.mckinseyquarterly.com) to obtain an illustration
of one approach.
Evaluation of the Executive Summary
7 - Short but gives a very good idea about the key ideas presented in the business proposal, the Client can get a
good idea about the main points of the proposed strategy from the executive summary;
4 - Gives some idea about the key suggestions, but some points remain uncertain; a bit too long; not to the
point.
1 - Not possible to figure out the key ideas of the business proposal from the summary, too short or too long
Evaluation of the Formatting
7 – The report has a clear structure, visual appeal, the sections are consistently formatted, sources are properly
cited, the formatting guidelines are followed exactly with respect to the page limit, font and other
requirements.
4 – The formatting guidelines are generally followed, but there are some deviations, there are some signs of
sloppiness in document formatting.
1 – The document looks very unprofessional, different report sections are formatted differently, the document is
very hard to read and navigate.
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http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com
TASKS AND DEADLINES
Each week, you will be asked to fill out a short survey to report your team’s progress, evaluate the
performance of your team members and provide other information we need to understand better why some
teams perform better than others. Please see the informed consent form at the end of this document for more
details.
Important: Participants who receive peer evaluations below 2.0 (out of 5.0) will first receive a warning. If
their peer evaluations stay below 2.0 two weeks in a row, they will be automatically excluded from the team.
Important: Occasionally emails with invitations to take a survey are filtered into the Junk/Spam email folder.
Please check your Junk/Spam email folder (search for messages with “X-Culture” in the subject line) if you
don’t receive a survey invitation message around the date specified in the table above.
All deadlines are set for 11:59 pm (23:59), EST time zone (New York).
1. Pre-project Readiness Test
Due: Any time before the official project start
Before the project starts, all participants must review project materials and take a Readiness Test. The test will
include questions about the project and online collaboration tools, as well as questions about your prior
international experience and background. You must successfully pass the Readiness Test (80% or more
correct answers) to participate in X-Culture. If your semester starts after the official start of the project or you
do not complete the Readiness Test on time for another reason, do so as soon as you can – we will continue
adding new participants for about ten days after the project start.
Official Project Start, Teams Formed
Monday, March 2
As long as you completed the Readiness Test, you will receive the names and contact information of your
team members on this day. Please reach out to your teammates immediately to establish contact. Introduce
yourself, and start working on the project. Students whose semester starts later will be added to the existing
teams once their semester starts, so it is likely an additional student may be added to your team in the first two
weeks.
2. Establish Contact with Your Teammates
Due: Thursday, March 5
By this date, you are expected to have exchanged at least a few messages with your teammates. If some
teammates are not responding, you are expected to send at least three email reminders to them by this date.
Team members who fail to establish contact with their teams will be excluded from the project. Your
communication starts via email, but once the initialcontact is established, your team can use any means of
communication.
Deliverables: A few days before the deadline, you will receive an email with your personal weekly survey
link. The survey will ask you to report whether or not you have communicated with all of your team
members. Team members who fail to establish contact with their teams may be removed from the project.
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Note:
This and all other weekly surveys will also ask to evaluate your team members’ performance and provide
additional information we need to understand better why some teams perform better than others. Please see
the informed consent form at the end of this document for more details.
3. Meet Your Teammates
Due: Sunday, March 8
Meet your team members: Please learn as much as possible about your teammates (background, interests,
hobbies, experiences, etc.). Research shows that spending a little time getting to know team members greatly
improves team effectiveness. It is also strongly recommended that you try a live video call (e.g., Skype).
Deliverables: A few days before the deadline, you will receive an email with your personal weekly survey
link. The survey will test how well you got to know your team members. It will contain a few questions about
your team members, such as their background, interests, etc. The acquaintanceship test will not be graded, so
do not feel obliged to reveal any personal information to your team members or insist that your team members
reveal their personal information to you. However, try to get to know your teammates as much as you can.
4. Select the Client Company, Team Charter
Due: Sunday, March 15
By this date, your team is expected to review all available challenges and select your client organization.
Before you choose your client organization, please carefully review the challenges presented by each
organization and try to attend (or watch the recordings of) the webinars with each of the client companies,
which will be held in the first week of the project.
Team Charter: Discuss with your team members and collectively write a one-page Team Charter that details
how your team will operate. It is recommended that the Team Charter includes the following sections:
● Distribution of roles and tasks. Many teams divide the workload by the report section. Research shows
teams perform better when they divide the workload by function: one person is tasked with
coordinating team efforts, checking everyone’s progress, sending reminders, redistributing tasks if
needed; another person, usually a native English speaker, serves as a copyeditor, and so on. Many
teams also select a person whose role is to question everything and force the team to weigh their
options more carefully. Some teams assign a person whose job is to make sure nobody is ignored.
Some people are shy or may have a hard time keeping up the pace, and it is important they are not left
behind and their opinions are voiced and given full consideration.
● Dealing with conflicts. How conflicts (interpersonal, task, process) will be resolved.
● Dealing with free-riders. In most teams, someone is always late, produces low-quality work, or
underperforms otherwise. Sometimes, a team member stops working altogether (gets sick, busy at
work, family problems, or simply drops the course). How will the team deal with the loss of a team
member? Who will redo the work if needed?
Deliverables: A few days before the deadline, you will receive an email with your personal weekly survey
link. The survey will ask you to report the name of your client organization, as well as ask each team member
to submit the same copy of the Team Charter.
5. Initial Individual Research and Ideas
Due: Sunday, March 22
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Conduct your initial research and try to learn as much as possible about the industry your client operates in:
Who are the main players? What the most popular products and technologies? What new technologies and
approaches are likely to dominate the industry in the future? Is the industry regulated by the government and
how? What are the differences in different regions of the world? How does your client compare to the
competitors? What are your client’s strengths and weaknesses? Try to interview 2-3 potential customers of
your client company to better understand how they make purchasing decisions and if (and why) they would
choose your client over the completion.
Review the challenge questions listed in the three sections earlier and, based on your initial research, jot down
your personal initial answers to each of them. You do not have to write more than a few words in response to
each question at this point; just your initial ideas and possible answers. This will prepare you for the team
discussions when your team will be collectively developing the best answers to each question. Even if your
team decides to assign a different report section to different team members, it is very important that each team
member shares his/her suggestions for each question. This will give the team member responsible for the
report section more to work with and help develop better final answers.
Deliverables: A few days before the deadline, you will receive an email with your personal weekly survey
link. The weekly survey will ask you to report the results of your initial individual research and your initial
individual suggestions for responding to each block of questions listed earlier. Specifically, you will be asked
to:
● Report the results of your industry analysis, including a brief description of the industry, your client’s
strengths and weaknesses compared to the completion, etc. (bullet list of key findings, half a page
total)
● Your initial recommendations for the most promising market, market entry mode, key elements of the
promotion and marketing strategy, and key elements of the operation strategy (1-2 points in response
to each question, a paragraph per question).
6. Block 1: Market Analysis
Due: Sunday, March 29
This week, your team is expected to submit a draft of your Section 1. It does not have to be a fully finished
report section. However, try to complete as much as possible. The more you complete now, the less work your
team will have to do later. The drafts will not be graded by X-Culture and will not affect your chances of
winning the completion (we only evaluate the final reports). However, the instructors will have access to
these documents in case they would like to review your work and provide feedback.
Deliverables: A few days before the deadline, you will receive an email with your personal weekly survey
link. The survey will ask you to submit a draft of your Report Section 1 (the survey will contain a document
upload link). Although your team is expected to develop the section draft collectively, only one team member
will be asked to upload the document on behalf of the team. However, every team member will be asked to
complete the rest of the progress survey (questions about how your team is doing and peer evaluations).
7. Block 2: Marketing
Due: Sunday, April 5
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This week, your team is expected to submit a draft of your Section 2. It does not have to be a fully finished
report section. However, try to complete as much as possible. The more you complete now, the less work your
team will have to do later. The drafts will not be graded by X-Culture and will not affect your chances of
winning the completion (we only evaluate the final reports). However, the instructors will have access to
these documents in case they would like to review your work and provide feedback.
Deliverables: A few days before the deadline, you will receive an email with your personal weekly survey
link. The survey will ask you to submit a draft of your Report Section 2 (the survey will contain a document
upload link). Although your team is expected to develop the section draft collectively, only one team member
will be asked to upload the document on behalf of the team. However, every team member will be asked to
complete the rest of theprogress survey (questions about how your team is doing and peer evaluations).
8. Block 3: Operations Management
Due: Sunday, April 12
This week, your team is expected to submit a draft of your Section 3. It does not have to be a fully finished
report section. However, try to complete as much as possible. The more you complete now, the less work your
team will have to do later. The drafts will not be graded by X-Culture and will not affect your chances of
winning the completion (we only evaluate the final reports). However, the instructors will have access to
these documents in case they would like to review your work and provide feedback.
Deliverables: A few days before the deadline, you will receive an email with your personal weekly survey
link. The survey will ask you to submit a draft of your Report Section 3 (the survey will contain a document
upload link). Although your team is expected to develop the section draft collectively, only one team member
will be asked to upload the document on behalf of the team. However, every team member will be asked to
complete the rest of the progress survey (questions about how your team is doing and peer evaluations).
9. Complete Draft
Due: Sunday, Due: Sunday, April 19
By this date, your team is expected to have a complete draft of your report. It does not have to be a finished
report, but it should be as complete as possible, including Title Page and an Executive and Chapter
Summaries, and correct formatting throughout the document.
Deliverables: One team member should submit the draft via TurnItIn.com on behalf of the entire team (see
step-by-step submission guidelines below). After your document is submitted, TurnItIn will generate a
plagiarism report that will show you if any parts of the report have been plagiarized (takes several hours to
produce). Usually, up to 20% similarity is acceptable, provided that copy-and-pasted materials are properly
referenced. If plagiarism is detected, your team will have until the Final Report deadline (see below) to fix
the problem and submit a plagiarism-free final report.
This draft will not be graded and the plagiarism statistics will not be shared with your instructors. This is
only for your information. You should continue editing the report until the final deadline, and you can still
make any changes or additions.
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However, it is strongly encouraged that you submit as complete a document as possible, You will be able to
submit your draft and check it for plagiarism only once, so the more complete the draft, the less the chance
that the final report will contain plagiarism.
Also, every team member will be asked to submit your usual weekly progress survey. A few days before the
deadline, you will receive an email with the usual questions about your team.
10. Final Report
Due: Friday, Due: Sunday, April 24
By this date, your final report must be submitted via TurnItIn.com (see Submission Guidelines below).
Please note, the plagiarism statistics for final reports will be generated by TurnItIn and shared with the
instructors, but the plagiarism report will not be shared with the students.
Only one team member must submit the final document via TurnItIn.com on behalf of the team.
11. Post-Project Survey
Due once report submitted, but no later than Sunday, Due: Sunday, April 26
A few days before the deadline, you will receive an email invitation with a link to your post-project survey.
This is the most important survey.
The survey will ask about your experiences in X-Culture and evaluate the performance of your teammates.
Your answers are extremely important and will help us improve the project in the future.
Every team member must complete the survey.
Submission Guidelines
The report draft and the final report documents must be submitted via www.TurnItIn.com. Only one team
member must submit the documents on behalf of the entire team. The team member who will be submitting the
draft and final report must follow these steps:
Part 1. Create a TurnItIn account (time required: 60-90 seconds).
1. On www.turnitin.com and click on the link “Create Account”.
2. On the next window, under the “Create a New Account” heading, click on the “Student” link.
3. Enter the Class ID. Note the Draft and Final report submissions have different Class IDs:
Class ID: 23500622 (password xculture)
Note: If you already have a TurnItIn account, log on using your “old” login information, click on the “Enroll in
Class” tab on the top, and repeat step 3.
Part 2: Submitting the paper (time required: 60-120 seconds)
4. Once the account is created, you can log into your account. Your home page will list your classes.
5. Select the correct class and click on the "Submit" button.
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http://www.turnitin.com
http://www.turnitin.com/
Make sure to select “Draft” assignment for the report draft and “Final Report” for the final report.
6. Choose Single File Upload.
Make certain the file name only contains your team number.
Wrong: “Final report 123.pdf”, “Team Report.pdf”, “Team 123.pdf”, “John Smith.pdf”
Right: “123.pdf”
7. Click on "browse" to locate the paper saved to your computer.
8. Click on the file and click "open". 
9. Click the "upload" button at the bottom.
10. Click "submit" to confirm your submission. Once the submission is finalized, you will see “Your
submission was successful” on the top of the page. If you wait a few hours, you will see your “originality
report” that shows how much and what parts of your report have been plagiarized.
research will have no effect on your course grade.
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