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12.2 Planning

The scenarios below ask you to add a feature to an existing product based on user needs. This is reflective of the type of recommendations you would need to deliver as a product manager. As you learn about your users' needs, you'll determine what's next for your product.

Read the scenarios below and choose which one you want to work on for this capstone assignment. The type of work you would do for each scenario is the same, so focus your choice on a product that interests you and the availability of users that you can interview and test with.

Choose a scenario​

Option A: OpenTable Order Ahead​

You work at OpenTable and are running the mobile app product line. Your boss, the director of product, informs you that due to customer demand, the executive team has decided you must add a new feature to your product called Order Ahead. The goal of this feature is to enable users to place their meal and drink orders at the same time as booking a table, helping your customers (the restaurants) better utilize their tables with less wait time. Conduct user research and plan the roadmap for this new feature. (Your research should be done with OpenTable mobile app users, not with restaurant owners.)

Option B: Pitch a feature for a niche product​

Pick one of the following niche products. Niche products are made for a specific and defined audience, such as teachers, dentists, and small business owners. Make sure that you have access to people who use or would use that product since you'll need to interview them.

Imagine you're the PM for this niche product, and your boss just asked you to come back with the priorities for new features for the next quarter. You need to make the case for the top feature you'd like to develop next.

For either scenario, it's okay if you're a user of the product and some feedback comes from your own experience, but you'd need to interview at least three other users. This will help you identify new features or user pain points you can recommend addressing. The usability testing must be done with someone else; you cannot be the user for that task.

Also note that these users don't have to be people who have used the app or website before. They just need to be a fit for the target audience; you can ask them to explore the app three to four times in the week prior to meeting them. For instance, ask a friend who likes to eat out to use OpenTable to make reservations (which they can then cancel), invite a friend with a dog to explore the Wag! website, or ask a family member who is a teacher to try to post something for sale on Teachers Pay Teachers. Of course, if you can find someone who has been using the app for a while, they will have better, richer feedback. But potential or recent users work too.

Plan your project timeline​

The recommended timeline to complete the capstone project is 7-10 days (calculated from the regular time commitment of 20-25 hours a week). Regardless of the scenario you chose, you will need to do all of the following to complete this project:

  • Perform a SWOT analysis for your product.
  • Create a survey to send out to users of the product (in Typeform or Google Surveys).
  • Write an interview guide for user interviews.
  • Schedule and conduct three or more user interviews (preferably in person).
  • Put together a prioritized list of features.
  • Create a storyboard and mockups for the MVP of the new feature.
  • Run a usability test for those mockups.
  • Iterate on the storyboard and mockups for the MVP.

There is lots of work, but with a little organization, there's no need to get overwhelmed. The assignments in each checkpoint in this module will help you break this down into manageable milestones. The road to success starts with some planning ahead.

Assignment

In yout notion page, Google Doc (or other shareable document), put together a short description of your plans for this capstone. Your one-page planning document must include the following.

  • The scenario you've chosen.
  • A plan for how you will recruit users for your user research. If you have specific people for this, who are they? If you don't, how will you find them? When can you expect to conduct user interviews?
  • A planned timeline for completing this project with timed goals for each component of the work. You may want to read ahead and explore the assignments for all the checkpoints in this module then plan when you will complete each one.

Now pull up your sleeves and get working. This is a great opportunity to experience product work and collect stories and insights to share in interviews. Good luck!

There is nothing to submit here, you will submit everything together in the end