A Product Management Case Study: AfriChow- A Web Open Restaurant App that Bridges Culinary Gaps Across Diaspora Communities.
Overview
In today’s increasingly interconnected world, diaspora communities are not only expanding but are also seeking ways to stay connected with their cultural roots. This connection often revolves around the cuisine of their homeland. AfriChow is an innovative web app that recognizes this need and has created a platform to empower diaspora vendors to showcase and sell their authentic meals to Africans in diaspora. AfriChow, an open restaurant app, embarked on a mission to empower vendors in diaspora communities and facilitate the sharing of their beloved local dishes with food enthusiasts. In its Minimum Viable Product (MVP) stage, AfriChow aimed to lay the foundation for a digital platform that would bridge culinary gaps, strengthen cultural connections, and provide vendors with a marketplace to showcase and sell their authentic meals.
I just completed a Product Mangement (Pro track) training course organized by Her Tech Trail Academy and this is my capstone project. This project was carried out by a team of Product Managers, Product Designers and Web Developers. We started out by holding a design sprint which was carried out using Figma and lasted for 4 days. After a brainstorming session, we were able to come up with survey questions and sent out survey forms to aid us in finding our target audience, and their pain points. We carried out our research and came up with valuable information to aid advancement of the AfriChow project.
Research and Background study
The restaurant industry is a market segment that produces food and beverages for consumers to consume on-site or through pick-up services, various types of catering, or banquets. It is an industry that focuses on supplying food services in cafés, restaurants, bars, and through an app
or socials.
More people are eating out, and they’re eating out more often. The restaurant industry’s share of the food dollar is 51%, up from 25% in 1955.
According to the National Restaurant Association, industry sales are projected to reach $863 billion in 2019. The industry is projected to employ a larger workforce.
Restaurants can be standalone restaurants, fast food restaurants, chain restaurants, pop-up restaurants, digital restaurants, and formal restaurants.
● Restaurant Apps
The restaurant app market is very lucrative. As per QSR research, by 2023, the digital food ordering and delivery segment alone is set to reach $365 billion. Apart from restaurant apps for food delivery and web-based ordering platforms, the range of restaurant apps you can invest in is truly impressive. This represents an opportunity for restaurant owners to capitalize on the growing demand for a better, digitized dining experience.
Users appreciate user-friendly restaurant apps for obvious reasons. As far as users are concerned, ordering food via an app, choosing a place to eat, checking out menus, and reading testimonials all via an attractive app interface adds zest to the everyday dining experience.
Useful Links
https://marketrealist.com/2019/09/the-restaurant-industry-an-overview/
https://easternpeak.com/blog/restaurant-apps-from-a-to-z-core-features-and-development-tips/?amp=1
Why do restaurant owners who sell native food need this app?
- Increased visibility
- Cultural connection
- Marketing and promotion
- Business growth
- Diverse customer base
- Convenience
- Feedback and Reviews
- Community Building
- Monetization Opportunities
Understanding the users
From the responses gotten from the survey forms sent out, we were able to understand our target audience and their pain points which helped us to further draft viable solutions.
Target Audience
By targeting these diverse audience segments, AfriChow aims to create a thriving ecosystem that connects vendors with their customers, fosters a sense of cultural connection and promotes culinary diversity.
- African food vendors: This includes immigrants and individuals in diaspora that are passionate about cooking and want to showcase and sell their authentic local dishes, preserve and share their culinary heritage as well as turn their culinary skills into a profitable venture.
- Diaspora community members: Africans who value cultural diversity and are eager to explore and enjoy authentic local dishes from their homelands.
- Culinary Enthusiasts: Adventurous eaters who are always on the lookout for unique and exotic flavors.
- Food bloggers and Influencers: Individuals with a strong online presence who can help spread the word about the app and are also eager to collaborate with vendors and share their experiences.
- Event Planners and caterers: Professionals looking for a variety of dishes to serve at cultural events, weddings as well as businesses interested in sourcing unique and traditional food options for corporate events and meetings.
- Local Food Critics and Reviewers: Individuals with a keen interest in celebrating diverse and authentic flavors, who enjoy discovering, evaluating, writing or talking about local dishes and sharing their experiences.
- Culinary Entrepreneurs and Food Startups: Individuals or groups interested in starting food related businesses, entrepreneurs looking for a platform to promote their local dishes, and those interested in exploring food-related partnership opportunities.
After evaluating our target audience, we were able to generate Use Personas, understand their challenges and come up with our long and short goals.
The Challenge
1. Preserving Cultural Heritage: Immigrants especially the younger generations within diaspora communities often struggle to maintain their cultural identities, and food plays a crucial role in preserving their heritage. However, limited opportunities to showcase their culinary skills exist in their new homes.
2. Limited Access to Authentic Meals: For Africans and food enthusiasts in diaspora, finding diverse local meals that resonate with their cultural background can be quite daunting. They are often limited to the typical restaurants and lack access to a broad range of authentic meals.
3. Entrepreneurial Opportunities: Many talented diaspora vendors possess exceptional culinary skills but lack the means to reach a broader audience and turn their passion into a business.
We reframed our challenges as opportunities by constructing How Might We questions to help us ideate on the right problems in order to come up with viable solutions. We further voted on the most important ones and carried out Affinity mapping.
The AfriChow Solution
AfriChow provides a comprehensive solution by bridging these gaps:
- Platform for Vendors: AfriChow offers a user-friendly platform for diaspora vendors to create profiles, list their dishes, and manage orders. Vendors can showcase their culinary expertise and cultural backgrounds, preserving and sharing their traditions.
- A Culinary Marketplace: For Africans in diaspora, AfriChow serves as a marketplace where they can explore a diverse range of authentic meals. The app’s extensive selection of dishes helps them stay connected to their heritage.
- Empowering Entrepreneurs: The app empowers talented vendors with the tools and exposure they need to monetize their culinary skills. They can now turn their passion into a sustainable business whilst providing secure and efficient payment gateways.
After Affinity Mapping, we came up with possible features for the AfriChow and prioritized them using the MoSCoW prioritization method. We sketched our ideas, constructed the Information Architecture and handed over to the Designers to come up with the user flow and the mid fidelity wireframes for the essential features listed below.
AfriChow’s MVP introduced a simplified version of the app, focusing on essential features:
- Onboarding (signup and login)
- KYC
- 2-factor authentication
- Order Management
- Reviews
- Vendor loyalty / reward
- Payment Integration (3rd Party)
- Dashboard (Home, vendor profile, menu listing, orders)
- Vendor support (via email)
- Notification (via email)
- Progress tracking (store performance and sales analytics)
- Interactive menu
- Home, privacy, delivery policies, FAQ
After review and iteration, the Product Designers came up with the high-fidelity mockups.
A link to the prototype:
▶ High and mid fidelity — Africhow mid-highfi wireframes (figma.com)
Documentation with Jira and Atlassian Software
Product Managers in my team came up with initiatives for the goal of the project. From the initiatives, we broke down the initiatives into epics, user stories, and tasks. Using the Jira Software, we created issues such as tasks, stories, and bugs. Also, we created tasks in the backlog and started the sprints for the designers and developers.
We were able to assign and manage tasks amongst ourselves by integrating Slack for communication and Asana for managing workflow.
With Confluence, we prepared the Product Requirement Document (PRD) for the project which included the objectives, success metrics, assumptions, project requirements, and scope of a particular solution. The PRD was created to define the product’s features and give everyone in the team a sense of clarity. The PRD was shared with the designers and developers to know what to build.
Also, I prepared a 3-quarter roadmap for the engineering team and the leadership using Jira Software and Confluence to enable the team know the focus area in the next 3 quarters.
Hand Over to Developers
After the Product Designers completed the High-Fidelity Mockups, a usability testing was carried out and then the prototype was designed. We discussed the API needs, assigned tickets and started the sprint via Jira to the Developers and they're currently working on building a functional AfriChow web application.
Highlights
Wow! it's been an interesting 6 months of learning, unlearning and relearning with Her Tech Trail Academy. This program has been comprehensive and hands-on, combined with expert led instruction, real world projects and a supportive community of black women across the globe to foster personal and professional growth.
I've been able to learn Product Management Fundamentals, Market Analysis and Strategy, User Centered Design, Agile & Scrum Methodologies, Product Development Life Cycle, Data Driven Decision Making (Data analytics, metrics, A/B testing), Innovation and Product Marketing through Instructor led sessions, Group projects, Case Studies, Mentorship and Networking.
I worked with tools like Jira, Figjam, Miro, Trello, Asana and I'm looking forward to working on more case studies and improving continuously. I'm also open to working on different projects and gaining more experience as a Product Manager.
I'm open to feedback, thank you for reading through. You can reach me via email judithananaba@gmail.com.
