A Solution Without a Problem
My VR Hackathon Journey as a Product Manager
I recently attended the Seattle VR Hackathon with the soul mission to join a team as a Product Manager. This was my first time attending a Hackathon where I was not taking on a developer role. The following post is a quick retrospective and a list of action items I accomplished during the weekend.
The team I joined was a group of Architecture & Construction Engineers. One of the team members pitched the idea of solving clash detection using Virtual & Augmented reality as a collaborative tool.
We started off with a bit of chaos, knowing we only had just over two days to create working software. We shifted gears to discuss the plan for the weekend. Since I was completely new to the Architecture and Construction space, I needed some more context on why VR or AR would be a good solution. I guided the team into discussions on who were our users, and the problem we would be solving. We also discussed whether current tools and solutions already addressed our problem. We decided on the following value proposition:
We believe by providing an immersive and collaborative space for Construction teams, we can reduce time in solving clash detection in BIM models.
Afterwards, we decided on the following minimum viable product:
A collaborative system allowing many users to analyze, and mark clashes within a virtual space with head, hand tracking and voice support.
We divvied up tasks and quickly found out that we needed more developers! I had my first task! Find more developers!
What Went Well?
- We got a working demo integrated with an HTC Vive & Amazon Echo
- We found a potential customer on day 2. This tweet connected us with a real customer interested in our solution.
What We Should Have Done Differently?
Our team lead was a subject matter expert and felt we were solving a problem he deals with every day. But, we should have talked with an external customer before starting on a solution. Maybe our team member was our customer, but it would have been good to get an opinion from an external party.
How I Contributed to the Team
Here is a partial list of action I completed over the weekend to support the team and ‘get stuff done.’
- Asked ‘why’ a lot, to clarify problem space & gain a shared understanding among our team
- Help team brainstorm and agree on a minimum viable product
- On the second day, I found 2 developers who helped save the whole project. This was stressful as most attendees had already found teams the night before. But a little bit of luck and some selling, I was able to to get the developers to buy into our product idea.
- I found mentors to help our team whenever we were stuck
- Owned Problem Statement and Project definition. See project write up at devpost.com/software/bimvar
- Set up a Trello board and tracked tasks among team members
- Got snacks and chairs
- Brainstormed with team on a design & user experience for navigating through a model. e.g. I came up with an idea for navigating BIM with a virtual pencil, clip board and mini-map on the opposite side of the clip board. (We later cut this idea due to time constraints).
This was a great experience to research and learn about a new industry, flex the Product Management muscles and meet new people. It was also a great opportunity to explore using Virtual and Augmented Reality for real world problem solving.
People second guess their ability to provide value at a hackathon, unless they are a developer. This is not true, all product ideas can benefit from a wide range of experiences and skill sets. I highly suggest you join the next hackathon in your area.
Have you been to any hackathons lately? Were you a Product Manager, how was your experience?
If you found this interesting, please give it some ♥ below.
Cheers,
Kirk Kohler
@kirkkohler | @thevrpm
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