What does a Product Manager do when he has free time? Of course, it creates a product.
So, I finished my job as a PO at a fintech startup. A few weeks before the transition to a new project, I had an empty head. The brain has a fantastic ability to process and interpret incoming information. As soon as I had enough rest, ideas that I had previously thought about or their modified versions began to emerge in my head.
Following the precepts of a lean startup, and more than my experience, I decided to do something with my hands, namely, to bring one of my ideas from a concept to some working version of the product and to solve one of my pressing problems.
The essence of the idea is crystal clear. I love sports, particularly long-distance running. In total, I ran about 30 marathons (3 per year). Once you move from the regular jog stage to preparing for your first run, you will need a training plan that you follow in your preparation to complete your challenge. There are polarities here, either you are very fired up with your idea, have chosen a coach and made a personal training plan, or you are just an adventurer and want the “done” achievement on your wish list. As my target audience, I chose beginner athletes who prefer pragmatism in preparation and are not so passionate as to hire a personal trainer, which will be needed as soon as you reach a certain level.
Simply put, I solved my problem. To prepare for the next start, I formed a weekly plan in excel, but it was not convenient. I had to remember the mileage, type of training, intensity, warm-up, and cool-down duration. I used to type or copy it into notes and wanted to estimate the weekly mileage, how many weeks before the start, and what to do today.
I designed the first sketch of the idea according to the classics on a napkin and just slightly designed the concept in my head.
Ways to degrade an idea from a spaceship to an MVP, in order of simplification from complex to simple:
- A platform with a choice of coaches where they will make a personal plan for preparing for a specific start, based on AI
- A mobile application in which you can select a start date and get a personal preparation plan for it with notifications
- Landing page with onboarding where you can download the training plan
- A telegram bot that can form a training plan depending on the level of training and the date of the event
Requirements for the bot itself, I have repeatedly reduced and divided it into versions to minimize the time/cost of development and not lose the essence of the idea.
The hypothesis I wanted to test was the match of a problem I identified with other sports enthusiasts and users and a solution to a local problem to scale into a product.
Why didn’t I check problem interviews for market validation?
Everything is simple here, and there are a lot of services / individual trainers on the WEB that sell ready-made training plans or develop them for you. It was superfluous to check the availability of the market because I am pretty immersed in the subject area, and there is a market. I just wanted to make a chip-tuning for myself and a little automation.
So how do we check:
- development and prepare content with preparation plans
- writing the Technical requirements for the development of the telegram bot
- developing and testing MVP
- I will tell people who have a similar problem to me about the Run_Coach_Bot
You can try the product and get ready for your first Race at the link, join the community and tell me your ideas and suggestions regarding the plan.
Key features of the bot:
- training plans optimized for the runner’s fitness level, drawn up with the involvement of experienced athletes
- preparation for a marathon, half marathon, and 10 km race starts.
- calculation of weekly mileage and % of the completed plan
- daily notifications with the training plan for today
P.S. I spent no more than $ 100 on the entire Product + this article with the announcement.
I will provide progress a little later, and thanks for the feedback.
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