A product design challenge
A founder wants to build a group booking platform for dinning crowd. It will remove offline haggling to pre-structured discounts based on size of the group. The platform must know when the group booking done through the platform is consummated. The platform wants to capture relevant upside, in case group goes larger or consumes more than originally booked. The platform wants to form a float by collecting EMD for the intended spend as % of spend, upfront while booking. Eventual strategy of the platform is to build mechanisms to generate positive network externality. The platform also wants to ensure the user experience of choosing a venue & menu , while being online and non-app based , must reflect group dynamics the way this activity currently happens offline between friends.
As a product designer please frame the following:
Product purpose:
Problem:
- Describe the pain
- Frame how it is solved currently
Solution: frame proposed solution here
- Describe how it solves the pain
- Describe how exactly it connects the various personas
- provide 2–3 use cases to support your case
Why now:
- Describe historical evolution of the category
- If your solution has never been created before, what recent change makes it possible now
Estimate Market Size: If possible estimate TAM (top down), SAM (Bottom up), SOM and give rational how.
Identify Competition:
- List competitors and their competitive advantages
- Identify what competitive advantage will you build to carve a place for this product
Frame personas and form market segments:
- List all personas you see in the product and describe them
- Identify the market segment closes to the personas and fix those personas as first round of customers
Design product by outlining key user journeys:
- Describe the topology of the product you’ll create
- Describe large broad values you’ll deliver and break them into feature sets
- Describe non-negotiable user journeys and the experience
- Relate and bundle the features as rollout strategy
- Break into development version given 3–6–9 month time frame for development, deployment , going live
