Embarking on the Exciting Journey from Zero to One: Sharpening my product mindset
Priyanka B.
Product Manager @Petszel |Saas | Fintech| EdTech| Gaming| Growing and delivering value oriented Products
Introducing "Making Mediatorz": Your Gateway to Mastering Conflict Resolution
This is a web application designed to empower individuals in mastering the skill of mediation - an alternative type of conflict resolution. Our user-friendly platform provides a safe and intuitive space for learning mediation, minimizing technical hurdles along the way. With Making Mediatorz, you'll gain the confidence to navigate real-world conflicts by honing your analytical skills and receiving valuable feedback on a variety of scenarios. Start your journey towards becoming a proficient mediator today.
Check out our live product here: https://karphumanmediatz.bubbleapps.io/version-test/
About Me
Hi Everyone, I'm Priyanka BD, a seasoned product manager with a rich background in both B2B and B2C domains. My journey into product management stemmed from my experiences as a QA Engineer in the landscapes of Gaming and Fintech industries. As I contemplated a career transition, I recognized that product management not only resonated with my career aspirations but also encapsulated my passion for impactful work.
Eager to immerse myself in the world of product development and refine my commercial acumen, I seeked opportunities to delve into crafting a 0-1 product. During my search for the ideal platform to hone my skills, I came upon the PMDojo industry track program. Guided by industry-leading mentors, this? journey has not only equipped me with invaluable insights but also nurtured my product management skills. Under Bosky's visionary leadership, the "learn by doing" ethos became more than just a principle—it became a mantra guiding my every step. With newfound knowledge and confidence, I eagerly anticipate the opportunity to apply my learnings and contribute meaningfully to the realm of product management.
Gratitude fills me as I reflect on my transformative experience with PMDojo Product Accelerator - Industry Track Programme. This 10-week apprenticeship-style program aligned perfectly with my aspirations, allowing me to collaborate closely with a founder to craft a zero-to-one product.
The journey has been nothing short of extraordinary! None of it would have been possible without the invaluable contributions of my team members - Karen Tran-Buechler , Appy Ayyagari , and Rahul Iyer . Together, we delved deep into identifying and refining problem statements, prioritizing user pain points, and navigating the intricate maze of idea generation.
A special acknowledgment goes to our mentor, Tanvi Shah . Her guidance pushed us to stretch our limits, urging us to think bigger while staying rooted in our users' needs. Her mentorship was instrumental as we tackled challenges week after week, ultimately bringing our vision to reality.
Our Team
In just ten weeks, my team and I successfully launched Making Mediatorz for Humanz Mediate. We're thrilled about how our product will empower individuals to develop and practice their mediation skills, building confidence along the way.
The Problem Space
Facing heated conflicts often leaves individuals grasping for effective resolution skills. Current solutions, such as theory-heavy courses and generic Master Classes, fail to provide practical application, resulting in skills that don't endure.
Enter Making Mediatorz, an accessible platform designed to complement traditional conflict resolution training, like Humanz Mediate, with bite-sized learning modules and immersive practice scenarios. With the conflict resolution market poised for significant growth, our platform empowers all, from digital natives to tech-wary individuals, to hone their skills.
Research, including user interviews and surveys, underscores a significant demand for more practical training opportunities and immediate feedback. With mediation training often limited and lacking standardized curriculum, Making Mediatorz fills a crucial gap by offering enhanced practice options and quality feedback, addressing the burgeoning needs of the industry.
Our Problem Statement
After conversations with our founder and research analysis from the surveys we initially conducted, we arrived at our problem statement. Our problem statement was initially slightly drifted more on the solution space. Sharing our findings with the founder led to a meaningful discussion and we refocused back on who were our target users, what are their pain points, what gives rise to the pain points and what is preventing them from achieving their goal. After alignment with the relevant stakeholder (in this case it’s the founder of Humanz Mediate), we moved forward to? brainstorming solutions.
Why "Making Mediatorz" Matters?
Humanz Mediate students face a daunting challenge: navigating tense mediation sessions with uncertain confidence. Existing resources, akin to dusty textbooks, offer theory without practical tools. While mastering conflict resolution requires practice, technical obstacles in learning platforms hinder effective skill development.
The founder of Humanz Mediate envisions a more diverse cohort of mediators. Our app streamlines technical troubleshooting for her and her teaching assistants, freeing up invaluable time to empower students in developing essential communication skills and gaining confidence for real-world scenarios.
Main Pain Points Addressed:
Research Process
To identify and address critical pain points for our users, we employed a mixed-method approach, utilizing both surveys and one-on-one interviews to gather qualitative and quantitative data. Our target respondents included current students, mediators, and individuals interested in learning conflict resolution. These interviews were instrumental in validating consistent pain points across our user base, such as the desire for more opportunities to practice mediation skills and a need to feel more prepared and confident in handling real-world conflicts.
Additionally, to ensure our findings aligned with business objectives, we held in-depth discussions with the founder. These conversations provided valuable insights into the current challenges within the program and the founder’s vision for the future, allowing us to balance user needs with strategic business goals.
As a result of this comprehensive research process, we validated key pain points and refined our target user profile and problem statement. We identified a crucial segment—individuals with limited digital literacy—who require additional support to build confidence in their mediation skills due to the complexity of new learning platforms. This insight has helped us narrow our focus and shape a more inclusive and targeted problem statement, ensuring our solutions are both user-centric and aligned with our business objectives.
Meet Passionate Polly - our target user.
Passionate Polly wants to feel confident using her conflict resolution skills in mediation and other settings.
Her main challenges are navigating new technologies and practicing her skills to effectively apply them in real-life situations.
With a clear understanding of our target user and problem statement, our next step is to analyze the competitive landscape and develop "How Might We" statements to brainstorm ideas for our Minimum Viable Product (MVP).
Design Process
Building on the insights from our "How Might We" exercise, we began drafting initial concept ideas. This early exploration enabled us to consider potential solutions without significant investment of time and resources. Storyboarding and mapping out these concepts helped clarify their functionality.
With our concept sketches ready, we entered an iterative process to tackle the key user pain points: lack of preparedness and limited practice opportunities. Using these refinements, we built a prototype in Figma for initial user testing.
Below is a preview of a few of our concept drawings and wireframes. Some team mates zoned in on 1 part of the existing Humanz Mediate curriculum; others focused on combining multiple elements of the curriculum.
Using Figma, we developed our prototypes, focusing on creating a seamless user experience. In one of our earlier iterations, the prototype included:
Lesson Content and Self-Evaluation
While the lesson content aligns with the Humanz Mediate curriculum, the self-evaluation feature is a novel addition. Our primary research indicated that individuals undergoing mediation training often lacked consistent, individualized feedback on their comprehension and application of the material.
Hypothesis and Value Proposition
We hypothesized that the self-evaluation feature would provide immediate feedback, enabling students to quickly incorporate this feedback into their skillset. This immediate feedback loop aims to enhance their preparedness and confidence in real-world mediation scenarios.
By integrating these features, we strive to create a more effective and supportive learning environment, ultimately empowering students to become more proficient and confident mediators.
User testing of the prototype proved invaluable, providing crucial insights for refining and enhancing the solution for our beta launch. A key takeaway was the need for more context for users. We discovered that explicitly demonstrating how the application complements their existing mediation program would be highly beneficial.
Key Metrics and Strategic Focus for MVP Launch
Primary Metric: Customer Satisfaction (CSAT)
To measure the effectiveness of the Common Ground for Humanz Mediate web application, we focused on Customer Satisfaction (CSAT). Our primary CSAT question is: “On a scale of 1 to 5, does this tool help you feel prepared for future mediations?” Prioritizing CSAT aligns with our mission to build a product that empowers users and ensures they gain value and confidence in their mediation skills.
Secondary Metric: Adoption Rate
Recognizing the importance of user engagement, especially among those with limited digital literacy, we tracked the adoption rate as our secondary metric. This is defined as the number of users who clicked on the call-to-action after completing a lesson divided by the total number of users who started a lesson. A high adoption rate indicates that users find value and are actively engaging with the application.
Strategic Decisions for MVP Development
Given the limited development time for the MVP, we prioritized features to maximize impact. Understanding the critical need for foundational skills, we strategically decided to deprioritize the role-play aspect for the initial launch. Effective role-playing necessitates a strong base in active listening and conversation breakdown skills.
Core Goal for MVP Phase I
The core goal for our MVP Phase I experience is: If students can practice conflict resolution skills without encountering significant technical challenges, they will feel more confident and prepared to apply mediation skills in real-world scenarios.
This focus ensures that users can build foundational skills without technical barriers, leading to increased confidence and preparedness.
Projected Outcomes
By emphasizing user experience and skill development, we project an adoption rate of 17% during the MVP phase. A strong adoption rate upon launch is expected to translate into increased program referrals and higher customer acquisition in the future.
Use Cases
Based on the prioritization for the MVP Phase I release, we focused our efforts on the Completing a Self-Evaluated Skills Practice use case.
领英推荐
Prioritized Use Case for MVP Release:
Complete a Self-Evaluated Skills Practice
Use Case Complete a Self-Evaluated Skills Practice
Summary: A user wants to complete an assigned self-evaluated practice.
Actors: User, Humanz Mediate platform
Preconditions: User is enrolled in Humanz Mediate mediation course. User has internet access.
Basic Flow:
User accesses the website by logging in
Alternate Flow:
User enters an email not on the class list?System prompts the user to enter the email they signed up for the class with or their university email
For Future Consideration:
User Stories
To ensure the application meets user needs, we developed user stories with corresponding acceptance criteria to guide development.
Gathering Feedback from Beta Launch
Strategic Recruitment and Targeted Feedback
To ensure our beta test feedback accurately reflected user context and needs, we strategically recruited participants. We targeted current Humanz Mediate students and teaching assistants, using a Calendly link to streamline the connection process. This approach enabled us to gather valuable insights on both the student-facing front-end experience and the teacher-facing back-end functionalities of our MVP.
Key Learning: Comprehensive Feature Prioritization
A significant takeaway from the beta testing process was the need for a more thorough feature prioritization exercise. Although we had initially prioritized features, beta testing highlighted the importance of distinguishing between launch-critical functionalities and "nice-to-haves."
Handling Beta Feedback
After gathering feedback from beta testers, we undertook a detailed prioritization exercise. This included using t-shirt sizing to estimate the effort required for each update and determining which updates were essential for the public launch versus those that could be deferred to future releases.
By systematically addressing this feedback, we ensured that our MVP would meet the core needs of our users while laying a solid foundation for future enhancements.
Key Outcomes
Beta Launch Results:
Our beta launch yielded positive results, with 60% of testers completing the product adoption action and providing overall positive ratings on the in-app CSAT question. The feedback highlighted the product's value in addressing past struggles:
Direct Quote: "I like the new [% of questions complete] that got added," shared one beta tester, emphasizing the benefit of a specific feature.
Beta testing also revealed valuable insights for improvement through user observation and direct feedback.
Public Launch Update:
We're in the process of launching the application to a broader user base for the public launch and are excited to share the results and learnings from the wider audience. This will allow us to refine the product further and ensure it meets the needs of our target users.
Product Roadmap
Transition from MVP Phase I to Phase II
Focus for MVP Phase II
As we transition from MVP Phase I to MVP Phase II, our primary focus is to provide ample opportunities for users to practice their skills and build confidence in real-world scenarios. We are aligning our efforts with business goals to reduce time and costs associated with troubleshooting technical challenges and facilitating role-plays. These phases aim to create a core product that effectively addresses the user pain points identified through our research.
Strategic Vision: Now, Next, and Later Horizons
Future Growth and User Engagement
After completing MVP Phase II, we will engage users to identify additional pain points and growth opportunities. This feedback will inform our product expansion strategy, ensuring that we promote retention and active engagement. By continuously refining our product based on user input, we aim to foster a vibrant and supportive community for mediation skill development.
Key Learnings and Reflections
Converging and Diverging
Navigating the balance of zooming in and out during product discovery was a challenge. Initially, we struggled to identify whom to interview, oscillating between Humanz Mediate students and those in any conflict resolution training. Thanks to Tanvi Shah's persistent questioning, we learned when to broaden or narrow our focus effectively.
Contextual Communication
In user research, we avoided leading questions to let data inform us. Conversely, with mentors and SMEs, we asked leading questions to steer product direction. Though initially jarring, this practice became more natural and effective over time.
Internal Alignment
We realized the necessity of setting agendas for all meetings, even with clear PMDojo deliverables. Structured agendas led to more productive discussions and quicker alignment both within the team and with external stakeholders.
Building Credibility
Gaining stakeholder trust was crucial. Demonstrating our understanding of their pain points built relationships and facilitated better answers to our questions.
Value of Being Scrappy
Finding data, especially for users with limited digital literacy, required creativity. We brainstormed proxies and backup plans to gather insights, learning to make informed decisions even with imperfect data.
Thinking Like a PM
Prioritizing user value and business goals was a constant effort. Flexing this "muscle" throughout PMDojo taught us the importance of staying focused on the "why" behind our solutions.
Solving the Right Problem
Defining the right problem took weeks of refinement through user research. Once we nailed our problem statement, everything else fell into place, underscoring the importance of solving the right problem.
Conclusion: A Valuable Learning Experience
For anyone transitioning into product management or seeking to enhance their skills, I highly recommend joining PMDojo. Even with 1-5 years of experience, like myself, the program offers tremendous value.
The mentorship provided was invaluable. I received regular feedback on presentation skills, the effectiveness of our metrics in addressing our problem statement, and strategies for managing stakeholders. This level of guidance has been instrumental in my growth as a product manager.
I'm thrilled to have upskilled in areas I identified for improvement and look forward to applying these newfound skills in my next role. PMDojo has been an enriching journey, and I'm grateful for the opportunity to participate.
With over eight years of experience in designing, developing, launching, supporting, and enhancing products for Fortune 500 companies across Asia, Europe, and North America, I've had the privilege of positively impacting over 2 million customers/users. I am passionate about solving complex problems and am particularly interested in roles that involve digital transformation and enhancing user experiences in the landscapes of Gaming, Fintech and Edtech.
If you'd like to discuss potential opportunities or collaborations, please connect with me on LinkedIn.
Product | Search | AI driven Growth | Marketplaces
9 个月Good luck for everything ahead!!
I help women get promoted faster | Build strategic impact without working 2X harder| CEO @ She Trailblazes | Ex-Atlassian | Innovation & Leadership Trainer
9 个月Kudos to you Priyanka B. for sharing this. I am rooting for you and some major wins this year! ??