Overview
This post contains the final slide deck of Team Classy’s Pitch Presentation, and our individual reflections. Over these past few weeks, we have learned to collaborate and grow as a team. It has been an honor to work on such fun applied assignments over the past six weeks.
Individual Reflections
Chloe Di Murdoch: Being a part of team Classy has been extremely rewarding and highlighted the value of collaboration and teamwork. I enjoyed seeing how each member’s unique strengths and perspectives manifested in our conversations and ultimately contributed to our success. By communicating openly and respecting each other’s ideas, we were able to build a supportive and productive environment. I also appreciated the opportunity to get to know a new group of people and see how we could accomplish more together than we could individually. In the future, I hope that teams I am a part of will share this sense of positive and collaborative energy.
Dev Joshi: Working on Classy over the past six weeks has been an eye-opening experience, particularly as it relates to the product management process. Initially, it was difficult to understand how each assignment would come together and sometimes even the point of certain assignments, but as we worked through lectures and studios and refined our ideas, I began to see how all the pieces come together.
Initially, I couldn’t see how to differentiate Classy from ClassPass and other competitors. But after user interviews, market research, and other in class activities, we found a strong demand for a social platform that offers experiential learning that fosters community in local areas.
Also, working alongside my teammates has been a great experience. Each person brought different strengths ranging from strong knowledge of competitors to Figma skills. This diversity in skills, alongside clear communication, enabled us to split up the work evenly and leverage our strengths. All in all, through this project, I’ve gained a deeper understanding of the product management process and user-centered thinking alongside my team.
Monica Hicks: I have loved working with my team this quarter. At first, I was a bit wary of teaming up with five new people I didn’t know because in the past, I’ve typically joined team-based classes already knowing who I’d be working with before the quarter began. But this experience has completely changed my attitude toward randomly assigned group projects. I’m truly inspired by my teammates! Every one of them brings unique creativity and talent to the table.
I think the biggest challenge has been coordinating communication across six busy schedules, but team Classy has done an amazing job finding a workflow that suits us all. In this past assignment, I especially appreciated the chance to pitch our ideas to people with industry experience. This has significantly boosted my confidence in both building and presenting. In a previous class in Hong Kong with Professor Charles Eesley, I remember feeling so nervous during my pitch that my voice shook. This time, I was able to practice my part more thoroughly, allowing me to present with much greater confidence.
Chris Kelly: Working with team Classy has been a rewarding experience. I enjoyed the amount of freedom that came along with this project and feel that my team took advantage of the many different directions that we could take our company. I appreciated all of the creative ideas that came up throughout this process and feel that each one carried some importance, even if it was not an idea that we pursued. The hardest part of this process was the initial decision on what type of direction we were going to take. Along with this, trying to find evidence and numbers to back up our decision was challenging. A had a large role in dealing with our financial model and projections which was difficult because we did not have many starting numbers to go off of. Because of this, I had to make many assumptions, especially when dealing with TAM/SAM/SOM and the revenue projections. Link to Post
Ecem Yilmazhaliloglu: From getting our assignment to delivering this pitch deck, every stage of the process has been a great learning opportunity to work on a full-sized product, with a team. Over the course of the past 6 weeks, we’ve done multiple brainstorming sessions, focusing on different puzzle pieces that come together to form product strategy and narrative. Some of those puzzle pieces, such as creating user personas, working on our TAM/SAM/SOM, building empathy maps based on real user interviews, and brainstorming relative features that satisfy our design requirements, especially came through when working on the final pitch deck. Our work from all past assignments fell together nicely, and I was finally able to see the big picture we’ve been working towards.
Classy is a truly intriguing product, with a promise to shift the credit based class taking structure we are currently used to with ClassPass and similar companies. Our wide range of offerings, from pottery to hot yoga, can push the healthy lifestyle apps towards focusing more on mental health & general skill building in addition to their fitness offerings, building communities around interests more varied than just gymming. Our social aspect, especially, is a very interesting idea to play with and test, and one I believe we have and will continue to learn from a lot. I personally am quite excited about it, having taken a social media applications class last quarter. Having learned about social media’s role in user engagement and product marketing, it is incredibly rewarding to be able to synthesize that knowledge with Classy’s case and our findings and think about what features and design elements would boost our user traction. Classy, with these unique features and offerings that set us apart from our competitors, could truly be a promising new age for learning skills and building communities around said skills. Overall, working on this project with my teammates has been a great learning opportunity to practice communication, team work, collaboration and creativity- all things that should be in the toolbox of a good PM. Link to Post
Chris Gu: I’m pleased with both my individual contributions and my team’s overall effort on this project! Developing the pitch deck for Classy brought together all the product management skills we’ve been practicing in class and studio sessions over the past several weeks—from TAM/SAM/SOM market research and story mapping to pain point brainstorming exercises and crafting user stories. It was both a valuable and rewarding experience to see how these skills translate into impactful projects like a product pitch.
While creating the pitch deck, we encountered a few areas where we weren’t entirely certain of the best approach. However, my team collaborated effectively to navigate these challenges. Although the company we pitched was hypothetical, requiring some creative assumptions, I believe we managed to navigate the process successfully. Reflecting on this experience, I feel confident that I am now better prepared to tackle similar projects in the future. Link to Post
