I thoroughly enjoyed working on this product management project for the last number of weeks. My team’s focus was on HomeSquare, a company similar to Zillow and Redfin that was trying to expand its market share in the real estate listings market. We were given a fictional case study, in which HomeSquare was suffering from a number of issues, like poor customer service, stagnated revenue, and increased competition. As a result of these issues, we decided to pivot HomeSquare to focus on property management with an emphasis on providing hassle-free maintenance. This opened up a whole new world of possibilities for the company, allowing us to take a deep-dive into a market that is relatively untapped in today’s world.
As a team, we were able to capitalise on many of HomeSquare’s previous strengths, which in turn enabled us to segue into the property management market with more ease than I think we would have had if we were a start-up. I believe if we were to truly launch this initiative into the world, HomeSquare would have a unique opportunity to revolutionise this market, and provide a lasting service that would impact landlords, tenants, and contractors alike.
The process of investigating the target market for HomeSquare was exciting, as it was something I had not done before. I loved working out the niches of the market, and figuring out how HomeSquare would be able to play a significant role in it. This experience was made much easier by the fact that I had a diligent and hard-working team alongside me. Obviously, the final product is always the most important aspect of any team’s work, but I believe our ease in achieving this solid final result was a byproduct of us having such a cohesive and adaptable nature. I am very grateful to my teammates for making this project such a joy to work on.
I also found the experience of pitching to industry veterans during our pitch presentation was a singular experience that you don’t often get with other classes at Stanford. I appreciated their direct comments and feedback, and it prompted us as a team to analyse the work we had done up until that point, and to consider how we can iterate on it further so that our solution for HomeSquare could become more robust. So far, CS 177 has crystallised my previous interests in Product Management, such that I would heavily consider working in a PM-oriented role in the future!
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