This project alone has made CS 177 one of my favorite classes at Stanford so far. It is my first project class, and I absolutely loved the hands-on aspect of the project. I believe I couldn’t have learned as much in a lecture-style class. We went through many discussions to come up with our product idea, drawing inspiration from our user interviews with pet parents and two of my team members who have pets. Our team was very collaborative, and we built on each other’s ideas, resulting in a well-defined product, product journey, and understanding of how our product would fit into the market. Having a team of 3 was perfect; we weren’t too large, preventing dilution of ideas, and we were able to reach a majority if we had disagreements (only after extensive discussion and reasoning). We certainly encountered multiple obstacles along the way and pivoted a few times to ensure our product differentiated itself clearly from competitors. The pet food and product industry is extremely competitive, making our project even more interesting. It involved thinking creatively to stand out in the saturated market, offering the ideal blend of technology and customer-centric focus.
As someone passionate about engineering and design and wanting to explore products, I thoroughly enjoyed learning about the business aspect of a company and the process a product manager undergoes to develop a new product. Market sizing, GTM strategy, and financial projections were concepts I had never encountered before, but they are incredibly relevant not only when developing a new product but also when launching a new company or startup. Competitive analysis was also invaluable as we could understand the current market landscape and identify our close competitors. Something I’ve realized is that developing a product and pitching it to the council essentially mirrors the process of starting a company. I cherished this experience, which provided insight on a more concise and focused scale.
I also enjoyed pitching our product to the “product council” and appreciated how Christina introduced experienced product leaders/VCs to offer feedback. Through their insights, we recognized the need to target a different market and to upscale our product, considering the passion of our target audience — individuals seeking healthy, “optimized” food for their dogs. Our mentor, Adrian, provided invaluable feedback that we implemented. He encouraged us to view things from the perspective of our current company, Paws & Nourish, and to understand its relation to our current product, BuddyBundle.
I would say we pivoted a lot, both on our product and our financials, because we were confused about the lens from which we were approaching the product/project. However, we eventually figured it out after receiving guidance from Christina, the CAs, and our mentor. We also gained significant intuition and understanding through our user interviews. The ones we conducted at the dog parks (thanks to Christina for the idea!) were the most helpful.
Comments
Comments are closed.