Working with my group members on the GoodWalk project was a great learning experience, particularly in terms of seeing how important teamwork is to product development. I was able to go thoroughly into every phase of product design while also learning how to work well in a dynamic team setting thanks to this project. Our journey involved more than just producing a product; it involved developing a common vision and complementing each other’s ideas in order to finalize and clarify the path we eventually took. From thinking about pivoting to making just shoe insoles to sticking to developing fashionable orthopedic high heels, our path has been shaped by not only our ideas but the teaching team’s as well.
Every team member had unique ideas, but instead of following just one direction, we consistently built on each other’s thoughts. After the decision to sticking to selling shoes instead of insoles, we then decided to figure out how we can make our already established comfortable shoes moire fashionable. During this, one team member suggested integrating customizability. Others offered alternative perspectives on how to customize design while maintaining comfort and how to make sure that our persona’s preferences were taken into account, something which prompted more conversations. Our final choice was a high-heel, adjustable design that would let buyers create their own shoes without sacrificing comfort or style. One important thing through this process was to ground our decisions in the feedback we received from user interviews as well as from the teaching teams. I really appreciate how, as a team, we would discuss the different questions wanted to ask and present them to the teaching team in a more organized way, as it allowed us to get more concrete and useful feedback. I also admire how we each interpreted the feedback slightly differently based on our roles and perspectives, something which at first led to some diverging opinions. However, eventually this became useful as we were able to identify common themes and align on a product that reflected both our team’s collective insights and our users’ voices.
Throughout all this, I have grown not only as a product manager but as a team member. My team has been nothing short of amazing from the beginning, creating an environment which allowed allowed easy sharing of feedback and cultivated a culture of growth. I believe our shared commitment to refining each other’s ideas allowed us to make fast, user-centered decisions, which ultimately strengthened both our product and our team cohesion.
