Portfolio - Product Management Entry Level

Product Management Portfolio

Portfolio Outline Table of Contents

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Problem Statement Assumption Mapping Risk Importance Graph Market Validation User Interviews Car Buying Process: User Journey MVP Strategy User Stories Features and Ideas MSCW Framework on Features Effort Estimation using T-shirt size Prioritisation and Estimation Effort / Value Map Conclusion

Problem Statement For [ consumers across the world ] who have [ the need to purchase acrs online and from the comfort of their homes ] [ Amaz-car ] is an [ online car sales company ] that [ provides a variety of finance and payment plans ].

Unlike [traditional car sales vendors ] my product is [ easier, more adaptable to your financial situation and has interest-free financing ] We’ll know this is true when [ people start buying cars online with Amaz-car more than through traditional car vendors ]

Assumption Mapping My assumptions • Customers want to buy cars online • Customers want financing options for their car payments • Customers will patronise online car purchases with Amaz-car over traditional car vendors • Customers think traditional car vendors don't offer online payment or financing services.

• Compared to traditional car vendors, customers will find Amaz-car easier and more adaptable to their financial situations • Customers will want interest-free financing.

Risk Importance Graph Through this prioritisation graph, I learnt how to narrow down the assumptions based on what I know more about and based on which ones are important/crucial to the business goals as well as the users’ needs.

Market Validation Target market for Amazon cars

The Growth prospect of the online car buying

1. The average citizen

industry?

2. Companies looking to purchase company

The online car sales industry has a very high growth

cars, and cars for utility purposes

potential, especially with increased demand for cars

3. Large families that need cars for occasions

online, a seamless purchase experience and greater

and travel.

consumer trust in making large online purchases. Also,

4. Sports and Olympic race organisers.

5. Military parastatals Some competitors for Amazon Cars.

1. GForces 2. Cazoo, 3. CarsDirect

4. AutoTrader

with the elimination of middlemen and agents that

charge high commissions and increase the final cost of the car, the online car sale industry will thrive for years with continued innovation. The added feature of payment and financing options helps the customers to

deal directly with the manufacturers or retailers and pay for their cars based on their purchasing power and ability.

User Interviews INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 1.Talk me through the process of how you bought your most recent car?

2.What was the best experience/part of the car buying process?

3.What caused you the greatest discomfort/anxiety when buying your most recent car?

4.In relation to the traditional car purchase process from a vendor, how do you think online car purchases will influence the car buying process?

5.How do you finance your car purchases?

6.What incentives/platforms (if any) would you would want to be featured for financing car purchases?

User Interviews COMMON USER EXPERIENCES AND DIFFICULTIES FACED DURING THE CAR BUYING PROCESS Experiences encountered • The buyer relies on the perceived integrity of the online seller through reviews and personal recommendations.

• After seeing a car of interest, the buyer conducts research and a comparative price survey before approaching the traditional car vendor to renegotiate and make a purchase.

• Buyer also sells cars online and ensures the advert pictures are crisp, cars in good shape, and picture background with little/no distraction.

• The buyer also conducts research into a range of desired cars and passes through with her circle and car experts. Their collective feedback informs her decision on what car to purchase.

• The buyer often has to trust the middlemen that market and sell the cars (often imported from overseas) • The buyer also got the most recent car for less than the amount budgeted and was able to channel the remaining funds to vehicle registration, licensing and other fees.

Difficulties faced •

Inability to pay in instalments as the access to the actual seller is through middlemen.

•

Online car sales restrict the buyer to the displayed price, unlike traditional car vendors where the price can be negotiated.

•

The buyer is more likely to reconsider their budget cap when buying cars physically than online.

•

Discovering internal faults with the car that weren't

highlighted after purchase •

Lack of access to payment plans for financing car payments

•

High interest rates of the existing financing options

for car purchase discourage buyers.

Car-Buying Process User Journey

MVP Strategy MVP STRATEGY PROJECT KEY ASSUMPTIONS The key assumptions I will be testing using the Minimum Viable Prototype include: 1. Customers want to buy cars online 2. Customers want financing options for their car payments 3. Customers will want interest-free financing SUCCESS CRITERIA The success criteria for the three key assumptions respectively will be 1. At least 80% of the respondents will validate that they want to buy cars online by “Requesting a Quote” on the landing page.

2. At least 70% of respondents will want financing options for their car payments by clicking on the “Learn More” button.

3. At least 70% of respondents will want interest-free financing.

Prototype Strategy and Finding Users TECHNIQUE FOR MVP TESTING The ideal technique for the first assumption (Customers want to buy cars online) will be to create a landing page with some popular and fast-selling cars and a call to action to request a quote. When users click the “Request a Quote” button, they fill in their email or phone number and will be called by a sales rep within an hour. The number of entries will give an idea of whether customers want to buy cars online.

The ideal technique for the second assumption (Customers want financing options for their car payments) will be to create digital content in the form of a demo video explaining the benefits of financing options for online car purchases. There can be a call to action button (Learn More) that leads the customer to a brief heading and a link to schedule a call with a financial specialist. Out of the total number of site visitors, the number of persons that click to “Learn More” and schedule a call with the finance specialist will indicate the success rate.

Sample landing page to test first assumption

The ideal technique for the third assumption (Customers will want interest-free financing) will be to host a free taster 30 minutes workshop on interest-free financing for online car purchases. The workshop can be hosted during weekends to adapt to most people’s availability and can be located physically across major cities in the UK as well as online. This workshop will enable the organisers to get close to their customers and get user feedback to create/improve interest-free financing for online car purchases.

Prototype Strategy and Finding Users HOW TO FIND USERS FROM THE TARGET MARKET • I will create targeted ads on existing online marketplaces for cars, car accessories, electronics and related

auto products.

• I will also create ads and posters in places with huge crowd levels, such as train stations, parks (especially during weekends), pubs, clubs, etc.

• I will also find users in Facebook Groups and other online communities that have interests related to automobiles. I will target also young adults and parents as these demographics will tend to need cars for daily commutes and other activities.

• For the prototype testing using taster workshops, I will find users through existing databases from local

councils, meetup.com, and other places of communal interest (young professional groups in London, etc.)

User Stories As a busy professional and father, I want to buy a minibus vehicle so that I can cater to the domestic and business needs of the family.

1. As a novice about cars, I want to make informed decisions about an online car purchase so that I can buy a car tailored to my budget and that will last long 2. As an online car buyer, I want to be assured of a guarantee in case of hidden faults so that I can purchase

my car with peace of mind.

3. As an online car buyer, I want to verify car vendors and their integrity through reviews so that I can make an informed and reliable purchase decision 4. As an online car buyer, I want to compare the prices and features of desired cars to other market retailers so that I can have more information to make a decision.

As an online car buyer, I want to access interest-free financing options so that I can pay back my loans quickly at no added cost.

Feature Ideas

MSCW Framework on Features ONLINE CAR SALES AND FINANCING Feature Prioritisation using the MSCW framework MUST - Features that contribute to gaining user traction and the highest sales conversion rate SHOULD - Indirect features that support us in getting the highest sales conversion rate and help them get financing options.

COULD - Features that improve the overall customer experience and support their user journey WON'T - Features that do not contribute to our business goals SUMMARY OF RATIONALE BEHIND EACH RANKING • The features relating to verification of the car vendors' integrity and other features with the green circle marking are all ranked must-haves as this improves buyers trust and leads to a higher sales conversion rate • Features such as Speak with a specialist, Filter car search results by the number of seats, etc, 30-day return policy, Learn more about Interest-free financing, 30-day trial (Interest-free financing) are ranked as should haves because they actively support the business to gain traction and higher sales conversion rates.

• Features such as Customers community/forum, View details on manufacturer’s website, Why choose us? (when comparing car prices and features) are ranked as could haves as they improve the overall customer experience and support their user journey

Effort Estimation using T Shirt Size

The T-Shirt Framework helps Product Mangers to quickly get a rough estimate of the effort to implement each feature

SUMMARY OF RATIONALE • Customer review feature, Car features comparison, vendor verification, are high priority and will need the most workload (T-shirt size XL) to implement as this will involve a lot of technical and backend work to link customer purchase details to unique links for customer reviews, and to allow users to filer by features and other categories of their choice.

• Sort by feature, Filter, and Signup/Login features will need an M T-shirt size workload (2 - 4 weeks) to implement as they are not as technically demanding as the features that need XL workload.

• The Price comparison, speak with a specialist, save and continue, add to cart, and favourite features require little workload and effort and are ranked S Tshirt size.

Effort Value Map

The effort value map helps Product Mangers pick the features that will go into the MVP SUMMARY OF RATIONALE ● The features in the high-value and higheffort quadrant are worth considering and need to be broken down into smaller manageable chunks for efficiency. ● The features in the high-value and loweffort quadrant are crucial to the success of my product’s MVP and will need the least possible effort to implement. ● The customer forum feature is solely in the Low-effort and low-value quadrant and will be implemented eventually as it is a nice to have

The features in the quadrant of High Value and Low Effort (with green background colour) will be in my product MVP because they are must-haves and requires the least possible effort to implement.

Conclusion

Through this project I have really understood the product development lifecycle from concept and ideation till implementation of features. I have also gained insight into the online car buying industry and how the market growth and trends have evolved over time.

Product Management Portfolio Thank You