The following is a product design challenge I solved as interview practice.
Prompt:
Millions of animals are currently in shelters and foster homes awaiting adoption. Design an experience that will help connect people looking for a new pet with the right companion for them. Help an adopter find a pet which matches their lifestyle, considering factors including breed, gender, age, temperament, and health status. Provide a high-level flow and supporting wire frames.
Step 1: Understand
The first step in solving this prompt is understanding the goal, what am I trying to make, and why am I trying to make it. I start with pen and paper, writing down all the questions and concepts that come to mind.
The idea: Build an experience that allows people to find pets in shelters that they might want to adopt. This experience will be used by shelter employees, foster parents, and people interested in adopting. Shelters and foster homes can list pets and receive requests from adopters.
Adopters can search for pets in local shelters that have traits that would go well with their lives.
Questions:
- Who will be using this app?
- Why is this product important?
- Who are we selling this product to? B2B2C?
- How will this be part of the shelter employee’s workflow?
- What’s the value prop for shelters using this app?
- How will pet foster parents use this app? Will this app be accessible to them?
- When would the shelter add the animals to the database?
- Will employees and foster parents be responsible for taking pictures of the pets they add to the app?
- How can pet behavior be classified?
- What do potential adopters look for?
- How will pets be matched to people?
- What is the scope of this project?
- What are some existing solutions?
- Is this for local shelters or for national, or international?
- What are we optimizing for? What does success look like?
Research
According to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), approximately 6.5 million companion animals enter U.S. animal shelters nationwide every year. Of those, approximately 3.3 million are dogs and 3.2 million are cats.
** more in progress