Product

Product Development

I have experience in news product development:
  • UX research
  • Prototyping
  • Problem solving
  • Project management

My Achievements

The University of Arizona School of Journalism

News Product Development course (August – December)

Description: During this inaugural News Product Development course, my idea for a product for minorities was selected by the Arizona Daily Star. Overall, the Star selected 9 product development ideas out of 18.

The newspaper’s product manager not only helped mentor student news product developers, but the Star’s editors also chose the 2 winning teams out of 9 teams. The course was supported via an Online News Association Challenge Fund grant.

My classmate and I created a product called #WeGotYou, a non-traditional structured mentor/mentee matching mobile app for minorities living in areas where they are underrepresented and minorities who will be transitioning from rural areas to urban areas, such as Native American high school students.

After 36 empathy interviews, we spotted key trends that indicated our user group would benefit from an app that solved their problem.


My role in developing the product included:
  • Solving a problem for underrepresented minorities
  • Managing the project
  • Conducting 30 of 36 empathy interviews solo
  • Testing a paper prototype of an app menu on 6 people
  • Observing users as they interact with a prototype
  • Drafting and reporting findings to the course professor
  • Developing diverse ideas during design sprints
  • Following a Lean Canvas
  • Creating a landing page, with the complementary ad created by my partner
  • Setting up a Facebook page
  • Producing a short video highlighting the problem from the user perspective
  • Using Adobe InDesign skills to put together the presentation for the pitch
  • Pitching the product to the Arizona Daily Star’s editors, classmates, members of the startup community and faculty
  • Blogging about my product development experience and more


Problem:

Minorities need an easier, faster way to find mentors, and the few overburdened minority mentors need more help.

User Group Problem video