HappyCare
HappyCare is a mobile app designed to help parents to easily and quickly understand local options of day care availability for short term and long term needs. Getting availability and securing child care, on one single platform. HappyCare will gather information from daycares in the local area and confirm availability on a weekly level for short term needs and long term needs.
Problem Statement
How might we make the process to research, secure, and confirm day care child care options for parents so that it takes less time to secure, there is transparency on status, and on demand on short term need?
Problem Background
As a new parent, the process of securing day care is daunting, time consuming, and in every daycare it is done differently. Target parent user persona are expecting band parents of children under 5 in the US. Wait lists can be as short as 1 month to as long as 1.5 years. As an experienced parent, if you move to a new geographic location or have multiple children, day care availability and confirmation of enrollment for a certain time frame are not transparent. Local daycares also struggle to understand and track demand for new child care needs.
Research Insights
User Pain Points
- Navigating waiting lists
- Time commitment calling daycares
- Lack of transparency on immediate availability
Supporting Data
From my user research completed, the goal was to understand people’s day care child care search to enrollment confirmation experience. Below are some highlights around the learnings of methods of contact, amount of time it takes to confirm daycare availability, and average waitlist times for day cares.
- Top tool used to find new daycares is Google Search.
- Phone is the primary method of contact for availability in queries, waiting list status updates, and pricing information sharing.
- It takes 60% of the parents on average 2 weeks to get in contact with daycares to understand initial availability.
- 40 % of parents it takes them on average 1 week to hear back from a daycare.
- 80 % of parents had to wait 6 months or more on a waiting list for their child to be placed.
Landing on the Solution
HappyCare will be the place for parents to understand what daycare options are available and also confirm the waiting list availability in real time to enrollment.
Goals
- Reduce the time it takes parents to search and confirm daycare enrollment.
- Increase transparency of daycare availability for both short term and long term parent daycare needs.
- Reduce the stress and load on parents that daycare searching usually takes.
Explanation of Solution
App that is able to use a user’s location or specified location to show daycares and their estimated availability for short term and long term daycare needs. This search would also incorporate if there is a single child need or multiple children. Once a user adds their family to the waiting list they can see a projected enrollment start date in a live way.
Future Steps
Prototype an app that is able to instantly pull up daycares based on a user’s location and rank them based on soonest available in (days) and if greater than 7 days (weeks) and if greater than 4 weeks (months). Demo how a user can select a daycare and then be shown in real-time their place in the waiting list with an estimate enrollment start date.
Other Areas to Expand to Further in Roadmap
- Daycare aspect of having them use an app to manage waiting lists as well as have their capacity publicly available is something that needs to be reviewed further.
- Parents Daycare scheduled visits and assuring “good fit” can be more important than length of time to communicate to a daycare or waiting list time
- Pricing information is not widely publicized or known to parents before calling daycares for availability
- Personal Referrals are a huge way to cut down on time in finding other “mom” or “ dad” recommended daycares. How can we incorporate personal referrals into the app to help have family recommended options more openly known?
Learnings
Product Manager Learnings:
Tatiana Imler
Co.Lab was a very interesting experience for me. It has increased my confidence in being a Product Manager. Coming up with a product on my own and getting my spec reviewed by product managers has been amazing. Thanks for the great experience and resources!
Designer Learnings:
Designer Learnings:
Jo Sturdivant
- Adapting to an Established Team: Joining the team in week 6 of 8 was challenging, as I had to quickly adapt to existing workflows, dynamics, and goals. This mirrors real-world situations where you often integrate into teams mid-project, and flexibility is essential.
- Work-Blocking for Efficiency: With only two weeks to complete the project, I learned the importance of a structured work-blocking system. This approach allowed me to manage my time effectively and meet deadlines under pressure.
- Making Data-Driven Design Decisions: Unlike my past projects, I had to rely on research conducted by others. This was a valuable experience in using pre-existing data to guide design decisions, helping me focus on the core insights without starting from scratch.
Developer Learnings:
Developer Learnings:
Vanady Beard
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As the back-end developer, I learned how important it is to create efficient and reliable systems that support the entire application. This experience also taught me the importance of optimising the database and ensuring the backend is scalable and easy to maintain.
Developer Learnings:
Stephen Asiedu
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As a back-end developer, I've come to understand the importance of being familiar with various database systems and modules. This knowledge enables me to build diverse applications and maintain versatility in my work. I've also learned that the responsibility for making the right choices rests on my shoulders, guided by my best judgement.
Developer Learnings:
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Developer Learnings:
Maurquise Williams
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- Process of Creating an MVP: Developing a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) taught me how to focus on delivering core functionalities balancing between essential features and avoiding scope creep.
- Collaboration in a Real-World Tech Setting: This experience taught me how to collaborate efficiently in a fast-paced tech environment, keeping the team aligned and productive, even while working remotely across time zones.
- Sharpening Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving Skills: This experience honed my ability to think critically and solve problems efficiently. By tackling challenges and finding quick solutions, I sharpened my decision-making and troubleshooting skills in a dynamic, real-world setting.
Developer Learnings:
Jeremiah Williams
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All in all this experience was very awesome I learned that in coding with others being transparent is key
Developers Learnings:
Justin Farley
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I learned how important communication is when working with a team. Communication provides understanding, advice, ideas, and much more. While working with the product team, I’ve found that communication keeps everything flowing smoothly. Working with a team also showed me that every member brings something different to the table and we all have to work together in order to align and meet our end goal.