My Next Haircut
Browse hairdressers, their past work, and reviews to book your next appointment with confidence, all in one place.
Product Experience
Problem Space
Problem Statement
How might we find an experienced hairdresser in the Greater Vancouver area in Canada for individuals with East Asian hair types and face shapes so that the individuals feel confident and satisfied with their new haircut that best complements their hair type and face shape?
Problem Background
Our hair “plays a crucial role in defining our social identity” (LinkedIn). It explains why people spend an average of $198 per year on haircuts to shape their hair to complement their appearance, empower their confidence, and help them feel part of their community (Yahoo! Finance).
Having the guidance to learn the best way to get your haircut based on your hair type and preferred hairstyles requires skilled hairdressers to lead the way. How do people find a hairdresser in their city to help them determine how to cut their hair for their hair type and preferred hairstyle?
The customer segment focuses on tech-savvy individuals between the ages of 18 to 35 who mainly rely on online searches and struggle to find a hairdresser who specializes in hairstyles for East Asian hair types and face shapes within the Greater Vancouver area of Canada.
With guidance from an experienced and professional hairdresser, individuals can feel satisfied when paying a minimum of $30 to $50 for unsatisfying haircuts.
Research insights
The goal of the user research is to understand people’s experiences in finding their ideal hairdresser who can shape their hair based on the individual’s specific hair type or preferred hairstyle. For the initial user research, I focused on validating and invalidating to gather feedback from the primary target audience’s pain points.
User Pain Points
The primary user pain points to learn more about focused on the following:
- How to know what and where to search for an experienced hairdresser in the user’s city, town, or at a convenient and accessible location;
- How to learn about a hairdresser’s style to determine if they can meet the user’s needs based on their hair type, face shape, and hairstyle preference; and
- What other factors would influence the user’s experience to feel confident and satisfied with paying at least $30 to $50 CAD per hair appointment?
Supporting Data
From creating a survey (https://forms.gle/UnY27WJhJ4ZskSNf6) to screen for the primary target audience and conducting user interviews, I gathered the following data-supported insights about the primary target audience with East Asian hair types and face shapes, and are located in the Greater Vancouver area of Canada.
- 52% of survey data revealed users’ past visits to the hair salon were unsatisfying because the hairdresser lacked experience with their hair type;
- 80% of user interviewees prefer to have good, open communication with a patient, professional hairdresser who cares about the customer’s hair and is recommended to a customer by their friend, someone they trust;
- 80% of user interviewees want to see good online reviews and specialization in East Asian hairstyles before booking with that new hairdresser; and
- 60% of user interviewees search for a hairdresser’s portfolio on social media platforms like Instagram and the hair salon’s website to review past similar haircuts and inspiration for East Asian haircuts.
Feedback
The overarching themes I observed from the survey data and user interviews were finding information about the hairdresser in an accessible way as everyone used slightly different tools to support their extensive search, identifying overlooked pain points about the interaction and communication with hairdressers, and how might hairdressers improve to lead to a “good” hair appointment.
Landing on the Solution
The solution to explore this problem is creating a web application for users to review the profiles of the hairdressers at the salons in their city and filter their searches by the specializations for various hair types, hairstyles, and face shapes.
Explanation of Solution
Users can then make an appointment with the hairdresser they want to pursue directly within the web-based software app and get updates about the salon, directions to the salon, and share their reviews about their hair appointment all in one place.
By having one central platform to complete their journey, users are less likely to abandon their original task and are more likely to find and schedule a quality hair appointment with someone they align with.
Future Steps
Within Co.Lab, I planned the milestones for completing the initial design process in creating personas, user journey maps, affinity maps, and low to medium-fidelity wireframes to begin testing the usability of the application. This phase would also allow the development team to collaborate with designers about the feasibility of the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) to ensure we work as lean as possible given the project’s resources.
Although I have created a brief outline of the project milestones and timeline for this project, I would revise my initial plan as I meet with a design, development, and quality assurance team in addition to business stakeholders about the future of My Next Haircut beyond the Co.Lab skills training experience.
Learnings
Product Manager Learnings:
Jessica Lee
Throughout this project, I learned and further developed my interpersonal and technical skills as the primary product manager for My Next Haircut.
I perceived this project as an opportunity to practice my user research skills in gathering and analyzing data, empathize with the users regarding their pain points by spending more time defining the problem space before thinking about a solution, and question everything to understand my peer and mentor feedback to consider perspectives I had not considered until now while expanding my domain knowledge.
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.