TennisOn!
TennisOn! Is an app designed to help individuals in cities with overcrowded tennis courts easily find tennis courts in the area and see live wait times at any time of the day.
Product Experience
Problem Space
Problem Statement
How might we make the experience of getting a tennis court seamless for young working age adults in cities with a big tennis community so that they continue to return to a long lasting journey in tennis?
Problem Background
Raquet sports have become increasingly popular and continue to gain influence amongst new and veteran athletes alike. News articles, social media, and retail stores have all brought light to the sport of pickleball, but where do you play? The tennis courts. Tennis courts are now shared amongst avid tennis players and new pickleball players leading to increasing wait times to get on the court.
Finding parks is easy. However, finding which parks have tennis courts and how long of a wait time they currently have has become overwhelmingly time consuming. It can be especially difficult to know where to head to when there are no accurate wait times enforced or known. Currently, the only way to approach this is to pick a park and drive to a tennis court to then see if there is an empty court or if you are now in the queue behind others who are all waiting to play. You then decide, do I stay and wait it out or do I drive to the closest tennis court in hopes that I do not arrive to the same situation.
Research Insights
User Pain Points
I conducted 5 user interviews and used a survey questionnaire to gather quantitative feedback.
To address this problem I conducted user interviews to be able to ascertain the pain points of recreational tennis players in cities with big tennis communities in the way that they decide when/where to play tennis and what they do when courts are not available.
I was able to group the main issues into 2 categories; non-existent waiting system, and no way to remotely check for court availability.
During the user interviews conducted I found these main pain point tennis players have and any solutions they have tried to date.
Supporting Data
Non-existent waiting system:
- Players stay on court for long periods of time
- Players hold courts for their friends
- I never know how many people are waiting
- A guessing game when it comes to wait times
Court Availability remote check in:
- Lack of visibility
- No way of getting on the wait list
- Wasting time waiting
Feedback
Preliminary user research done with big city tennis players let me know which pain points were more important than others; leading to me identifying which pain point to focus on.All of the pain points showed that everyone values their time and wants playing tennis to be easy.
Landing on the Solution
Based on the user pain points, I wanted to focus on the following solution and features. Allow users (tennis players) to have visibility on accurate live wait times, and allow them to know their place in line. Allow users to have access to data regarding all courts within a 10 mile radius(lights,hitting wall, court condition). All within one app.
Future Steps
I learned from speaking to 5 different users and interpreting data received from surveys that this problem might not be as big as I anticipated. I will return to the user research phase of this project on my own to discover what the true problem space is; if any at all. Tennis players do have a problem with waiting for tennis courts, but they see it as part of the game and do not necessarily want to take part in changes. Why? Because once on court, they also find themselves not wanting to hop off and allow other players to come in.
Learnings
Product Manager Learnings:
Maria Herrera
I learned that it is important to have good user research methods and questions. Incorrect questions can lead to misguided data and misrepresent user pain points. I learned that I need to spend at least double the time I did on this portion in order to ship an MVP. I can also say that sometimes the problem you originally focused on can turn out not to be the core; forcing you to pivot.
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.