UpKeep
A user-friendly home maintenance app designed to guide homeowners, particularly first-time buyers, in maintaining their homes effectively.
Product Experience
Problem Statement
Homeowners, especially first time homebuyers, lack knowledge and tools to maintain their home which often leads to preventable problems that can escalate into expensive home repairs.
Problem Background
Owning a home is a major investment, and maintaining it is crucial to protect its value, protect against costly repairs, and ensure its long-term health. New homeowners often lack tools and guidance to navigate basic essential maintenance tasks effectively, which can lead to costly problems down the road.
Regular proactive home maintenance can enhance property value by 1% annually, minimize depreciation, and lessen the likelihood of expensive repairs, particularly given the escalating costs of labor and materials due to persistent labor shortages and inflation.
Furthermore, our research survey uncovers key insights that reinforce the problem and validate our initial hypothesis: First-time homeowners often lack the necessary knowledge and tools to effectively manage their home maintenance needs, track necessary tasks, their timing, and proper execution. Consequently, this leads to a reactive rather than proactive approach to maintenance, resulting in less methodical and less advantageous maintenance practices which ultimately means higher maintenance costs and a greater reliance on professional repairs.
Key Takeaways
- Knowledge Gap: Only 37% of respondents are aware of the required maintenance checks for their homes.
- Uncertainty and Lack of Guidance: A staggering 77% of respondents feel unsure about where to start with home maintenance, while 54% lack the knowledge of maintenance schedules and tracking methods.
- Confidence Deficit: Only 46% of respondents feel confident in their ability to handle home maintenance tasks.
- Limited Experience: Only 17% of respondents have some experience with home maintenance.
- Professional Reliance: Only 8% of respondents would prefer to have their home maintenance fully handled by professionals.
- Tracking Tool Absence: None of the respondents have used any tools to track or complete their home maintenance tasks.
- Demand for Assistance: Despite the lack of tool usage, all respondents expressed a desire for tracking tools and support to stay on top of their home maintenance needs.
These findings highlight the need for education and supportive tools to empower homeowners, particularly first-time buyers, to effectively manage their home maintenance responsibilities.
Landing on the Solution
To address the identified challenges, we're developing the Upkeep app. Upkeep is a comprehensive solution that addresses both the knowledge and logistical needs of homeowners, particularly first-time buyers. It serves as an educational platform and provides tools for homeowners to create tailored maintenance plans, track progress, manage expenses, and gain insights into the impact of their maintenance efforts enabling them to make informed decisions about future upkeep.
Future Steps
Our immediate priority is to work with technical teams to develop an MVP that focuses solely on core maintenance learning, scheduling and tracking functionalities. This will allow us to gather user feedback on the app effectiveness before expanding the feature sets.
Learnings
Product Manager Learnings:
Meschac Gervais
I learned a ton during my Co.Lab experience and I can honestly say it was very enriching. Among other things I learn the importance of taking a user-centric approach, emphasizing on user needs to create valuable products. One of the most significant takeaways from the program has been the emphasis on problem discovery. The emphasis on the pain points but mostly importantly the core issues to be solved. Thinking about the job to be done has helped me reshape how I look at problems and it’s a new framework that I’m excited to continue to use onwards. Even though the program was short, I appreciated the focus on instilling the habits of doing proper user research without leading the users to validate my solution/hypothesis. Perhaps the most profound lesson I've learned is the importance of clear, organized thinking and prioritization. The ability to document my thoughts, articulate ideas effectively, learning not to be vague and provide the right amount of details which also help when deciding to prioritize tasks because nothing was overlooked.
This sort of thing will be helpful as I continue to navigate the product management space and break down complex problems into manageable pieces especially as I work with other teams. Speaking of teams, I got to collaborate with lots of talented individuals who are all selfless and motivated. I enjoyed the exchange in peer groups with diverse thoughts and the supportive environment that was created. This was on full display during our Hackathon since we had to deliver in a limited time and under pressure. Team 25 did a great job and we were proud to finish 7th overall. My learnings through the product management program will undoubtedly serve me well in my future endeavors, both personal and professional.
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.