WalkWoof

Problem Background

Sometimes, keeping a regular dog walking routine can be challenging for dog owners due to time constraints and other commitments. However, several articles highlight the significance of daily dog walks for the overall health of dogs. To ensure the physical and mental well-being of dogs, experts recommend walking them at least 2-3 times a day. The benefits of regular dog walking encompass various aspects such as preventing obesity, reducing the risk of cardiovascular issues, lowering blood pressure, curbing undesirable behavior, alleviating anxiety and stress, boosting energy levels, combating fatigue, enhancing the immune system, and promoting proper digestion.

In conclusion, establishing a daily activity routine for dogs is crucial, although it can pose difficulties for owners who are juggling time constraints and external responsibilities like work or study.

To investigate the proposed issue and grasp user perspectives, we designed a research plan involving surveys and zoom interviews with five dog owners. The interview questions were thoughtfully crafted to gather valuable insights from their personal experiences. The outcomes revealed several noteworthy points of convergence among users:

• Paint points that owners struggle when trying to keep daily walks habits. 80% are related to time, work and study hours. 60% are related to weather. On the other hand, 40% are related to dogs' behavior and environment.
• Alternatives or types of help owners tried to find to keep walks. 50% tried to get help from family members but It did not work because of their age or work occupations. And 50% did not think of alternatives due to they get help from family that live in the same house.
• The owner thinks his occupation can affect walk routines. 80% sometimes, the owner feels exhausted during the work days and has no energy to go out. 40% sometimes, the owner's schedule at work may prevent him from taking the dog out.
• Reasons to trust in someone's help to get dog walks. 80% think the helper must feel empathy and like the walks with the dogs. 60% think the helper must demonstrate that he is a responsible person. 40% think the helper should have experience walking dogs and knowledge of properly managing the dog's behavior to avoid hazards. Also, the owner must have guarantees for the dog's safety. Some of them expressed they are worried in case a dog could be stolen, for example verify the caretaker's authenticity and home address validation.
• How often owners walk with their dogs. 40% walk 4 times per week, one time per day. Also, 40% walk every day, twice per day.
• Why It is important for owners to maintain daily walks with their dogs. 60% mentioned It helps to take out dogs' energy, so they do not destroy things in the house. 40% think It helps to improve dogs' attitude, reduce anxiety and keep them healthy.
• What motivates owners to keep walks with their dogs. 80% likes to see his dog happy and excited. 60% are aware that walk routines help his dog to decrease stress. 40% said It helps to improve dog's anxiety and physical activity. And they feel that walks help both owner and dog in terms of health.
• How often owners reward themselves for accomplishing walks. 40% did not think of rewarding themselves. 40% of the time, the owner buys some sweets from the store during walks.
• How owners keep track of their daily walks. 100% do not keep track of the times they make the walks.

Goals

Talk about the general high-level goals of doing this work. What are we trying to accomplish by solving the problem?

• Develop a mobile app that allows the dog owner to get help from dog walkers to accomplish dog walks. To get users registered and interactions by request with dog walkers for the fourth quarter after the first launch in the app stores. By conducting design, development, and testing processes. Helping dog owners to find easy and fast dog walkers, aligns with the company's objectives. Launch the app by the end of the third quarter.
• Allow owners to create an account so they can save their general info and get in contact with the dog walker easily. Increase the daily average of dog owners registered within the next month. Conduct user testing and gather feedback to refine the feature before launch. This feature aligns our goals to improve user experience by interactions. Launch the feature by the end of the first quarter.
• Allow owners to set up a request in order the caretakers know there is a job available. Increase the quantity of request interactions by the next 2 months. Conduct user testing and gather feedback to refine the feature before launch. This functionality aligns with the main goal of helping dog owners. Launch this new functionality by the end of the second quarter.
• Allow dog walkers to create an account so they can interact easily with others, improve confidence and demonstrate they are a good prospect to take care of dogs. Increase the use of the app by improving trust in dog walkers by next 3 months. Conduct user testing and gather feedback to refine the feature before launch. This feature aligns our goal of increasing usability and users active retention. Launch the new feature by the end of the second quarter.
• Allow owners to access the history of the requests. Increase the number of active requests in a period of 3 months.  Conduct user testing and gather feedback to refine the feature before launch. This feature aligns our goal of increasing active requests. Launch this new functionality by the end of the second quarter.

User Stories

Put 3-5 user stories here. Keep it high level. As a <type of user>, I want to <goal to be accomplished>, so that <reason for the goal>.

• As a dog owner, I want to create an account, so that I can see my profile information and interact easily with others.
• As a dog owner, I want to set up a request for dog walks easily to ensure my dog's well-being, so that I can have peace of mind on other occupations.
• As a dog walker, I want to create an account so I can interact easily with others, improve confidence and demonstrate I am a good prospect to take care of dogs.
• As a dog owner, I want to see my request history, so that I can track current and past requests.

Proposed Solution

What are you proposing is the solution to the problem being tackled? Keep this to a few sentences, again focusing on the WHAT, not the HOW.

The solution proposed is to develop a mobile application that allows dog owners to easily and quickly find a dog walker who can assist them with their dogs' walks.

To allow users to interact with others and keep information we will be working on user registration functionality, so users can easily check profiles, and we take care that no sensitive data will be shown. Also, we have the functionality of allowing dog owners to set up a request for a walk, so with this implementation we are covering the main goal. Otherwise, owners have the chance to choose the best prospect by checking out walkers profile, so this allows them to improve reliability. Dog owners will be able to see their request history, so this can be used as their convenience to keep track.

Scenarios

What are your key scenarios (based off your user stories)? What is the definition of done (or

acceptance criterion) for each of them? Note: This should be finalized as a team.

User Story 1: As a dog owner, I want to create an account, so that I can see my profile information and interact easily with others.

Scenario: Create an account and access to the app then.

Acceptance criteria:

• User can fill out the email field
• User can fill out the password field
• User can press the "Sign In" button so he can be registered in the system.
• User can press "Log In" button, so he can access to the app by being redirected to home view. 

User Story 2: As a dog owner, I want to set up a request for dog walks easily to ensure my dog's well-being, so that I can have peace of mind on other occupations.

Scenario 1: Start the first set up, main view to start a request.

Acceptance criteria:

• User can press a button to start a request and go redirected to the next screen regarding dates and times Set Up.
• Add a description under the request button.

Scenario 2: Continue with the request set up, the second view is regarding adding information about dates and times. All the following fields should be mandatory.

Acceptance criteria:

• User can press the button "Select Date" and choose one date in the modal view.
• User can press the button "Select Date" and choose a period of date (start to end) in the modal.
• Dismiss the modal view by pressing "Done" and show the info selected.

• User can choose a time from the time selector, and show the info after confirming the selection.
• User can select a period of time on the selector displayed.
• User can choose the quantity of times per day for walks.
• User can press the "Next" button, so first the app should confirm if all text fields were filled out, in case of not, there should be a popup triggered where It informs the missing field.
• After confirming the app should go to the next screen regarding dog information.
• User can go to the previous screen by pressing the "Back" button.

Scenario 3: Continue with the set up, the third view is regarding adding information about dogs.

Acceptance criteria:

• User can press the button "Add Dog" to register a new one which redirects to register a new dog screen.
• In case a user has a dog or dogs already registered, the list of dogs should be listed in order for the user to select one. User should be able to choose at least one dog (mandatory) from the list.
• User can press the "Next" button, to go to the next screen but first the app should validate that at least a dog is selected, in case it is not, there is a popup displayed informing the user to select to continue.
• User can go to the previous screen by pressing the "Back" button.

Scenario 4: Continue with the set up, this view is to register a dog.

Acceptance criteria:

• User can choose a breed from the selector.
• User can choose the size from the selector.
• User can add a photo from the phone's library or take a picture from de phone's camera. (This is optional, not mandatory).
• By pressing "'Done" button, the app should dismiss the view and redirect to the previous view (Dog Info). So we have the registered dog displayed on the list.
• By pressing the "Cancel" button. the app should dismiss the current view and redirect to the previous screen (Dog Info).

Scenario 5: Continue with the set up, this view is regarding the address.

Acceptance criteria:

• There is a field where the user can enter his address (mandatory), each letter user enters there will be a list updating to suggest registered places, this with the help of google places library.
• By pressing the "Next" button, to go next steps first the app should validate a place is selected, in case it is not, there is a popup displayed informing the user to select to continue.
• User can go to the previous screen by pressing the "Back" button.

Scenario 6: This is the last view for setting up, a list of dog walkers available around will be displayed.

Acceptance criteria:

• We have one section, in case there are dog walkers available, a list of them will be displayed in order for the owner to choose one (not mandatory to select).
• The second section is to show the summary information about the set up.
• In case no one is available, the user will be able to press the "Request" button, so the request will be saved as an active state, so this will allow dog walkers to see "Open" requests so they can take the job.
• By pressing the "Request" button, in case It is the first time doing a request, there will be a popup asking for permissions to the owner to receive notification, so this will help to notify when a dog walker is available and can take the job.

User Story 3: As a dog walker, I want to create an account so I can interact easily with others, improve confidence and demonstrate I am a good prospect to take care of dogs.

Scenario 1: Dog walkers can create an account and access to the app then.

Acceptance criteria:

• User can fill out the email field
• User can fill out the password field
• User can press the "Sign In" button so he can be registered in the system.
• User can press the "LogIn" button, so he can access the app by being redirected to the home screen.
• Pending, to fill out a form to verify the authenticity of the user.
• Pending, fill out the form to get information about training to take care of dogs and experience walking dogs.

User Story 4: As a dog owner, I want to see my request history, so that I can track current.

Scenario: The dog owner can see the history of the request.

Acceptance criteria:

• Dog owner can see the item with the state of "Open", this means there is a request waiting for dog walkers to confirm. In case, the request is already confirmed by the dog walker, the status will change to "Confirmed".
• Dog owner can edit the item marked as Open by pressing the "Edit" button.
• By pressing the "Remove" icon, the dog owner can remove any items from the list, this info won't be recoverable in the future.

Measuring Success

Co.Lab Success Metrics 

What would you consider success to look like by Demo Day for your team? What would be the definition of done for your product by that point? Note: This should be finalized as a team.

To consider theDemo Day successful, we are going to accomplish the following as definition of Done:

• To have the basic functionality of the well defined as MVP recommends.
• To have the first mock-ups of user stories.

Product Success Metrics

Consider metrics you’d want to measure to consider the product a success. How would we

know if we’ve solved the problem? What are the things we’d want to measure?

We are going to measure the following:

• Number of app downloads
• Track the number of request interactions and jobs completed by the next  month after the first launch.

• Track the number of dog owners registered by the next month after the first launch.
• Track the number of dog walkers registered by the next month after the first launch.
• Track the numbers of how many times the profile of a dog walker has been reviewed in a period of a month after the first launch.‍

Milestones & Timeline

‍Open Questions / Appendix

Research Synthesis Data

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Dpss6PcVXyl_ZaLW_ATFKwJvShmBYkbL9zCv4F4SEo4/edit?usp=sharing

Survey

https://forms.gle/gkkrWvuNywa1SuLV8

Sources

https://www.barclondon.com/blogs/mindfulness-wellbeing/benefits-of-dog-walking#what

https://www.we-love-pets.co.uk/we-love-pets-news/8-benefits-of-dog-walking#:~:text=Builds%20stronger%20muscles%2C%20bones%2C%20and%20joints&text=Walking%20for%2015%2D30%20minutes,well%20into%20their%20old%20age.

Anexos

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