# Product Manager Challenge

#### Part 1 – Product Scenario

Your team has been tasked with creating a **platform that helps students better collaborate on coursework and projects**.

1. **Problem Exploration**
    
    
    - Define **two key pain points** students face with collaboration today.
    - Describe your approach to validating whether these are real and worth solving.
2. **Vision & Features**
    
    
    - Propose a **vision statement** for the platform.
    - List **3 major features** you would prioritize, and explain why (reference feasibility, impact, and effort).
3. **MVP Definition**
    
    
    - If you had only **6 weeks and a small 4-person engineering team**, what would your **minimum viable product** look like?
    - Provide a **clear prioritization rationale** (e.g., using [MoSCoW](https://www.productplan.com/glossary/moscow-prioritization/), [RICE](https://www.productplan.com/glossary/rice-scoring-model/), or another framework).

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#### Part 2 – Execution

1. **Roadmap & Planning**
    
    
    - Create a **high-level 8-week roadmap** breaking down 3 phases (e.g., discovery, MVP build, iteration).
    - Assign approximate ownership (e.g., engineers, designers, PM responsibilities).
2. **Communication & Proactivity**
    
    
    - Draft a short **status update email** to your team at the midpoint of the project when you realize one of the features may be delayed. Show how you would:
        
        
        - Keep morale positive
        - Communicate clearly
        - Suggest next steps
3. **Technical Awareness**
    
    
    - Suppose engineers propose two implementation options for a core feature:
        
        
        - **Option A**: Quick to build but minimal scalability.
        - **Option B**: More complex but allows growth and integrations.
    - Which would you choose for an MVP? Justify your decision based on product management principles.
4. **Ticket** **Cutting**
    - Please **create 2 tickets/tasks** for one part of one of your potential features
    - The Ticket should include: 
        - User Story
        - Acceptance Criteria
        - Technical Details
        - Out of Scope
        - Level of Effort in the form of [story points ](https://www.atlassian.com/agile/project-management/estimation)or estimated development time with **justification**

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#### Submission Guidelines

##### Submission Requirements 

**PDF with:**

1. **Product Scenario**
    1. PDF with: 
        1. 2 Key Pain Points
        2. Vision Statement
        3. 3 Prioritized Features
        4. MVP with included features
        5. Prioritization Rationale
2. **Execution**
    1. 8 Week roadmap
    2. Status update email
    3. Option A or Option B and justification

**Public Github Repository including:**

1. Kanban Board with 2 feature Tickets

Make sure to make your Kanban **public** so we can evaluate your tickets.

##### Submission Conventions

PDF should be formatted "Your Name - PM Challenge F25" (e.g. "Lucas Ha - PM Challenge F25")

**You must submit your PDF and Github Repository link via this [Google Form.](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSellNu8sfjJAm472WA9K-bEHSE40FsOcO27rhfxWoonfzhSYg/viewform?usp=header)**

**SUBMISSION DEADLINE: October 10th @ 11:59 PM**