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.

Problem Exploration

Define two key pain points students face with collaboration today.

Describe your approach to validating whether these are real and worth solving.

Vision & Features

Propose a vision statement for the platform.

List 3 major features you would prioritize, and explain why (reference feasibility, impact, and effort).

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, RICE, or another framework).

Part 2 – Execution

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).

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

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.

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 or estimated development time with justification

Submission Guidelines

Submission Requirements

PDF with:

Product Scenario

PDF with:

2 Key Pain Points

Vision Statement

3 Prioritized Features

MVP with included features

Prioritization Rationale

Execution

8 Week roadmap

Status update email

Option A or Option B and justification

Public Github Repository including:

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.

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: October 10th @ 11:59 PM