[Solution] Product Manager Challenge

Part 1 – Product Scenario

Problem Exploration

1. Pain Point 1: Misaligned schedules and poor task visibility
  Students often struggle to track who is doing what and when. Without structure, deadlines get missed.
2. Pain Point 2: Fragmented collaboration tools
  Group chats, shared docs, and project trackers exist separately, forcing students to switch between platforms. This creates confusion and loss of accountability.

Validation Approach:

Run a 5–10 student survey and short interviews asking: “What’s your biggest frustration working on group projects?”
Observe existing workflows (chat groups, Google Docs, Trello).
Determine frequency and severity of the problem (e.g., >70% of students mention miscommunication as a frustration).

Vision & Features

Vision Statement:
“Enable student project teams to collaborate effortlessly with clarity, accountability, and focus.”

Top Features (prioritized):

Shared Task Board: Centralized board to assign tasks and deadlines. (High impact, feasible with small dev team).
Team Availability Sync: Lightweight scheduling tool to see teammates’ preferred working times. (Addresses coordination pain point).
Integrated Document Hub: Direct linking to shared files (Google Docs, GitHub repos) from one place. (Consolidation reduces fragmentation).

MVP Definition

Scope: In 6 weeks with a 4-person dev team.

Must-haves (M): Shared Task Board, basic user login, simple integration with external links.
Should-haves (S): Availability calendar.
Could-haves (C): Notifications, design themes.
Won’t-haves (W): AI task suggestions, advanced analytics.

MVP: Task management + document hub + simple user login.
Rationale: Immediate value, feasible, and a strong foundation for iteration.

Part 2 – Execution

Roadmap & Planning

8-week high-level roadmap:

Week 1–2 (Discovery): Competitor analysis (Notion, Trello), student surveys, MVP feature validation.
Week 3–6 (MVP Build): Engineers implement login, task board, doc hub. Designer sketches UI. PM runs twice-weekly standups + backlog grooming.
Week 7–8 (Testing & Iteration): User testing with 2–3 student teams, bug fixes, polish MVP UX.

Ownership:

PM: backlog prioritization, roadmap updates, user testing feedback.
Engineers: feature development, bug fixes.
Designer: UI/UX wireframes, polish.

Communication & Proactivity

Status Update Example:

Team,
We’re at Week 4, and while task board and login are on track, the calendar sync feature looks riskier than expected—we may not deliver it by demo week.

I suggest we officially move calendar sync into a “post-MVP iteration” milestone so we ensure our task board + doc hub are rock-solid for testing.

This way, the demo still wows users with clarity, and we keep momentum. Let’s regroup tomorrow to confirm final scope together!

—[Your Name]

Technical Awareness

Tradeoff Decision:

For the MVP, I would recommend Option A (Quick-to-build).
Rationale: The purpose of the MVP is validation, not scalability. If we confirm strong adoption, we can justify re-architecting in Phase 2. Choosing A allows the team to stay lean, deliver faster, and test real user feedback before over-investing in infrastructure.

Ticket Cutting

Ticket Title

Ability to Add New Tasks to Shared Task Board

Epic: Shared Task Board MVP
Type: Feature
Priority: High

User Story

As a project group member,
I want to be able to add new tasks with relevant information to the shared task board,
So that my team can track and assign work for our project.

Acceptance Criteria

Users see an “Add Task” button on the shared task board.
Clicking “Add Task” presents a form to enter: task title (required), description (optional), assignee (optional), and due date (optional).
Submitting the form creates a new task and displays it in the “To Do” column of the board.
The new task is visible to all members of the group.
If the title field is empty, the form displays an error and does not submit.

Gherkin Acceptance Criteria

Scenario: Successful new task creation
GIVEN: I am a logged-in user in my group
WHEN: I click "Add Task" and enter a. title, description, assignee, and due date
AND: I submit the form
THEN: The new task appears in the "To Do" column on the shared task board for my group

Scenario: Missing Task Title
GIVEN:I am on the add task form
WHEN: I leave the title field empty
AND: I submit the form
THEN: I see an error message stating "Title is required" and the task is not created

Scenario: New task is visible to all group members
GIVEN: A new task has been added to the board
WHEN: Any group member views the shared task board
THEN: They see the new task in the "To Do" column

Technical Notes

Back-end: Create POST /tasks endpoint.
Front-end: Implement “Add Task” button and task entry form; update task board UI upon successful creation.
Integrate with authentication and group context to ensure user and group association.

Out of Scope

Editing or deleting tasks
Assigning multiple users per task
Advanced form validation

Figma link: See "Add Task" modal in [Shared Task Board wireframe].
Deadline: End of Week 2 of MVP roadmap.