Project

Overview

CHALLENGE

To eliminate time usage on onboarding, communications, locating resources, and organizing database in a remote work environment for startups.

PROJECT TYPE

Product Design | Product Management

SKIP - AI Powered Collaborative Workspace

CLIENT

Class Project

@Northwestern University

TIME FRAME

10 Weeks

[Mar. - June. 2023]

MY ROLE

User interviews | Compile Market & Product Requirement Documents|

UI/UX Design

TEAM MEMBERS

Yaritza Chavez | Emmie Fister | Jonah Reisen | Sherry Xu | Shaobo Zhang

Project

Overview

CHALLENGE

To eliminate time usage on onboarding, communications, locating resources, and organizing database in a remote work environment for startups.

PROJECT TYPE

Product Design | Product Management

SKIP - AI Powered Collaborative Workspace

CLIENT

Class Project

@Northwestern University

TIME FRAME

10 Weeks

[Mar. - June. 2023]

MY ROLE

User interviews | Compile Market & Product Requirement Documents|

UI/UX Design

TEAM MEMBERS

Yaritza Chavez | Emmie Fister | Jonah Reisen | Sherry Xu | Shaobo Zhang

Project

Overview

CHALLENGE

To eliminate time usage on onboarding, communications, locating resources, and organizing database in a remote work environment for startups.

PROJECT TYPE

Product Design | Product Management

SKIP - AI Powered Collaborative Workspace

*This project is under an NDA; name of the client cannot be disclosed.

CLIENT

Class Project

@Northwestern University

TIME FRAME

10 Weeks

[Mar. - June. 2023]

MY ROLE

User interviews | Compile Market & Product Requirement Documents|

UI/UX Design

TEAM MEMBERS

Yaritza Chavez | Emmie Fister | Jonah Reisen | Sherry Xu | Shaobo Zhang

Project

Overview

CHALLENGE

To eliminate time usage on onboarding, communications, locating resources, and organizing database in a remote work environment for startups.

PROJECT TYPE

Product Design | Product Management

SKIP - AI Powered Collaborative Workspace

CLIENT

Class Project

@Northwestern University

TIME FRAME

10 Weeks

[Mar. - June. 2023]

MY ROLE

User interviews | Compile Market & Product Requirement Documents|

UI/UX Design

TEAM MEMBERS

Yaritza Chavez | Emmie Fister | Jonah Reisen | Sherry Xu | Shaobo Zhang

Project

Overview

CHALLENGE

To eliminate time usage on onboarding, communications, locating resources, and organizing database in a remote work environment for startups.

PROJECT TYPE

Product Design | Product Management

SKIP - AI Powered Collaborative Workspace

CLIENT

Class Project

@Northwestern University

TIME FRAME

10 Weeks

[Mar. - June. 2023]

MY ROLE

User interviews | Compile Market & Product Requirement Documents|

UI/UX Design

TEAM MEMBERS

Yaritza Chavez | Emmie Fister | Jonah Reisen | Sherry Xu | Shaobo Zhang

Project

Overview

CHALLENGE

To eliminate time usage on onboarding, communications, locating resources, and organizing database in a remote work environment for startups.

PROJECT TYPE

Product Design | Product Management

SKIP - AI Powered Collaborative Workspace

*This project is under an NDA; name of the client cannot be disclosed.

CLIENT

Class Project

@Northwestern University

TIME FRAME

10 Weeks

[Mar. - June. 2023]

MY ROLE

User interviews | Compile Market & Product Requirement Documents|

UI/UX Design

TEAM MEMBERS

Yaritza Chavez | Emmie Fister | Jonah Reisen | Sherry Xu | Shaobo Zhang

Project

Overview

CHALLENGE

To eliminate time usage on onboarding, communications, locating resources, and organizing database in a remote work environment for startups.

PROJECT TYPE

Product Design | Product Management

SKIP - AI Powered Collaborative Workspace

CLIENT

Class Project

@Northwestern University

TIME FRAME

10 Weeks

[Mar. - June. 2023]

MY ROLE

User interviews | Compile Market & Product Requirement Documents|

UI/UX Design

TEAM MEMBERS

Yaritza Chavez | Emmie Fister | Jonah Reisen | Sherry Xu | Shaobo Zhang

Project

Overview

CHALLENGE

To eliminate time usage on onboarding, communications, locating resources, and organizing database in a remote work environment for startups.

PROJECT TYPE

Product Design | Product Management

SKIP - AI Powered Collaborative Workspace

CLIENT

Class Project

@Northwestern University

TIME FRAME

10 Weeks

[Mar. - June. 2023]

MY ROLE

User interviews | Compile Market & Product Requirement Documents|

UI/UX Design

TEAM MEMBERS

Yaritza Chavez | Emmie Fister | Jonah Reisen | Sherry Xu | Shaobo Zhang

Project

Overview

CHALLENGE

To eliminate time usage on onboarding, communications, locating resources, and organizing database in a remote work environment for startups.

PROJECT TYPE

Product Design | Product Management

SKIP - AI Powered Collaborative Workspace

*This project is under an NDA; name of the client cannot be disclosed.

CLIENT

Class Project

@Northwestern University

TIME FRAME

10 Weeks

[Mar. - June. 2023]

MY ROLE

User interviews | Compile Market & Product Requirement Documents|

UI/UX Design

TEAM MEMBERS

Yaritza Chavez | Emmie Fister | Jonah Reisen | Sherry Xu | Shaobo Zhang

This is a piece of extensive work~ please view on a tablet or a computer for a better reading experience :)

BACKGROUND

BACKGROUND

There are thousands of productivity tools that companies use to complete their work. Ironically, employees waste a lot of time navigating through these complicated productivity tools for. 72% of salespeople spend up to an hour just switching between different software tools. For marketers, they reported 75%.

There are thousands of productivity tools that companies use to complete their work. Ironically, employees waste a lot of time navigating through these complicated productivity tools for. 72% of salespeople spend up to an hour just switching between different software tools. For marketers, they reported 75%.

VISION

Powered by AI, Skip is a collaborative workspace that consolidates information from multiple platforms, streamlining information access and the project management process for remote workers and cross-functional teams.

Powered by AI, Skip is a collaborative workspace that consolidates information from multiple platforms, streamlining information access and the project management process for remote workers and cross-functional teams.

THE PROCESS OVERVIEW

This project has been designed under the “PM hat”, where we have gone through the process of creating a product in tech industry.

This project has been designed under the “PM hat”, where we have gone through the process of creating a product in tech industry.

DESIGN OUTCOME

The videos might need some time to load

The videos might need some time to load

DEFINE THE MARKET: USER PERSONAS

Developer Sarah

Age: 24

Occupation: Software engineer

Work Exp: 1 yr

Personality: Introverted

“I’m nervous about starting this new job but on top of that, I’m nervous about starting this new project. The team has already done so much work on it and I don’t want to drag the team down.”

GOALS

Get acquainted with project documents and processes quickly.

Sarah wants to feel comfortable and confident in her new job and to develop good relationships with her colleagues. She also wants to learn new skills and make a positive contribution to the company's success.

Minimize time in meetings.

FRUSTRATIONS

Sarah is feeling overwhelmed by the amount of information she needs to learn and the number of tools and processes the company uses. 

She is very stressed and uncertain while doing the work because she is not sure if she has gone through all the required documents about the projects since they are kind of all over the place. 

She is introverted and new to the environment that she doesn't want to bother anyone else to spend extra time explaining or helping her understand how to navigate the tools and where all the information she needs to know.

ASSUMPTION 1

Startup employees or even executives spend a lot of time in their file system trying to find what they need for completing a job.

ASSUMPTION 2

Product/project managers find communicating and onboarding new employees to a project are hassle.

ASSUMPTION 3

New employees experience difficulty looking for information when onboarding to a new company.

ASSUMPTION 4

Existing employees find it difficult to both find relevant information and keep files/projects organized over time.

Based on personas and assumptions we have made, we have interviewed a project manager, a product designer and a design lead (all in remote work environment).

Based on personas and assumptions we have made, we have interviewed a project manager, a product designer and a design lead (all in remote work environment).

Brian

“First couple of weeks are just lost.”

Brian

“In a dream world, all of these tools would be friends and talk to each other.”

Bradley

“Since people are in different time zones, too many notifications when I wake up - feel overwhelmed.”

Bradley

“People change the file names without informing others and you can’t really find it when you need it.”

DEFINE THE MARKET: CURRENT SOLUTIONS

DEFINE THE PRODUCT: DESIGN PRINCIPLES

User Experience

Efficiency

Streamline workflow to manage tasks effectively

Intuitive

Utilize LLM to make easy- navigating interface

Integrations

Integrate popular applications

Continuous Improvement

Update the platform incorporating user feedback

Collaboration & Transparency

Utilize LLM to make easy- navigating interface

Modular

Users can mix and match various blocks.

User Interface

Minimalist

Streamline workflow to manage tasks effectively

Skeumorphic

Utilize LLM to make easy- navigating interface

Modular Design

Integrate popular applications

DEFINE THE PRODUCT: DESIGN SYSTEM

We are inspired by our organized Mood Board: https://pin.it/3IdeC9F

DEFINE THE PRODUCT: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE

In order to get to an industry-standard application development, we have also utilized an architectural framework called the MVC model. MVC stands for “model”, “view”, “controller”. Each of these components are built to handle specific development aspects of an application.

FINAL DESIGN

This project is an open-source project published on Figma Community by the Design Team Hellsegga. Click below to access.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

You don’t always need to start developing a product from user research: In the past projects we have done, we always started from user research to understand the problem. In the context of taking a class in Tech Product Management, we were taught by understanding the market and make assumption for the product that’s driven by technology. We were trained in writing Market Requirement Document and Product Requirement Document which are very different from the approach we are used to.

Business model, go-to-market strategy, risks... they are important: Business is one of the core values in human-center design. Product needs to have a proper business model to keep it lively. Understanding the market size and the unmet needs, designing the differentiators, business model, go-to-market strategy, and projected timeline and costs are indispensable for product manager, are great to have skills for product designer.

Develop a great product? Look for the ‘Jobs-to-be-done’ and crack it: Those we can see are usually the problems at surface level. Trace back to what your users really NEED and crack it, while keeping other parameters in mind, too.

Let me know what you think!

Let me know what you think!

Let me know what you think!

© Sherry Xu 2022

Jump to

Account

Support

Profile

Profile