As per my understanding of the Agile methodology, to the feature rollout and planning, for the now-famous restaurant discovery startup, Zomato, for a few features i have chosen. I will try to be a Product Manager at Zomato, at different product stages, and describe how I would have gone about planning for the features.
- The Agile team composition would be one individual (total team size, each, from engineering, design, marketing, sales or customer service, and business (Number of members from each department would vary based on workload-time estimation of each department)
- Total team size would be 5–7 members, since these aren’t big projects
- Sprint time would be 2 weeks, with my rough estimate to be 2–3 sprints per feature
- Product Backlog would be a compilation of user stories for each of the features that are being discussed. I am mentioning them as features here, to keep the points crisp for the sake of the article
- During Ideation phase, the team also comes up with additional user stories, when discussing priority for current backlog items in sprint grooming meetings
- Sprint backlog would be decided by way of an impact-effort analysis, with high-impact-low-effort being given the top most priority
- Design after reaching out to initial adopters would be a bold button/link, to clearly indicate the existence of a new feature, imploring the users to click on it
Ideation: Rating would be done by users, and viewed by them too. For reviews, a provision to view them on restaurant details screen, along with a screen to capture the review, are needed.
Design: Following would be the design characteristics of all icons and screens, mentioned above
- Popups are designed with minimal elements, and little description for the process to be followe
Testing: Metrics to be evaluated would be
- Conversion rate of emails and captured feedbacks (to test efficiency for reviewing, after learning from ratings email)
Implementation and Deployment: Priority order for engineering build and deployment, in my opinion after impact-effort analysis, would be:
- Rating Landing Page, listing all restaurants
- Popup to Rate a Restaurant
Online Ordering
Online ordering allows users to sit in the comfort of their home, and order the food of their choosing from the restaurant, while also not having to worry about how it is delivered. Zomato would either have the order delivered by their own delivery fleet, or with the help of contracted delivery partners.
Agile methodology supports and enables any startup to be fast-paced, flexible,dynamic, iterative and incremental. Short sprint times and a ready to use product or a feature that comes out of every sprint cycle can be tested in the real world and the user views and suggestions are incorporated . This allows them to always be in touch with their users and understand their needs and wants and thus it is of great help in developing the great products.