UX Research
When I started working on my passion project, I had a specific product in mind, complete with the features based on my personal experiences. I am a parent of four children, who attend public school and one child with unique learning needs, I felt I had a great understanding of the needs and parents. However, I recognized the importance of basing my decisions on solid UX research, since parents wasn't my primary user I decided to devote some time to understanding the system and users.
My first step was conducting interviews to gather insights, but I soon realized that I needed more than just interviews to provide me with the complete picture and I was in fact finding out new information that would change the development of the product. It became clear that I needed to take a step back and develop a more comprehensive UX research plan. I reminded myself to remain open-minded and be prepared to let go of the visions I had created based on my discoveries.
As I got more in depth with UX research, I realize that the product I originally intended to create needs to be temporarily shelved, because it required more work. My observation of student and teacher interaction made me shift my focus toward a completely different opportunity that emerged.
It was a tough pivot for me, because I believed there was a need for the product I had predefined, but being a Product Manager requires adaptability and the willingness to pivot when necessary. So I remained flexible and responsive to new insights and allowed the Customer to lead the product development.