Wheels Up for Market AnalysisIn 2016, I attended General Assembly's full-time, 12-week Product Management Immersive to reinvigorate my creative marketing and design skills. As a student I imagined, researched, and launched a ‘wheel-friendly’ minimum viable product (MVP) in one month with the help of volunteer UX designers and web developers.
The 2010 Census counted 3.6 million wheelchair users in the United States. With an aging population that includes my mother, the number of mobility-limited people continues to rise. My 2016 survey of wheelchair users in Washington, DC identified a huge miss for Yelp! and TripAdvisor. They didn't list "wheel-friendly" places. Although these popular ratings apps let users search for hotels and restaurants, neither app solicited accessibility ratings or reviews that would alert wheelchair users to physical barriers. 
Figure 1. I developed a Lean Canvas to guide my team’s research and development efforts. This market analysis has inspired me to advocate for people with mobility limitations to this day.
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Figure 2. A review like “I couldn’t take my wheelchair into the bathroom” might help hungry users decide whether a restaurant’s food is worth the trip. To help with rating criteria, I spent days in a wheelchair myself, experiencing the daily obstacles to eating out, using public restrooms, and navigating city streets.
“Amanda is empathetic to user problems and works earnestly to understand and address end user perspectives.” ~ Jocelyn Byrne Houle. Product Management Immersive (PMI) Instructor at General Assembly 
Figure 3. Our Competitive Analysis measured the pros and cons of competitor sites, while highlighting their efforts to boost site traffic.
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The Fastest Route to MVP: Simple RatingsMy survey found that wheelchair users loved accessibility ratings. Market research, competitive analysis, and technical discussions helped me prioritize features for my product roadmap. We quickly discovered that ratings categories and accessibility scoring differed greatly from one website to the next, leading to my first pivot. I narrowed my MVP scope to rating only local restaurants, and ignored hotel accessibility data completely to simplify scoring and streamline development.
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Figure 4. Our MVP let users rate Washington, DC area restaurants based on four criteria: parking, entry, restrooms and seating.
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“As a project manager, Amanda is a leader with a point of view,
who can also solicit team feedback effectively.”
~ Jocelyn Byrne Houle. PMI Instructor at General Assembly
who can also solicit team feedback effectively.”
~ Jocelyn Byrne Houle. PMI Instructor at General Assembly
Figure 5. The Product Roadmap and business goals included a strategy for displaying ratings and reviews in the first month, growing site traffic, and ultimately building a community to promote wheelchair-accessible spaces.
“As a veteran of large organizations...I really appreciate her ability to get things done
[using Agile] without being tripped up on required tasks and documentation.”
~ Jocelyn Byrne Houle. PMI Instructor at General Assembly
[using Agile] without being tripped up on required tasks and documentation.”
~ Jocelyn Byrne Houle. PMI Instructor at General Assembly
Figure 6. Without ADA compliance laws like those passed in California,** local businesses preferred reacting to individual mobility requests, rather than building a reputation as a wheelchair-friendly space or company.
**Click the image above to learn how California's accessibility laws are impacting small business' bottom lines.
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Ready, Set, Go Wheel-FriendlyIn 2016, we launched the “Mobileez" MVP, a mobile-friendly ratings website designed with wheelchair users in mind. Users rated and reviewed the accessibility of local restaurants, often based on personal experience. Wheelchair users could finally choose a restaurant rated for the best food and the easiest access.
After launch, feedback revealed that local businesses did not want to proactively prevent American Disabilities Act (ADA) lawsuits or related risk, even if accessibility advice was free. This changed everything. Most importantly, I realized that no funding would be available to drive traffic, ratings, outreach, and revenue. My altruistic school project had finally met the world of investment bottom lines. |
Where Do Wheels Go From Here?In retrospect, I identified a real problem for wheelchair users and fine-tuned my solution to meet market needs. However without a way to increase site traffic, my business goals, pricing model and vision for an accessibility-aware community were unsustainable.
This led to my final pivot. I contacted Yelp!, TripAdvisor, and Google Maps to discuss my idea of building an accessibility plug-in MVP. My plug-in MVP aggregates wheelchair accessibility data and APIs from various ratings sites. Web-scraping tools collect data from sites without APIs. The business logic weights and compares existing scores so that users can quickly decide where to go, based on trusted data from the site(s) that specialize in these ratings. The plug-in MVP lets wheelchair users drill down to read accessibility-specific reviews, and learn the source of a bad rating. This drill-down tool helps a business clean up its reputation after it has made changes or repairs. Pursuing my plug-in MVP is worth the time I save searching for a truly wheelchair-friendly cafe for Mom. |
“Amanda is an engaging presenter. She listens to audience questions, and provides a candid and accurate approach to the material.”
~ Jocelyn Byrne Houle. PMI Instructor at General Assembly 
Figure 7. My financial projections assumed businesses would pay for advice on ADA compliance and making accessibility improvements. Unfortunately, the return on investment was not compelling.
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“Amanda is a lifelong learner; [she stays] current in her professional training and
proactively learns about new industry trends.”
~ Paula Lawley. Director, User Experience at Sprint Nextel
proactively learns about new industry trends.”
~ Paula Lawley. Director, User Experience at Sprint Nextel
