From Broken Demos to Series A Funding

Challenge:

New to product development this startup had many amazing ideas but struggled to prioritize features and deliver working software for demos.

My Approach:

Conducted prototype tests to reveal bugs throughout the sign-up and login process, preventing the founder from conducting successful demos. This external testing also revealed a scaling challenge, namely that the software performed poorly on most machines that were not built for resource-intensive compute activities.

Facilitated a company-wide user outcome brainstorming and mapping exercise to capture everyone’s ideas and illustrate what was already built but not quite working, what was working, and all the other features that could be built. With the visualization in place had the leadership team identified the most critical outcomes to tackle next. 

Solution:

Partnered with engineering to implement test-driven development for login and sign-up workflows. Worked with the 3D graphics team to reduce GPU and CPU usage by 60%. 

Result:

Eliminated bugs in login and sign-up to enable testing of the virtual official experience by potential customers and funders, ultimately enabling the company to secure a $22 million Series A funding.

Systems Impact:

By tying features to user outcomes and then mapping the existing experience, I helped the team move beyond analysis paralysis and develop best practices for shipping working software.