ClubConnect
Date
September - December 2024
Role
Requirements Manager
Project Type
Software Engineering
ClubConnect is a web application designed to bridge the gap between students and campus organizations by providing them with tools to sign up for, manage, and organize student events. I collaborated with a cross-functional team of 5 to design and develop the web application using Django, HTML, CSS, and Bootstrap, delivering a responsive and user-friendly interface.
​As Requirements Manager, I spearheaded the requirements gathering process by conducting interviews and surveys with 40+ target users, translating insights into actionable development specifications to align features with user needs. I managed and updated GitHub Issues to track project tasks, prioritize development efforts, and ensure timely delivery of milestones.
Tools
Python, HTML, CSS, Django, Bootstrap, Github, Agile Methodology
RESEARCH
User Requirements Elicitation
The first step in the development process was to define the requirements of our application. To gather requirements directly from target users, I created a questionnaire and a set of interview questions designed to help us better understand what users truly want from the application we are creating. We believed the questionnaire method would be effective for gathering extensive user input, as it is quick for students to complete, and since students are the main target audience for our application, we aimed to collect as much input from them as possible. The addition of the interview method complemented the questionnaire by allowing us to explore user responses to the questions in greater depth and gain more detailed insights from a select group of target users. To implement these methods, each team member distributed the questionnaire link to other students, including sharing it in CIO group chats, to ensure a wide variety of responses for analysis.
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Survey
The Google form contained nine questions, including short answer, multiple-select, and linear scale ranking formats, as shown in the screenshots.
Interviews
Research Results and Insights
The Google form I created received a total of 33 responses. Additionally, each team member conducted at least two student interviews, resulting in a total of 10 interviews. During the interviews, team members took detailed notes and asked follow-up questions when necessary to deepen the understanding of responses.
DESIGN
Wireframing
After empathizing with users and understanding their needs for our application, I created some very basic wireframes of a simple layout for our web app, and wireframes of a few of the most commonly mentioned features from requirement elicitation. I focused on the information architecture of the application, how users would navigate through the app, and the main pages of the app such as the profile page, the events dashboard, the calendar, and the search function.
IMPLEMENTATION
The Beta Version
Home page
Create a new event
Events dashboard
See event details
Calendar
Profile page
Main Personal Contributions in Implementation Stage
Developing Different User Experiences
The application was designed to accommodate multiple types of users, each requiring distinct levels of access and functionality. This included:
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Anonymous Users: These were users who had not logged in with their Google email accounts. They could only view a list of event names.
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Common Users: Logged-in users with Google email accounts. Within this group, there were two subtypes:
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Event Hosts: These users could create events and had full permissions, such as editing or deleting their events. They did not need to register for their own events, as they automatically had access to all relevant event information.
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Event Participants: These users could view additional event details beyond the title and owner, but they could not edit or delete events.
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Ensuring that each user type had a seamless and goal-aligned experience required meticulous attention to detail. I focused on implementing complex permission structures and user pathways to meet these requirements effectively.
Implementing the Event Comment Feature
I worked on a feature that allowed qualified users—event hosts and approved participants—to post comments on event pages. These comments were visible to other participants and the host, facilitating communication within events. For example:
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Students could post questions about events.
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Event hosts could provide updates and share important announcements.
This feature was crucial in enhancing user engagement and improving event-related communication.
Additional Responsibilities as Requirements Manager
In addition to my technical contributions, I managed GitHub issues to ensure that our implementation aligned with the project’s base requirements. I also incorporated insights from user research, helping the team prioritize features that addressed user needs effectively.
TESTING
Beta Testing
We conducted Beta Testing with our Beta version of the application with 6 test participants in our target user group. 3 participants were involved in the initial requirements elicitation process and 3 were not. All tests were conducted in-person. Each team member took detailed notes during thier observation of test participants.
Testing Script
Testing Insights
Events dashboard
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Problem: Some users were overwhelmed by the amount of events on the dashboard, both past and upcoming
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Solution: Add a toggle to filter past events
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Problem: It was not immediately clear or apparent to most users that the event cards on the events dashboard were clickable, and that if clicked they would take the user to more details about the event
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Solution: Make event click-ability more apparent on the events page
Event detail page
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Problem: All users experienced the site's behavior that when they uploaded a comment or file to an event, the page would reload back to the main detail page, rather than the comments or files
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Solution: Adjust the behavior of the comments and file upload processes to prevent unnecessary redirections
Calendar page
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Problem: Most users experienced frustration when exploring the calendar page and noticing that they could not click on the events in the calendar to go to the event detail page
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Solution: Provide ability to click on events from calendar
RESULTS
Reflection and Takeaways
Working on ClubConnect was a transformative experience that strengthened my ability to work within an agile development team while navigating the end-to-end product lifecycle. From the outset, I gained valuable experience in user research and empathy, conducting interviews and surveys to deeply understand the needs of student organizations. This process shaped our product roadmap and feature prioritization, ensuring that we were building a solution that truly addressed user pain points. Using Django as our app development framework, I expanded my technical skills in backend development while collaborating with my team to create a functional and user-friendly platform. Managing sprint planning and task tracking through GitHub Issues helped me develop a structured approach to project management, prioritization, and iteration—key skills for any product manager.
Ultimately, this project solidified my understanding of the product development lifecycle, from ideation to implementation. Balancing user needs, technical feasibility, and business impact, I learned how to drive a project forward while ensuring that our final product was both functional and valuable to our users.