Managing and Shipping My First Software Product.

July, 2021: after what seemed like an endless loop, I had finally discovered the career path I would like to take and also just began an internship in that field — Product management. Prior to this, I had applied to multiple jobs in this role: Junior, Mid, and even Senior level *sighs*.

My journey finally began with Dyeka, a learning app for kids, which wasn’t a very fun project probably because I was still a greenhorn and then I was assigned to Kappa (another new project!) approximately one month after. Oh, Sweet Kappa! Anytime I think about this project, I feel elated. It was “sugar, spice, and everything nice”. Kappa was a pretotype project to explore the idea of “Insurance in 5 minutes”.

Kappa was a huge success, firstly because all project features were carved out by the client in due time which made little to no room for changes, since continuous changes to product/feature requirements affect the completion time of a project.

Secondly, the team! The team consisted of an experienced project lead, a project manager who knew her onions (that’s me 😉), software developers who always delivered on time and as required, and a software tester that always got it right. I’ll tell you for sure that building and shipping a product successfully lies mainly on the skills of one’s team members, both individually and as a team.

Lastly, the project goals set were SMART. Kappa had specific and clearly defined goals (ultimate goal: let users purchase third-party motor insurance from their device and get a policy certificate instantly). The project was Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound (all project tasks had a specific and realistic time of completion). This just made working on the project straightforward.

Project progress was also tracked properly — I kept a report on the project tasks, blockers, timelines, and milestones which was updated weekly throughout the duration of the project.

All the above were factors that led to the project’s success. There were a few lowlights, with the most annoying being where we had a blocker for a couple of weeks only to realize the solution was a change in API keys, which took less than a day to resolve. Our key takeaway was that features were completed, issues were resolved, we moved to production and over 80% of the feedback (from pilot testers) were positive. Other issues that came up were also fixed and the product was shipped well before its deadline (major win 🙌).

I suddenly feel like a pro at this because not every project/product manager with less than a year’s experience has successfully managed and shipped a product from start to finish.

Well, this is one of the perks of working at Assurdly — you get to learn, really fast. I’m currently heading another project which seems like it would be as smooth as Kappa because we have all the basic recipes required for a successful project.

Cheers to doing bigger and better things in 2022🎉