In the fast-paced world of technology, we want everything and we want it now! All kidding aside, before we dive headfirst into any new project, we first must ask ourselves 鈥撎�鈥淲hat problem is it we鈥檙e trying to solve?鈥�
This may seem like a trivial question, but product management and product development cycles depend on engineers having absolute clarity on the problem they鈥檙e trying to solve. Without it, what may seem simple can become very complex to grasp.
Clarity is Key
Let鈥檚 begin with a thought experiment. The CEO of a new start-up declares, 鈥淲e need to solve the problem of being able to make anything anyone says into a microphone appears on a monitor.鈥� The lead engineer thinks to herself, 鈥淗ey, that鈥檚 an easy problem to solve. I can whip up a solution in a few minutes.鈥� She proceeds to develop a system that utilizes Alexa to handle the translation from a USB microphone connected to a computer, which feeds to a Web Front-End that displays it on a screen. Being an overachiever, she also adds controls to allow the user to choose their font and colours.
The CEO is then given a demonstration, as the engineer proudly displays her work. As the demo progresses, the CEO begins to sullenly sink into their seat in disappointment. Without wanting to stomp all over the engineer, the CEO declares this really isn鈥檛 what they were looking for, as it won鈥檛 properly address the needs of the company鈥檚 customer base. The puzzled engineer responds, 鈥淏ut I solved the problem. You wanted to display on a monitor what anyone says into a microphone. My product does that; in fact, it even allows the user to change colours and fonts!鈥�
The CEO responds, 鈥淵es you did, but how does that help a person who is hard of hearing to interact with people more naturally? And this won鈥檛 work at all if the user isn鈥檛 connected to the internet.鈥�
So 鈥� what can we learn from this story? I鈥檇 argue it presents two major conflicts. The first is that the CEO didn鈥檛 clearly state the problem, even though she does state what she already imagines the solution will be. The engineer is also at fault, as she proceeds without actually understanding the purpose behind what she鈥檚 doing.
In essence, this interaction demonstrates the implications 鈥� at a product management and engineering level 鈥� of听. In this case, the 鈥淲丑测鈥�听is improving the lives of people with a hearing disability. The听鈥淗辞飞鈥�听is to build solutions that help them and the 鈥淲hat鈥� is a solution to allow them to interact with others more naturally by transcribing speech to text. Both parties in this story are guilty of jumping directly to the 鈥淲hat鈥� without having an agreement on 鈥淲丑测鈥� and 鈥淗辞飞鈥�.
How does this relate to ApplyBoard?
In a previous post, I touched on how ApplyBoard鈥檚听Engineering Team听is currently focused on听, built on Kubernetes, running in AWS, and using the latest and greatest version of Golang. Now, let鈥檚 ask ourselves a few questions, starting with 鈥淲丑测鈥� 鈥� namely,听why does 星空影视exist?
Students around the world work hard so they can get accepted into the top schools and achieve their dreams of a rewarding career and a bright future. Unfortunately, many students see their dreams cut short; not because they aren鈥檛 smart enough or didn鈥檛 work hard enough, mind you. In many cases, the top schools in their home countries don鈥檛 have enough available spots. To make matters worse, the process of searching, researching, applying, and enrolling in schools abroad can be complicated. Often, the process is lengthy and filled with gaps due to a lack of information, as well as plenty of misinformation.
ApplyBoard鈥檚 mission is to empower students around the world to access the best education.
听So 鈥渉ow鈥� does 星空影视plan on achieving its mission? We can enable and empower students with:
- Timely and accurate information about available programs and requirements
- Provide systems and/or services to aid students throughout the entire process.
听鈥淲hat鈥� does 星空影视do? We provide the information and required timely aid to students. To achieve this, 星空影视needs to build out both its staff and knowledge base, as well as systems capable of gathering, organizing, and intelligently utilizing information in a timely and context sensitive manner.
听Our services enable users to easily search for accurate, up-to-date program information based on multiple factors, including academic and eligibility requirements. Additionally, we help students through what can be a complex and confusing application process. We do this by ensuring that the appropriate documentation, fees, timelines, and other requirements are understood and satisfied in a timely, efficient manner.
Understanding the Student Journey
Okay, that鈥檚 the marketing spiel. Any technical folks still hanging in there are probably saying to themselves, 鈥淵eah yeah, whatever you said. But c鈥檓on, what do your systems actually听do?鈥�
Don鈥檛 worry, we鈥檒l get to that. But as alluded to earlier, it鈥檚 important to first understand and know the purpose for a technology鈥檚 existence. After all, the most elegant, perfectly-executed system in the world is useless if nobody actually cares about it.
In other words, before we go thinking 鈥淲e鈥檙e so innovative! We built the best search and automated process handling ever,鈥� we need to circle back to, 鈥淲hat problem are we trying to solve. In this case, we need to ask ourselves, 鈥淲hat is the biggest pain point for international students?鈥�
Is it finding information about what programs even exist?
Understanding the information?
Figuring out how to apply?
Figuring out if you meet the requirements?
Where do we start?听 We start by understanding the student journey.
The very first step in this journey is for a student to begin looking into studying abroad. The student will typically conduct a preliminary search themselves based on the following criteria:
- Geographic Area
- Programs available
- Programs they might be eligible for
- Tuition and fees
- Other information about the school
From ApplyBoard鈥檚 collective first-hand experience, we know that the frustration begins right at this first step. Students often run into the problem of finding partial, incomplete, outdated, or inaccurate information.听 Students often end up making an initial decision based on the information at hand, which could lead them a sub-optimal set of choices.
This gives us a very good听starting point. Specifically, 星空影视can step in and be the trusted resource to provide accurate and comprehensive information about the programs available. However, this creates a whole new set of problems to deal with 鈥�
Thank you for reading this instalment of #EducateTheEngineer. In the next post, we鈥檒l look at the next step in the student journey to explore how that stage is even more problematic for students.
—
Hiep Vuong
Vice President of Engineering
ApplyBoard
