Proto-Persona

Before starting my user interview process, I created a proto-persona based on my assumptions and personal experiences. I anticipated that most users will be cautious traveling post-pandemic, and that cleanliness will remain at top of mind. I also anticipated users will prefer traveling in smaller groups, be concerned about cost, and enjoy a range of activities and destinations.

User Interviews

I conducted five interviews in hopes of discovering what needs of the post-pandemic traveler are not being met by current resources. My goals were to (1) understand the user and their travel habits, (2) discover pain points of the planning process, and (3) discover pain points experienced while traveling.

Each interview consists of 15 questions about the user’s travel habits and preferences. Interviews took place both virtually and in person and ranged from 20-40 minutes in length. All interviewees are known to love travel, but vary in age and income levels.

Defining the Problem

Next, I defined a User Insight, Problem Statement, and Value Proposition.

The recurring pain point I decided to focus on revolves around organizing a trip as a group. Everyone tends to have different things they want to experience in their travels, and it can be difficult to compromise with your travel companions when making plans. Multiple text threads makes things confusing and frustrating, both while planning a trip and while traveling.

While there is always the option to split up to ensure everyone gets to do what they want, that can make it difficult to re-group thus you end up missing out on making group memories.

Feature Analysis

With so many aspects to travel planning and trip execution in mind, I then began prioritizing what features to include. In an effort to accomplish this, I conducted an I like, I wish, What if? exercise, created a feature prioritization matrix, and synthesized into a value proposition canvas.