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## T2 Project Reflection and Next Steps Worksheet

## Original idea
*Revisit your original goals (check out your project proposal).*

Create a more pleasant dating experience by skipping to scheduling dates and providing personalized in-app aid during the date to help people bond.


#### MVP Progress? 
*What progress did you make towards your original MVP / on your stretch goals?*

Initial MVP Goals:

- Quick matching of users based on availability for dates.
- Conversation Starters presented with an in-date interface.
- Basic post-date metrics/feedback

Assessment: 
- We have implemented a matching schema based on availability for dates. 
- We have a preliminary set of conversation starters to be presented in an in-date interface, but we want to make this more robust and dynamic in the future.
- We have not yet implemented post-date metrics/feedback.

#### How is it different?
*How is your project different from what you envisioned?*

We pretty much stuck to the same game plan we outlined, but we spent most of our time on matching and got to work very little on the coordinating/post-date experience. This may wind up working in our favor as we consider what changes we need to make for coronavirus dating. 

#### Still happy with direction?
*Most importantly, are you still happy with the direction that your project is headed?*

Due to the coronavirus outbreak, we believe that we may want to pivot towards a direction of promoting online video interaction between users as opposed to in-person meet-ups, as national social distancing recommendations will be in place until April 30th at the earliest. This would involve introducing video chat functionality to our app, but should not fundamentally change the user profile or matching algorithm.

#### What do you wish went differently?
*What do you wish had gone differently / are there features you wish you hadn't made or made differently?*

* It would have been helpful to be able to connect the front and back-ends more before techingala, but hopefully we can complete that this term

## Feedback
*What feedback from last term do you think is relevant and interesting to incorporate. List your feedback broadly and label them with how they stack up for your vision. These may already be in ZenHub but after this discussion they should be.*

* [stretch goal 🍦] Some users already were asking about advanced safety features.
* [rejected ⛔] Users disagreed with the granularity that they wanted to have with the time slots, so I think we will just need to make a decision and test it.
* [critical 🔥] Users want to be matched with each other even in cases in which no activity is agreed upon
* [critical 🔥] Change the color of check boxes to make it more clear what is checked and what is not checked
* [stretch goal 🍦] Some users want more than just a couple conversation starters


#### Questions
*Think about where the project is headed. What are some questions that you/users/me have about direction/features/functionality that could use some validation?*

* How will this app work now that social distancing is a thing? (we will revisit this after we have more basic functionality)
* How can we create features that work for users dating both remotely and in-person so we don't reduplicate any work? Can we capitalize on both opportunities that the pandemic presents?


#### Answers
*Think of ways that you might validate these: discussion with your team, advice from me, polling the class, asking users, and/or collecting and analyzing usage data. Write down some ideas here. This isn't how to validate your project as a whole, but about specific feedback/features.*

* polling the class and having more discussions with users will be helpful in figuring out exact answers to these questions
* It might be more beneficial to work on other areas of the app (registration, matching) that will be required either way before deciding on specific steps
* Defining an "MVP" that meant users could fully sign up and use the app independently of us.



## Vision
*Refine your vision.*

#### Feedback Analysis
*How does the current feedback/user testing/progress change how you think about the direction of the project?*

People definitely seem to prioritize matching on people over having perfect details.


#### Pivot/Adjustment
*If you were to consider a pivot or adjustment in what the product is, what would it be?*

* Change the goal of the app so that meeting in person isn't the priority given the current global pandemic
     * This might not look like changing the whole app, just making it work both in a digital and in-person environment
     * e.g. date options that can happen over zoom instead of in a physical location
     * We want to focus on the activity functionality of our app whether that means digital or in-person activities


#### Ideal Goal
*In an ideal world if you could build out your project to be anything without any constraints of time or skill what would you want to do? Dream big — you can do more than you think. Try to push the limits. This does **not** commit you to anything, so don't worry about overpromising, this is to get you dream about where you **really** want your project to go without constraints. Please don't skimp on this part.*

Ideally, we would be able to connect people this term as they prepare for social isolation AND be able to provide them with the perfect tool to get back into the real world. If we could help forge social connections during the quarantine and help struggling restaurants afterward, that would be great. We would want comprehensive virtual activities/short video calls and bookable reservations with integrated calendars. It would be amazing if we had time to work on a matching algorithm beyond first in first out (ideally maximizing the potential of the user data gathered through in-app personality questions and date activity/feedback).



#### Mission Statement
*Now write a mission statement for your project as you see it after all of this great brain activity. Just a few sentences suffices.*


* Flying over obstacles to connect people - global pandemic or otherwise



## How to get there
*Now that you've thought about where your project is headed and where you want it to go write down how might approach getting there.*

- finish basic functionality for a starting userbase regardless of date format
- look into plug-and-play video solutions/date activities for remote formats
- Be more specific in tickets.

#### What are your concrete next steps?

We definitely want to finish all of the work that we've committed to so that users can get on the app without workarounds. We also need to decide on any pivoting steps/features, if we go in that direction.

#### What are some blockers in your way?

User testing and feedback will be harder since all will be remote.


## TeamWork 
*lastly, at the end of last term in the term summary you did a bit of work around teamwork. this is just a reminder for everyone to revisit that and if you have any new or further thoughts after the break feel free to record them here.*

Meetings ran a little long and also not enough time to discuss so we will reorganize the structure.

New Times:
Office Hours/Discussion of Top Issues - Friday 4-5pm EST
Sprint Planning - Sunday 5-6pm EST