Passport’s Curb Management Product Strategy
Full research, discovery, and validation of Passport’s prevailing product strategy.
Project Details
Company
Passport Labs, Inc.
Project Length
6 months
Team
Miranda Bradshaw (Product Manager)
Zac Ibanez-Lopez (Researcher and Designer)
Kevin Huff (Design Leader)
My Role
Led research for the product strategy by designing and socializing frameworks, visuals, and market research.
Facilitated multiple virtual and in-person focus groups with municipal clients
Challenge
Generate a strategy for Passport to organize and harness the changing curb landscape by considering:
Emerging technologies (sensors at the curb, connected vehicles)
Changing curb landscapes post-COVID (scooter and dining parklets, closed streets, food delivery/loading zones)
New forms of transport (scooters, EVs, Autonomous, ride share)
Reducing emissions
Improving Safety of vehicles and pedestrians
The Process
Identify the full curb ecosystem and topology
I mapped all players and tech around Passport’s platform, showing how policy owners, data providers, and endpoints, and end users (curb users) connect with Passport at the center.
Our research brought us to the Curb Data Specification (CDS). CDS is a REST API that provides a mechanism for expressing static and dynamic regulations, measuring activity at the curb, and developing policies that create more accessible, useful curbs. This specification, was a crucial piece of the strategy that was unfolding.
2. Consider the market players
My first pass, while thorough only surfaced a few patterns across the players and didn’t highlight real opportunities for Passport.
To make the whitespace opportunity for Passport more clear, I built a simpler framework to map each competitor’s scope into just a few patterns.
3. Cast a vision and an accompanying maturity model
This is an internal facing maturity model for Passport to achieve Curb Management that I designed and socialized for feedback.
I created a flexible curb illustration showing different activities, vehicles, and regulations. We used versions of it in focus groups to help everyone clearly see the curb’s complexity and challenges.
Once our maturity model language was set, I created an client facing version showing how each phase brings new value. I then mapped Passport’s products to each maturity level for internal discussions.
This is the first of many virtual and on-site discussions with municipal parking leaders where we either discovered, informed, or presented our Curb Management findings.
4. Reevaluate who the buyers are and ready to test willingness to pay
I took a look at a selection of org charts across our municipal clients to best determine which roles and departments would likely have a say in purchasing a more holistic Curb Management platform.
I built a pricing model that helped the team see the value of the new Curb Management strategy in dollar terms and got them interested.
5. Propose next steps
Now that the Curb Management strategy opportunity was more clear, me and the team outlined the potential solutions and experiments we would test to validate our findings.
Results
The business formally understood the Curb Management opportunity and began discussions no which areas to pursue first.
The business was able to competently cast a vision to its client base and to the market.
Curb Management is still underway!