New service design

Develop a new service for DogHero: pet sitting. It was October, and the development needed to be done in one month, as the goal was to launch the product for the holidays. This is the best seasonal period for DogHero as it is when people travel the most, and need to leave their pets in someone else’s care.

I was the lead Product Designer, working closely with a Product Manager, Developers, Data and Ops team. I worked on the discovery process, data analysis, research, sketches, prototypes, usability testing, final screens and copywriting.

The first thing I did was look for information about the context of using this type of service. I ran a research with sitters, and another one with clients from our platform. I enriched the survey with usage data from our own database. I was able to understand points such as recurrence, expected service time, main pets served, logistics at the client’s home, etc. Then I benchmarked service pricing. It was also helpful for thinking about possible titles for the service and SEO. We had a brainstorming session to design the service usage flow. Then, I used DogHero’s Design System to design the prototypes, run remote usability tests, and iterate the screens for production.

Undoubtedly, the main challenge of the project was its timing. I had to run design processes very quickly to support product development. There were a lot of decisions to make during each phase of the project, so the design work was very important to empower the teams.

Of course onboarding pet sitters had to be very well thought out. How could we do it safely, quickly, and with the highest quality? Our idea was to include a pet sitter toggle on services onboarding, and to also have a second level of security that required the sitter to take an online course on the subject. In addition to attending the course classes, the pet sitter would have to complete a test, and only then would their profile be displayed in the search for the app and website.

Because development time was short, the idea was to focus on key features at launch. We opted for a very fast funnel model with few steps and integrated payment mode. The funnel would provide only the essential information so that the clients could order the service simply and securely.

As this is a service that involves commitment on both sides of the marketplace, we decided to prioritize an inbox during product launch. This was very important, as we believed that clients would only be able to begin using the service if they could talk to the sitter first. We also included a pre-meeting option between the client and the service provider.

It was a great achievement for everyone on the team to be able to release a new service in time for the Christmas and New Year holidays. It was a huge challenge, and we were able to deliver a product that met the expectations of the team, sitters and clients. Since release, we have sought to iterate through the solution, and bring it into a cross-service context within the platform.