PROBLEM

As we planned our roadmap more strategically, we uncovered a major blind spot: we didn’t actually know what product use looked like at home. That made it difficult to prioritize features and market the product clearly to families considering a purchase.

We didn’t know: What did a practice session look like? Were parents or siblings involved? Could players set up the machine themselves? Were they following routines or improvising? What did their environments look like? Without these answers, we risked building irrelevant features and messaging that didn’t resonate.

Without deeper exploration, we would continue spending valuable R&D time and money on ideas that sounded good internally but failed to impact real users.

DISCOVER

To choose the right direction, we first needed to understand real behavior end-to-end. From taking the machine out of storage to setting it up, running a session, and packing it away, friction could happen at any point. We also needed to understand usage patterns: short vs long sessions, solo vs group practice, driveway vs court setups, power constraints, and how much structure players already had.

I conducted contextual inquiries in multiple homes, observing families as they set up the machine and practiced naturally. Key themes included:

• Transportation and setup friction

• Session length and intent

• Player-led vs parent, coach, or trainer-led routines

• Parental influence on motivation and consistency

• Goal setting

• Competition among family members and teammates

What surprised me most was how self-directed these players were. I assumed younger players (10–14) would struggle to practice independently, but families who invested in a shooting machine typically had highly motivated players who could set up the machine themselves and were serious about improving.

DEFINE

We needed to identify which features would best support how players were already training at home. With so many environments and use cases, narrowing the focus was the biggest challenge.

I recorded, transcribed, and tagged every session, then synthesized the findings into clear opportunity areas. We focused on two features that helped players do what they were already doing, just more easily and consistently.

Both concepts were validated through usability testing. We cut low-value functionality, made key flows more flexible for different home setups, and prioritized software improvements first since they were faster and lower risk, while documenting hardware insights for future changes.

SOLUTION

Goal Setting

Players could enter shooting goals in the app and have all shots, makes, and time practiced automatically logged toward short and long-term goals. Many players were already tracking this on paper or on their walls. We made it effortless and added motivational reminders to help them stay consistent.

Multiplayer Mode

We added a way for multiple people to practice together and track scores separately. This created built-in competition among family members and teammates and made sessions more competitive and engaging.

With a small dev team, we kept both features tightly scoped. We started simple, then layered in additions like notifications, guest shooters, and winners after seeing strong adoption. The goal was to get these features into the wild quickly, learn from real usage, and invest further only once they proved their value.

RESULTS

These two features became cornerstones of the home product experience

• Multiplayer sessions consistently represented a meaningful slice of overall usage

• Thousands of players set goals in the app

• Both features became central to sales talk-tracks and marketing messaging

For users, this made the product feel like a true training partner, not just a machine. Families could see progress, maximize usage, and make training more fun and motivating. For the business, these features became clear differentiators, strengthening the product’s value.

MY ROLE

I owned this work end-to-end, including:

• Recruiting participants and scheduling sessions

• Running and recording field studies

• Tagging, synthesizing, and presenting insights

• Defining feature direction and prioritization

• Writing product requirements

• Partnering with design on solutions

• Conducting usability testing and iteration

• Writing notification copy and logic

• Testing with engineering before launch

• Creating GTM briefs for Sales and Marketing

WHY I’M SHOWING THIS WORK

This case study shows how I use real-world behavior to drive product decisions instead of assumptions. I start with messy, contextual research, synthesize it into clear opportunities, and turn that into features with measurable impact.

It highlights that I:

• Lead with user needs, not internal guesses

• Turn qualitative research into a product strategy

• Make focused, high-impact bets with small teams

• Balance discovery, delivery, and adoption

• Partner across product, design, engineering, sales, and marketing

Details have been intentionally generalized or modified to respect confidentiality and intellectual property agreements. This case study focuses on my role, process, and decision-making rather than proprietary implementation details.