PROBLEM

As we tried to plan our roadmap more strategically, we realized we had a major blind spot: we didn’t actually know what it looked like when players used our product at home. That made it hard to decide what to build and to market the product clearly to families considering a purchase.

We were guessing about almost everything. What does a practice session look like? Are parents or siblings involved? Can players set up the machine themselves? Are they following routines or improvising? What do their environments look like? Without answers to these questions, we risked building features that didn’t matter and marketing messages that didn’t resonate.

If we didn’t spend time exploring this, we would keep spending precious R&D time and money on ideas that sounded good internally but didn’t move the needle for real users.

DISCOVER

To choose the right direction, we first needed to understand real behavior end-to-end. From getting the machine out of storage, setting it up, running a session, to packing it away, the flow could break at any point, and we wouldn’t know why. 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 set up and ran contextual inquiries in multiple homes. By traveling to actual users' houses, I was able to ask families to set up the machine and practice like they normally would, while I observed and asked questions. Some specific themes were around:

• Transportation and setup friction

• Session length and intent

• Player-driven training routines vs parent, coach, or trainer-driven training routines

• Parental influence on motivation and training frequency

• Goal setting

• Competition and usage amongst family members and teammates

What surprised me most was how self-directed these players were. I had assumed younger players (10–14) would struggle to practice on their own. In reality, if a family had invested in a shooting machine, the player was usually already highly motivated, capable of setting up the machine, and serious about improving.

DEFINE

We needed to decide what features would best support what players were already doing at home. There were many possible directions, and many different environments and use cases, so narrowing the list was the real challenge.

I recorded, transcribed, and tagged all sessions, then synthesized the findings into a clear set of opportunity areas. We chose to focus on two features that would help players do more of what they were already doing, just more easily and more consistently.

We validated both concepts with usability testing, cut functionality that wasn’t pulling its weight, and made key flows more flexible to support different home setups. We also chose to focus on software first, since it was faster and lower risk, while capturing hardware insights for future form-factor 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.