Business Case Study for Vacasa

1. CASE STUDY PRESENTATION -
VACASA

2. TOPICS
Imagine you're the product manager for Amazon Home Repair Services tasked
with building a platform to coordinate jobs where each job can be done by an
employee or an independent contracting company.
• How would you structure a business case to obtain funding from management to
launch the service?
• How would you encourage consistent quality?
• What are the business challenges you'd face?
• On what basis would you determine whether an MVP launch was successful and what
features would you prioritize over additional releases?

3. BUSINESS CASE STRUCTURE
• “What” and “Why” solving
Problem
• Findings backed with Data
• Risks, Tradeoff’s, Weaknesses

4. BUSINESS CASE STRUCTURE
BREAKDOWN
• Summary – Build out a Job listing platform to book and purchase home
repair services that allows an “employee” or “contractor” to get the job.
• Problem – Customers need a quick and easy way to get home repairs.
Certain repairs may require the assistance of an independent contractor as
job might not be possible for an employee to complete. Some customers
want the option to choose between an employee or Contractor.
• External Factors – Customers, demographics, Independent Contractor availability.
• Internal Factors – Employees, Management, Operations, Stakeholders.
• Opportunity – Provide a seamless, all in one on demand service for
customers and employees/contractors to get repairs completed.
• Customers may lack skillsets or time to DIY.
• Employees and Contractors may have a difficult time getting relevant job leads in
their area.
• Market Analysis & Competition – SWOT, size of market
• Financial – Costs to get platform up and running, IT Operating Expenses,
COGS

5. BUSINESS CASE STRUCTURE CONT.
• Benefits – Ease in finding skilled laborers, scheduling, job leads, etc.
• Target Audience – Everyday customers, specialized employers,
contractors, stakeholders
• Risks – Limitations of the platform or threats to release an MVP. If most
leads are low quality? Job mismatch, Low quality work, bad reviews.
• Assumptions – The age range and skillset of customers, employees,
contractors, type of work needed, market size, etc.
• Recommendations as to “why” funding should be attributed and how it
could increase bottom line. i.e. “revenue” or make the customers life
easier

6. BUSINESS CASE STRUCTURE CONT.
• Risks – Limitations of the platform or threats to release an MVP
• Assumptions – The age range and skillset of customers, employees,
contractors, type of work needed, market size, etc.
• Recommendations as to “why” funding should be attributed and how it
could increase bottom line. i.e. “revenue” or make the customers life
easier.
• Options – “Do Nothing” – platform lacks business value, not viable

7. CONSISTENT QUALITY
• Beta/Pilot testing with a select target group, demographics – MVP Planning
• Hypothesis testing – Post MVP Launch
• A/B tests, results for employee vs contractor, design of platform, customer funnel,
etc.
• Customer Feedback Loop – Test MVP in the Market
• Unit or usability testing – QA
• Test Cases, Bug Fixes, testing with customers.
• Scalable & Optimized to handle increased customer, content, load
• Does MVP features align with persona’s, requirements, validation?
• Quality should meet customer and regulatory requirements (i.e. licensing)
• Goal - increase customer satisfaction, reduce complaints, enabling platform
to expand

8. BUSINESS CHALLENGES
• Identifying Needs of Customers or Audience
• Do customers actually want this platform?
• Key – Research before, during, post MVP Development – Validate the MVP
• Team Skillsets – Developers, Independent Contractors
• Heavy emphasis on Quality
• Limited resourcing
• Choosing the right Tech Stack that’s scalable.
• Should be done before creating MVP
• Service availability, location – what works in Seattle, WA may not work in Little Rock,
AR
• Costs to Launch, Enhance, Support
• Competition
• Understanding the market

9. MVP – LAUNCH SUCCESS - VALIDATION
• A working, usable product that solves a problem with bare minimum
features
• Aligns with Target Audience and “must have” features
• Amazon customers get repairs, employees/contractors get the job
• Qualitative Feedback is positive – Quantitative shows usage, product
engagement, conversions, etc..
• Feature Flow Analysis – Identify most valuable features
• Word of mouth traffic – Did customers recommend MVP to other customers?
• MVP offers value as a starting point to grow and add features down the
road
• Uncover long term potential – roadmap

10. MVP – FEATURE PRIORITIZATION
• What do target users want vs need? Will the feature serve primary
needs?
• What’s critical, feasible, desirable, viable?
• Which wish list nice to have features don’t add value until you have “x”
amt. of users?

11. MVP – FEATURE PRIORITIZATION
EXAMPLES
• “Must Have” Features highest priority
• Relevant detailed job listings on platform
• Simple design that bridges business between customer & employee/contractor
• Feedback channel, ratings, etc. for independent contractors
• Which wish list features for additional releases
• Amazon GPS location for contractors, bidding options, etc.
• Social Media integration to sync with Profile or Chat feature
• Notifications for where home repair deals & items can be located
• Insights provided by customers or through data insights

12. MVP SUCCESS METRICS/KPI’S
• Inbound Marketing Growth
• Content – blogs, videos, guide docs
• Webinars – establish trust in product
• ROI
• Outbound Marketing Growth
• Lead Nurturing & Increase Lead Gen.
• Digital Ads and PPC
• KPI’s
• Publish at least one lead generating piece of content per quarter
• Generate 100+ new leads from email campaigns
• Increase Active Users by “x” while decreasing Churn by “y”
• Conversions, Customer Satisfaction

13. QUESTIONS?

14. MISC. SAFE ROLES

15. MISC. PRAGMATIC FRAMEWORK