Shawn Tham reveals the key product development challenges he faced while creating UniLah, a student lifestyle platform in Malaysia. He highlights the journey of experiencing technical obstacles, resource management, and team collaboration. This article offers insights into how these experiences contributed to UniLah’s achievements and ongoing success.
Highlights
Product Development Challenges with UniLah’s Shawn Tham
Shawn Tham is the innovative founder of UniLah, a student lifestyle platform enhancing university life in Malaysia. With a technology background and a passion for impactful solutions, Shawn created UniLah to meet students’ academic and social needs. UniLah streamlines campus life with university lifestyle resources, event discovery, and internship planning. Shawn’s leadership has made UniLah a vital tool for students, enriching their university journey.
In this interview, Shawn Tham shares the journey and challenges in product development. He reveals lessons learned from overcoming technical hurdles, managing limited resources, and refining their platform through collaboration and innovation.
Lesson Learned from Product Development Challenges
Q: What technical hurdles or limitations did you face in developing your product?
Shawn Tham: Building UniLah as a student lifestyle platform to serve the technical needs of both users on the demand and supply sides was an ambitious endeavor. Despite understanding their needs, we often faced technical issues, particularly during the onboarding process and user experience (UX). Today’s users decide within second whether to keep or delete an app during the onboarding stage, making first impressions crucial. On the business client side, operational needs and technical requirements had to be seamlessly integrated. Instead of blindly building technology, we dedicated significant time to researching how businesses operate, ensuring our solutions were truly impactful. These product development challenges lessons taught us the importance of a thorough understanding of both user and business needs.
Q: How did you manage limited resources and tight timelines during development?
Shawn Tham: Managing limited resources and tight timelines required strategic prioritization and collaboration. To achieve this, we meticulously planned product releases quarterly, feature deployments monthly, and development and bug fixes weekly. Additionally, bringing on interns was a key strategy; we provided them with structured mentorship and clear tasks, allowing us to maximize resources without overburdening them. This approach created a mutually beneficial environment where interns gained valuable experience and contributed meaningfully. Furthermore, by fostering teamwork and open communication, we leveraged diverse skills and perspectives, leading to innovative solutions and efficient workflows. Ultimately, this structured, supportive environment enabled us to stay focused and deliver high-quality results on schedule, illustrating key product development challenges lessons in resource management.
Q: Can you share a story about a setback, failure, or iteration in the development process?
Shawn Tham: We faced several failed projects, but one notable setback involved a project with a business client. We spent three months pitching in multiple rounds, preparing an MVP, and onboarding beta testers. Despite our efforts to understand the tech requirements and build a suitable beta version, the client ultimately decided against proceeding with the idea. On the technical side, we encountered significant integration issues with the client’s existing systems, which required more time and resources than anticipated. Debugging these issues delayed our timeline, and the complexity of the client’s requirements led to unforeseen complications. While this was initially disheartening, it taught us invaluable lessons about client alignment, expectation management, and the importance of thorough technical vetting early in the project. These product development challenges lessons made us more resilient and adaptable, better preparing us for future technical challenges.
Q: How did you collaborate with team members and stakeholders to refine your product?
Shawn Tham: Collaboration was key to refining our product. To achieve this, we held daily 15 minutes of stand-ups to provide quick updates and a 10 minutes Q&A session, ensuring everyone knew what others were working on. Additionally, we held weekly full team meetings to discuss deeper issues and resource needs to meet product shipment deadlines. Moreover, stakeholders played a crucial role by helping test the beta version and providing feedback based on their experience using our products. We also fostered an environment of open communication, encouraging team members to share ideas and challenges, which facilitated problem-solving and innovation. Thus, this collaborative approach provided us with product development challenges lessons in team dynamics and stakeholder engagement.
Q: What were some milestones or breakthroughs you celebrated in product development?
Shawn Tham: Among our celebrated milestones, developing the super app mode within six months stands out as an impressive achievement. This required overcoming significant technical challenges, such as integrating multiple services into a unified platform and ensuring seamless performance across various devices. Additionally, we hit a milestone of reaching 10,000 users earlier this year, a testament to the robustness and appeal of our technology. These accomplishments were the result of hard work, strategic planning, and effective collaboration. Our team’s dedication to optimising our tech stack, rigorous testing, and iterative improvements reinforced our commitment to continuous improvement and growth. This highlights the importance of product development challenges lessons in achieving success.
Key Takeaways from Overcoming the Challenges
The journey of developing UniLah offers valuable insights into the challenges and triumphs of product development. Here are the key takeaways from Shawn Tham’s experience:
- Overcoming Technical Hurdles: Shawn Tham highlighted the importance of understanding user needs and seamlessly integrating technical requirements.
- Resource Management: Strategic prioritization and collaboration, including the effective use of interns, helped manage limited resources and tight timelines.
- Learning from Setbacks: Setbacks, such as integration issues with a client, provided valuable lessons in client alignment and technical vetting.
- Effective Collaboration: Daily stand-ups and regular team meetings enables open communication, leading to innovative solutions and efficient workflows.
- Celebrating Milestones: Achievements like developing the super app mode in six months and reaching 10,000 users demonstrated the team’s dedication and resilience.
- Continuous Improvement: UniLah’s journey emphasized the importance of continuous learning and growth, turning obstacles into opportunities and pushing the boundaries of what’s possible.
These lessons from UniLah’s product development journey provide valuable insights for anyone navigating the challenges of startup growth and innovation.
