[October 2021 Update]
We are currently targeting a v1 product release in late December of 2022. The initial plan to release Carriage in the summer was delayed, and we will now push back the timeline accordingly. We are currently in the process of beta testing.
[May 2021 Update]
As of May 2021, we have received the greenlight from SDS, CULift/RedRunner, and CIT! We are currently in talks with SSIT and CIT to resolve devops issues before a summer 2021 launch.
[Original GTM plan]
The launch strategy for this product is heavily influenced by the nature of our Cornell administration stakeholders. After speaking with former RedRunner dispatcher Mark Schott, it is clear that we will likely have one shot to successfully pitch this to the Cornell administration. As such, our go to market strategy differs from the typical course of action of launching a lightweight MVP followed by analysis, testing and iterative expansion.
Instead, we are going to deliver a strong first version of the product that includes the breadth and depth of features necessary to impress the Cornell administration evaluators, so that they will sign off on Carriage. Features not included in this v1 will be those deemed not essential for the pitch, too labor-intensive, or too dependent on historical data.
The pitch meeting will occur in April or May of 2021 and following acceptance, the v1 product will be launched in a limited summer deployment (pending stakeholder approval). Summer sees far less ride volume, so this will be an ideal time to identify and correct any imperfections before a full launch the following semester. However, it will require DTI members oversee the product over summer.
Following adoption and deployment of Carriage v1 by CULift, we will move onto features that did not make it into v1 and we will conduct surveys of all user profiles (rider, driver, scheduler, dispatcher, and SDS admin) and analysis of success metrics to inform further feature decisions and design iteration.