Guest Author: Raj Moorjani

Hi, my name is Raj Moorjani, and I am the Director of Marketing at Tracks, and basically the Product Person, for a cool mobile application called Tracks (http://bit.ly/tracksapp). Recently, I took a course in Product Management at General Assembly, created and taught by Jeremy Horn, to more effectively communicate my product ideas to the rest of the company.  Below is my story.

First, some background

Tracks is a way for people to make group photo albums (tracks) in a collaborative way. The app launched at TC Disrupt in May of 2011.  It began as a way for users to share photos around any event or experience in a private way. The app has evolved over the last couple of years, as we have better understood how people use it.

Back in January of 2013, I sat down and analyzed various metrics and KPIs such as Cohort, engagement time, retention, K-factor, and Cycle Plots. By doing a data first approach to product development I came up with a list of improvements we can add to the app.

The list of ideas I jotted down:

From this point, I had a brief discussion with the CEO, and then it was announced that we would be launching a 2.5 version of Tracks in the springtime!

On Track

Fortunately, I had signed up for the Product Management class at GA taught by Jeremy Horn. I learned the tools to be able to more effectively communicate my ideas to the rest of the Tracks team.

The top product ideas I wanted to focus on were:

• Public Tracks (making it an option for users to make public as well as private Tracks).
• Redesign of the Track list
• Track it (ability for users to track any photo they discover to their own account).
• Refining Twitter Invites (invites sent via Twitter).

I started drawing up the wireframes…

I imagined a redesigned home screen. Focused on the photos and the varying sizes of the pics changing depending upon popularity of them.	The “Track it” button (later renamed to ReTrack) would allow users to take any public photo in the app and place it in their own Track or album. Here the Track it button would be placed below the photo.
After hitting the button, the user is taken to a screen to select where to put the photo.	Wireframe of a ReTracked photo from the perspective of a user.
	Improved invites sent via Twitter by taking advantage of the Twitter card functionality. Instead of just showing a link in a tweet, a Twitter card shows a whole photo with descriptive text. The whole area is clickable to any website.

Tracks 2.5 – What ended up being built

	This is the main activity screen that shows all the Tracks.
Implementation of Public Tracks. Discovering any track around specific tags such as Fun, Love, Friends, etc…
	Tap the share button under the photo.
After hitting the Share button, you see an option for ReTrack.
	After hitting the ReTrack button the user is taken to this screen to select where to ReTrack the entry to.

Track to Success

Launch Day and Apple’s Feature on April 16th, 2013!

Then got some great press …

• from Venture Beat http://venturebeat.com/2013/04/19/tracks-2-5-experience-discovery/
• and Vator.tv http://vator.tv/news/2013-04-18-tracks-updates-app-to-highlight-content-discovery

Now, I am heavily involved in the product direction of the app and we’re working on some really big things for the next version.

Thanks & stay tuned!

Guest Author Bio

Raj Moorjani, Director of Marketing, brings more than ten years of digital media experience in both mobile and web environments. He is proficient in employing state-of-the-art data analytic tools to evaluate and increase user acquisition and engagement. For the Tracks mobile applications (iOS, Android, and Windows), he has used Cohort, ETL, K-factor, retention, funnel, cycle plot, and engagement analyses, resulting in a one hundred percent increase in social connections and installs since the app’s initial product launch. His technical skill set includes expertise in wireframing, storyboarding, and developing roadmaps and preparing FRDs to help implement viral growth strategies. Specific product development contributions to Tracks are Public Tracks, ReTrack, and Twitter Cards implementation. Follow him on Twitter @rajmoor .