CitizenPet

A citizen science platform for companion animal research.

Product Management, Product Strategy, User Research, User Experience Design

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post-thumb Morris Animal Foundation is well known for the Golden Retriever Lifetime Study, a longitudinal study examining cancer risk factors among a cohort of Golden Retrievers. Now in its 13th year, the study has been closed to new owners wanting to participate since 2012. In addition, new researchers were unable to gather additional data or samples from the dogs, having to rely had been put into scientific standard over a decade ago. These constraints led to sustained interest from both owners and researchers over the years and the foundation realized an opportunity for a new product that could accommodate a variety of companion animals and made to be flexible for researchers evolving needs.

CitizenPet was built as a mobile-first web app from the ground up by a small team of engineers, a single designer, and myself. We focused on an iterative product release schedule, sustainable and repeatable workflows and designs, and a focus on user research and input. As a product with two main users, it connects researchers with their primary audience of owners, and acts as a B2B2C SaaS.

As the product manager, I was able to take the product from concept to launch, 0 to 1 users, and begin to scale and grow. I also was the lead user researcher, conducting many usability tests and other user research. I worked directly with the CTO and CEO on product strategy, while managing a cross-functional team the come up with the best user experience.

The product officially launched in December 2023.

With CitizenPet, I expanded the foundation's scientific reach by building and launching this new B2B2C Citizen Science Platform, going from 0-to-1 users, and collecting data from over 300 different dog breeds that leveraged the user feedback from our other major studies.

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