nonprofit organization, effort, and product spun out of a Harvard research lab
tl;dr
Product Lead for a Harvard research spinout building a novel data standard for a national database of machine-readable zoning information. Piloting a Google Maps-esque experience on top of it to fill a market gap for affordable zoning attorney services for small development.
highlighted project skills
1
translated a seminal, open data precedent in the transit space to zoning
2
led a team of 5 to a complete technical proof of concept and hi-fi looks-like prototype in the City of Minneapolis
3
lead in securing a partnership with the City of Minneapolis, currently leading a fundraising campaign
Leading the Product Development team
user research
PRD
Hi-fi mockups and protoype
MVP-level tech stack development
City of Minneapolis partnership
funding strategy
prototype user testing
fundraising
filling a gap for early-stage zoning attorney services for thousands of small developers across America, helping them provide the affordable housing we desperately need
act 1: the problem space
Small developers are essential to addressing the affordable housing crisis in America. However, small development has been decreasing for decades. While American cities are leveraging zoning policy to do what they can to increase where and what they can build, the problem remains: the difficulty of doing so.
[Cities are improving zoning answers...]
Nationwide, America is taking the step to leverage the 75% of cities that are single-family housing in addressing the housing crisis. They are doing so by up-zoning single-family zones to allow for the development of "missing middle housing" -- 2-12 unit housing at the scale and form of single-family homes.

[but not making it easier to get to them.]
While this up-zoning greatly increases where small developers can develop missing middle housing, it doesn't address the zoning bottleneck further up-stream: accessing and understanding zoning.
Zoning is thousands of tiny little puzzles, one for each lot. While cities are improving the answers to these puzzles, they aren't making it easier for small developers to solve them.
act 2: the vision + solution
Back in 2006, transit had the same problem and Google realized this. Working with Portland's transit department, they developed a national, open data standard for public transit information, The Google Transit Feed Specification, or, GTFS. Today, thousands of people daily use Google Maps to access real-time transit information for municipalities across the nation.
[GTFS --> Open Zoning Feed Specification]
In GTFS, we saw the perfect precedent for the foundation that would make possible a Google Maps-esque experience for zoning information: developing a national, open standard for zoning information in partnership with a forward-thinking, progressive municipality.
enabling the creation and development of...
the OZ Platform: a Google Maps-type experience for zoning information
Project Development
vision alignment
scoping
goal setting
Executive team + Product Manager team
roadmapping + OKR setting workshop
Product Manager team
staffing
Executive team + Product Manager team
onboarding
Product Manager team
Product Development
FRONTEND
led by me unless otherwise stated
BACKEND
led by me unless otherwise stated
contextual research
market comp research
data schema development:  models/precedent
data schema development:
 data architecture mapping
data schema development:
 data format research + testing
data schema v0.1 design + development
systems mapping
user journey mapping
user research round 1 (UR1)
PM lead: Nneka
systems + user journey maps updating based on UR1
use case defining
technical architecture mapping:
conceptual
tech. architecture --> backend scoping:
4 different analytics engines
service blueprint: conceptual
PRD
PM lead: shared
design concept research
engine 1 development:
lot frontage engine
product wireframing
product branding workshop
PM lead: Nneka
engine 2 development:
zoning rules engine
lo-fi mockups
engine 3 development:
spatial engine
hi-fi mockups
engine 4 development:
gross floor area engine
prototype for funding
PM lead: shared
user prototype testing
PM lead: shared
Fundraising