Sprint 3 (Sept 29 - Oct 5): The Downfall

Hey everyone!

This week came with plenty of surprises, and unfortunately has left us even further behind. We’re still pushing through with the cards we are dealt, so here’s the latest:

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🔄 What We Did:

- Competitor Feature Testing:

We spent time diving deep into our competitors’ platforms, primarily focusing on their AI-powered mock interviews. We all ran tests on each of our selected competitors. The main things we were checking were how effective their interview simulations are, how they assess users’ performance, and how personalized the feedback is. This gave us a clearer picture of what works—and what’s missing—in the market. Our analysis is nearly complete, and we’ve found a few areas where we think we can stand out!

-Feature Brainstorming:

After reviewing what competitors offer, we started compiling our own potential feature list, adding in some of our own as well. We’re aiming to strike the right balance between innovation and user-friendliness, while simultaneously giving users high-quality interview preparation tools. Stay tuned for when the feature list get revealed in the coming weeks!

-Survey Development:

We’ve been hard at work developing two versions of a user research survey—one for immigrant nurses and one for Canadian nurses. The goal is to get a clear understanding of the pain points both groups face during job interviews and how we can design our app to address those needs. We’re asking about everything from specific challenges in interviews to the resources they’ve used in the past, so we can tailor our tool to fit real-world needs.

-Branding Beginnings:

In parallel, we’ve started brainstorming ideas for the app’s branding. We’ve also tossed around a few names that capture the supportive and career-focused nature of the app. It’s still early, but we’re getting some exciting ideas!

-More Bad Luck

Unfortunately, we've hit some major roadblocks, falling behind due to some unexpected issues with team availability (more on that below 😬). While it slowed our progress, we’re determined to bounce back quickly and get on track.

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💡 How We’re Growing:

This week has tested us—to say the least. We lost three team members temporarily: Holden came down with a severe illness, and two other members ended up in the hospital within hours of each other. Already feeling behind, we had to step up and share the workload between what who was left. It’s been tough, but it’s also brought us closer together as a team. We’re learning how to adapt and keep pushing forward, no matter what.

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🔍 Next Steps:

We’ve got a plan to get back on track:

- Finalize and distribute our user surveys to nurses and possibly some BCIT faculty

- Analyze the survey responses and put together a report

- Wrap up our competitor analysis

- Start gathering more design inspiration and begin testing frameworks for functionality

So here we are. Bloodied, but not beaten. Down, but not out. From here on out, we move nothing but upwards and we are more motivated than ever.

Cheers,

The Onward team.