Case Study

PetHaven Mobile App

A hypothetical case study on PetHaven's recently launched mobile app.

**Hypothetical information that has been generated with the assistance of AI is indicated as grey text.**

The Scenario

Background

PawHaven is a small chain of premium dog kennels that also offers daycare and enrichment programs. They recently launched a mobile app for dog owners to:

Book daycare or overnight stays
Track their dog’s daily activities and mood
Receive photos and updates
Purchase add-ons like grooming, training sessions, or special meals

Key Metrics

Total Registered Users: 5,200
App Booking Conversion Rate: 15%
Daily Active Users: 180
Average Session Length: 2 minutes
App Store Rating: 3.6

Developments

Competitor kennels have launched apps with live video streaming of pets, loyalty programs, and push notifications for dog updates.
Customer support has received multiple tickets about difficulty scheduling and missing notifications.
The development team is small, and some backend systems are not easily scalable.

Challenge

The CEO wants to increase app adoption, improve user engagement, and drive more bookings through the app over the next quarter. They are also interested in exploring loyalty features and enrichment tracking, but budget and development capacity are limited.

Constraints

Only 2–3 major features can be implemented this quarter.
Some older systems cannot handle real-time video without major upgrades.
User base is primarily small dog owners who value personalized care.

Your Task (as PO)

Identify the biggest pain points for dog owners using the app
Prioritize features or improvements
Define success metrics to measure adoption, engagement, and satisfaction

Alexa, RI

“I love seeing my dog’s photos, but I often don’t get them until a day later.”

Morgan, CT

“Booking a week-long stay is confusing. I sometimes have to call to fix it.”

Lisa, RI

“I wish I could track my dog’s enrichment activities more easily.”

Becky, MA

“I don’t see why some add-ons aren’t available when I try to book online.”

High level overview of the biggest pain points

Multi-day bookings

Notifications

Add-ons missing

Activity tracking

No video feed

Photos

Initial Findings

After reviewing incident tickets, reading user feedback, watching user sessions, and replicating issues in QA, I have gathered the below addition details for the biggest pain points our users are facing.

Multi-day Bookings

35% of incident tickets report issues with booking multi-day stays
User feedback indicates they have to select each date of their multi-day stay rather than a date range.
I was able to replicate this issue in our QA environment.

Notifications

7% of incident tickets report issues with notifications (1 ticket)
User feedback regarding notifications is minimal
18% of push notifications are opened by users.
Most users disable notifications on their phones.

Missing Add-ons

26% of incident tickets report issues with add-ons for their bookings
User feedback indicates the add-ons are not visible or available.
Watching user sessions shows that the add-ons are not showing for some bookings.

Activity Tracking

There are no incident tickets regarding activity tracking in the last 6 months.
User feedback indicates that activity information is often incomplete.
This is a training issue. Logs indicate kennel associates are not entering activity information.

Video Feed

There are no incident tickets for this as it is not a feature we offer.
44% of user feedback mentions the desire for users to have access to a video feed of their pets during their stay.
This feature is offered by our competitors.

Photos

This is our most popular feature with a 65% usage rate
14% of incident tickets report photo notifications coming through a day after their dogs stay.
Issue appears to be isolated to Android users.
Unable to replicate in QA.

RICE Prioritization

Based on my initial findings, I create user stories. I then use the RICE framework to help determine prioritization of the issues to be addressed.

Feature	Reach	Impact	Confidence	Effort	Total
As a user I need to be able to select a date range for my multi-day bookings so that all the days of my pets stay are reserved correctly.	4420	2.5	100	10	132600
As a user I need to be able to select add-ons for my pets stay so that they receive the highest quality care.	38	1.5	80	15	304
As a user I want access to a video feed so that I can check in on my pet during their stay.	80	2.5	75	180	83
As an Android user, I want my photo notifications to come through immediately, so that I can see how my pet is doing during their stay.	2	1.5	100	2	150
As a client of PawHaven, I need a way to discover and download the mobile app so I can begin using it on my phone.	7300	1.5	75	5	164250

Jira Board

I arrange my product backlog to reflect the current priorities.