Project Overview:
Wilderness Reserve offers a selection of luxury cottages in Suffolk, England, and aims to enhance the guest experience through a dedicated Guest Portal. This portal allows guests to book experiences, manage itineraries, and control aspects such as remote door access, all through a seamless desktop and mobile experience. I served as the Product Owner, working closely with the development team and key business stakeholders, including founders, sales, marketing, and the experiences crew.
Objective:
The primary goal of this project was to create an all-in-one platform where guests could:
Book Experiences: Browse and book luxury experiences available at Wilderness Reserve.
Manage Itineraries: View and organise their travel plans both before and during their stay.
Remote Access: Unlock doors and manage access to cottages through the app.
User Support: Easily find answers to common questions during their stay.
As the Product Owner, I focused on delivering the core functionality, with a main emphasis on itinerary management, as this is key to driving bookings made via phone or email. I’m also responsible for creating and managing email and text communications that complement the user journey and enhance guest engagement.
Key Features:
Core Functionality Focus: The challenge was to balance delivering the essential features—especially itinerary management—while planning for future scalability. We needed to ensure the portal’s core features were robust and usable, even as we planned for the integration of more complex event management capabilities in the future.
Stakeholder Collaboration: Aligning multiple teams (sales, marketing, experiences crew, development) around a shared vision and delivering a user experience that met both business goals and guest needs was key to success.
Effective Communication: Ensuring timely and informative email and text communications that supported the guest journey, from booking to stay, required precise coordination and thoughtful messaging.
Key Responsibilities:
Stakeholder Collaboration
I collaborated with key stakeholders, including the founders, sales, marketing, and experiences crew, to define the user journey and determine the most important features of the portal. This ensured that we were addressing both business needs and user expectations in the design and development process.
Core Functionality Focus
The itinerary management system was the primary focus, as it directly impacts sales and guest satisfaction. I worked closely with the development team to ensure this feature was intuitive, accessible, and flexible. We also planned for future capabilities, including the addition of wedding and corporate event management.
Email & Text Communications
I took responsibility for planning and creating email and text communication flows that were tailored to the user journey. These notifications were designed to enhance the guest experience by providing timely reminders, updates, and answers to questions.
Collaboration with Development Team
Throughout the project, I coordinated closely with the development team to ensure that the core functionalities were built efficiently and effectively, with a focus on performance and ease of use across both desktop and mobile platforms.
QA & Testing
I led the QA process, ensuring that the platform functioned seamlessly across different devices and browsers. I worked with the development team to identify any issues and addressed them through detailed tickets and prioritisation.
Results & Impact:
The Wilderness Reserve Guest Portal has successfully launched its core features, including experience bookings, itinerary management, and remote access controls. With the focus on itinerary management, we are already seeing positive engagement. Additionally, the well-crafted email and text communications are helping keep guests informed and engaged throughout their journey. As the platform grows, it will expand to support larger events like weddings and corporate bookings, enhancing the brand's offering.
Next Steps:
Seamless Itinerary Management: Delivered a user-friendly, intuitive system for managing itineraries, streamlining the guest experience.
Effective Cross-Team Collaboration: Facilitated coordination between stakeholders, sales, marketing, and the development team to ensure alignment with business goals.
Strategic Email & Text Communication: Designed and implemented email and text messaging flows that supported the user journey, from booking to stay.
Future-Proof Design: Created a scalable platform that will grow to support more complex event management, including weddings and corporate events.
