Problem Definition

Over the last few decades, bike theft in urban cities has been increasing significantly affecting over 2 million riders across North America. With less than 5% of recovered bikes being returned to their owners, riders are in desperate need for a way to recover them. In Kingston, bike thefts often involve the exchange of illicit drugs or the cash to buy them. They make for easy targets as they can often be found in public places and taken away without question by bystanders unless they are explicitly seen cutting a lock.

Current Process

The current processes for bike recovery are limited and ineffective. Most people post on social media, asking friends or people in their area to help look for their bike. This has a low rate of success, as these platforms are saturated with information, meaning it gets lost in the feed. Other victims of bike theft sometimes contact the police, but often do not have enough information to prove ownership such as the serial number or pictures of themselves with their bike.

Product Goal

Frontenac Cycle wants to create a mobile application for the Kingston community that helps reunite cyclists with their stolen bikes through crowdsourcing. The product should allow users to register their bikes, create lost bike reports, and message the owners of found bikes.

Conclusion

As the product manager, I led my cross functional team through the full product lifecycle from ideation to delivery. I worked actively with the client to align the product with their vision. Pedal Patrol is now in the process of being acquired by a Vancouver-based organization.