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Capstone Project:Peadbo Mobile App

Class:

User-Centered Agile Development

University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI
Timeline:

January 2025 - August 2025

Team H20 Members:

Sayema Davla, Dhwani Rayathatha, Siqing Xu, Steven Jacovitch, Xiaohao Yang

Problem Abstract:

Design and help develop a user-friendly mobile application for Peadbo, enhancing on-the-go access to mentorship and advisory board management services with a focus on intuitive usability and engaging interactions.

About Peadbo

Peadbo (short for Personal Advisory Board) is an innovative platform helping individuals—especially students and rising professionals—build meaningful mentor networks, communicate with advisors, and track their growth. It includes unique features like a personal newsletter tool to update professional networks regularly.

Background

 📌 We reimagined Peadbo for mobile—making mentorship and advisory board management easier, faster, and more accessible on the go.

 📌 This project focuses on delivering a user-centered, mobile-optimized experience that is intuitive, accessible, and visually engaging.

What you can do:

✔ Match with mentors and advisors

✔ Schedule and manage board meetings

✔ Group and organize contacts

✔ Create and send personal newsletters

✔ Get real-time updates with push notifications

 

Peadbo Mobile helps you stay connected, stay growing, and stay ahead.

Impact

❗We aim to deliver a mobile app design for Peadbo that empowers students and professionals to manage mentorship and advisory boards from anywhere, supporting career growth and inclusive access to professional development tools.

Agile In Action

Our team followed Agile methodologies, using Scrum to organize and manage our work across sprints. Regular stand-ups, retrospectives, and planning sessions helped us stay aligned, adapt quickly, and continuously improve throughout the project.

Team Sprints

Sprint 1: Foundation & Early Implementation

Highlights:

  • Built core pages: board creation, advisor management, user invites.

  • Used provided Figma designs to implement UI components.

  • Created a temporary Firebase database as a placeholder until official access.

Backlog & Estimation:

  • Managed tasks using a 3-stage pipeline: In Progress, Ready for Review, Done.

  • Practiced Planning Poker for task estimation and collaborative decision-making.

Challenges & Learnings:

  • Avoid pushing sensitive files to GitHub; enforced etiquette via internal guide.

  • Learned the importance of syncing (git pull origin dev) to avoid conflicts.

  • Improved communication using Slack and quick standups for troubleshooting.

Sprint 2: Feature Expansion & AI Integration

Highlights:

  • Developed new screens: Review Page, Contact Management, Scheduling Calendar.

  • Integrated OpenAI API for initial AI functionality.

  • Created Profile section with sub-features (Notifications, Billing, Settings).

  • Completed Event and Board Detail views.

Backlog & Tools:

  • Shifted backlog management to Jira and used Miro for sprint reviews.

  • Prioritized user stories based on client feedback and workflow dependencies.

Learnings:

  • Strong internal and client communication boosted efficiency.

  • Emphasized completing key features early in the sprint.

  • Introduced "Blocked" labels in Jira to surface and address roadblocks quickly.

Sprint 3: Polishing UX & Laying Database Foundation

Highlights:

  • Developed Newsletter feature and Contact Feedback interface.

  • Launched Chatbot UI and Task Management tools.

  • Enhanced Profile Page with icons, upload, and bio editing.

  • Completed Forgot Password flow; began Push Notification integration.

Database Configuration:

  • Held planning meeting for official Peadbo DB integration.

Feedback & Retrospective Insights:

  • Focused on impactful features and kept scope manageable.

  • Early user feedback helped align feature development with expectations.

  • Recognized the need to prioritize accessibility after MVP completion.

Open Questions:

  • What constraints must we address before final deployment?

  • Should accessibility features be tackled post-MVP or integrated earlier?

Sprint 4: Final Refinements & Handoff Planning

Highlights:

  • Refined UI for Newsletter, Contacts, Board Creation, and Chatbot screens.

  • Resolved database integration with Amplify and login/logout functionality.

  • Debugged persistent Chatbot issue; coordinated project handoff plan.

Tools & Workflow:

  • Continued use of Jira and Google Docs for tracking.

  • Communication split between Slack (team) and email (client).

  • Held regular stand-ups and collaborative debugging sessions.

Final Steps:

  • Implement dynamic app functionality.

  • Clean and document code for client handoff.

Key Learnings

⏰ Start early, communicate often: Frequent updates and quick standups helped resolve blockers fast

📝 Scope realistically: Focusing on high-impact features first improved sprint efficiency​

🤏 Small, consistent commits made version control smoother and minimized merge conflicts

🃏 Planning Poker boosted collaboration in task estimation

⏳ Proactive retrospectives allowed us to adjust workflows and stay aligned

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