Building a Virtual Boot Camp

As the world went remote, TATHAMCO. was faced with a situation. Their business simulator 'Boot Camp For Executives,' typically conducted in person, quickly needed to go digital. The simulation to be built would incorporate various user roles in the assembly line and management of a production floor.

Starting with a product discovery phase, our team put together a content audit of the existing in-person materials, produced user stories in Airtable, and began to formulate an approach to iterative development. Building an MVP with a great user experience under these time constraints required discipline. Our approach optimized for iterative progress.

Knowing timing was key, our plan included leveraging Google’s Material UI component library for a recognizable user experience and quick UI interactions. This allowed us to prioritize a functioning platform over a unique design aesthetic given the desire to build quickly. 

On the technical side, we made key decisions upfront on a tech stack and specific approach. The server layer was built using an ExpressJS API to serve and receive persistent data (prompts, roles, worksheet data), a NodeJS runtime engine to calculate production floor simulation data, and Socket.io to broadcast important status messages real-time via WebSockets.

The database layer leveraged the MongoDB cloud database to store persistent data, such as user roles, prompts, and goals for each company. This database also stored worksheet data as entered during the simulation.

Once we completed our discovery phase, we chose to follow six one-week sprints to hit our deadline. The focus of each sprint was determined collaboratively during a weekly demo and sprint planning session. The outcome was a robust MVP empowering the client to conduct bootcamps virtually. 

Overall, our team enjoyed leveraging new technologies to help bring a truly unique analog experience into its own digital product —  all within a short time window.