My Contribution
- End to end product lifecycle management
- Sprint Planning, Scrums, Workflow management
- Ideation & UI/UX Design
- Strategy & analysis
Outline
- Research & Discovery
- Validation
- Insights
- Solutions
- Implementation
- Results
Key Learnings
- Prioritizing prototyping over planning
- Friction kills adoption
- Lean experiments are quickest way to get valuable user insights early in the process
- Being flexible with changes
- Frequent feedback loops
- Establishing team “rules of play”
- All the projects, including side projects need real discipline
The Problem.
Started with Why
I’ve always been an avid reader. My personal library has 200+ books, and like many readers, I constantly run out of space. More importantly, I often wish I could borrow a book my neighbor has instead of buying another one.
What if we could easily see what books our neighbors are reading, and share ours with them?
The idea was rooted in Paul Graham’s philosophy
People should solve problems they themselves have because it ensures a real problem exists, provides deep user insights.
– Paul Graham, YCombinator
The Process & Solution
Research & Discovery
Competitive Research
Before building, I wanted to understand: How do people currently share books?
I found three “alternatives”:
- OLX/Quikr: Too Transactional. No Community
- Facebook/WhatsApp Groups: Scattered. Posts got lost in endless conversations.
- Libraries: Great in concept, but physical, limited. Do not allow exchange of books.
Clearly, there was no dedicated space for readers to share, exchange, and discover books right around them. This was the gap Library of the World aimed to fill.
User Research
- Online Survey:
- Sent to 50+ readers.
- 70% said they’d like to have such an app.
- Concern: “Listing books will take too much time.”
- Offline Survey at Delhi Book Fair 2025:
- Spoke to 100+ readers, collected 50+ detailed responses.
- Enthusiastic validation.
- Reinforced the need for a frictionless listing experience.
- WhatsApp Group:
- Created a society WhatsApp group.
- 150+ members joined.
- Users actively shared and donated books.
- Provided early proof of behavior.
Validation with MVP Experiments
I didn’t want to build on assumptions. Hence, validated the idea in three phases:
- Landing Page (Early access) – Landing page test
- Instagram Community & Campaign – Ad Campaign Tests
- Web App MVP created in WordPress/Woocommerce – Wizard of OZ test including few Fake door tests to test social features.
Insights
- Users want to share/exchange their books, would love to donate what they don’t need. Avid readers also wanted to connect with readers with similar interest in books as them.
- Most of the book readers, even students have 10+ books that they can share but they don’t have time to list them one by one. They emphasized on the need for it be effortless.
Challenge & Solutions
- During user feedback sessions, one major challenge surfaced, “the time and effort required to add a book and the logistics.”
To address this, we brainstormed and came up with three major ideas:
- 1# ISBN scanning feature:
- Proposed and implemented an ISBN Scanner Feature using a mobile camera and barcode recognition SDK.
- Scanning ISBN Code auto-fetch most of the information – Book title, author, language, genre and book summary. User only have to fill condition of the book (select), purpose and price. Implemented.
- Designed the data flow:
Frontend triggers ISBN scan → sends ISBN to backend API → backend queries Open Library API → merges metadata → returns JSON payload to populate the form. - Integrated caching layer (Redis) for popular ISBNs to reduce API latency by 70%.
- Added fallback logic to query secondary APIs if the primary one failed.
- Designed API schema and coordinated with backend engineers for standardization.
- 1# ISBN scanning feature:
Result
- Reduced uploading time by 80%
- Improved accuracy by 95% (eliminated manual errors)
- Positive feedback from users
Other Solutions (In progress)
- 2# Bulk upload feature: Allow users to upload multiple books at once. Currently in development. Allowing users to share their books (if 10+) on WhatsApp/Email in the meantime.
- 3# Logistics: Currently in brainstorming stage. Exploring last mile delivery options to integrate in the app
Implementation Process
- Ideated & collaborated with designers and mobile developers to create user flows and prototypes.
- Got wireframes, lo-fi mockup and prototyping designed for the app with the help of UX designer. Prototypes helped align the entire team around the why and how of the solution.
- Led cross-functional discussions to secure alignment and create roadmap
- Got progressive high-fidelity mockups designed and conducted usability testing to gain user insights and possible challenges
- Used KANO model to prioritize features for the roadmap
- Used Crashlytics & Clarity to get user insights and user behaviors
- Created GTM strategy to launch it to the potential user segments
Results:
- 500 early users onboarded.
- 2,300+ books listed within MVP phase.
- 80% reduction in listing friction via ISBN Scan Autofill.
- Built an engaged early community (150+ active WhatsApp members).
…and that’s how I am building LibraryoftheWorld.