For this challenge, student teams will be comprised of the following roles:

• Project Manager
• Business Analyst
• Product Designer
• Front End Developer
• Backend Developer
• QA Tester

Affordable college has been a pressing need as the tuition for colleges and universities continue to rise and real wages have stayed the same or dropped. Student loans have become a reality for almost all students, but identifying loan options, managing the payment and ongoing expenses can be daunting – resulting in many students being late with payment or defaulting on their loans altogether.

In this challenge, student teams will work on a project to design, develop, and present a student loan tool that addresses one or all aspects of student loans. This can include everything from educating students on loan options, applying for a loan, buying goods or paying bills, and making payments against the loan. Loans do not have to be from a bank, and we encourage teams to think about alternative loan options.

The tool must operate on a mobile phone, but does not need to be a native application. The tool is not expected to be fully functional, but the presentation must explain the problem that the tool addresses, who the primary users are, the design of the full tool, and a demonstration of the of the tool that was built.

1. Design the Product. In this step, students will work on identifying who the users are, collecting user needs, brainstorming different solutions, developing requirements, and designing the actual tool. It is not expected at this stage, that the tool is complete, but the analysis of user needs and personas as well as requirements should be done.
2. Develop the Product. After the initial product has been designed, students will decide on what portion of the tool will be developed. The full tool does not need to be built; however, what is built should be feature complete. The team should also test the product internally as well as with potential users and refine the product as needed.
3. Present the Product. Once the team is satisfied with the level of development, the last step is to create a presentation that explains the design and the process you went through, the development of the product including what technologies and process was followed, and a demonstration of the product that was developed. The team should also explain what their next steps would be to take this product to the next level.