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What I did
As part of a product management class in the Ivey EMBA, I treated our Discovery Project trip to Santiago as a live product development exercise. Before leaving for Santiago, I spoke with ~30 classmates about how they chose places to eat, visit, and unwind on busy travel days. Based on a series of responses, the issues were: recommendations were buried in long email and WhatsApp threads, no one was sure what was actually close to the hotel, and group decisions took too long. This problem led to the design of a simple, mobile-first landing page with a clear hero that explains the guide’s purpose, followed by a card-based directory of places and a small set of plug-and-play itineraries.
On the wesbite, I created venue card, which surfaced the information people told me they look for such as neighbourhood, type of place (restaurant, wine bar, coffee, nightlife), price band, and a short “why go here?” line, plus cues such as “good for groups,” “quiet conversation,” or “late night.” As our trip was only 2 weeks away, I used Lovable as a no-code builder to implement the design and added a small set of filters by category, neighbourhood, vibe, and budget. The result is a guide that lets EMBA students quickly narrow the list to a few relevant options and choose a spot in under a minute, instead of scrolling through message history and debating from scratch. Finally, if students want feedback on their choice, I also added an AI chatbot that acts as an advisor and provides suggestions based on what end users want.
Why it matters
Often, short-stay business travellers and EMBA students are not short on recommendations; they are short on time and attention. From the discussion and user-feedback sessions, after a full day of company visits and coursework, the real question is not “what exists in Santiago?” but “where can we go that is nearby, fits the group, and doesn’t require a 20-minute discussion?”
I focused the project on user interviews, UX and layout. The website turned messy qualitative input into a structured, low-friction experience, where the end-user can use filters and card design to find in 5-10 minutes what they are looking for in Santiago. Key features include filter by distance and neighbourhood, then by vibe and budget, and only then by specific cuisine or venue. This project shows how a small, opinionated product can materially reduce decision fatigue and improve the on-the-ground experience of a travelling cohort, without the overhead of a full-fledged app.
How can this be used in practice
The framework is reusable for future Ivey cohorts and other study or work trips. The same pattern—start with user conversations, frame a narrow decision problem, and organise recommendations into a filterable card layout—can be applied to new cities or other contexts, such as planning free evenings during global modules or executive education programs. With additional data, the site could be extended to include maps, estimated walking times from the hotel, or simple “one-click” itineraries based on selected filters (for example, “show me a group-friendly dinner and a nearby bar within 15 minutes’ walk”). In all cases, the emphasis remains on quick, confident choices rather than long-form travel content. The purpose of the guide was to serve as a decision-support tool adaptable to different locations and cohorts.
Tech stack
I used Lovable, a no-code platform, to design and build the site, focusing on user experience, responsive layout, and a card-based structure that works well on mobile devices. The content is organised into a small number of clear sections, a contextual hero, a filterable grid of venue cards, and a handful of sample itineraries, so updates can be made quickly as new recommendations come in. This approach allowed me to move from user feedback to a live, shareable product with minimal engineering effort, while still delivering an experience tailored to how the EMBA student body actually travels and makes decisions.
