Oasis Accelerator Series

BS1 - Technical Design Docs

Agenda

Team assignments 👥.

What is a design doc?.

When should I write one?.

How to write a design doc.

Team Assignments 👥

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NUHire

Project Lead

Aarav Raina

Developers

Abhinav Gonthina

Prajwala Immareddy

Dylan Chen

Satvik Singh

Henry Abrahamsen

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Gahan Patel

Aryan Gupta

Shiven Ajwaliya

Audrey Ng

Shlok Patel

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Lost & Hound

Project Lead

Paarth Trehan

Developers

Ryan Sinha

Benjamin Hailu

Liam Pulsifer

Nahom Hailemelekot

Shamar Aitcheson

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Naman Patel

Dreshta Boghra

Abhinav Tavildar

Derek Akalin

Shray Mulle

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Rate My Husky

Project Lead

Malcolm Tavaria

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Angela You

Isabella He

Aarav Gandbhir

Callum Johnson

Abrahim Elnaggar

Developers

Benjamin Lee

Cory Pierson

Nicholas Vocatura

Rayan Rane

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Backyard

Project Lead

Manan Gangwani

Developers

Connor Friedman

Milo Bell

Ryan Sinha

Ryan Marshall

Benjamin Hailu

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Seifer Mathias

Yash Maheshwari

Andy Nguyen

Zahi Ladkhan

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Join Linear!

What is a design doc?

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A design doc…

• Has a written overview of an engineering solution or feature
• Explains the what, how, and why behind the approach
• Is shared with the team to get feedback

When should I write one?

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You should write a design doc when…

• Building something complex
• Multiple approaches exist
• The work affects other teams
• There’s a high cost of getting it wrong

How to write a design doc

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Metadata & Header

• Title: clear, descriptive name for the proposal
• One-sentence overview
• Authors: owner(s) of the design doc
• Reviewers: people you’re requesting feedback from
• Status (e.g. Draft, In Review, Approved)

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Metadata & Header

• Title: Live Dining Hall Wait Times
• One-sentence overview: Show students real-time wait times for NEU dining halls.
• Authors: John Doe
• Reviewers: Jane Doe
• Status: In Review

Example

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Overview

• What problem are you solving?
• Why does it matter?
• Background context that might be needed to understand the problem

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Overview

Students waste time walking to Steast/IV only to find long lines at peak hours. Between classes, students have tight windows, so long lines = skipping meals or being late.

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The dining website currently shows dining hall hours and menus, but nothing about how busy they are at a certain time.

Example

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Goals & Non-goals

Goals

• What the proposal will achieve

Non-goals

• What the proposal will not address to prevent going out-of-scope

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Goals & Non-goals

Goals

• Show a live busyness level (Low/Medium/High) for each dining hall
• Help students pick a less crowded option nearby

Non-goals

• Predicting future wait times
• Covering non-dining-hall spots (Starbucks, food trucks, etc.)

Example

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Proposal

• Describe your solution and how it works
• Include diagrams or flows where helpful

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Proposal

Add a "Wait Times" section to the dining page. Each hall shows a color-coded status (Low, Medium, High) based on swipe-in data from the Husky card readers. The status refreshes every few minutes so students can check before walking over.

Example

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Alternatives considered

• Other design options you considered
• Why you went for this design as opposed to others
• Pros/cons

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Alternatives considered

Manual student check-ins

• Pros: Easy, quick to implement
• Cons: Unreliable, easy to produce inaccurate data

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Camera-based headcounts

• Pros: Could be more accurate, extensible to other buildings
• Cons: Privacy concerns, expensive to install

Example

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Milestones & Rollout plan

• Break down of execution
• Expected delivery phases

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Milestones & Rollout plan

Milestone 1

• Pull swipe-in data from card reader system

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Milestone 2

• Build wait-time display in the app

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Milestone 3

• Pilot with Steast, then expand to all dining halls

Example

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Concerns & Risks

• Call out what could go wrong or where you're unsure
• Known trade-offs and how you'd address them

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Concerns & Risks

• Swipe data may lag behind actual crowd size → refresh frequently and label as an estimate
• Students leaving isn't tracked by swipes → use average meal duration to estimate current count

Example

Questions?

Project Leads, please now create and assign a ticket that involves making a design doc for a new feature.

Let’s put this into practice 🚀

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Template

1. Visit this link: https://tinyurl.com/linear-documents
2. Click under YOUR project to find the design doc template
3. At the top, click on the three dots and duplicate it

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Please do this every time you make a new design doc!

Build time 🛠️