There is a data point that indicates that there are more Uber drop-offs at the airport than pick-ups from the airport. Why is this the case and what would you do within the product to change that?

This means that more people are using Uber to get to airport than those using uber to get to their home from the airport.

Clarification questions

1. Is this noticed across all airports, regions or is it only for one airport?
2. Also, are we seeing such a pattern on any particular device or is it consistent across devices (iOS and Android)

Assuming that this is a general trend, I would like to consider a few possible root causes. Some are internal factors while others are external factors:

Internal Factors:

1. Data: Is the data we are getting correct, is the reporting tool working correctly or is this drop due to some bug in it. Has the number of pick up requests also dropped?
   1. This is easy to solve for…
2. Trends and Context: Is this a seasonal trend and have we seen it before or are we seeing this for the first time? For example: is this a vacation destination where we might expect more people to leave than arrive given the season.
   1. This is natural and will be compensated for in other geographies, given that uber is present there.
3. Product Changes: Has there been any changes in the UI that makes booking an Uber from an airport harder?
   1. again easier to solve, revert to previous version.
4. Product Experience: Are there unusually long wait times for pick up? A large sudden influx of passengers can increase wait times.
   1. More difficult to solve as it is a supply chain issue for an on demand instant service. - Lets focus on this.

External Factors:

.1. Are ride hailing pickups down from the airport across the industry

1. general trend not much can be done from a product perspective?
2. Competition: Has there been changes in public transportation to make it easier for passengers to get out of the airport? Do our competitors offer a better product/service to customers?
   1. Nothing can be done here if the govt has stepped up. If its competitor, we will have to play the price game.
3. Has there been any regulation change to deter ride hailing from airports? Legislation, loss of contract, union pressure etc?
   1. Build a better PR and lobbying organisation with certain goals.
4. Is there internet available at the airport?
   1. if not can we build a non internet solution to this problem.

For simplicity, let us assume that the wait times are long hence people are being forced to opt for other means of transport, these can be competitors, public transport, prepaid cabs etc.

The bottom line is we need more seats for passengers at the airport.

Possible solutions:

1. Add option to pre-book rides. This will help us keep prices low and better estimate demand and plan for drivers.
   1. What if we are not able to solve for supply side problems, this will lead to an even worse customer experience. Where a customer has booked a cab but its not there. Can be a PR disaster as well.
2. Incentives drivers in the vicinity to head towards the airport for pickups. This can be through surge rates and or increasing the radius within which drivers get notification about rides
   1. Can solve for the supply side problem in the short term but will impact profitability and hence is not a longterm sustainable solution.
3. Incentives drivers to wait at the airport and not leave for the city without a passenger by notifying them about their prospective earning opportunities.
   1. Might not always be true, and what if the wait times are a lot and drivers lose out on substantial earnings
4. Implement carpool/cab share models to better utilize existing capacity and satisfy demand.
   1. Might impact customer experience as drive times will increase but will solve for it with existing supply. Will also lead to an increase in profitability for the company and the driver
5. Implement a bus service: This might be interesting if it is a vacation destination.
   1. This is an entirely new transport vertical, will need a lot of engineering effort as its an entirely new product. Will bring up further questions - do we have standard routes or do we have different routs for each trip depending on where the passangers destination is. How do we handle luggage during the journey, will it become a problem if we use standard routes like public transport. Will city allow us to compete?

Given the above solutions and their limitiations, I would like to begin with implementing driver incentivization as it is the easiest to implement and will show results immediately. If it solves for it, and the number of pickups from airport increase. I would like to move on to a more sustainable longterm solution which I believe can be ride share with an element of driver incentivization.

Let's go through the sanity checks first-

1. Any specific time of the day we are seeing this? It might be possible this particular airport has more outgoing than incoming flights at that specific time
2. Any specific category of rides(X, Black) or user group we are seeing this?
3. Any seasonality/ special event or something else in the city(e.g.  its Christmas and a lot of folks are flying out of the town to Travel, or Qatar airports just post Fifa world cup is over)

Now, let's go through the funnel or User journey map of booking a Uber at the airport-

Number of app openers --> Number of Users enter destination --> Gets Waiting time, Car Type & Price --> Requests Ride ---> Ride Accepted

Now, let's go through one by one User Journey stage and make hypotheses-

Number of app openers low-

1. People landing does not use Uber or does not have Uber installed(people travelling from Europe where Bolt is popular to India for example)

2. Internet issue at airport

3. Even before they request for ride, it is being taken care of (cab service bundled with flight ticket, train ride, free ride)

Enters Destination-

1. If this number is low, may be the users cant find out the destination from the possible matches (maybe language issue, zonal marking issue)

2. Showing destination unserviceable due to some glitches

Gets Waiting Time, Car Type & Price-

1. Waiting time, Car Price - Any of these metrics high will impact ride requests negatively

2. Car Type- Not able to get preferable car types (e.g. some prefer larger cab, some prefer minivan as travelling with group)

Requests Ride & Ride Acceptance-

This is where the other part of the network comes in

If the ride acceptance by drivers is low, the following can be some issues-

1. Earnings per ride are low due to high commission

2. Payment method not preferred( in India, drivers prefer cash payments)

Once you identify the problem above, it becomes pretty easy to come up with solutions based on that. Please feel free to post feedbacks.

I would start by asking some clarifying questions

1) Is this a new data point provided in last couple of days? - Assume its been for last 2 quarters, since its mentioned more drop-off vs pick ups, assuming it was earlier close to 50/50. 

2) is Pick-up as a % has increased while Drop-off is constant? - No there has been reduction in overall number

3) Is this happening due to any new feature being added on Uber? - No

4) is this happening due to COVID-19 restrictions? - Could be

5) Is it specific to certain Uber categories like Go, XL or premium? - Consider for all

6) is it a global data or specific to country, city or airport? Assume its in US

7) is it happening particuraly at any point of day and night ? Assume the reduction has happenned in some % +/- in all intervals of the day/night

Using above clarification, I am going to deep dive on why pick-ups have been reduced for all UBER categories in US during last 2 quarters in COVID-19 Pandemic and then recommend some solutions

What does Uber does?

Uber provides a platform to connect passengers to drivers in shortest amount of time and provide them competetive pricing and in return get commissions from total fee charges to passengers.

So Uber has majorly 2 customers - Drivers and passegers. Lets look at some of the potential problem related to both drivers and passengers which could be Internal and External to Uber.

Internal :

1) Uber app facing connection issues at US airports with both LTE/WIFI.

2) Drivers are wary of COVID pandemic and don't want to expose themselves to people coming from airport

3) Drivers dont make good money by picking -up passengers from airport may be due to Toll or tax or different pricing which affects Drivers

4) Passengers are not getting good pricing from Uber from Airport pick-up vs competition

5) Promotion or marketing campaign which ended

External:

1) New competition has entered in the market which provides competitive rates and pick-up from Airport

2) Customers who book uber from airport have to travel some distance with luggage at Uber pick-up station 

3) Drivers have to go back to Uber station and be in long wait queue because of traffic from competition or personal pick-up etc and hence drivers may make trade-offs to go back to city 

4) Uber is facing competition from Airport local pick-up which is preferring different pick-up company

5) passengers prefer to go by local commute like bus or train to avoid being in line for Uber which is also costly.

6) Passengers (international or loca) prefer personal pick-up vs Uber due to COVID-19.

7) Not many drivers are there to pick-up, long waiting time for passengers at Airport

8) passengers have lot of luggages and need a taxi to accomodate that or passengers have kids which needs child-seat which they dont have.

Next step, I will club some of the internal and external problem under 4P categories and recommend solutions:

1) Price - 

a) Competition in form of other global/local comapny need to be studied and then decide what people are preferring price vs confort and see work on scalability model to see if lowering price does increase pick-up demand or not

b) if Drivers are not rightly paid due to Toll/tax then study what other competitors are doing and does passing tax to consumer get back drivers or have adverse effect on passengers demand for Uber in pick-up or not. See other way of reducing the tax by taking monthly or yearly pass and also influence airport authorities on lowering the tax by providing them a story of how Uber is helping the nation on connecting passengers to drivers, providing employment.

c) Think about charging less from driver in terms of commission in order to motivate the Drivers to pick up from airport. In long run, with more rides, Uber and Drivers will be better off.

2) Place 

a) if passengers have to walk to Uber station which is at quite distance, think about providing every  2 min uber-bus service which conects passenger to driver, reducing travelling time and hassle with luggage

b) Debug on why Uber App is facing issues in connectivity, fix it and meanwhile put a manual station like phone or buzzer which books Uber instantly when App is not working.

3) product

a) Add an option in Uber app which allows passenger to book a taxi which meets additional needs like kids-seat, number of luggage etc

b) Add a feature which provides information to rider and driver on COVID-19 protocols like adding vaccination record, negative RT-PCR test, Increasing sanitization, No Seating in front seat to reduce direct exposure etc to reduce fear in rider and driver during COVID-19 Pandemic.

4) Promotion

a) See if any recent promotion or marketing ended which caused the reduction in pick-ups. See if pick-ups have been reduced even in loyal customers also vs new customers and accordingly think about having a targeted campaign or global promotion to winback customers.

b) extend the promotion and study if more riders bridges the gap in revenue due to promotion

As a result, i will apply certain success-metrics to see if solution is working or not:

1) absolute number of riders from airport (pick-up) is increasing and coming back to its normal

2) avg. waiting time in connecting rider to driver 

3) Avg number of drivers at airort pick-up increasing

Counter-metrics

1) Airport pick-up is not growing and continues to decline in absolute number

2) Less traffic and leads from Airport using Uber app for pick-up which tells me Uber app continues to have problem with respect to connectivity , pricing or walking time to uber station.

First, let’s summarize the problem statement – Uber is a ride-hailing app that is experiencing more drop-offs than pickups at a particular airport.  If there are more drop-offs than pickups at the airport, that means more riders are choosing Uber to get to the airport than leaving the airport.

Let’s consider a few possible reasons as to why this may be occurring.

First, did this trend emerge suddenly or gradually?  Are we seeing it in a specific geography?  Are we seeing it across a certain platform (e.g., iOS vs Android, mobile vs web app, etc) Assuming that this is a general trend we’ve observed, I’d consider a few possible root causes:

Internal Factors

a.     Data Accuracy.  We should confirm that our reporting tool is working as expected and that this data point is valid.  Have we checked this data against other similar metrics? (e.g., number of pick-up requests from airport)

b.     Context.  Have we seen this trend before? For example, is this a vacation destination where we might expect more people to leave than arrive given the season?

c.    Product Changes.  Have we changed anything in the UI that makes pickups harder to request?  

d.     Product Quality. Are there unusually long wait times for pickups, which could be driven by a lack of driver supply at the airport?  Are the prices too high?

External Factors

a.    User Habits.  Are ride-sharing pickups from this airport down across the industry?

b.    Competition. Does this airport have a shuttle or public transit option that competes with Uber?  Does Lyft offer more competitive rates for pickup?  Have they marketed more aggressively in the airport?

Let’s assume that there are fewer pick-ups from the airport due to unusually long wait times.  This indicates a supply problem on the driver side.  

To correct this, we have a couple of options:

(1) Incentivize drivers for airport pickups by offering ‘surge’ rates at the airport;

(2) Enable an option to ‘pre-book’ rides from the airport.

Each of these options comes with a tradeoff.  While the first option is easier to implement, it impacts our profitability, as we are offering a higher cut to drivers.  While the second option preserves our margin, it requires more work to implement and has some complicated edge cases (e.g., delayed flights).

Given this, I would begin by testing the first option, as it is the easiest and most straightforward solution to implement.  If, by resolving the supply side option, we are able to improve the number of airport pick-ups, then I would revisit to determine which option to implement for the long-term.

Here are my thoughts on addressing this problem solving question in a PM interview.

Symptom: Travellers prefer Uber as mode of transportation while going to airport but prefer other modes of transport while leaving airport.

Objective: Increase number of passengers taking Uber at airport while keeping total revenue constant.

Customer: Airplane travellers can be broadly segregated into two categories:

• Business Travellers: Working professionals or business owners who travel for business purposes. They generally leave early in the morning from home or in evening after office. Their expenses are generally covered by company and are less price sensitive. They prefer comfort and time over cost.
• Leisure Travellers: People travelling to visit homes, meet friends, holiday trips etc. They have flights booked for noon or after office. Since they pay for their Uber, they are price sensitive and can prefer to other modes of transportation. They prefer cost over comfort and time.

1. Increase number of cabs when flight lands while maximising revenue in demand supply curve.
   1. Determine number of passengers arriving beforehand.
   2. Determine number of cabs needed to cater those passengers.
   3. Notify nearest cabs to arrive at airport for probable pickups.
   4. Notify cabs,which arrived earlier, to stay at airport for future pickups.
2. Delay pasengers by offering them better deals so that they can wait until rush hour normalizes.
   1. Display probable price for next 1 hr.
   2. Provide coupons for lounge
3. Offer alternative mode of transport to cater high pasenger volume.
   1. Integrate with Bus/train and other ride sharing apps.
   2. Integrate with local taxis.
4. Improve ride sharing to increase fill rate. 

1. Value to passenger/driver/company.
2. Resource investment
3. Time investment

We'll first estabilish whether number of people taking flight at any airport are same as number of people coming to that airport by flight

1. To simplify, Lets assume that 100% flight capacity is utilized
2. plane once arrive at airport will have next fligt to some other airport (i.e. it does not end up in hangar)
3. Even if flights are connectig and x% of people get down at airport, x% will come to airport to take flight as we are assuming that 100% capacity is being utilized

Hence, 

Airport Dropoff (Uber + Other Players + Self Vehicles) = Airport Pickups (Uber + Other Players + Self Vehicles)

Why pickups from airport < dropoff at airport for Uber

• Alternate mode of transport such as Bus, Other Cab services or Family/Hotel Service Pickus are available
• Uber pickups might be expensive than others

What customers need

1. Quick availability of cabs at airport
2. Cheaper rate

Metrics to looked at before arriving at solution

1. Booking rate while airport drop-off

• People booking airport drop off cab/people opening app and selecting airport as drop off location

2. Booking rate while airport pick-up

• People booking  pick up cab/people opening app and selecting location from airport 

Ideally, these rates should be equal.

Possible solutions to balance dropoffs and pickups

1. Pre-book airport journey feature

• Enter flight number
• Automatic cab will be scheduled for you to pick up as well as when you land at the respective airport
• Cab pickup from airport will be adjusted automatically as per delays and arrival

Pros - One touch process, easy to use, hassle free, very quick get cab once you come out

Cons - flexibility, complex implementation.

2. Notification when person lands at airport

• A/B test various notification messages and decide on best perfoming one based on conversion rate.

Pros - Easy to implement

Cons - Possibility Limited improvement in the airport pickup rate