What is your favorite Google product? Pick one, and describe how to improve it.  

My favourite Google product is Google Maps.

Google maps is a mapping platform that is available to consumer as a Web and Mobile application.it offers Satellite imagery, aerial photography, street maps, street views, real-time traffic conditions and route-planning for travelling by foot, bike, car and public transportation.

 The reason for favourite is three key points

·         Useful: solving pain point

·         Efficient: solving the issue quicker with less effort from user

·         Innovative: solving the problem in a new way that make user smarter

Useful: Google Maps save time by providing accurate suggestion about direction of path and information of local businesses.it talks about the traffic on way and suggest alternative routes.it uses machine learning in combination with various data sources including aggregate location data, historical traffic patterns, local government data and real-time feedback from users, to predict traffic thus it educates user about place.

Efficient: Finding route and information about places using Google maps is very easy. As the user of this application, just typing destination in search box, it will show the different routes to destination with travel time by different options such as foot, bike, car and public transport.it provides local business information with reviews, open and close time.    

Innovative: combined with innovative features such as satellite imagery, user submitted photos and street-view, it is like an interactive atlas – a way to learn about different places and people all over the world.it uses latest machine learning algorithm with neural network to predict traffic with travelling times to destination.

Competitors: Apple Maps, Bing Maps

Google Maps availability is almost on every type of devices compare to Apple maps availability on apple devices.it provides better information about Navigation, traffic, public transportation, street view, discovery of places.     

Google maps leads over Bing Maps in terms of performance over mobile, better usage coverage in web site categories like business & industry, and market share.

Improvement:

Google generates revenue via-Advertisement on the Platform. More Engagement will generate more revenue and add value to Google.

Business objective: increasing engagement

User groups

·         Commuters (Bikers, Four-wheelers)

·         Drivers (Ola, Uber)/Delivery people

·         Pedestrians

·         Tourists

·         Explorers: who search for different places like restaurant, grocery shops etc.

·         Blind people: who uses audible features of Google maps

Here I will focus on Explorers Because other groups have specific motive to use Google maps.   

User problems

1.      User get confuse while Choosing from a large group of information given by Google. E.g.  Restaurant search provide lot of restaurants and their rating make users indecisive.

2.      It is Painful to get direction in big shopping malls, stadium to find their outlet/seating place.

3.      Users who want to go to multiple places in minimum time, getting perfect itinerary can be real challenge.

4.      Friends deciding remotely about place they want to meet is also painful.

Pain points 2 can be solved by infographics (in case indoor maps not available) for getting direction into shopping malls/stadium.

In case of multiple places, user can modify itinerary based on work priority and available time. so, pain point 3 can be solved by user itself.

Here I will give priority to pain point 1 because deciding the best place to eat or shopping through Google Maps is the real challenge.    

Solutions

1.      We can have smart, personalized AI feature that will narrow down the suggestion to the top 3 places based on previous google search, previous user visit, review where user should go. For improvement of AI engine, we can ask the user some questions after the visit.

2.      User can have personalized recommendations like geofencing. E.g., if a person has searched grocery shopping and he has passed a grocery shop, he should get notification based on offer/discount. This can act as a revenue source for Google partnering with brands/shop.

3.      Rewards for giving a review after visiting place will increase customer engagement. This will help user Google maps to decide best place.

4.      Google can use Augmented reality to assisting the customer to choose the best place to use. It will increase customer engagement to Google maps.

Prioritizing Solutions       

So, I will choose AI feature for narrow down the suggestion to Top 3 places because it will help users in choosing the options which will increase Engagement and attract the customer from Competitor like Yelp.

Metrics

·         Total Number of Business searches per month

·         Median number of Business searches per active user per month.

Trade-off

User may deviate from Google Map due to showing only Top 3 places. The reason is that it may be these choices don’t suit their location and budget.

Summary

·         Google Maps is my favourite product because it is useful, efficient and innovative.

·         It is better than Competitor in terms of compatibility with platforms, functionality and coverage.

·         I had focused on improving engagement of Explorer user group with Google maps

·         I identified major pain point being overwhelmed by choice when choosing a local business such as restaurant, Grocery shop etc.

·         I identified 4 solutions and narrowed it down to one: Building an AI feature to match Business place to user’s preferences and there displaying the Top 3 places.

·         I would measure success by looking at two metrics:

1. Total No. of Business searches per month

2. Median number of Business searches per active user per month.