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How would you design an EV bike renting application for college students (residing in the campus)?

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Clarifying functionality
People on the campus should be able to rent a bike for their transportation within the college campus. The goal is to ease and simplify moving within the campus

Clarifying questions
1] Could we assume we are designing a mobile app - yes
2] As shared in the functionality, for the driving range I would assume to be within the campus
3] Could I assume we are launching this as a new service - yes
4] For this discussion, can I assume it a closed campus - a Gated campus, just to remove complexity around security, etc. - yes

Goal
Since we are launching this as a new service, the north star metric would be the number of app downloads, Other metrics would be app ratings and miles driven, etc.

User / Persona
1] College Students: Primary age group 20-30, tech-savvy and have low budget spend
2] Professors and other support staff: Varying age group, have higher budget spend than students
3] College authorities - Who want to maintain a clean college campus
4] We as providers- need to ensure the right availability, charging, etc.

I will focus primarily on the college students for this discussion, although the needs and solution should help professors and other support staff as well

User journey
1] Find the nearest bike
2] Walks to the nearest bike
3] Unlocks the bike
4] Wears the safety gear
5] Rides and drop off
6] Marks the ride complete
7] Makes payment based on the usage

Needs /Pain points
1] Need to find the nearest bike
2] Blocks the bike for the ride
3] Walking direction to find the bike
4] Unlocking using the mobile phone
5] Driving direction / optimal route for the destination
6] Need to mark the ride complete for record
7] Understand and a report on driving miles, etc.
8] Simple payment mechanism

Prioritizing the needs
Since we are launching a new service, the focus is on the MVP to find a bike and provide a ride. For this discussion, I will focus on [1], [2], [3], [4], [6], [7] 

Solutions
a] GPS on college campus map to find the nearest bike
b] Not just the nearest bike, potentially the right bike (in terms of charge) based on the distance (as certain campuses are very large)
c] If none is available nearby, then provide potential estimated time based on other user drop-offs

d] Block the bike for the ride
e] Walking route to pick up the bike
f] Unlocks the bike, Signals start of the ride

g] Primary CTA to mark the ride complete
h] Report within the app on miles driven, duration of the ride, etc

Prioritizing the solutions
    User Impact     |   Cost of Building Impact
a]      H                      L
b]      M                     M
c]      M                     H
d]      H                     L
e]      H                     L
f]       H                     M 

g]     H                      L
h]      M                    M

based on this, i will prioritize [a] [d] [e] [f] and [g] first, followed by [h] [c] [b]

Metrics measurement
Number of app downloads, number of users who have taken the first step in the user journey - of finding the nearest bike, taking the first ride

Summarizing
EV bike renting app, that lets college students find a bike, block, and ride it from point A to point B- Pick and drop off at any location. In the future, they will able to find the optimal route, make payments, join other friends to drive along

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Things you did well 

  • Structure: Great structure of the answer. It's easy to follow and see that you are familiar with answering product design questions 
  • Clarifying Questions: You asked a good set of clarifying questions to narrow down the scope of the question 
  • Assumptions: You came up with good set of assumptions to narrow down the scope of the question
  • User groups: You broken down the user group into mutiple groups and picked a particular one 
  • User journey driven user needs: I like how you came up with very specific pain points based on the user journey
  • Solutions: Great set of solutions to solve for the pain points listed earlier
  • Evaluation of features: You compared the solutions based on meaningful criteria 
  • Metrics of Success: Good set of metrics to measure the success of your product

Areas of Improvement 

  • You didn't need to come up with a goal at the beginning of your answer. You haven't designed the product yet so you don't really need a goal and don't know what you're building or even for whom you're building. 
I hope it helps. 
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