You were a PM on Microsoft Surface and Delta asked you to design the perfect airline entertainment system. You decide the features, scenarios, and users. What would you do?

Structure:

Clarifying Questions

Users and prioritization

Pain points and prioritization

Solutions and prioritization

Metrics

Clarifying questions:

1. Describe ‘Entertainment System’ - The screens that are placed behind all the seats in an aircraft that allows for people to watch movies, TV shows, listen to music or play games and even get information on the flight duration etc. - Is that accurate - yes
2. Microsoft Surface is the key tablet/laptop product owned by Microsoft that allows users to work on it, browse internet and other functionalities. - Is that accurate - Yes
3. To be on the same page, we are saying that the current entertainment systems on all delta flights will be replaced by Microsoft Surface tablets - Is that accurate? - Yes
4. Are we doing this for all Delta flights or only those that fly above a certain duration - Assume all
5. Are we thinking about a hand held controller or is it all touch screen - make this easy, assume only touch screen
6. Can I assume that we will retain certain features such as having a headphone jack on the seat dividers (and maybe improve on them?) - Sure
7. Do we have any constraints such as cost or tech or resources? - No
8. Can I assume that I do not have to worry about the size of the monitors and generally assume that the current 12’ or 13’ ones will be perfect for delta? - Sure
9. Do I need to think about an app here? Do I have to worry about integrating things within in the delta app or building stand-alone app? - You decide
10. Why are we looking to revamp the current entertainment system? - Delta has noticed based on feedback that the entertainment systems for flights are subpar and do not have necessary features that can keep users engaged thus leading to fears that users may use other flight services for a smoother journey. - Loss of engagement
11. Assuming that we are only building this for the US and only for Delta - not for partner flights? - Sure.

Users and prioritization:

1. Travellers

1a. Power users of the entertainment system - These are people who depend on the entertainment system to get through the long flights and almost always use them

1b. Moderate users - These are people who seldom use it to understand if there is any good content available to watch or listen. If not, they either read books or work or sleep

1c. Rare users - These are people who do not rely on the system. They typically work or read or have other means of keeping themselves entertained

2. Delta flight crew

For the purpose of this exercise, I would want to understand the pain points of the Power Users as they are the ones who may be providing feedback and are really going to need to use it.

Pain Points:
(P1) Content is stale and not refreshed
(P4) Touchscreen is not very fluid and hard to navigate

(P2) In the modern world, cannot listen to content as I am not carrying wired headphones that is needed - so, may have to watch on mute (or ask crew - most times, they do not have a spare earphone)

(P5) Cannot watch live events on most flights

(P3) No opportunity for me to integrate with my external HD or laptop and use as second screen - make me more productive

(P6) No option today to read books on screen - only video and audio content available

The pain points were prioritized based on how many users could potentially be impacted (reach) and how big the impact could be that could cause deterioration in engagement.

Solutions:
We will look to build solutions across mobile app (delta app) and physical inventory that does the following:
—> In app- facility (delta app) for users to be able to login to their Netflix or Amazon Prime accounts. Once they do, we can have them enter a code that would allow them to connect their credentials over to the monitor in their seats so as to be able to view the latest engaging content that they want.

—>> Can expand workflow to integrate other services such as Hulu later

—>> Auto-log off when flight lands (based on information collected about flight tracker or when stewards switch off entertainment system) -this prevents user login misuse.

—> Ability for the screens to have a USB-C or USB-A (or even lightning cable) that allows the users to connect to their laptops or external hard drives

—> Ability for Bluetooth technology integration - In this day and age, most people have AirPods or wireless headphones - Providing this capability will allow for greater usage of the entertainment system and garner more engagement for the users

—> Eliminate all peripherals associated with navigation on the screen (such as buttons on seats etc) and ensure latest touch with haptic feedback capabilities that allow for greater navigation of content.

—> Ability to auto read diagnostics at the end of each session/flight and communicate with flight engineer to understand issues experienced so as to be able to rectify it.

Based on Reach, Impact and Effort, I would like to classify the solutions in this way and decide which ones are priority:
 

Metrics:
# Average hours of content watched by users by day/flight/ medium etc.

# Logins connected to external streaming services

# DAU/WAU/MAU etc

# Users using entertainment system as a percentage of total fliers

# Diagnostic issues reported

# Average cost to repair issues

# NPS Scores collected on entertainment system

• Do we have any existing entertainment system?  Interviewer >> Yes.

• Is % of users using the current system is low? (Or) are users not using enough? (Or) is there any specific feedback / problem to be addressed? Interviewer >> We observed that users are not spending time on the system.

• What are typical hours of flight on Delta airlines? : long distance or short distance  Interviewer >> we have all type of flights ranging from 2 hrs to 7 hrs long flights.

User groups / Personas

• Children aged 5-12

• Youth aged 13-22

• Normal adults aged 22- 55

• Old adults aged >55

• Users with special conditions (Disability)

User Goals : 

User should be able to: 

• Locate the content he wants to play
• Easily understand and operate the settings like: 
  • volume setting, 
  • screen brightness
  • contrast
  • switch the content
  • play options like play/pause/rewind/forward.
• Hassle-free usage (not hindering movements of self as well as others)

Pain Points:

Solutions

MVP 

• Content directory
• Searching the content
• Provide visual images along with text in search results (something like movie poster, news channel icon, etc)
• Providing wireless headsets
• Moving from remote control to touch based controls
• Highly visible feedback screen ( touch based five emoticons as well as free text)

TradeOffs

• For MVP, users with special needs are not considered due to the volume of users.
• Also not considering the ease of settings change as main hypothesis is user is not engaged due to content and other factors like movement in the plane.

Metrics

• Satisfaction rate from feedback screen
• % of users of entertainment system in total passengers
• No of searches per user
• Avg. % duration of usage during flight for a user = Avg. of (time spent on entertain system / flight hours)
• % of searches which resulted no results