You are a Product Manager for Expedia. Your customer segment is international travellers. How would you go about building a product for them?

Question

You are a Product Manager for Expedia. Your customer segment is international travellers. How would you go about building a product for them?

How would you segment your target customers?

What are the services you would offer?

What are the engagement metrics you are going to track?

Asked at Expedia over a year ago

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Product Design category

Analytical Thinking category

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Tarun Kumar · Answer 1 · 2023-10-29T11:55:20+0000

Ok, starting with a few clarifying questions, to begin with

What is the objective for this? (Your call)
Are there some constraints like time or budget? (No)
Is there a particular continent within which we focus on? (Your call)

Alright moving ahead, I'd think Expedia is a travel platform that helps travelers create flight bookings, and look for hotels. Expedia allows users to discover and search right hotels, make a bookings.

In this process, Expedia charges an amount of fee from the customers and that's their business model. I'd want to improve the bookings made via Expedia platform so that they can improve their revenue.

The objective, increase bookings via the app. I'd like to think of a few cases here that directly impact the # of bookings.

For New users
- Acquire more users
  - Get into a new market
  - Get new offerings
- Increase booking for past users
For Current users
- Upsell new services
  - New offerings
- Cross-sell new services
  - New offerings

I think I'd like to focus on the current customers, this way I can engage current customers in a more meaningful way and help retain these users by providing good customer experience.

I'd also like to talk a bit about the travelers and their behavior, post pandemic the travel economy has boomed and people actually want to go out and spend more time with their family, friends or self. Users are also looking for a new kind of experience while traveling.

Check with the interviewer on this if there's any particular persona they'd like to target.

Going ahead, I'll pick couples (married or unmarried) who are about to travel internationally. I'd like to think about their needs while traveling

JourneyNeeds

Recently booked the hotels and flights < 14 days	1. Are my bookings good? 2. I'm excited to share this with my close and loved ones
Booked hotels and flights last >14 days	3. Wait for the travel date to come up, period of dormancy. 4. I want to manage the overall budget for the trip
The travel date is about to come up	4. Need specific arrangements for the trip ie, local food tour, brewery tour, shopping tour
Started the trip	5. I have everything and I'm not missing anything 6. I need currency or payment method for wherever I'm traveling
Midway in the trip	7. I'm enjoying this experience, 8. I am concerned about this experience
Completed the trip	9. The trip was amazing, I'm tired 10. Want to check for overall budget 11. Did I bring enough souvenirs and memories?

In this user journey, I feel that when the travel date is about to come up the anxiety of the user would pick again. I want to create a great customer experience and solve this pain point. Going with need 4.

As a user, I want to check if I can explore more experience and have convenience before starting on trip

Currency exchange or a travel card depending on the need
Sim cards, adaptors and other essential items like medicines
Book a cab/self-drive car for the trip
Special requests like candle light dinners, moon light walks, etc.,
Get tickets for shows, museums, and local travel
Find and book authentic experiences like food tours, wellness spas, nature tourism
Book a tour guide or translator when on a trip
Book insurance and get doctors on call

Few solutions that I could think of, I'd like to prioritize them based on the impact and effort

ItemsImpactEffort

Current exchange + Card	High	Medium
Sim card + Adaptor + essentials	High	Medium
Special requests	High	Medium
Tickets for the local adventure/sightseeing	Medium	High
Authentic tour book or local culture immersion	High	High
Tour guide	Medium	Medium
Medical needs	High	Medium

Based on the above table, I'd like to prioritize

1. Supplying essential items before travel

2. Supply currency before travel

3. Ensure special requests are served

4. Medical needs

Check with the interviewer.

After defining the features, I'd like to think about the metrics

Primary: "Next revenue per user" going up
Supporting:
1. Number of users buying essential items before travel
2. No. of users exchanging currency before travel
3. No. of users requesting special services
4. No. of users requesting for medical care
5. Avg. reviews, check comments on the services

I think these items will require careful planning around GTM. The users who have already made a booking we can target them using email, in-app notifications, and a separate "For your upcoming Trip" section in the mobile app and desktop website.

We can also leverage social media, blog posts, and social media influencers. We can improve SEO with the keywords to bring organic traffic while doing SEM marketing. Having said that, the marketing side of things should be done in close collaboration with the Marketing team and measure the funnel over there.

Any campaigns should be measured with CTR and user interaction with the posts.

Summarize the entire scenario once to the interviewer. That's a wrap.

Can someone review this?

Priyanka Khandelwal · Answer 2 · 2022-03-17T19:11:11+0000

Interviewee - Sure. I want first clarify Expedia as a product. Expedia is an online travel agency that is globally present and promotes easy booking options.

Interviewer: yes

Interviewee- You want me to focus on international travellers as a segment.

Should the product be built for business travel or leisure? Leisure.

Why are we targetting the international market? Revenue

What is the main goal here Should I build a product for mobile app or website only clients? Mobile-only
Is the product for this segment going to be different from the main offering? No

Wait for an answer. Now describe the pain points of international travellers

Pain point of international traveller ( Leisure_

1. Cant understand local languages

2. No option to pick experience in one place

3. Inconvenience in deciding

4. Not sure of safety

Solutions to solve pain points

1. End to end travel itinerary for local culture

2. Packages with a local guide

3. Review feature and most helpful review feature

4. Choose your guide with DIY package

The product should have a segment based on demographics of international travellers> language > currency conversion > options for a tour guide who can speak in local language> seamless payment option> reviews by non-local tourists> extra emphasis on local culture

Prioritization of solution

1. Package with a local guide with safety

Engagement Metrics

1. CTR

2. Active sessions

3. Conversation with a local guide

4. Save for later

5. Add to cart