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As a PM of Uber, how would you solve the problem of sudden increase in demand of cabs when an event is over?

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2 sided marketplace:

  • How can we compensate the supply

  • Price changes → some people might be pre-booking and paying less 

 

Observations:

  • Can we meet the demand? → will there be enough drivers around?

  • Can we foresee these events? → will we know about the increase in demand beforehand? 

 

Goal

  • Incentivize supply in that area so that it can meet demand

 

2 user groups:

  • Demand 

  • Supply 


 

Demand: 

  • wants to get home in time

  • Might be price sensitive (skip the uber that night)


 

Supply:

  • Might know know the event is happening

  • Might be willing to go if it makes economic sense for them (higher revenue incentive)

 

Solutions:

Possible alternatives:

  1. Forecasts

    1. Get API data from ticketmasters, concerts halls, Google 

    2. Get data on users traffic from Google 

 

  1. If we are able to forecast (Geo as NY, SF, LA)

    1. Provide report to drivers so that they can know they have to go here

    2. Provide incentives to users that book in advance 

      1. Monetary sensitive: discounts

      2. Non-monetary sensitive: points to become higher tier on Uber users

  2. If we are NOT able to forecast (Geo as countryside)

    1. Provide incentives to users that book in advance 

      1. Monetary sensitive: discounts

      2. Non-monetary sensitive: points to become higher tier on Uber users

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In case of an increase in demand, it is important to minimize the waiting time for the rider. I would like to propose the following solutions that could be handled from the Product's side in the account of our problem statement:

  1. Increase First Mile Radius: On usual days, cab drivers are assigned that are available near rider's location, say within 5kms of radius. In this scenario where we could end up having minimum/zero availability of uber drivers, we need to increase the first-mile radius and club zones so that other available drivers that are far from the rider's current location can also be assigned. Thus, task assignment changes will be done from the backend and accordingly will be visible to the riders on the app.
  2. Increase surcharge price: We can leverage this opportunity of increase in demand to meet the supply by increasing the surcharge fees. With an increase in surcharge fees, more drivers will be activated in the given area thus, indirectly meeting the supply-demand.
  3. Nudging deactivated drivers: Many of the drivers remain deactivated in the given area especially at night time. It is important to notify these drivers highlighting the surcharge fees that they might miss in case of increased demand.
  4. Rotating Uber Pool: Due to the increase in demand, the requests for the shared uber pool are bound to increase. With properly managed pick-up and drop locations, drivers should be able to rotate the shared pools to cover maximum customers.
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Get access to 2,346 pm interview questions and answers to give yourself a strong edge against other candidates that are interviewing for the same position
Get access to over 238 hours of video material containing an interview prep course, recorded mock interviews by expert PMs, group practice sessions, and QAs with expert PMs
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