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Design a new car dashboard.

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Some clarifying questions : 

1. Are we trying to build an entirely new dashboard or enhance the current one to be a newer one ? The question says "new dashbord", still would like to clarify: Choice.

2. Is there a timeline that we are looking ? No

3. Are there any technical constraints for building the dashboard ? No

4. What is the overall goal of developing such a new dashboard ? To increase user engagement

Okay the question now is, to design a car dashboard that does not have any technical constraints, could be released in phases with the obverall goal of increasing user engagement.

What is a Car dashboard ?

It is a display right in front of the car driver which shows instrumentation and controls of the car. 

The overall goal is to increase user engagement.

Personas :

There are different personas when considering a car dashboard

1, Car driver (Active persona)

2. Car passenger (Passive persona, may/may not have a direct impact)

3. Car dealer 

4. Car maker 

Since we are working on improving the user engagement, the most common user persona is the car driver as the owner of the car or a taxi driver. 

User Jouner : Lets define a car driver's user jouner using the dashboard.

User JourneyPain Points
1. On turning on the car, the dashboard shows the mileage,  odometer on a screenMy car and generally the car dashboard is smaller in size. Need buttons to toggle to different controls
2. While driving the car, my car has lane assist and beeps if the car is off-lane/ off roadHaving my eyes on GPS on the car screen, lane assistance on the car dashboard and the road ahead sometimes is confusing and definetely not safe with ppl like me who do have sharp eyesight
3. Through/after  the journey, car dahsboard shows the mileageNot a pain point per se, would it help to say the amount of gas saved by driving efficiently in the terms that I understand 
 I do not have a way to download my driving patterns to show the gas usage or a tracker 

Solutions :

1. HUD : A heads up display would be an ideal one to list the controls on all cars to show the desired controls at eye level rather then lowering the eye.

2. The HUD or the dashboad could be enhanced to show the distance between the front car which helps identify the safe distance between cars similar to lane assistance that shows the  path to be followed vs the path the car is on.

3. The car dashboard, at parking or end of the car trip could show the efficiency driving in terms of gas saved. If it is a solar car, we could combine the total number with all the users of the same car / solar cars in order to show how much I have saved natural resources, my individual number + total number , say x amount of gas saved today ! Hoorah.

4. In order to indentify the driving pattern, there should be download button to download the mileages used per day 

5. A simpler way is to have an integrated control with the smart phone app to have the latest odometer readings, mileage, gas savings 

5a. This can be in turn used at coupons provided by the car company to be used for various services/ food or the likes.

Based on the Impact that the feature brings combined with the cost to build, the MVP would have features 5 and 1. Rest of them could be implemented in next version releases as they are add on.

Success metrics :

1. # of cars with the new dashboard vs old 

2. Average DAU, WAU , MAU on the app 

3. NPS

There are other metrics to take note of like 1. Lane assistance recommendations 2. App activation 3. App features' bounce rate

Limitations :

As a car dashboard design, the solution mentioned as 1 depends on the car hardware and solution 5 depends on creating an app and has a separate lifecycle to it. 

Summary : In summary I would like to deisgn the next gen dashboard which would be a HUD and app integrated so as to have the controls at the user's finger tips at all times resulting in user engagement.

 

 

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Areas you did well

1.       Use of framework – you clearly have a solid framework

2.       Clarifying questions – you ask a meaningful set of questions.  Although I would have asked what do you mean by dashboard?  Follow up – do you mean just the speed, tach, milage etc. that is directly in front of the driver – which is separate from nav, radio, etc. or do you mean all the information centers in the front of the car? 

3.       You set a goal of increasing user engagement

4.       You defined a car dashboard

5.       You set persona – although I think persona as having a distinct set of user needs from others.  Under Car Driver I think there are multiple personas – the Soccer mom, the commuter, the long distance driver, the commercial driver and each have a unique set of needs

6.       You pick a persona and explain why you picked one.

7.       You defined a set of solutions

8.       You define metrics

9.       You define limitations

 

Areas of improvement

1.       User Journey I think you limited yourself by not having a clear persona and not thinking about that personas overall driving habits not just their interaction with the dashboard.

a.       Soccer Mom

                                                               i.      It is a Sat morning its time to take the kids to the game. 

                                                             ii.      Pam calls all the kids and they come running down in their cleats

                                                           iii.      We head to the garage and grab the gear bag

                                                            iv.      Everyone piles into the car.

                                                             v.      I reach up and press the garage door button

                                                            vi.      After the garage door opens, I press the start button and the minivan starts right up

                                                          vii.      I pull out of the driveway and head to the filed

                                                        viii.      The kids all call out the music that they want “OK Google Play…..”

                                                            ix.      I get a text, I know I shouldn’t  but I pick up my smart phone and check it anyway. 

                                                             x.      We get to the field, the kids all jump out and grab their bag I tell them I’ll be there in a minute.

                                                            xi.      I send a few more texts and then go watch the game. 

b.       Which of those steps are related to the dashboard – I don’t think any of them?   But there were a number of user interaction points with the car that maybe could be incorporated into the new redesigned dashboard of the future.  Your user journey is more of a dashboard journey.  I’ve never head anyone say we delight dashboards .

2.       Pick a pain point suing some reason or criteria.

a.       I’d like to focus on the point where she checks her text messages while driving – this is the stage where she could have killed herself and her kids.

3.       Once you have a pain point come up with 3-4 solutions (try to have one be a moon shot).  With each solution list some criteria (such as reach, impact, effort, confidence, fit to the problem, fit to the company (you don’t need all of these – just pick a few).

4.       Use the criteria to pick a solution. 

 

2
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Clarifying Questions 

  1. Are we trying to build this dashboard for a new car or improving the dashboard for the existing one? 
  2. Are we talking about a digital version of the improvement or a physical version? 
  3. What type of car are we talking about? Electrical or Gas or Individually owned or commercially owned?
  4. What is the goal of this work? And why are we doing it now?  
  5. Do we have any technological constraints? 

I would also answer the above questions if the interviewer asked me to respond. 

Goal 

  1. Improve driver experience. 

Vision / Mission 

The overall mission of any car is to improve the mobility experience and allow car owners to complete their goals or task successfully by focusing on their safety and convenience.  

For this exercise, we are considering a two or four-door sedan car used by individuals or families.  

Stakeholders / Stakeholders Segmentation 

I would divide overall stakeholders into three buckets. 

  1. Individual drivers
    1. Individual driver vs. Family shared car between husband and wife.
    2. Male vs. Female 
    3. Based on the driving age - early-stage drivers are someone who recently started driving, vs. expert drivers who have been driving a car for the last few years. 
  2. Commercial drivers 
    1. Uber, Lyft or Dashers 
    2. Only Cab drivers 
    3. Delivery drivers 
    4. Bus, truck, supply chain, or logistic delivery drivers - We are not considering this because we only focus on individual car owners. 
  3. Passengers 

Stakeholder prioritization or Customer

I will prioritize individual car drivers because our car is primarily a four-door sedan. If I consider the maximum number of car owners of this type of car are individuals. We see many gig drivers such as Uber, Lyft, or Dashers in this bucket, but this market is still smaller. 

Pain Points 

A car dashboard generally provides three types of capabilities - Safety, Convenience, and Entertainment. 

Safety

  1. My current car dashboard does not provide a speed limit to consider. 
  2. My car does not navigate me to park properly in the designated parking area.
  3. If I am stuck because of a flat tire or any other car issues, I have to call a pickup truck to fix my car issue manually. 

 Entertainment

  1. My car does not provide ways for me to listen to new songs. I have to connect my external device or use CD or radio to listen to music, podcast, or audio. 
Convenience
  1. I have to adjust my Car dashboard buttons to change the temperature manually according to the outside temperature.  

Pain point prioritization 

Considering safety is the most critical criterion for car owners, I will prioritize the safety-related pain points. I would consider a pain point that will help me to fix the issue during car failure. Considering most of these cases, car drivers could panic and not know what to do.  

Solution 

  1. Send an automated message to your loved one that you need help during the car failure. This will help the driver, and their family member could call or arrange some help. 
  2. Show mechanic recommendations on-screen dashboards that are closer to the location. 
  3. Similar to fuel tank alerts, provide recommendations for car servicing and prediction for wear and tear for any car parts on a dashboard so that drivers can avoid any car failures - for example, provide an alert if any lights are kept on, and that could consume the battery or need to swap tires to avoid more wear and tear of the tires. Basically, provide prediction so that the owner can take appropriate service. 
I would go with option #2 primarily because it is a very tricky situation if something wrong happens, and the first thing the driver needs to do is find a car expert to help them. A lot of times, searching online does not provide the exact info. Using in-car GPS, we can detect the driver's location, help them find the car experts, and share their contact info. Eventually, we could automate calling these experts as well.  

Success Metrics 

We want to check how often situations happen and whether drivers use in-car recommendations. We could conduct car surveys and check if in-car expert recommendations are helpful. 

# of times recommendations helped drivers. 

# of times they manually try to find the car expert. 

Summary 

Overall I would like to improve the car dashboards by introducing car expert recommendations on dashboards to help drivers deal with critical or roadside emergencies. 

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