How would you design a consumer application for a scooter sharing business?

This scooter-sharing app would provide a seamless, convenient solution for urban transportation by allowing users to easily book, ride, and pay for scooter rentals

User Group:

• Children: Won’t be primary users.
• Older Adults: Likely won’t use it frequently.
• Adults: Main target group, using the app for work, commuting, or daily errands.

Why Would Adults Use the App?

1. Affordable transportation.
2. Time-saving by avoiding traffic, especially in urgent situations.

User Priorities:

1. Geo-location: Users want to book a nearby scooter quickly.
2. Minimal wait time: Time-sensitive.
3. Fare Transparency: Display estimated fare before booking.
4. Communication: Ability to connect with the driver if needed.
5. Tracking: Option to track the journey and share details.
6. Feedback: Leave a review after the ride.
7. QR Code Payment: Simple and convenient payment option.
8. Helmet Availability: Ensuring rider safety by providing a helmet.

Impact vs Effort table for the prioritized features:

FeatureImpactEffortNotes

Geo-location booking	High	Medium	Essential for quick access to nearby scooters. Requires integration with mapping services.
Fare estimation	High	Medium	Increases user confidence in booking. Needs distance calculation and fare algorithms.
User-driver communication	Medium	Low	Enhances experience by enabling direct contact. Simple messaging or call feature.
Tracking and sharing ride details	Medium	High	Useful for safety and accountability. Involves backend tracking and live updates.
QR code payment	High	Medium	Simplifies payment process. Requires integration with payment gateways.
Helmet provision for safety	Medium	Low	Important for user safety. Physical requirement rather than app functionality.

Solution:

1. Geo-location-based booking: Integrate live location tracking so users can quickly find and book nearby scooters, minimizing waiting time.
2. Fare Estimation: Allow users to enter their destination and get a fare estimate in real-time before booking.
3. User-Driver Communication: Once a scooter is booked, enable direct communication between the user and the driver for coordination and any additional needs.
4. Easy Payment System: Implement QR code payments for quick and hassle-free transactions after the ride.
5. Journey Tracking: Provide real-time journey tracking, and allow users to share ride details with others.
6. Safety: Ensure that each scooter has a helmet available, and notify users about it at the time of booking.

How would you design a consumer application for a scooter sharing business?

 

Clarifying Questions:

1. What company is this for? Is it a big tech company or can I assume it’s a startup?

Assume it’s a startup

2. For the sharing process, does the scooter belong to a user, or would it be the company’s scooter that everyone is renting/ using? Assume that all scooters are user’s

3. right now I don’t think I know any scooter sharing platforms, so Is it ok if I assume our company’s goal is to enter the market and gain market share? Yes

 

Potential competitors:

• Uber

• Lyft

• Evo

• Other bike sharing platforms

 

Potential users (who would want to ride a scooter)

• students - cars are too expensive to maintain and hard to park, scooter around campus is convenient

• young working professionals

• tourists - scooter tours around parks/ scenic attractions

 

(Out of those who want to ride a scooter, who would use a scooter sharing service) focus on one specific group & why?

tourists can travel by car or bike, so this would be a nice to have, students sometimes can’t so this is ideal

• students - to travel around campus/ residence area quickly on renters end. biggest impact/ product market fit potential

 

Current user journey

A student wants to head to class. His class is 15 minutes walk from residence so he rushes to get there, his next class is 5 minutes after but it takes 10 minutes to travel from one building to the next and he doesn’t make it to class in time. The bus doesn’t go through campus so the only way to access buildings are through walking and biking, but even there are many buildings that don’t have bike lanes. Even if they bike, they aren’t always places to park and lock their bikes.

 

Some wants/ problems

 

 

solutions:

trip history tab - to keep track of ride costs

 

Constraints/ considerations

• heavy investment to have many charging stations in the university

• what happens when user doesn’t return a scooter to charging station/ damages scooters - penalties and potential banning from app

Assumptions:

Mobile/web ? For simplicity sake let’s go ahead with mobile applications.

Any particular scooter are we looking for? (gas/electric)- I think having more options can be more suitable for attracting more people (since then they can ride along what they are comfortable with) like for example some might want to spend less on petrol/electric charging then can choose what they find a more affordable option. 

User personas: Two types of users 1)owns a scooty 2)needs to rent one

1. Alex is a scooty owner, and travels 20 km to the office everyday. He feels that the cost of bearing the petrol cost all by himself is too much so want to look for someone who can split the cost.
2. Jack runs a small local business and wants to deliver things but doesn't own a scooty, so he wants to rent one and if he could find a partner to pool with, he can save some money too. 
3. Traits of our users can be budget conscious, environmental concern(since it promotes less pollution if many prefer sharing services).

We can incorporate both types of users in our application since that will also attract more users who are trying to find help also in finding rental services.

User Journey in application: 

• User with Scooter Looking for Partner:

Users will create an account, set up the profile about the type of scooter they have(scooter details, with image) and the preferred routes to pool for and also at what time they would want to pool, cost that will be charged. Then they'll have an option to find a partner to pool with. Then they will be directed to a map(using the api of google maps that can be implemented) showing users looking for partners. 

• User Looking for a Partner (Doesn't Have Scooter):

User registration, profile setup(indicating no scooter), will be directed to a map showing scooty symbols(to indicate the availability of scooter), an option to filter will be given to mention if any preference in scooters, meets the partner, shares scooter and enjoys ride.

• User Wants to Rent a Scooter(can be rental site/individual) and Pool with Someone:

User registration, option to find a scooter to rent(in business perspective, this can be useful to get partners from different rental sites, share of price will be there for the app if vehicle is rented too.), will be directed to a map showing nearby locations of rentals, and competitive price, after the vehicle then the user journey will be the same as the user journey of a scooty looking for a partner.

Basic overview of user journey, now we can possess on pain points of users and develop solutions/enhancements based on that. 

Pain Points: 

General pain points of people involved in scooty- sharing

1. Communication Barrier- Finding it difficult to coordinate with the owner/rental sites, could be for anything maybe sudden changes in timings etc..,
2. Information about Scooters: not knowing what kind of scooty, specifications are there offering and clear notation of cost involved with this.
3. Safety concerns: Users might be concerned about safety when sharing scooters with strangers.
4. Payment disputes: Users may face disputes related to shared payments or unexpected charges.
5. Not having an idea on where the scooty is right now, like live tracking so then can plan things accordingly and reach the destination specified for pickup.
6. Account security concerns: Users may worry about the security of their personal and payment information.

Solutions:

1. In-app messaging: after confirming the booking, option to text them in-app without having a need to share mobile number(for privacy concerns), if possible introducing real-time location sharing to improve coordination further/ for quick updates.
2. Detailed info when clicked on profile regarding specifications of scooty, along with pictures and documents like RC, license for legal purposes and to build trust among people to go ahead with booking. (just like in gmaps we see photos and 360 deg view for shops/restaurants etc..,)
3. In order build trust on safety, a feature called ratings and reviews(for both owner, rider), so that people can see before booking, and a filter option for example some women are more comfortable with sharing with women,  if any activity is seen suspicious like not traveling on specified route an emergency SOS feature that will directly contact services like police(along with ur current location)
4. For Account security we can use 2 factor authentication like in gpay since private and payment information is stored.
5. Need to provide transparent invoice, how pricing was done and integrating gpay so that no need to move to another app to make payment. 
6. Detailed T&C of scooter sharing including responsibilities and legal measures that will be taken if not followed.

The above are the enhancements we can make to the app

Metrics:

1. Number of users registered, profiles set up (pictures, documents)
2. Number of bookings(sharing done)
3. Number of payments done
4. Acquisition costs
5. Retention rates(Daily, Weekly, Monthly Retention)
6. Revenue generated(ARPU, ARPPPU, ARPDAU)
7. Number of users engaging in giving ratings and reviews
8. Number of rental sites acquired
9. No. of Active Users( DAU, WAU, MAU), % Change in Active Users.

App for scooter sharing businessClarifying questions

• To make sure that I am thinking correctly, this is an app for renting your scooter when you are not using it and for the other side to pick up the scooter when needed, this app is for connecting the two groups with each other?

User segmentation

Income groups

• Affluent
• Mid class
• Average earning

User needs

• To get a mode of transport when required for several hours
• To trust the other person- mutual
• To get back scooters without any damages
• To know till when you have to return
• Get the nearest one
• Rent for a certain time pd

User journey

Opens the app, the owner can choose to put up their scooter for rent and provide required details; the renter can choose among the list of listings and choose the suitable one.

Features

FeaturesEffortImpact

Identity verification, vehicle registration :Owner
License, Identity: Renter	M	L
Listings- filter and sort	M	M
Sign a clause not to pay for any damages	M	M
Upload a picture before and after to keep track of any damages	L	L

Tiered launch with different features at each step

How would you design a consumer app for a scooter sharing business?


Clarifying question
1. What do we mean by scooty sharing business and who is gonna rent their scooty? Users who own a scooter,

Companies willing to rent out a scooter

2. Are we talking about India or any other geography? Assuming India.
3. Who are we? Assuming we are a marketplace connecting supply with demand and charging commission per transaction.
4. Is the app gonna be used across the whole country or any specific region? Across All.
5. Do I need to build app for customer side or scooty owner side? Focus on Customer side
6. By consumer we mean an installable application for either android or IOS right? Yes, Ignore  webapps.


Customer Segmentation
I will now look at customer side.

Need to rent a scooty is generally faced by a traveller in a tourist place,
Other major demand can be in Big cities where commute distance is high. Generally natives own a scooty/bike in an area.

I wanna prioritize Travellers in a tourist place because that market seem to be large enough and their is relatively less competition than metro cities where there are multiple options available for commute like metro/local train/Ride hailing services/buses.

Prioritised User Segment- Tourists.

 

Tourists can be further segmented- Who have used public transport to reach the destination + who have used their own cars/buses to reach.

Going ahead with tourists who do not have their own vehicle at the tourist spot.

Major goal of a tourist is to enjoy the place and have as great experience as possible by visiting all famous places, enjoying the scenic beauty(if there is).

 

Customer Journey of a tourist in an offline world will look like






Major Pain Points

1. Discovery of rental services

2. Offline document submission- chances of forgetting

3. Have to pick up from owners location, thus needs to travel to pick it up.

4. Have to drop off and collect documents and money.
   
   
   
   
   
   
    

Solution:

1. Curate list of all scooty rentals and individual scooty renters along with pricing, vehicle details and time availability.

2. Connect digilocker with the app/ give option to send documents by uploading on the app.

3. Give option of vehicle drop off/pick up from the customers location.
4. Give digital payments option.


Low Fidelity Wireframe

 

This is asked in Google, so I want to take a quick 1min to tell why this is relevant to Google. 

Goals & Alignment: 

Google's mission is to organize the world's information and show it to users. And travel information has been a part of that, they have started showing hotels in their listings, and they also have Google Maps which is also a travel-related application. And they're into Waymo - car business. They're into travel and automobile, so scooter business makes sense to Google. 

A quick 1 min for competitors: 

Currently no big tech is trying scooters, but Uber is trying bike-sharing business in metro cities in the US. Whereas in India hyperlocal bike sharing is quite common. Since this is bike sharing I would like this to be in southern Europe such as Spain and Italy where the temperatures are medium. 

clarity:

Scooter sharing business 

scooter = 2-wheeler that can be driven using a motor, not bicycles. 

sharing business = consumers book them from a commonplace when they're parked

Users & prioritization:

1. tourists - Countries like Spain and Italy have tourism contribute 30%-40% to their GDP, so huge opportunity to make money. 

2. regular commuters who use bikes, now use scooters - Europe is huge into bike commute, so eliminating it

3. business tie-ups (B2B) - unless businesses ask for it, this is not relevant. so eliminating it.

painpoints for tourists: 

1. travel from point-a to point-b , where to pickup bikes and where to park bikes
2. outside Schengen tourists: no license to ride a bike
3. schengen & non-schengen tourists: insurance to ride a bike
4. how to navigate places while riding a bike?
5. filling gas
6. checking air
7. cleanliness & sanitation of bikes 
8. usually, a guide or extensive research is required to navigate famous places
9. what are some good food places near me during the lunch hour?

Prioritize pain points:

since we are building an MVP for scooter sharing, I want to prioritize the top 6 pain points. And check how the adoption is, before going deep and building full blown features. 

Vision: 

Solutions:

Google

Conclusion/summary:

we covered: Goals & alignment for google to build scooter sharing, clarification, users , pain points, prioritization, vision, solutions (google builds OS & software, partners with manufacturers, bike management staff, users)

 

Consumer application for Scooter Sharing

Clarifications:

What is it: Rider is going from point A to B, can share the pinion rider seat.

Who is starting this: startup or a big org

Goal: Acquisition, Retention, $$ (if near future for startup)

Region: Country A or region

What is a Scooter: a 2 wheeler vehicle

 

User segments

Scooter owners – want to earn money, concerned about their safety, convenience & experience

Local travelers/ Tourists – visited a place, want point A to B drop, looking for a cheaper travel option, availability is key

Daily office goes – for point A to B drop, want quicker/ cheaper transportation, cost/ convenience is key

Small luggage carriers – point A to B drop, price is key

 

 

Scope: Mobile, Office goers

 

Scooter owner's cutomer journey:

Firms plan to go from A to B -> Decides to open his shooter for sharing -> Gets a request -> Accepts it -> Rides to the pickup point -> Rides to drop point -> Collect money - > If ride still left, opens for new requests

Office goer's cutomer journey: 

Dailly office goes: Looks out for transport options -> Opens app -> Checks scooter availability for his route -> Accepts an option -> Walks to the pickup point -> Drops off at destination -> Makes a payment

 

 Pain points

	Severity of pain point	Solvability	Overall priority
Owner - Does not get requests within the time slot available – may not open well in advance	High	Medium	P1
Owner - Cannot check/ accept requests while riding	Medium	Medium	P2
Pickup/ Drop will increase his travel time – are out of the way, has traffic	Medium	High	P1
Owner - At drop off, Handing cash/ UPI payment is time consuming, inconvenient on a scooter	Medium	High	P3
Pinion R - Does not get a suitable option - pick, drop is far away/ not convenient	High	High	P1
Pinion R- The scooter is not in good condition/ foul smell, dirty	Low	High	P4

 

 Pain points prioritized:

Owner - Does not get requests within the time slot available – may not open well in advance

Owner - Cannot check/ accept requests while riding

 Owner - Pickup/ Drop will increase his travel time – are out of the way, has traffic

Pinion R - Does not get a suitable option - pick, drop is far away/ not convenient

 

Product solution

Auto notification to open for bookings in advance – Add route start time

Phone call for new booking while riding – via audio, narration of pickup time, deviation, delay

Upfront show impact on arrival time basis distance and traffic, $$

Default show walkable pick up points, option to choose car, auto drop points

Pre-authorization for payment, automatic payment on trip completion

 

Want to deep dive into any solution: No

 

KPIs:

North Star: #app installs, #ride bookings/ week, #repeat bookings/ user/ month

 

Feature KPIs: Auto notification to open for bookings in advance – Add route start time

#users subscribed

#advanced openings

#advanced openings via notifications

Booking rate of advance openings (vs regular bookings)

 

 

 

 

 

 

First I would like to ask some clarifying questions:

1. Is this a B2B or B2C product? Ans: B2C

2. Does this product already exist in the market? Or are releasing the product with the first version of the app? Product exists

3. Are we creating an MVP version only? Yes

4. Is this the only such product in the market? Or do we have any existing competition we should be aware of? None

5. Is this a startup or an established company? Startup

 

Product Goal: to allow users to book a scooter through the app

Business Goal: to increase user acquisition

 

We could have a list of users here like tourists, locals who want to rent it for a day, etc. Since we are trying to increase user acquisition, let's focus on the biggest user base - tourists.

User persona: As a tourist, I have visited a new city and in order to go around I am looking to rent a scooter during the day for 2 days. I am a solo traveler and I am on a budget.

For the MVP version, I will focus on the product idea of allowing users to register themselves and look for the nearest pickup station to book a scooter for a particular time period.

 

	Feature	Value for the user	Cost Efficiency
1.	User profile creation (allows users to go back ad view their past trips)	5	4
2.	Look for the nearest station	4	4
3.	Book a ride	4	3
4.	Online payment	3	2
5.	Call of help (SOS)	2	3

 

Because we are building the MVP, I would like to focus on the basic features first - which is #1,2,3. Based on the above prioritization matrix, I would like to prioritize the features in the same order.

 

Metrics: To track the success of my app, I would look at the following metrics

1. No of profiles created

2. Avg no of searches per user

3. No of rides booked

4. Demographic info of users

5. Customer complaints/ app store ratings

6. User Retention (30-60 days)

 

If we would like to build features beyond the MVP, we can look into more use cases tourists would be interested in. Eg:

1. Find friends through the app - While using the scooter, I may want to find other people riding scooters in the area and meet with them

2. Create a plan for me - Based on your input time, and location, I will create a tourist plan for you, with information on how and where to drop the scooter after you finish your plan.

 

• clarification question:
  • is it a domestic or international market? which market are we talking about?
  • what kind of business are we talking about? Is it an app for consumer to share their own scooter to others? Or is it an app for consumer to rent scooter provided by whoever else?
  • What kind of scooter are we talking about? Is it a scooter that can carry only one person or is it a scooter that need a driver?
• Brainstorm the business model:
  • P2P rent: an individual with scooter can share their own scooter to others when they don't use them.
    • Supply side: the individuals with scooter
    • Demand side: individuals who need to use the scooter.
  • ride platform: an individual drive a scooter to ride others to own money.
    • Supply side: the scooter provider(company)/rider
    • Demand side: Rider
  • B2C rent: scooter rent company provide with the scooter and users rent the scooter
    • Supple side: the scooter rent company
    • Demand side: individuals who need to use the scooter
  • Mkt analysis: we can conduct mkt analysis to find the feasibility of each business model.
    • Is there any competitors in the market?
    • supply side analysis
    • demand side analysis
• Define/describe the problem scenario:
  • short-distance route
• Define the user segments: we can consider the user segments in dimension of demographics, user behaviour and user preference
  • Define:
    • working professionals who has short distance commute everyday
    • students who need to travel to school everyday
    • Local people who dont have short distance ride frequently but might have some ad hoc short distance ride
    • Tourists who want to visit the city but don't have a car
  • Prioritise:
    • Metric: mkt size+desire level(unit business value)
    • Will choose #1
• Personas:
  • Lisa: a 25-35 working professional who has 3 km commute everyday and it's hard for her to find a parking place(or simply the parking place is expensive or far away from her company)
• Alternatives:
  • Taxi: tooexpensive
  • Bus: wait for too long, not flexible
  • Car: too expensive, not easy to find a park place
  • Walking: too tired
  • Bicyle: Not easy to park, risk of being stolen, not flexible if another kind of transportation is needed.
• Value proposition:
  • Easy access, flexible,cheap,safe
• MVP testing: before we build anything, we can use some validation methods to test if our idea is really valuable and how the users would react to this new product. We have some ways to test:
  • hand-create a product(for example we can collaborate with scooter rent company, put several scooters on the street and try to ran the business offline), stay closely with a persona to observe his attitude of this kind of business and how he behaves during the routes. For example, do they prefer to rent and return the scooter in a specific spot or without a spot
  • put some ads in youtube with the sign up link to see the sign up rate.
• After the testing, a clearer piciture of what our product should looks like:
  • The business is a domestic business mainly focus in big cities to provide consumers with easy access to rent and return a shared scooter in some specific area.
• Define User pain points/Based on the pain points, we can come up with features as follows, we will consider the framework to prioritize the features: the impact to end-users, the business value to companies, the implementation cost
  • Lisa wants to find the scooter nearby easily
    • landing page and user profile
      • H,H,L
      • P1
    • find user location
      • H,M,H
      • P2
    • tag the scooters nearby
      • H,M,H
      • P2
    • GPS directs her to where scooters are
      • M,L,H
      • P3
  • Lisa wants to be aware of how to drive the scooter
    • an introduction of how to drive
      • H,H,L
      • P1
  • Lisa wants to use the scooter
    • connect to bank account
      • H,H,L
      • P1
    • use QR code or creditials to unlock the scooter
      • H,H,L
      • P1
    • monitor the using and count the fees
      • H,H,L
      • P1
    • feedback upload if the scooter doesn't work well
      • M,L,L
      • P3
    • chatbot to report issues or ask for help
      • M,L,L
      • P3
  • Lisa wants to finish the ride
    • Check if the parking place is within the permitted area
      • H,H,L
      • P1
    • show the nearest parking place
      • H,H,L
      • P1
    • Updated the status when user lock the scooter and stop the fee counting
      • H,H,L
      • P1
    • Payment for the fee
      • H,H,L
      • P1
    • Reminder if the user forget to lock
      • H,L,H
      • P3
  • Lisa wants to lock the scooter tempariraly and continue to use it in a while
    • a function that can lock the scooter and do not allow anyone else to unlock it(maybe a unique password would send to the user to unlock the scooter again)
      • M,M,H
      • P2
  • Lisa thinks the app is useful and want to recommend it to friends
    • a button to share the app easily
      • M,H,L
      • P1
    • a referral bonus when the friends successfully pay for the first route
      • H,H,L
      • P1
• Metrics:
  • Aquicision
    • ads click through rate
    • app download per day
    • sign up(total, %growth) per day by city
  • Activation
    • DAU
    • route(total, %growth) per day/per week by city/area
  • Engagement
    • route(total) per person week
  • Retention
    • retention rate per day, week,month
  • Revenue
    • profit per route per day, week, month
    • profit by city
    • profit by area
    • profit %growth weekly, monthly
  • Referral
    • share times per person
    • share times per day, week, month
    • referral link click through rate
    • users come from referral per day, week, month
    • users come from referral by city/area
    • growth %
    • revenue/cost per referral
•  

Clarifications: Consumer for scooter sharing for which country/region/area? Scooter I guess means an electric scooter which is owned by an org and needs to be shared across users using this app? Is there any specific ask for mobile or web version?

Assumptions: US region, yes electric scooter, mobile app

User segments: Working (25-50)-Part time and full time, Students (18-24) and Elders (50-65).

Use cases: a) Going to office and coming back, b) Delivery of goods and services c) Going to college and travelling back d) Travel to nearest station, bus stop and airport.

Of these segments and use-cases, I guess the use-case and segment we shall be targetting right now is travelling to nearest station, bus stop etc by adults and college students as this is the shortest travel application of the scooters so the rotation will be high which means more users can use it and can generate higher revenue. Moreover for the end users there might already be other source of transportation already available like personal vehicles, bus, trains etc to travel to large distance however travelling convienently and economically can be achieved by using this app.

As-Is Journey: Today most of the users who travel regularly and wish to catch bus, train or flight travel from their home to the stations (bus, train etc) either walking or using another local transportation or private vehicles such as cabs. 

User pain points: a) Cabs are costly for regular use b) For getting to local transportation user has to wait on the stop 

Solution: 

Feature 1: Allowing user to book and cancel and ride: a) Create multiple pick up/drop points for the scooter across the city (all bus, train stations and airports) and place scooters over there b) Create an app which can search for user location using GPS and find nearest scooter station. The app will show the available scooters with different models, charge left, distance scooter can cover. c) User can select the scooter and enter the destination. d) App will find nearest scooter stop near the destination e) User can book the scooter and pick up the scooter from the station. 

Feature 2: Driver validation: Behind the scenes, user profile will be validated for driving fitment( license checks , expiration of license etc.) and past ride history to allow or cancel the booking.

Feature 3: Automatic Wallet Payment: As soon as I click on booking, the ride fare will be auto-deducted from the balance available in users wallet. 

Prioritization: Right now, in order to build MVP, the key feature to be prioritized is automated booking/cancellation of the ride and driver validation for a safe ride. Feature 3 can be prioritized in next iteration.

From what I understand, scooter sharing means a model where 2 users can travel together in a scooter and reach their destinations (Interviewer – Yes)

Any particular type of application? Web or App (Interviewer – You can decide)

The reason why is this needed is there are a lot of times where-in a user might not have scooter and want to travel to a nearby location. This platform shall ensure that such users from demand side are brought together with users from supply side and this shall reduce traffic on the roads as well. Is there any other reason why do we need it? (Interviewer – Nope, this is the reason)

Any particular scooter? (Interviewer – Nope, anything is fine)

I would want to focus on ensuring that users are quite engaged in using our platform as the primary objective. Is that fine? (Interviewer – Ok)

Thinking about the users, there are 2 sides – one who shall be driving the bike (henceforth called driver) and one who shall be the pillion rider (henceforth called rider) [Assumption: driver owns the bike]

I would want to develop a app because that is easily accessible for both side of the users and can be carried everywhere.

Thinking about the personas:

1)      Driver – Driver has some work. He wants to move from X -> Y at time T.  He decides to share his ride with another user (rider) so that he can make some more money and he can socialize with the rider.

2)      Rider – Rider wants to move from location X -> Z at time T, but do not own a scooter. Hence he decides to go as a pillion rider.

I would want to focus on persona of a driver as only with drivers can riders be onboarded. Amongst drivers, I can think 2 sub-segments: One who become driver for making more money; One who want to use that time to socialize. However, given that it is a 2 wheeler, the money making segment seems more appropriate.

Thinking of a probable user journey of a driver, it shall be something similar to follows: Drive has some work at location Y at time T -> Driver decides to share this ride with rider to make more money -> he opens the app -> enters start, end location, time of journey ->  Driver shall get list of riders who have to de dropped along the route -> Driver accepts one of them -> At time T, he picks them up -> Driver drops the rider at the intended location -> Driver gets paid once the ride is completed.

 Some challenges the driver shall face in the above flow:

1)      Driver might not trust the rider

2)      Driver might find it tough to spot riders location

3)      Driver might not know which rider to pick to earn more money.

4)      Rider might come late, which may delay the scheduled work of the driver, if he has any

5)      Riders location might be farther from the actual destination of the driver

1), 2), 5) are the most important to be solved for MVP

Listed down couple of solutions to solve the above

Solution	Problem that is solved	Utility/impact	Cost/Dev needed
Aadhar/NID verification for each rider Each rider shall have to provide is national identity before he gets enlisted	1	M	L
Ratings and Reviews for each rider Each rider shall be shown ratings and reviews based on which the driver can take a decision	1	H	H
Profile details of each rider Driver can view profile of each rider so as earn more trust with some analytics like number of rides that rider has done	1	H	M
Whatsapp integration to chat with each rider Rider can share live location via whatsapp	1,2	H	M
GPS – Live location inbuilt in app by integration with Gmaps	2	H	H
Landmarks to be given by riders	2	M	L
Algorithm to show only riders who shall be picked on the way	5	H	H
Set of designated pick & drop points. By looking at the riders drop point, the rider can decide whether to accept the ride or not	5, 2	M	M

 

For the MVP, I would go with the following:

1)      Profile data of each riders visible to drivers

2)      Whatsapp integration to chat and share live location

3)      Set of designated pick and drop points so that it is easier for driver to pick and take decision on whether to agree to onboard the rider

 

Metrics I would evaluate are as follows:

1)      Number of daily active drivers

2)      Avg Weekly riders for a driver

3)      Number of profile views of riders/ Total riders accepted in a week

4)      Time taken for a driver to accept a rider

5)      Number of times the driver looked at profile and did not accept a rider

6)      Time spent in chatting with rider in Whatsapp

 

 

 

Understanding the problem

First let's clarify what we mean when we say scooter. For the sake of this problem, I'm going to assume we mean a motorized, either gas or eletric, scooter and not a manually powered Razer scooter one might have played with as a child. Furthermore, is this going to be a single one person standing scooter or is this scooter more of a motorbike? Let's just assume its a single one person standing scooter.

What are we trying to accomplish with this app? What is our main goal, do we have the luxury of focusing on engagement or do we need to start focusing on making some money and turning a profit? For the sake of this question, let's focus on engagement and providing users with a really great experience.

User Personas

We're focusing on the consumer side of things, so we can ignore the business personas or people handling operations on behalf of the Scooter company. Some of the different consumers could be grouped together as follows:

1. Students: Typically aged 18-25. Low on funds, price sensitive. Probably live in a city but don't have a car. 
2. Tourists: May be individuals or groups of varying ages. May have children or kids with them. In an area they are unfamiliar with. On vacation so not as price sensitive. 
3. Teenagers / Kids: Not old enough to drive a car, but still need to get around and go places. Probably with their friends. Enjoy the fun side of the experience.

Out of the above user personas, let's focus on the tourist user segment. This user segment sticks out to me because the sharing aspect of the app strikes me as a better fit for them than the other two user segments. Both students and teenagers / kids could ultimately just end up owning their own scooter where as that would not make sense for tourists.

Pain Points / Needs

Now that we've chosen a user segment to focus on let's list out some of their pain points and needs:

1. In a foreign city, where everything is unfamiliar to them
2. There might be a language barrier
3. Need a convenient way of getting around the city
4. Need to know where to go and which destinations are worth seeing
5. Want to feel safe operating the scooter
6. May be traveling in a group and need multiple scooters

Solutions

Now that we have a better understanding of some of the different problems and needs that the Tourist user segment has let's brainstorm some solutions:

1. A helmet that is attached to the scooter and unlocks when scooter time is purchased
2. A map view that displays where scooters are currently available
3. A guide mode that recommends different local places of interest for the user to visit and gives them directions on how to get there
4. The ability to call a scooter to you, the scooter would use self driving technology to drive itself to you for your convenience

We probably don't have the bandwidth to build out all of the above solutions in parallel so we need to figure out which one we should prioritize. 

I'm going to suggest we focus on the 4th solution for a couple of reasons. One, it targets users at the top of the funnel and essentially supersedes the other solutions in the sense that those solutions won't be helpful to users if they aren't even using our scooter sharing app to begin with. Second, it directly helps us accomplish our goal of increasing engagement by making the ride sharing app a lot easier to use. We should expect to see an increase in our number of DAUs and MAUs.

To describe the solution in a little more detail. Users who open our app will have the ability to press a beckon button that will wake up the nearest available scooter and have it begin piloting itself towards the user's location. The user would see a map displaying the scooter and it's estimated arrival time. Additionally, users could schedule or reserve scooters to arrive in advance of their planned departure time so they would not have to wait for it. This would also solve the issue of groups of tourists needing multiple scooters and the scooters coming from different locations so their arrival times would be different and there would be more waiting. 

Another interesting aspect of this that would increase our DAUs and MAUs is marketing side of having self driving scooters. I imagine initially when people see self driving scooters buzzing around they are going to whip their heads around to get a look. If we aggressively branded our scooters, I think we could drum up a lot of interest in product from that alone.

In terms of downsides of this feature, it would be incredibly hard to implement. Self-driving technology is no easy feat and companies have invested billions into solving this technical issue. I don't think it would make sense for us to try and solve this problem ourselves but licensing the technology of other companies seems like an easier path. Furthermore, we could try and negotiate the license for free via the angle that with all of our scooters using your technology you will be able to gather a large number of additional data points and leverage that to make your technology even better. Really, they should be paying us to use their technology. ;)

Summary

In conclusion, we are going to focus on increasing engagement amongst the tourists user segment. We'll address their pain point of needing a convenient way of traveling in a foreign city, by offering the ability to beckon or schedule a scooter to arrive at your location via self driving technology. By making our prodct easier to use we should increase our total number of DAUs and MAUs.

Assuming we are considering this Business for Indian Market.Particularly Indian Metro cities. (Confirm with interviewer)

What is Scooter sharing (I will confirm the definition with Interviewer)

1. Drivers sharing 2 wheeler scooter space with riders. Riders pay specific charge for the ride.

2. Drivers offering their 2 wheeler scooter on rental basis to riders.

There are 3 stakeholders:

1. Drivers: These are scooter owners who are ready to offer ride to riders or rent the same . Driving is their primary source of income.

2. Riders: They need scooter for commute within city

3. Platform which connects drivers and riders: This is nothing but the mobile app

Market Research:

1. Are there other players in this business?

2. What is their Business model?

3. What features they have in their platform?

4. Can we borrow some ideas from them?

5. How is the Demand / Supply looks like?

6. What should be our pricing model?

User Research:

1. Identify Target Group

   - Drivers in urban Indian cities who are between 18 to 40 years of age and willing to share ride or rent their scooters. They fall in low income group and are looking to increase their monthly income.

   - Riders in urban Indian cities who do not have their own vehicle and are looking for a quick ride to office or any other place of interest.

2. Conduct Surveys, Interviews and Contextual Inquiries with Drivers and Riders

3. Understand their pain points.

4. Develop Key User Personas

Following are the Personas:

Drivers

1. Educated (but unemployed) Young Adults from low income familes who own scooters and need money to meet their daily expenses.

2. Working Lower Middle class People who have extra scooter at home without usage. They can rent this out for additional income.

Riders

1. Working Professionals: who are looking for a quick ride to their office as public transportation usually takes longer and cabs are expensive.

2. Students:  who  are looking for pocket friendly ride to reach their college/educational institution.

3. Senior citizens: who need to visit hospitals/market regularly.

We will look at pain points of Working professionals as commuting is a frequent use case for them.

1. They often reach office late due to heavy traffic on road.

2. They find travelling via cabs expensive

3. They have to wait for a long time for cabs to arrive

4. They dont want to use public transportation as the journey exhausts them and they get tired

5. They dont know all the routes/shortcuts as they are new to the city

 

Lets think about features for painpoint 1,2 and 3

1. Map based interface which shows drivers nearest to their location

2. Ride Booking

3. Payment through In app wallet

4. In app Ratings and Reviews

5. Email or SMS feedback

6. Payment through Netbanking/CC/DC/UPI  

 

Lets evaluate these features based on impact on User goal and cost of implementation

1. Map based interface which shows drivers nearest to their location: High Impact, High cost

2. Ride Booking: High Impact, Low cost

3. Payment through In app wallet: Medium Impact, Low cost

4. In app Ratings and reviews: High Impact, Low cost

5. Email or SMS Feedback: Low impact, Low cost

6. Payment through Netbanking/CC/DC/UPI: High Impact, High cost   

 

Based on the evaluation mentioned above, following features can be considered for MVP.

1. Map based interface which shows drivers nearest to their location

2. Ride Booking

3. Payment through In app wallet

4. In app Ratings and reviews

We can review the following metrics to measure success of these features:

1. % of Rides completed: No. of rides completed/ No. of rides booked

2. Average $ value of each ride

3. % commission on each ride

4. Average amount earned by Driver for each ride

5. Average Ride ratings

Conclusion: We will start a scooter sharing service in Indian Metro cities which will target working professionals. We will introduce Must have features in the first version and based on the assesment of Key performance metrics we can decide to persevere or pivot.

Clarification 

When you say scooter sharing do you mean a business model like Lime? Assuming yes

 To summarise the business model

Lime rents out rechargable e scooter that one can rent from a hub to destination 

It's an entirely self serve model - users rent it and ride it till destination 

it has limited range (compared to a car) and can be driven in designated lanes or side walk 

 

Identify the customer 

I can think of the following customer personas :

• Office goers - local residents who travel back and forth to work, 
  • usually own a personal vehicle or user public transport 
  • travel distances are usually on the higher side. 
  • Older 
  • Repetitive commute pattern
  • Used to creature comforts
  • high disposable income
  • Savvy on mainstream trends
• Students - 
  • locals or out of towners staying in town 
  • live near college campus
  • Travel light
  • Younger
  • Lower disposable income
  • savvy on the latest trends
• Travellers - 
  • Age varies - usually on the mature side
  • High disposable income usually
  • Travel with a lot of baggage
  • Travel a decent amount

1. Ive to frequently get around college campus 
2. Im lazy - I want instant gratification
3. Im always to save money
4. I may not be aware of scooter riding rules/routes
5. Im not sure how long it'll take to reach my destination 
6. Im not sure where the nearest hub is and if I'll find a scooter AND if it has enough charge
7. even if it's available not sure if I'll get it once I get there BUT Im not sure of the condition of the scooter - dont want to reserve something im not sure 
8. Im worried that I might hurt myself 
9. I may not want to travel to the nearest hub 

• Users can use the app without account creation -> students are lazy : Users can explore the app/discover the scooter hub and availability without registering/filling a form, to book users need to register 
  • Why?As a new user I want to quickly find the hub and check if scooter's available, I dont want to register and then find out 
  • RICE: H H H M 
  • Call: PICK, because this is a great way to improve new user acquisition 
• Users can use the scooter to commute on campus multiple times: Users can book scooter within campus for extended period of time (there's a max range user can travel as part of the package)
  • Why?  Colleges kid spend most of their time on campus/commuting on campus + are price sensitive
  • RICE: H H H H 
  • Call: PICK, locks in the user and ensure guranteed revenue through the day
• Scooter riding rules: Users can check the riding rules on the app as they may vary from city to city, further more colleges may have certain specific rule  
  • Why? Some users may be new and we want to onboard them safely 
  • RICE: H M H L 
  • call: PICK, quick win given the effort + will make new users feel more comfortable 
• Safe riding mode: Users can choose to drive in safe mode which has milder acceleration + assisted breaking, users who are riding for the first time will have this on my default(they can switch it off) for their own safety. After a couple of rides they'll be nudged to switch it off/asked if they want to keep it on on their next trip 
  • RICE: H H M H
  • call: PICK, its a differentiator and  also is needed given how nascent the category is 
• Scooter routes: Users can find scooter route directions on the app + travel time 
  • RICE: M M H H
  • Call: Next version, users can live without it, most students are familiar with campus and its an L size task
    additionally most users have google maps + scooter come with a cell phone mount so it gets solved easily 
• Remote scooter preview and reservation: Users can remotely preview a scooter (physical condition) + battery status + reserve it before he/she reaches the hub to ensure availability.
  • RICE: H H H VH
  • Call: Pick, its a high effort item but is a differentiaor has reach and build confidence for the user + improves funnel drastically, however remote preview is extremely intense on effort with unproven return on as part of V1 we'll include a user given rating on the condition of the scooter 
• Fall detection: Fall detection in case user falls, customer support will reach out to customer and ask/call medical assistance if required, users can also set it up as part of their profile along with their insurance info.
  • RICE: M VH H M
  • Call: Next version, not an immediate/obvious need for this cohort 
• Phone charging: Users can plug in their phone into the bike to charge while they are riding
  • RICE: H L M VH
  • Call: Drop - requires hardware changes + liability associated with phone damage in the process 
• Cashback on dropping the scooter off at another hub: Users can earn cashback by leaving the scooter at a another delivery hub in charging position, they can use the cashback for their next ride. 
  this will greatly improve ride availability, scooter active riding hours and ops costs associated with collecting a bike + has a great fit with price senstive nature of students AND helps us drive retention with a highly valuable set of users (responsible riders)
  • RICE: H H H M
  • Call : PICK

Assumptions : 

• We are making a mobile app(ios/android) as it is more convenient and practical.
• The scooter that we are talking about is a normal 2 person scooter.
• The goal of our app is to pool scooter ride and not lending the scooter as a whole.
• Drivers will be posting their commute details and riders can contact them accordingly.

• 18-26 years:-This is the main user group which includes college students and working people in early stages of their career as their objectives are to save money and earn some extra cash.
• 26+ years:- They might want to cut down their expenses of commute but the number of users are less in this group as they earn more than the previous group.

1. Able to see the pickup location of interested riders and their details(for security)
2. Can choose any rider from the list of interested riders according to preference.
3. Able to talk to the rider(chat/call) before the ride.
4. Have the liberty of accepting payment online/offline.

1. Can put drop location and see the best available drivers accordingly.
2. Get the details of the ride and driver contact details beforehand (for security)
3. Able to track the ride.
4. Can Pay online/offline to the driver.

1.  Matchmaking: we will have an option where drivers can put their commute details(Starting and endpoint), for riders we will set their current location as the pickup point and they can enter their destination, we can put an algorithm that according to driver's commute details and rider's destination can match them and show the rider a list of drivers that are going to/near his destination and then he can select the driver and waits for his confirmation.
    
2. For safety: we will ask drivers and riders to enter their details(AADHAR/PAN/any other id proof) while signing up and can do verification before activating their account. An emergency feature will also be there in the app which any of the two members can use in case of any bad situation.
    
3. Tracking Ride: GPS of the driver's mobile will be used by which we will update the driver's location in the app, enabling the rider to track the ride.
    
4. Communication between driver & rider before the ride: A chat box will be displayed on the app after confirming the ride by both driver and the rider, which will enable them to chat with each other. Apart from this, their phone numbers will also be visible to each other after ride confirmation.
    
5. Payment: While signing up, setup of payment wallet(Paytm/Paypal) or credit card/debit card/bank details will be mandatory to enable online transactions between both the parties.

Clarifications

1. I believe in US scooter is very different than that from say Europe or Asia, which vehicle are we talking about?

2. Which market?

Let's say the answer comes back to US and US version of scooter which means single rider, no gas almost like a skateboard but with a longer handle for holding. Also no lender needed per se.

Business Model and App design are going to be similar to bike sharing like 'scoot', 'jump' or 'lime' which are already in place. Also a scooter only company 'bird' also has an app out. So those are good starting points. Not sure what else to say except that it's a standard 4 step UI

1. Locate where you are

2. Find the nearest asset on map

3. Approach, unlock, authorize pay and ride start

4. Ride, park & settle payment

If on the other hand it's a Europe or Asia use case with a lender and borrower ecosystem, then for that the design to be followed is the 'airbnb', 'turo' or 'getaround' design.

Is there anything in particular that is missed above and needs to be addressed for this question?

The use-case is that it an Air BnB for scooters.
1. This app is a mobile app
2. The users intend to rent a scooter for a few days
3. The same app should be used to put up the listing as well. However, it is currently out of the scope of this document.
4. Users will have to pick up the vehicle from the owner, the owner will not come and deliver
4. The company will not pay for the petrol

Users
In the current version, we will address three kinds of users
The user has come to a new city and wants to be independent while traveling that is why they want to hire a scooter. This is very common in South Asian countries.
The other user is someone who lives in the city and wants to drive down to someplace and will be back in a few days.
Another use case could also be someone wants to use the vehicle within the city for business purposes

Major restriction
Identification of a user. This process has to be manual as of now. The owner of the vehicle will take the responsibility of verifying if the person who has come to pick up the vehicle has a legit DL.

Basic Requirements
The user gets to select the date range for which they want to hire the vehicle
The user also gets to select the spot from which they want to hire the vehicle (details ahead)
The app in the background tracks the km the vehicle has traveled
The business model is to charge on the distance plus some daily charges
The daily charges will be paid upfront as a token amount while the distance fee will be paid at the completion of the trip
All the payment will be online in nature

Functional requirements

The user should be able to select the date range of the duration of the hire
The time when the vehicle will be picked and when it will be dropped off to the same location.
By default, it will pick the current location of the user. However, the user also gets to over-ride this and select some other location. This interface will be like Uber.

The above information should take them to the listing page. Let us talk about the listing page where all the available vehicles are listed
The following information will be shown on this page
Picture of the vehicle
Name (Company with specification)
Kilometers it has already been driven
Price (per km)
Distance from the location of the user

Following action items will be there on this page
Select (with the purpose of checkout)
View details

The user clicks on start trip, indicating the start of their trip and the km starts getting counted.
When the user clicks on end trip, the final km count is shown to them and a bill gets generated and the user is supposed to pay for the same

Definition of an active user- A user who has completely completed at least one trip and has paid for the same.

Metrics
Sucess metrics
Number of app downloads
Number of bookings per day/per week vs Number of successful completion of trips
Number of repeats users per month