You are the Product Manager of a ride-share app. What features would you create to prepare the company for autonomous vehicles?

This is a product design question

Step 1: Clarify the question:

Would prepare mean changes to the customer engagement experience or pricing or fleet management process?

Is the product designed for a certain platform?

Is this an internal facing product or an external facing app?

Are there are any budget or timeline constraints that we have to keep in mind?

Do vehicles mean cars or commercial vehicles

We will assume that the product is designed for mobile platform, is an external customer facing app and designed for car ride hailing

Step 2: User groups:

We will assume that the product is designed for mobile platform, is an external customer facing app and designed for car ride hailing

User groups

1) Business customers- Use ride hailing app for business travel

2) Tourist customers

3) Misll users- grocery shopping, doctors visit etc.

We will focus on business customers

Step 3: Pain points

1) The car should be available just when I come outside the airport or office

2) The car should be able to recognize me in a group of people, stop and unlock the doors

3) The car should be able to program temperature, music etc to my choice

4) The car should wait in a nearby parking lot if I am delayed in getting down to the street

5) The car should have a way of calling me to provide directions in case its parked away from me

6) The car should be able to provide me with an alternative transportation or car in case its breaks down.

Step 4: Prioritize pain points

Priority 1- High Impact and Frequency

2) The car should be able to recognize me in a group of people, stop and unlock the doors

3) The car should be able to program temperature, music etc to my choice

4) The car should wait in a nearby parking lot if I am delayed in getting down to the street

Priority 2- Medium Impact and frequency

1) The car should be available just when I come outside the airport or office --> This may not be always possible due to traffic, congestion and delays from customer side

5) The car should have a way of calling me to provide directions in case its parked away from me --> The app itself can show the location of the car and the customer can walk down

Priority 3- Low Impact and frequency

6) The car should be able to provide me with an alternative transportation or car in case its breaks down. --> This will be rare and if at all, it happens,  the user can request a new vehicle on the app.

Step 5: Solutions

1 ) The car should have a camera to recognize the user and stop near him/her

2) The app should have a token to be passed on to the car to open the door

3) The app should be able to control the car temperate and music 

4) The car should be look for nearby holding spot and connect with the customer app to start towards the customer once customer is ready

5) The app should be able to look for an alternative car in case its delayed in traffic

6) The app should be able to recommend food spots to the user and order and connect with the car to pick up food

7) The app should allow the user to take calls on the cars speakers using blue tooth

Step 6: Prioritization of solution

Priority 1- High Impact and usage frequency

1 ) The car should have a camera to recognize the user and stop near him/her

2) The app should have a token to be passed on to the car to open the door

3) The app should be able to control the car temperate and music 

7) The app should allow the user to take calls on the cars speakers using blue tooth

Priority 2- Medium Impact and usage frequency

4) The car should be look for nearby holding spot and connect with the customer app to start towards the customer once customer is ready --> While this is good. its even implemented today to some degress for human driven cars. The cars typically wait 5 mins and then cancel the ride. Hence a priority 2 functionality

5) The app should be able to look for an alternative car in case its delayed in traffic --> Cars identified are usually close by and chosen based the time taken to reach the user.

Priority 3- Low Impact and usage frequency

6) The app should be able to recommend food spots to the user and order and connect with the car to pick up food