Design a driverless car pick up service for kids.

Framework

1. Ask follow up questions to understand the case better and establish business goal

2. Map out user jouney and identify pain points

3. Brainstorm solutions

4. Prioritize

Follow up questions and business goal

Candidate: are we looking at the desing of the app as well as some aspects of the vehicle hardware feature?

Interviewer: Yes

Candidate: What is the age-group that we want to serve, when we say kids? Is it for one kid at a time or multiple kids at time

Interviewer: 5-18; one kid at a time

Candidate: Since Kids require supervision, should we require parental approval before Kids can book a ride

Interviewer: Upto

Candidate: I assume the goal is to create a service that help kids to safely travel from point a to point b.

Interviewer: Sounds good.

User journey 

1. Decide the time and place to travel to

2. Call a driverless pick up vehicle

3. Identify the pick up vehicle

4. On-board into the vehicle safely

5. Reach the destination 

6. Exit the vehicle

Pain points

1. Kids might not accurately select the destination, thus might end up at a wrong place

2. Kids might be less sensitive to price increases, thus might make poor choices

3. Once vehicle is called, kids might have trouble in identifying the vehicle, especially one without the driver to help the kids with identification.

4. Kids might not wear a seat belt and take other necessary pre-cautions, if any.

5. Kids might not know to safely get off at a destination, Kids might try to get off at the run way/intersection in the destination.

6. Kids might not understand the hazards created by the bad weather and other travel related factors

Brainstorm solutions

1. Destination oversight: App that we develop can be set up only parents/guardian, they have to pre-approve the destinations that kids can select.

2. Price oversight: Whenever there is a price surge, automatic notification is sent to parent/guardian for approval of a ride-booking. When the price is a regualar range, no parental approval is required.

3. Identifiers: In addition to vehicle number, to help the kid identify the vehicle, we will flash kids name on the screen, that way kid would know the vehicle is look for them. 

We would also use facial recognition technology to let the kid inside the vehicle.

4. Automatic safety features: We would built automatic safety features such as auto-door locks, auto-seat belts, for kids protection

5. Safe exit/safe pick up: We would train the autonomous vehicle to identify the safe pick/exit points.

6. Safety guadrails: 

Driveless service would not operate when it the weather is too cold, too snowy, tonardos, too hot, as it is dangerous for kids to travel.

Driveless service would not take travel requests over X miles for kids safety.

This service would send a automatic notice to parent/guardian when it takes longer than usual time to reach the destination due to traffic and other issues

This serice would automatically send out a alert to parent/gaurdian when there is a traffic incident

Prioritization

I would prioritize all but price oversight as mandatory features

Success metrics

1. No of riders registered with the app (acquistion metric)

2. No of riders that acutally booked the ride (activation metric)

3. No of riders that actually booked the ride again / avg. of rides per account (retention metric)

4. Revenue from the riders booked

Try this approach to a product design interview question like this.

Goal: Design a driverless car pickup service.

Scope and Assumptions:

To be able to devise a solution to this problem, one needs to better understand the scope of the problem, the goal it looks to achieve, the genesis of the idea, etc. By being able to determine that, I can put myself in the shoes of the various users and design a product for the need.

Some questions I'd like to ask is what kind of a company is it that is looking for this solution, ie Are we an electric car company who is looking to have more cars on the street, are we a cab service like Uber who is looking to create a new market segment, are we a start-up who has identified a new opportunity and wants to enter the market with this idea. 

The answer to this question will help determine the kind of resources and reusable infrastructure the company has already and what can be the starting point for the new service.

Further, I'd like to define what age group are we considering as kids for the purpose of this problem. 

This will influence the degree of complexity and safety features that the service will need to offer, ie a 6-year-old will require a higher degree of hand-holding versus a teenager a few months shy of their driving license

The next scoping that I'd like to do, especially in the first iteration is to localize the geography of the service, to try and understand if this will be for an urban setting where distances traveled are usually smaller versus a more rural setting where distances are further out. 

This will also influence the safety features and ride experience that I'd like to think through

An additional thought that I have when I think of this as a service is if we are looking to create a subscription model or a single ride model. 

This question however can be addressed at a later stage in the product as it won't be part of the backbone structure that will be built out for the product.

In the interest of moving forward with this exercise, the last question I'd like to consider is how low touch does this service has to be, ie is the responsibility of verifying the passenger on the service provider or can will (must) that lie squarely on the caregiver?

This is a massive safety concern and should be marked off early as the boundary of the service. Does the responsibility of the safety of the provider start once the child is in the car, or does it start from the moment the ride is booked

To move this forward, I am going to scope the problem with the following assumptions:

• We are a startup looking to enter the market with this service.
• The first set market we are looking to tap in is the urban market, where rides are assumed to be under 15kilometers
• The service is essentially a ride service that starts once the identity of the rider is confirmed and by an adult and ends when the drop-off is confirmed at the destination by a designated adult.

With the above constraints, I can think of the following Usecases and users for the service:

Use Cases:

A child needs to be transported from point A -> B, periodically

- Every day, for example, home -> school

- Few times a week, ex. home -> sports center

- Infrequently but to known destinations, ex. home->grandparents' home

- One-time trips, ex. play dates

The users of the service can be broadly classified into:

1. Adults

    a. Primary caregivers

    b. Responsible Adults

    c. Institutions -schools, etc

2. Children - Riders

The relationship between the users here is a primary caregiver is responsible for the child in the ride, no one else but them can book a ride, and decide in ride experiences for the child

The responsible adult is any adult who once designated by the primary caregivers is allowed to drop off or receive a child who is riding the car

Children of course are the passengers.

For each set of users, Id like to further speak of the interactions they will have with the service, and how we should think about them

Needs:

1. Primary Caregiver:

• Safety 

1. Real-time updates of the trip
2. In-care monitoring of their ward
3. Safety procedures available in the car, the fall back in case of road incidents, features of the vehicle, etc.
4. Child handover: child entered and left the car and only a responsible adult has picked them up

• Convenience

1. Platform support: access service from mobile app
2. Availability of cars, advance booking features
3. Models available to them - one time / subscription / carpools
4. Reliability post booking

• Ride

1. Quality of the car - hygiene, safety 
2. Child engagement in trip
3. Content moderation on the car's infotainment systems
4. Supplies such as snacks and water

• Ability to check in / check out a rider from the vehicle
• Ride Tracking 

3. Rider

• Safety in car
• Engagement during the journey: should not be bored or scared
• Active communication line with responsible adults if they need it
• Panic switch

To come up with a solution, let's consider the case of a one-time trip - such as a playdate, as other trips can then be scaled versions of this implementation.

The following are the actions that one might perform in this experience, I will try and rate them on value, dependency and complexity, to help prioritize the queue

Solutions:

Registration and ride-booking are the two components that are essential to having the service take off but ensuring that the caregivers have peace of mind and the riders enjoy their trips is paramount to having repeat customers.

Success metrics:

Given we are a new startup, we need to work on two primary metrics:

1. Daily Active Users 
2. Number of trips completed in a day.