As a PM for Uber, how will you help riders from forgetting their phone in Uber?

Candidate: I assume the goal is to a create great customer experience by ensuring that customers do not lose their stuff in transit and also to reduce operational costs associated with the customer contacts.

Interviewer: sounds good

Candidate: Do we want on only the rider or both the rider and any other people that tag with the rider?

Interviewer: Let us stick wiht only rider for the sake of time constraints

Candidate: Do we also want focus on creating a solution when riders actually forgets the phone in terms of designing the solution to protect the phone and safely hand over the phone to customers?

Interviewer: no, stick to build solution to help them from forgetting the phone in the first place

User journey and pain points

User books a ride

Driver picks up the rider

Rider uses the phone in the car at time

Rider reaches the destination

Sometimes, rider gets off leaving the phone behind

Pain points

1. User is not alerted when they leave the phone behind; until the user find the phone it hampers their daily activity

2. Sometimes subsequent riders might just take the unattended phone left by the previous rider, in which case user will lose the phone

Solutions

1. Announce the reminder to pick up the phone using the car sound system upon reaching the destination

Reminder message can be "you have arrived at the destination; please ensure you collect all your belongings"

We can achieve this by integrating Driver's uber app with car's sound system.

2. Similarly, we can play an alert on the rider uber istelf, something along the lines " you are approaching the destination; please pick up all your stuff"

3. We can also utilize the haptic feedback signal and pop up a alert message on the wearables; we just need to connect the uber app on the phone with the wearables using bluetooth or other communication technology.

Prioritization

Solution	Cost	Benefit	Trade-off
Sound alert using car sound system	moderare, use driver's uber app, location data, and car sound system	high, it is always available
Sound alert using rider phone	moderate, need to configure notification that is read out loud	high, alerts user to pick up phone	this would not work when the phone is dead
Haptic alert using rider wearable	high, sending the feedback signal form phone to wearable might require user to download a app on the wearable as well	high, it serves regular users and users as well as users that are hard of hearing	not all users have wearables

Due to trade-offs that we see with other two solutions, I would select sound alert using car sounds system and driver's uber app and location data.

Success metrics

Change in the number of users that forget the phone, before and after rolling out this change; we can get this from the customer's data

Change in the number of customer contacts, before and after rolling out this change

Change in the customer retention, before and after rolling out this change; when customers avoid negative experiences such as losing stuff while on the ride, they are more statisfied and use the app more often.

hksrise · Answer 2 · 2021-12-17T06:06:06+0000

Hey Guys,

Please find my approach below :

Clarifying Questions :

1. Any particular geography where this is happening more frequently? Ans : Tier 1 cities India

2. Any particular time slot and days during which people are often forgetting their mobile phones in the cab? Ans : Morning Office Hours & Evening Hours during weekdays and Late nights during weekends

3. Any partuclar type of ride where the commuters are forgetting their mobile phones more often (For Ex : Uber Pool, Black etc?) Ans : Uber Pool

4. What happens to the forgotten Mobile? Is it handover to the commuter directly by the Cab Driver or is it handed over to the central office? Ans : Generally handed over by the Cab driver to the commuter

5. Is it happening for any particular payment mode ride? For Ex: Cash, UPI etc? Ans: Cash

6. How is the commuter contacted for the forgotten mobile? Ans: Via email or an alternate number

Ok, so taking all of these details into account, we can focus on the Office commuting profile as 1st: They are power users with frequent activity on the app and an important compenent of our growth flywheel 2nd : since they are going to be spending more time commuting via our cabs, there are higher chances of them forgetting their mobiles in the cab.

We also need to understand why are users accessing their mobiel phones inside the cab in the 1st place. A few plausible reasons here could be : a) To access and share the OTP b) To attend office calls c) Listening to music/podcast d) Watching youtube/OTT e)Reading their favorite popular subscription (Like TheKen).

While most of the above reasons appear apt to be considered for focussing and building solutions, I would like to prioritise and shortlist basis the most frquently observed action for accessing the mobiel phone.

i.e a) Accessing the mobile phone for sharing the OTP and c) For listening to music.

I would now quickly jot down some alternate solutions to the above mentioned problems and how it cand be solved and ultimatley decrease the mobile misplacments during the rides.

Proposed solutions for a) Accessing mobiel for OTP sharing

i) Integrate the Uber app with wearables to display OTPs on the watch directly(Mind you this is an Inapp OTP which get displayed after a ride is confirmed)

ii) Eliminate OTP and use the riders location and Cabs location to authenticate the rider's onbaording before starting the ride

iii)Display QR code on the wearable instead of the OTP which the driver can scan from his device

Solution for b) For Listenting to music/podcast

i) Install infotainment systems in the cabs with option to pair bluetooth or wired headphones and provide complimentary spotify/gaana daily pass with the ride

ii) Incentivise having conversation with Co-passengers during the ride by asking the commuters to share their experiences on Social media of the ride to get complimentary rewards

iii) Everytime a rider is dropped or about to be dropped the car's infotainemnt systems must automatically call the riders name and remind them of taking their mobile phones with them.

Using a quick framework around ease of implimentation and the scope of impact we have prioritized the below mentioned soltuions :

Problem 1 - Soln i) Display the OTP in wearables

Problem 2 - Soln - iii) Call the riders name and remind them to take their mobile devices with them

Post implimentaiton we can gauge the success by measuring the Decrease in the no. incidences in the last 30 days.