How will you build a travel recommendation product for an online travel giant?

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Keep the Covid situation & change in user preferences in mind while designing this

Asked at Expedia over a year ago

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Gaurav P · Answer 1 · 2022-03-04T07:18:47+0000

Just to repeat the Qns - "How will you build a travel recommendation product for an online travel giant?"

Clarification Qns

Few clarifications before I can proceed further & wanted to call out few assumptions (so that we are on the same page)

Defining the scope
1. Platform : mobile vs desktop
  1. Assumption - app (possibly android) this is where our majorty of traffic is
2. Geography : India or Global
  1. Assumption - India to solve for now
3. Sub Products : Flights / Flight + Hotel / Package
  1. Assumption - For now will focus on all (and later can see if we need to specifically build for any category)
4. Competition : new vs existing feature
  1. New -> What is the alternate product? What is the current journey & how users are solving this problem for now?
  2. Existing -> Walk through the existing user journey.
Constraints
1. Timeline - Assuming 6m (have enough time)
2. Budget - 10 -15 resouces (enough, no hacks required to GTM)
Goal
1. Primary Goal - Inc. Revenue (by inc. repeat bookings)
2. Secondary Goal - to inc. revenue we need to inc. engagement time / session, WAU, Retention - D(7)

Now, that we have clarified the scope & goal. Listing down the process I'll follow so that we are on the same page.

identify user personas / segments
1. Focus on a specific persona which has the max. %age and gets aligned w/ our goal
Identify pain points
List out solutions
Prioritise solutions (impact vs effort)
Success Metrics
Summarize

If above is ok, give me a couple of min. to think of user segments

User segments

Here i will pick S1 (couples) as they can travel the most often -

Reason - as they have time of hand on weekends / long weekends which is the majority of the users
Goal - it aligns w/ our goal as well where we want to inc. repeat bookings

If this is Ok, will like to proceed ahead w/ identify the current pain points for these user and then we can focus on finding solutions for them

Pain Point + Solution + Priortization

Pain point	Solution	Impact	Effort	Priority
Have free time on weekend (2d), long weekend (3 - 5d). Want ideas to plan trips & currently i struggle to get destination (where i can go)	Suggest destination recommender basis my current location for weekend travels (<200km)	H	L	1
	Long weekend planner Public holiday planner - (combine public holiday + additional office leaves) by month	H	L	2
	Recommend suggestion basis past searches - Suggest popular, trending destination	M	H	5
Once destination is decided, planning travel exp. is unorganized (happens across platform) 1. Flight / train booking 2. hotel booking 3. Food to eat 4. Cab booking (site seeing)	post a destination is selected by user, user to be shown pre-built packages DIY package - options to add activities (as per your taste)	H	H	3
Planning what to do after i reach is also fragmented (delays my booking)	Post booking, cross sell add on (food options, cabs, preferences etc) via mail / PN / order detail page	H	M	4

Success Metrics

Inc. in DAU, MAU
inc in time spent / session
Inc. revenue from travel recommendation section
Funnel Analysis & Drops (Visibility -> select a destination from reco system -> List results -> select a package -> proceed to pay -> payment success)
App rating