Design a product to find a handyman.

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Design a product to find a handyman.

Asked at Meta (Facebook) over a year ago

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trab · Answer 1 · 2022-03-21T15:23:14+0000

Before answering this Facebook product design question, let's clarify assumptions

We want to design a mobile app to find a local handyman when needed
The market is the US
Goal is to find product market fit, then monetize
I would also ask if this should be a standalone app or something that folds into an existing Facebook product

Next, I want to think about possible user groups:

Users:

Homeowners or renters
Rental companies or home owner's associations that, either need to make fixes on behalf of their constituents or want to recommend a handyman
Small to medium sized business owners in commercial settings

Amongst the three, it makes sense to ideate a solution for group 1. Groups 2 and 3 may already have experience hiring for help. The pain points will be bigger for group 1.

Then, there are handyman user groups too. There are 3 types I'll categorize:

Casual DIY-ers that are skilled, but not doing this work full time
Professional handymen/women who has made this their main occupation
Professional builders and contractors who work for a company

We will prioritize handyman user groups 1 and 2 here. Group 3 most likely have larger jobs already to focus on.

Let's now think through the needs and pain points of the users

For users:

They have a specific task (ie. mounting a TV or fix door bell) but aren't sure if they have the time or skills to do it themselves.
Should they want to hire someone, they would want an accurate time and cost quote.
It is also a pain point now to shop around.
Difficult to find someone that they can trust to do the job well.
They have to convince the handyman that they are "good" to pay.
They need to find help that fits their schedule (they're busy and can only make certain times work).

For handymen/women

Need more prospects with low customer acquisition costs
Difficult to convince prospects of their level of skill and expertise, no personal brand between strangers.
Hard to give an accurate quote without seeing the task up close.
Scheduling with clients can be a hassle.
Hard to gauge whether they are charging too much or little compared to the market.
Want to continuously get better and obtain new skills.

*Above, I've assigned the priority by importance, using the frequency of need/pain point in the handyman hiring process. Anything in bold is a top priority, anything not is secondary.

Let's begin ideating some solutions, across the priority needs/painpoints.

Per the assumptions above, we are thinking of a mobile app. After thinking through user groups/pain points, we will look to create a 2 party marketplace experience to link users up with help nearby.

For users:

Problem 1: They have a specific task (ie. mounting a TV) or a fix (door bell broken) but aren't sure if they have the time or skills to do it themselves.
Solution:
- 1A: Allow for a "post" of a specific job, where the community (and handymen too) can weigh in with comments to help
  - High impact, medium effort
- 1B: Create a smart search feature or questionairre flow to provide details about the job post, then show DIY tutorials or other resources if available
  - Low impact as this isn't much different than Google, high effort to ensure the right results are being shown
Problem 2: Should they want to hire someone, they would want an accurate time and cost quote.
Solution:
- 2A: Have a "open to quote" flag to a job post to signal interest
  - High impact, low effort
- 2B: Upon completion of a job by a handyman, compare the final cost to the original quote to aggregate a quote accuracy stat for handymen/women
  - Low impact, medium effort as it requires users to submit final cost information
Problem 3: Difficult to find someone that they can trust to do the job well.
Solution:
- 3A: Have a private DM feature originating from job posts, to facilitate a 1:1 relationship to build trust between user handyman
  - High impact, medium effort (can be low for Facebook given existing products)
- 3B: Allow for a handyman business profile, where they can put basic contact information, skills and competencies, show reviews and ratings, and photos/videos of recent work completed
  - High impact, high effort

For our MVP, 1A, 2B, 3A, and 3B are worth thinking about. 2A looks like an easy win.

Also, looking back at the handymen/women pain points, most of the priority ones are solved in parallel by solving for user pain points. Keep the users delighted and engaged, and handymen/women will keep coming.

How can we measure success of the MVP?

Primary metrics:

# of conversations started between users handymen/women, # of comments on job posts by handymen/women

Secondary metrics:

# of job posts by users
# of handymen/women profiles created
# of comments on job posts
DAU, WAU, MAU

Any final considerations or thoughts?

Facebook has a lot of existing products to help with this solution, I can see a MVP of "job posts" fitting into Facebook Marketplace. Also, existing Facebook profiles helps give immediate trust to both parties involved in a transaction - if there are mutual friends between a handyman and a user things can really take off.

I can also see how this fits Facebook's vision of connecting people together. It can have long lasting retention effects on Facebook's ecosystem overall too, as long as we're really delighting customers and solving pain points here.

Vishal Shah · Answer 2 · 2022-04-23T03:11:58+0000

Handyman: anyone who fixes anything in house? Yes Handyman: could also be for major remodeling or just small work here and there? Anything. Your choice. This is for residential? Commercial works very diff and I don't see copmanies using FB for that. (Correct). Scope: for major work in house This product makes sense to be built for FB blue app since people much rather choose a handyman through referral so they know work is going to be good / reliable. My subdivision actually has a FB group and people exchange handyman info all the time but since there are also other messages, when I need to find someone, I almost have to start query from scratch.

1. Consumers (bold is prioritized) (1. Little time, lot of time on hand (Small budget, big budget, ample money and hence care about top notch quality) (to make it more accessible for older people living, make it modern looking, just need maintenance) 2. Handyman 3. Advertisers 4. Contracting companies that look to hire handyman 5. Home warranty companies 6. FB 7. Companies looking to get work done at the office

JOURNEY:

1) Think of updating the house but don't have ideas 2) I now know what I want but now need to find handyman 3) I spend hours surfing and getting zillion calls and telling the same story to many people over and over 4) Take appointmnets at diff times with diff people to come and provide estimate 5) I have to chase for estimates 6) Evaluating and comparing quotes almost is impossible 7) I feel like I don't turst him vs. the other one but can't be sure whom to trust 8) I try to find reviews and have to make a subjective decision (I am hoping I don't make a mistake)

PAIN-POINT:

Prioritization criteria: Biggest Frequency of pain point, Severity of pain point, Alignment w/ BO)

1) Deciding what to fix / if possible to fix

2) Finding a handyman and getting quotes 3) Comparing quotes 4) Trust and Safety 5) Sourcing materials takes multiple visits to store

SOLUTIONS:

Tablestakes: 1) Find your handyman quick: filters (price range, review rating, trust rating, type of projects / skills (AI driven bsaed on what people have said vs. handyman themselves callin themselves skilled at something), etc.) 2) I can take pictures, upload and provide measurement of my space manually. Handyman can be shared this (public or private - send upon request) so handyman doesn't have to necesarily come (saves time) -> Highest impact and value to user considering pain point and low effort. Will also increase engagement of product. 3) Virutal tour: AR/VR solution to get on phone with handyman and measures space virutally. Handyman doesn't need to see you in person. 4) Obtain ideas from other people work and collate all that information for handyman. 5) Specify line items to obtain quotes related to so I can easily compare but maybe in future AI system providing line items based on numerous quotes gathered already. 6) Inform me who in my network has hired handyman before, whom they hired, their work, etc. 7) Who in my network is also seeking and hence auto-connect us (1st, 2nd, 3rd degree connections).

Vishal Shah · Answer 3 · 2022-04-23T01:03:43+0000

Handyman: anyone who fixes anything in house? Yes Handyman: could also be for major remodeling or just small work here and there? Anything. Your choice. This is for residential? Commercial works very diff and I don't see copmanies using FB for that. (Correct). Scope: for major work in house [VS 4/16]: This product makes sense to be built for FB blue app since people much rather choose a handyman through referral so they know work is going to be good / reliable. My subdivision actually has a FB group and people exchange handyman info all the time but since there are also other messages, when I need to find someone, I almost have to start query from scratch.

1. Consumers

(1. Little time, lot of time on hand (Small budget, big budget, ample money and hence care about top notch quality) (to make it more accessible for older people living, make it modern looking, just need maintenance) 2. Handyman 3. Advertisers 4. Contracting companies that look to hire handyman 5. Home warranty companies 6. FB 7. Companies looking to get work done at the office

Journey:

1) Think of updating the house but don't have ideas 2) I now know what I want but now need to find handyman 3) I spend hours surfing and getting zillion calls and telling the same story to many people over and over 4) Take appointmnets at diff times with diff people to come and provide estimate 5) I have to chase for estimates 6) Evaluating and comparing quotes almost is impossible 7) I feel like I don't turst him vs. the other one but can't be sure whom to trust 8) I try to find reviews and have to make a subjective decision (I am hoping I don't make a mistake)

Pain-points:

1) Deciding what to fix / if possible to fix 2) Finding a handyman and getting quotes 3) Comparing quotes 4) Trust and Safety 5) Sourcing materials takes multiple visits to stores

Solution:

Tablestakes: 1) Find your handyman quick: filters (price range, review rating, trust rating, type of projects / skills (AI driven bsaed on what people have said vs. handyman themselves callin themselves skilled at something), etc.) 2) I can take pictures, upload and provide measurement of my space manually. Handyman can be shared this (public or private - send upon request) so handyman doesn't have to necesarily come (saves time) 3) Virutal tour: AR/VR solution to get on phone with handyman and measures space virutally. Handyman doesn't need to see you in person. 4) Obtain ideas from other people work and collate all that information for handyman. 5) Specify line items to obtain quotes related to so I can easily compare but maybe in future AI system providing line items based on numerous quotes gathered already. 6) Inform me who in my network has hired handyman before, whom they hired, their work, etc. 7) Who in my network is also seeking and hence auto-connect us (1st, 2nd, 3rd degree connections).