Uber pickups at the airport have dropped by 10% [Uber PM Question]

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Image sources: https://www.theverge.com/

Interviewer: Uber pickups at the airport have dropped by 10%.What will you do?

Shailesh: Before we proceed, I would like to clarify my understanding of Uber. Uber is a technology-enabled platform that connects drivers with users who need a ride. The passengers can request a ride on the platform, and the driver can fulfil the demand by dropping them at the desired location. Uber acts as a facilitator between the two and takes a commission for each ride that is booked via its platform. Is my understanding correct?
Interviewer: Yes.

Shailesh: Is it fair to assume that there has been no change in the metric calculation in the near time? Also, is the BI tool for tracking metrics showing the metric correctly?
Interviewer: Yes, there hasn’t been any change in metric calculation and the BI tool is also working fine.

Shailesh: Alright, I would like to ask some clarifying questions to understand the problem better. For how long have we observed this problem? Is this issue gradual or sudden? 
Interviewer: There has been a gradual dip and we have been facing this problem for the last two months.

Shailesh: Is there any particular geography where we are observing this? 
Interviewer: You can focus on India as of now.

Shailesh: Is there any particular device type — Android vs iOS where we are observing this problem?
Interviewer: Across both devices.

Shailesh: Do we observe this issue during any particular time of the day? 
Interviewer: Not much information is available.

Shailesh: Alright to summarise what we have discussed until now — There has been a gradual decrease in airport pickups by 10% in the last two months in India. Can I proceed with this? 
Interviewer: Please go ahead.

Shailesh: The way I would like to go about this is, first I will look into the internal factors, then I will touch upon external factors. If we discover some potential problems, we will mark them; at last; we will dig deeper into them and explore the solutions.
Interviewer: Please go ahead.

Internal Factors:

Shailesh: Has there been any code changes due to which we are observing this problem?
Interviewer: There are some UI fixes we have made but none of them seems to cause the issue we are discussing.

User journey of rider

Shailesh: Let’s try to analyse the user journey for our riders. Is there any particular stage of the user journey funnel — Log in, Booking, Payments etc. where we see a drop?
Interviewer: The customers at the airport are not considering Uber for rides. Some check prices but they are not booking rides through our platform. I don’t think this is an internal problem, you can try exploring the external factors.

External Factors:

Government Regulations

Shailesh: Has there been any change in toll levied at airport road due to which our fares have risen?
Interviewer: There has been no such change in the last few months.

Legal Issues

Shailesh: Has there been any strike by the union representing drivers which might have led to a shortage of drivers at the airport?
Interviewer: We haven’t observed any strikes in the last two months.

Public Relations (PR)

Shailesh: Has there been any kind of negative publicity related to Uber due to which people at airports are not using our app?
Interviewer: There have been no such events that have hampered our image.

Competition

Shailesh: Have our competitors started some offers or discounts specially for pickups at the airport, due to which our customers have shifted to a different app? 
Interviewer: Yes, 2–3 months back local players in India namely Rapido and Ola have started offering huge discounts so we see a competition here.

Shailesh: Okay, this seems like a plausible problem. I believe this becomes even more important in the Indian geography where users are extremely price-sensitive. 
Interviewer: What do you think we can do to solve this issue?

Shailesh: In India, it is difficult to win the cut-throat price wars and it is unsustainable for Uber in the long run because Indian customers being extremely price-sensitive switch brands easily. Moreover, it leads to a lot of cash burn for us. It is tough for one player to dominate the market. We can explore other untapped problems which can help us increase the market share.
Interviewer: Please go ahead.

User Segments:

  • Business travellers: People who travel from one state to another for business purposes. They are usually tech-savvy.
  • Leisure travellers: People who travel to different places for leisure, holidays and meeting friends or family. They might not be tech-savvy.

Shailesh: I would like to focus on people travelling for leisure purposes as business travellers are usually less price-sensitive and their rides are taken care of by their companies.

Problem:

  • As a traveller, I might not have the Uber app installed on my phone as Uber doesn’t operate in my hometown.
  • As a traveller, I might not be enough tech-savvy to use a ride-hailing app. At the airport, I will find it inconvenient to download the app, sign up and set up payment.

Solution:

Kiosk setup — Uber can set up a touch screen kiosk where customers can directly book a ride without installing the Uber app. There will be a simple QR scan and book system. The receipt will be generated, and the rider can take the first Uber cab available at the airport. The payment can be made through a QR scan before/after the trip.

Challenges:

  • Easy for competitors to copy
  • Less tech-savvy people find it difficult to trust the kiosk system

Success Metrics:

  • Number of rides completed which originate from the airport
  • Customer satisfaction score(CSAT) at the kiosk
  • Number of issues reported by riders at the kiosk

-- Technomanagers

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