Design Uber for specially-abled people? [Uber PM Interview]

Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash

Interviewer: Design Uber for specially-abled people

Shailesh: Thank you for the question. Let me clarify my understanding of Uber. Uber is a platform that facilitates riders and drivers. The rider requests a cab on the platform to a specific destination. The driver picks up the rider and drops him at the location, and charges are paid to the platform. Uber takes a commission out of what the driver charges from the rider.
Interviewer: Yes.

Shailesh: Alright, let me clarify some questions regarding the problem statement. There are different types of disabilities like physically disabled, blind or deaf. Are we focusing on a specific disability?
Interviewer: For this, you can assume that we are building Uber for physically challenged people.

Shailesh: It makes sense since many people are physically disabled, and transportation is a huge problem. So I am assuming the goal of the product is to make transportation convenient for the ones who are physically challenged.
Interviewer: Yes

Shailesh: One more question; Is there any resource and time constraint I should be aware of?
Interviewer: No such constraint.

Shailesh: Okay, the way I would like to go about it, first we will see the customer segment and then focus on specific customer persona. We will go through their journey to see different pain points. Then we will see solutions corresponding to different pain points. After that, we will define metrics to track whether our solution is working or not. At last, tradeoffs or the future technology which can be used. Does it sound okay? 
Interviewer: Sounds great; please go ahead.

Shailesh: Since we have already defined the customer segment. Let’s see the different customer personas.

Customer Segment

1. A Physically challenged school student who is not very independent and needs an extra bit of attention and care
2. Physically challenged young professionals who need to go to the office daily
3. Physically challenged homemakers/senior people who need transportation help on specific days like doctor appointment or going to hypermarkets etc.
4. Driver (secondary user)

I would like to focus on physically challenged young professionals because they need to travel daily. We can also focus on the school students, but not many parents will be okay with sending their physically challenged children to school via Uber.

User Journey

Let’s see the broad journey of a person who wants to go from point A to B.

1. Wants to go to a certain location, request some relatives, family members or maybe some taxi etc.
2. Wait for a taxi, get into the car/Taxi
3. Reach the destination, get out of the car
4. Pay the bill

Pain Points

Let’s see the different pain points.

1. As a physically challenged person, I may find it inconvenient to get a taxi or cab. My family members may not be available for help all the time.
2. As a physically challenged person, it is difficult for me to onboard a cab. At times a driver may not be very empathetic to me, spoiling my mood. Eventually, I may fear travelling to any location without my family.
3. Payment can be daunting if some random taxi driver does not accept digital payment or he doesn’t have change.

Solutions/Features

Let’s see the solutions for the pain points:

1. As a physically challenged person, I should book a cab seamlessly; a voice assistant can help me book a cab to the exact location.
2. Uber cabs for physically challenged people should have a different seating arrangement, and it should have a ramp which can help the person get in the cab.
3. There should be a provision for recurring rides because the young professional has to go to the office from Monday to Friday.
4. The profile of the physically challenged person should be labelled exclusively, and the driver should have some mandatory training sensitising to physically disabled people. While they accept the ride, they should know that the rider is physically challenged and requires some special care.
5. Uber can also start a fully autonomous car with all kinds of facilities for a physically disabled person.
6. There should be a provision of lazy pay so there shouldn’t be any hustle for change.
7. For physically challenged people, Uber can tie-up with some nursing homes to escort people with physical disabilities.

Prioritization (Impact vs Effort)

Solution #1 [High Impact] [Medium Effort]
Solution #2 [High Impact] [Low effort]
Solution #3 [Medium impact] [Medium Effort]
Solution #4 [High Impact] [Medium Effort]
Solution #5 [High Impact] [High Effort]
Solution #6 [Medium Impact] [Medium Effort]
Solution #7 [Medium Impact] [Medium Effort]

For MVP, I would like to have #1, #2, #3 in the MVP

Success Metrics

1. Number of rides completed by the physically challenged person
2. Average amount of time a Physically challenged person uses the voice assistant
3. Number of ride cancellations by physically challenged rider/driver
4. Average rating given to the driver after a physically challenged rider completes the ride successfully.
   
   -- Technomanagers