Here is my take on the problem statements which were of particular interest to me. For ease of scanning, these have been structured as follows:
Metrics
Approach
Recommendations
Artefacts
Finding Opportunities for 5x Growth
Opportunities come in all sizes - the minute of changes in existing features to shipping completely new feature sets. It often gets challenging deciding what to do first. Lets look at some small and big ideas
Metrics
Increase user engagement with the content
Increase ARPU
Reduce Bounce Rate
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Approach
Industry Outlook - User Car Market
The Indian used car market is expected to reach a size of over 70 lakh vehicles by 2025-26, up from 38 lakh in 2020-21.
The pre-owned car industry is expected to clock a growth rate of 15 per cent in FY22 as the COVID-19 pandemic, digitalization, changing demographics and aspirations, first-time buyers, and availability of financing options acting as growth drivers
The current satisfaction levels of consumers towards available solutions remain somewhat low with an increasing demand for a one stop solution
Approach
Identifying the Opportunities
I identified 2 major paths the company can take
Improve Satisfaction Levels with the current purchase process (Improve Car Sales) - Work on the smaller details to boost consumer confidence to purchase a second hand vehicle; smoother consumer journeys, working on features important to the consumer which are underdeveloped, not present or otherwise disappointing.
Related Diversification (Improve Offerings) - Make the platform a one stop solution for everything a second hand user may need; not just be a car sale platform but do so much more!
Recommendations
Improving the Car Product Screen
Add a 5/4 star safety rating copy in the discovery screen
Add underbody picture section in the car photo gallery
Like engine sound , create and add a video clip of cabin sound in product page
Add a model USP section inside feature list particular for each car basis of model
Add a zero defect filter
Recommendations
Ease of Decision Making
Option to compare price with current on road price - use Zig wheel API readily available
Remaining life of wear and tear parts (Brakes, clutch, etc.) - use indicative KMs as a metric rather than percentages
Create a compare option within whish list and generate a "CARS 24 score" for selected cars based on model features and other parameters
Create a review section inside product page and curate long term model specific reviews from sites like Team BHP and also include first impressions videos from YouTube which were released when the car was launched
Recommendations
Improving Car Discovery
Add a zero defect filter
Provide Login through Google/Facebook as well to access basic features and only require mobile number for actual booking correspondence
Make the photograph shown dynamic - option to swipe through various angles on discovery page itself without entering the product page
Add option to filter cars with heavy discounts / add a sort button to sort recommendations basis discount value
Recommendations
Improving Home Screen
Show user the EMI calculator option available inside product page here itself with options to input value without having to give phone number
Add a video snippet showing a 140 point checkup in home page and on the product page
Add copy indicative of booking value - eg - book at prices as low as 199/-
Option to switch language. Create versions in regional language - insert microcopy (cars 24 is now in telugu) in regions specifically where language is a barrier
Recommendations
Related Diversification - New Business Opportunity?
Accessory Sales - The goal here can be to create a one stop solution. There are a lot of accessories like perfumes, mats , steering wheel covers , etc. that users purchase after they have purchased a car.
VAS - a big reason for people to buy second hand vehicles is to give them to their children/spouses for learning as a first time car. VAS like telemetric devices that can track the health of the car, its location , etc. can add a lot of value to the purchaser.
Fleets/Corporate Purchases - There are many organizations that purchase cars for operational activities to be used by employees. A dedicated fleet package can be created for them with other VAS like telemetric etc. as explained above.
The bottom line of the company is severely hit due to the restrictions imposed by the government and the closure of movie theatres owing to the Covid Protocol. What can BMS do hedge losses?
Metrics
Improve revenue from the platform
Improve engagement
Read More
Approach
Industry Outlook and bottlenecks
There can be no generalized approach as the restrictions are different in different cities. Eg - theaters are open in Odisha but closed in Mumbai.
Of all the various activities offered on the platform, the major chunk of revenue is concentrated at movie ticket sales and this overdependence has hurt the bottom line (Crowded space - Paytm, PVR, Inox)
The awareness of the vast genre of other activities is somewhat minimal in terms of engagement and usage - plays, music shows, standups, online lectures, fests, sporting events, game tournaments, mystery houses, amusement parks, city tours, treks, dining experience, and the list goes on.
Recommendations
Choosing the bang for buck business - Creating USP
The first thing to target would be to increase user engagement on the app and increase discovery of other activities listed to reduce over-dependence on movie ticketing for revenue and growth
Improve/Create a recommendation algorithm which can recommend not only movies but also activities and events based on the users personality and preferences
Create a personalized heatmap of the area near the user showing all the events happening around him with indicators of how popular (no of bookings/seats remaining) the event is
Send weekly social media post-ready “activity journals” to people using the service to promote positive experiences on social media and possibly leverage on others social conformity desires to extend the services to people in the friend list of the person who posted the experience.
Improving Pricing Page visibility and conversions on ThoughtSpot
Thought Spot is a modern Analytics Cloud, helping businesses leverage natural language search and AI to discover personalized insights to make better business decisions.
Metrics
To increase the number of users who are visiting pricing page (Pricing Page Traffic)
Increasing conversions from pricing page
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Approach
The cost of a product is one of the key drivers of the decision whether a product is subscribed to or not. The pricing page should be easily accessible and understandable.
Increasing Traffic of pricing page - Competitive benchmarking of related companies in same industry to identify the best practices for increasing pricing page visibility.
Reducing Cognitive Load - Being able to get a tentative price of the product helps users take purchase decisions faster. I focused on making this user journey smother.
Recommendations
Improving Conversion Rates for Pricing Page Visitors
Need to incorporate a dynamic pricing calculator that can help the user calculate a tentative price based on minimal probing inputs
Add new Pricing calculator button (to redirect to a chatbot pop up in the same page) in key locations of the website - create a separate button below contact us for pricing - “get a custom quote”
Integrate the calculator with live chatbot which can ask probing questions and spit out the tentative price
Have a customer ops person, help customers identify exact needs based on inputs via chat wherever impossible by the chatbot AI
Recommendations
Improving accessibility to Pricing Page
Adding a pricing page banner along with the other pages at the navigation bar of the page - Link at bottom is difficult to discover
Incorporate "Get Custom Quote" as a standard chatbot section in "what would you like to know"
Placing a pricing page button on the sections which are frequently visited by the visitors, ensure pricing page always accessible
Ola Financial Services through Ola Postpaid and Ola Credit cards has had some success in the segment. They want to enter the consumer market with a big splash and create a disruptive new product (Fiqi Card - Hypothetical)
Metrics
Adoption across user targeted users
Activation and conversion of users onboarded onto the platform
Read More
Approach
Why build it? Industry scope and opportunity. Which product to launch? Credit Vs BNPL
"There is a huge problem of financial inclusion to be solved. The core need for credit comes from the fact that “On an average, wherever the household income is <13lakh, the household often faces a problem of liquidity at least once or twice a year”
“Products remain virtually undifferentiated”. As solutions are functional, none Magical
India has the highest adoption rate of financial technology (~87%), as compared to a global average of ~64%; has the potential to become a center for global financial inclusive growth
In 2025, Indian credit market is forecast to have a value of $38.9 billion (inc of144.7% since 2020)
Approach
Why build it? Industry scope and opportunity. Which product to launch? Credit Vs BNPL
Usage of the BNPL service shot up by 570% in 2020; According to the Q2 2021 BNPL Survey, BNPL payment in the country is expected to grow by 72.7% on annual basis.
BNPL has already captured 3% of the market share in the online e-commerce payments segment and the number could go up to 9% by 2024.4 BNPL is becoming a popular mode of short-term financing amongst millennials.
BNPL can penetrate the untouched segments like customers with no- or low-bureau scores. It is also becoming popular amongst the millennial population as they don’t get access to credit cards easily. They mostly use BNPL for purchase of electronics, travelling, etc."
Approach
Which features build?
Target Audience Selected - Young Adults (18-25 Yrs) and Working Adults (26-49 Yrs) ; User Personas Built
Competitive Benchmarking Done - Various products available - Credit cards, BNPL, UPI Credit providers, POS solutions
Understanding User Pain points and performing opportunity scoring
Prioritizing solutions using RICE Framework - Creating MVP Solution and defining product backlog for future shipping
Recommendations
The MVP Product - Physical Product Features
"BNPL card with a pay ¼ option –Competitors following the successful model of UK and Australia. ½ is a simple credit card, 1/3 has been offered (western imitation) – India is a country of savers and we need not limit ourselves to traditional 1/3 BNPL models and create a differentiated experience
Card Features – Minimal black numberless card, no clutter with multiple cobranded / segment basis (travel, shopping, food) options. The reward scheme will be simple – 2 Fiqi coins on every 100 rupees spent; reward multiplier customized basis customer spends habits (monthly) – 6x rewards for top spend category, 5x for second and 2x for third with no reward store in launch. The reward coins accumulated can be used for payment of eligible spends in current month without any fee
Recommendations
The MVP Product - Physical Product Features
Incentivizing Payments – Flat 1% cashback on spends where payments done in same month.
Immediate issuance of virtual card in app; can be used conjointly with the metal card post receipt"
Recommendations
The MVP Product - In app experience
"Option to tag every payment (E.g., Sunday Lunch at McDonald’s) – to help analyze spends
Create a visualization tool to understand spends across categories, credit exhausted, credit remaining, also allow user to set limits for each category and send warnings when he/she is close to exhausting his category limit
Create an immediate popup in app post payments and have a “convert to ¼” toggle against each transaction indicating whether the user want to convert it to a 1/4 payment or not.
Fingerprint authenticator for payment app redirects/validation requests of offline payments.
Recommendations
The MVP Product - In app experience
Link payments through phone number – no need to remember card number (use fingerprint)
Need to support tap and pay NFC payments (same to be supported by physical card)
Option to set recurring payments like rent and mobile postpaid bills which are fixed in nature
In app popups for high value transactions + transactions happening from devices located at different locations as compared to the users’ locations - option to validate (Fingerprint)"
Recommendations
The MVP Product - In app experience.. Continued
"Integrate Bharat Bill Pay using API, option to save details of recurring payments.
Integrate an automated chat bot - outsource to agency for time being due to limited time of launch; develop inhouse later basis requirement and cost benefit analysis.
Keep a well-defined timeout for payments - if payment not processed within given timeline, confirm to the user that he has/has not been charged and keep credit line free.
Recommendations
The MVP Product - In app experience.. Continued
Create an intuitive and dynamic click wheel with points on the circumference like minimum dues, total dues, etc. The center of the click wheel can be empty and show - ""amount you are paying""; there can be copy at the bottom suggesting interest that will be charged basis the amount paid so that the customer can easily choose the amount based on the interest he wants/doesn’t want to pay
Create a weekly spends section (Bar graphs) showing spends across categories for analysis"
Recommendations
Build V 2.0 - Prominent features of second launch
"Similar to pre-existing market solutions like ""Jupiter bullet"", create a UPI address over a virtual bank account for each user - allow user to allocate limits for UPI from available credit line - mainly for low ticket purchases like Kirana shops, etc. [nudge allocations like 5k, 6k, 10k, etc.]
Option to scan & pay
App Updates - Create card drawer to hold redundant cards where just membership number and details are required and no swiping is necessary.
Recommendations
Build V 2.0 - Prominent features of second launch
Store location data for each payment to make it easier to remember/figure out - Use location API available – Create a spend map (places where one has spent)
Have separate sections of small and large ticket spends - e.g., filter by value (where value >say Rs 100 - based on users’ requirement) to help user declutter smaller spends and analyze better
Have a sperate dashboard for UPI spends "
Recommendations
Build V 3.0 - Prominent features of third launch
"Social media educational campaigns to boost literacy - keep an active page
Option to create add-on cards for house help/children - credit to be utilized from parent account - option to track expenses of child account within interface for parent itself
Create one auxiliary card to be supplied with original card with an NFC chip that can read data of other cards (stored in in-app drawer) through the phones NFC chip to create one card from many
App Updates – Integrate SPLITWISE using API
Option to tag transactions as those awaiting refunds - since the amount refunded is same, can use ML to notify user when refund has been received"
Recommendations
Build V 4.0+ - Prominent features of fourth launch
Create a learning platform
Options to upload photos of bills for better tracking, create a personal in-app ledger to analyze and track trends
Cibil score planner (tips and tricks to improve cibil score)
Launch Fiqi Mini (Cards for students without Cibil scores – using PPI or creating FDs),
The study is based on the experiences a user has while using the app/product. The different psyches at each step right from onboarding to the end goal enable a company to identify the major pain points and to develop solutions for the identified problems.
Metrics
Improving Engagement
Improving Customer Retention
Improving Customer Psych
Read More
Approach
Understanding the Psychology of Design
Every time a User interacts with Zomato through their app, they :-
Filter the information Seek the meaning of it Act within a given time Store bits of the interaction in their memories
So to improve its users experience, Zomato has tried to influence the biases & heuristics affecting those four decision-cycle steps.
I have tried to list of cognitive biases and design principles used by Zomato
Recommendations
Scope for Improvement
Skip button at the time of onboarding is purposely camouflaged behind the colorful UI. Users may not want to share their phone numbers before the app has shown value to them. Skip button should be more prominent
Curiosity Gap - This is a gap between what a user knows and may need to know. The use of copy like climate conscious delivery creates a question in the mind of the user behind its meaning and may cause pain to the user which needs to be taken away
Timely updating the UI - Running offers for IPL way after the league has closed shows a lack of customization and mindfulness. Users may think of it as just another marketing campaign to upsell products
How Treebo quickly rose to success and what are they doing against the Covid wave - The Magic of API
There is a lot that goes into building a world class experience. Treebo has carefully selected what to build and what to outsource and created a great product out of it. They have also tried to combat the Covid situation in a effective way.
They use the TripAdvisor Api to fetch reviews and display on their website not only providing the user with a wide array of reviews but also leveraging the trust they have on the TripAdvisor ecosystem.
The booking customer journey is absolutely smooth. There is no need to even signup, only a mobile number is required to book a room. They have used WhatsApp (again through API integration) for communication purposes (thus email not being mandatory) and have even created an automated bot on the platform
They try to increase commitment by giving the user a discount on booking if paid immediately as compared to at the hotel - also helping in making the entire hotel onboarding a touchless process.
They have come into a partnership with Dettol (Advertised evidently right from the home screen) - a brand close to Indians as a proxy for cleanliness and even inserted YouTube videos in the app to show how they use Dettol to disinfect the hotel and make the stay safe.
Treebo "Activity Blog" is a great way to increase user engagement on the App and helps the user make the decision of planning the trip/holiday/stay.
What can we learn from Zomato's In app Experience
A lot of the success of an app depends on how a user feels when he/she uses it. The experience in the first 60 seconds plays a huge role deciding if the user wants to come back or move forward
Attention to detail (SAFETY) - from small things like redesigning the app drawer logo (integrating a "SAFE" as a part of the icon) to using loading times to flash copy that stresses on what Zomato is doing to deliver a safe experience goes a long way building trust.
Noble Edge Effect – Users tend to prefer socially responsible companies. The fact that Zomato is doing something that would help save the environment (Climate conscious delivery and no cutlery sent) and advertises this well throughout different touchpoints within the app, increases the attractiveness of the app. This can also appeal to a users core desire of finding "Epic Meaning" and being involved in something bigger than himself
Cognitive Load - The UI tries to minimize cognitive load providing user with options with last orders, frequent orders , favorite restaurant's, trending places, last saved address , etc.
Extensive use of "Group Attractiveness Effect" - Individual items seem more attractive when presented in a group!
Extensive use of "Social Proof" - In tough times like Covid, copy like "4775+ orders placed from here recently" help build user confidence.
How OLA uses its platform to cross sell products from its different businesses
How timing advertisements based on User context can help grow a business
As an option of cab - "Rental", "Outstation" and "Daily", OLA has now introduced an option of "Pre - Owned" which redirects to OLA cars not only helping educate the user of their OLA cars business but targets them at the right time when they may be thinking of having their own vehicle than booking a cab.
OLA tries to cross sell their "Ola Money SBI Credit card" while making payments on the cab application indicating a tentative 7% cashback to users if they pay using their cobranded card thus capturing the interest of the user at the right time.
Only when you rate a past ride 5 Stars does Ola prompt you to go rate the app experience on the PlayStore as well thus leveraging the good mood of the rider.
