CHALLENGE
How may we improve everyone's lives through transportation and have scaled positive impact on the cities we serve?
MY BRAINSTORM
PROCESS
Looking at Lyft’s mission to reconnect people through transportation and bring communities together, I decided to focus on potential passengers who may not currently use the Lyft product. I asked myself three questions.
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How may we bring accessibility to more users?
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How may we revolutionize transportation to better the lives of the disadvantaged?
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How may we improve Lyft to be more inclusive of edge case users?
Customer Discovery
With this in mind, I began by identifying what kind of users opt out of ride-hailing services. I created an anonymous survey that asked people what their main transportation methods were. If a user did not include ride-hailing apps, the survey followed up with more questions to understand why. I posted this survey on Facebook groups, craigslist, and forums to gather more data and find patterns about common user pain points. From this data, I was able to bucket users into four categories: elderly, tourists, intrastate commuters, and people concerned with safety.
USER PAIN POINTS
User I. Elders
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Not tech-savvy
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Do not always own a smartphone
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Not comfortable reading small text
User III. People concerned about safety (i.e. Young Women, Sexual Assault Victims)
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Feel unsafe and anxious riding with strangers
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Afraid of sexual harassment/assault
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Afraid of riding alone at night
User II. Tourists
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Usually not familiar with the area
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Usually not familiar with traffic situations
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Bounce around in a city and find that renting a car for the day is more cost-effective
User IV. Intrastate commuters
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Need to travel long distances often (longer than 2 hours)
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Cannot always afford a plane ticket
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Current options are inefficient, expensive, or poor experiences
With these pain points in mind, I began to brainstorm a list of potential solutions for each user group.
POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS
User I. Elders
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Simple Mode for Smartphone Users
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A toggle button that switches the Lyft app to a stripped down version of the platform.
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With one call to action button, users who are not used to technology may easily call themselves a ride wherever they are.
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Much like the original Lyft, Simple Mode will display frequent destinations like Home to streamline the process.
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Overall, the user flow is much simpler and quicker for non-tech savvy users.
SMS Mode for Non-Smartphone Users
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Allows seniors and anyone without a smartphone to call a Lyft via text.
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By writing simple messages like “Go home” and “Call a shared ride to Kaiser,” anyone may access Lyft’s transportation.
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All of the basic functionality and information the user needs, such as canceling a ride and details about the ride, are available through text as well.
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The setup process for the MVP is straightforward. First, a current Lyft user links an alternate phone number to their payment method, either online or in the app. Once linked, the person with that phone number may text Lyft’s toll-free SMS number to handle all requests.
Hospital Button
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This solution would consist of a button within the app to call a Lyft (not a shared ride) to the nearest doctor/hospital.
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The driver would be aware they are taking a rider who needs medical attention.
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This button would be for non-high-risk emergencies.
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Lyft would prioritize these riders out of all the current requests and send them the closest car.
User II. Tourists
Travel Assistant
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Depending on the time of the day and user preferences, Lyft may display thumbnails of recommended places to go, eat, stay, etc.
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Lyft may recognize if the user is in a new city if they have a) never called a Lyft from that city before or b) far from where they usually call Lyfts.
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One tap on a thumbnail of a recommended destination may immediately call you a lyft from your current location to that destination.
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This could be a huge revenue potential for Lyft to partner with business/brands and sell ads.
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Lyft may offer day or week passes for discounted rides in a new city to encourage users to consistently use Lyft over other transportation services (i.e. Uber, public transit, ZipCar).
User III. People concerned about safety
​Custom Driver Mode
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This mode allows users to have more choices about whom they’re riding with.
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User has the ability to create a custom driver base based on demographics like gender and school or company affiliation. For example, if you’re a woman, you may request to ride only with female drivers.
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Users have the ability to swipe through people they want to drive them (like Tinder).
User III. Intrastate Commuters
​​Long Distance Travel Option
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Option for users to request long-distance rides (2+ hr rides).
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Changing pricing and routing algorithm for long-distance rides (2+ hr rides).
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Allows drivers to monetize and recover from high gas costs from road trips.
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Helps people traveling across the state or to another nearby state (i.e to see family, go to a concert/festival/conference, college road trips, etc).
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This would be helpful for passengers who cannot book a flight because they are moving items, planned their trip last minute, or cannot afford a plane ticket, etc.
EVALUATING EACH SOLUTION
User Goal
To easily and efficiently navigate from point A to point B
I evaluated the solutions based on impact to this user goal and complexity of development and/or implementation. I gave each section a ranking of high, medium, or low.
SOLUTION
IMPACT TO USER GOAL
COMPLEXITY
Simple Mode for Elders
HIGH: There are many seniors who are active or need to make routine visits to the doctor. However, it is not always safe for them to drive and they may not want to always rely on a family member. Having Simple Mode would empower this user group to take more control of their own life. This could significantly impact a senior’s independence.
MEDIUM: Simple Mode is relatively straightforward to build because Lyft already has the routing algorithms and existing platform. Simple mode would just entail stripping down the UX. However, onboarding elders who are not used to technology, in general, may be difficult.
SMS Mode for Elders
HIGH: SMS allows elderly users to call a Lyft ride without owning a smartphone. This allows them to get transportation via text, something they have access to.
MEDIUM: Lyft currently enables real-time SMS communication within their app. This feature would be expanding Lyft’s current SMS functionality. Again, onboarding elders who are not used to technology, in general, may be difficult.
Hospital Button for Elders
MEDIUM: Many seniors often experience discomfort and pain that make them consider visiting a hospital. However, ambulances may cost up to $1,000 and sometimes are not necessary for low-risk medical situations. The price point and hassle could be the difference between an elder choosing whether to address their medical situation or not.
HIGH: If the non-emergency escalates to a real emergency, there would be no one in the vehicle with medical training to assist them. Drivers do not want to take on that liability and it may not be safe for the senior.
Travel Assistant for Tourists
MEDIUM: This could be the one-stop solution for people in a new city. It eliminates the need to go back and forth between Yelp, Google, and Lyft. People also tend to compare prices between Uber and Lyft, so Lyft may offer a day pass or week pass as a pricing strategy.
While this may bring in a new revenue stream for Lyft it may not provide the most useful information, such as reviews and photos, especially with services like Google.
HIGH: Information of businesses and tourist destinations are readily available and easy to integrate within Lyft’s location-based service. However, designing the user experience, designating a team to approve ads, and building an ads manager for businesses will be time-consuming.
Custom Driver Mode for people concerned about safety
LOW: As a user deliberately minimizes their pool of potential drivers, the timeliness and convenience that Lyft’s product offers may be compromised.
HIGH: While this may help users trust their drivers more, it may also insinuate passengers to act on subconscious biases. This could lead to a bad social image for Lyft if it is executed poorly.
Long Distance
Travel Option for Intrastate Commuters
HIGH: This solution would introduce a new long-distance transportation method that is more comfortable than buses and less expensive than flights. Additionally, it would allow the passenger to make travel plans last minute and leave straight from their home, as opposed to a terminal.
HIGH: This travel option would need to incorporate a new dispatch algorithm that maximizes efficiency for long distance rides in a way that is cost-effective for the driver and time efficient for the passenger.
Looking at my various solutions, I believe the Simple Mode and SMS Mode solutions offer the most potential. It presents the highest impact on the user goal I set–to easily and efficiently navigate from point A to point B. Not only does this most effectively address the elderly user group’s largest pain points, but it is also the solution with the lowest engineering cost as Lyft already has all the technology in place to build its basic features.
RECOMMENDED SOLUTION:
SIMPLE MODE & SMS MODE
Problem Statement
Older age groups need easy access to transportation in the U.S. The likelihood of getting in a fatal car crash begins to rise after age 60—and after 85, the risk is higher than it is for teen drivers. However, giving up driving may leave seniors feeling isolated or stranded, which may worsen health outcomes and lower life expectancies. This puts heavy reliance and dependence on family and friends to transport them.
Additionally, seniors tend to be late adopters of digital technology. Moreover, for elderly users, the current Lyft product is an overload of information and options. This is likely a large reason why only 12% of all Americans over 50 use a ride hailing service. Fortunately, this means there is a huge opportunity for Lyft to make a great social impact on an age group that is often neglected.
The elderly population will more than double in the next 30 years, making as many as 1 in 5 Americans elderly.
~ American Census Bereau
How Simple Mode and SMS Mode Impacts Elders and Lyft
General Market Size
Today, baby boomers are rapidly increasing the large number of seniors in the U.S. Nearly 10,000 people turn 65 every day! Currently, the elderly population is approximately 40 million and is set to double in the next 30 years, according to the Census Bureau’s projections. This equates to 80 million potential users, almost 25% of the current US population, for whom Lyft may create custom solutions. Moreover, as medical technology advances, life expectancy continues to improve, meaning more people will stay in this age group longer.
Finally, rising disposable income in older populations increases their ability to outsource care and services. Currently, Americans over 50 account for $7.6 trillion in direct spending annually and control more than 80% of household wealth. Furthermore, Forbes estimates that seniors will spend 40% more on transportation, housing, entertainment, food and alcohol between 2015 and 2030.
Currently, only 40% of seniors over the age of 65 own smartphones. This is where SMS Mode and Simple Mode come in. For elders without smartphones, SMS Mode allows them to call a Lyft via text, which is technologically easier and more accessible. For older Americans with smartphones, Simple Mode reduces the visual complexity that prevents seniors from wanting to use Lyft. With these solutions, Lyft may provide much-needed access to transportation and expand its user base by including older, non-tech savvy people.
While acquiring more users is great for Lyft’s revenue, it also allows Lyft to become a better service more quickly. I believe the best way to further perfect Lyft’s complex algorithms is through gradual iteration guided by data. Mass data is the most credible way for us to challenge assumptions and learn directly about user behavior. For example, Lyft will be able to see a clearer picture of how user behavior changes with age and retirement. Maybe the frequency of repeated trips decreases but the number of unique destinations visited increase. Potential insights like these are important for a service like Lyft to improve its algorithms and ultimately, customer experience. Thus, by getting more diverse data on less common Lyft users, Lyft will be able to holistically improve its services faster.
The most exciting aspect of Simple and SMS Mode is that by including elders in Lyft’s user base, it fulfills Lyft’s mission of connecting people through transportation. It expands the community of fellow passengers by making the service more accessible to older age groups and people without smartphones in general. Not only that, it empowers seniors to reconnect with their own community by getting them out the door. Finally, it further breaks down the obstacles that stand in the way of truly creating non-discriminatory tech that is inclusive to all.
SIMPLE MODE
Feature Description
First time users may sign up for an account. From there, a toggle button on the top right will load the app in “simple mode.” There will be two buttons in the center—one to set a favorite location and the other to enter a one-time destination. Once they set a favorite location like home, the button will change to “Go Home” with an estimated price that updates according to their current location. From then onwards, the user may click this button to get a car to take them home from their current location. Next, the screen will load information about their car, license plate, color of amp, driver name, and current estimated arrival time. This screen will only incorporate two action buttons—to either cancel the ride or call the driver. The app detects frequently visited locations and updates the homepage with new favorite destinations, improving user efficiency with repeated use.
Mockups
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User Experience
The UX needs to instill confidence in users who are intimidated by technology. For seniors, going home will always be a one-click solution. As Lyft detects patterns in their daily transit, more frequently visited buttons are added to the main display, sticking to its one-click solution. This mode focuses on readability with big buttons, large bold text, and stark color contrasts for weak eyesight.
Technological Analysis
Looking at it from the perspective of the engineering team, this feature implementation should not be relatively challenging. The Simple Mode integration is largely a UI/UX change. The functionality of the features come from the existing Lyft routing algorithms and functions. Ultimately, a user will be able to use Lyft’s basic functionality with one or two buttons.
Potential Risks of the MVP
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The original Lyft account owner may get annoyed by cancellation fees if their elderly relative misses their ride too often. It’s unknown how well elderly people will be able to use the feature so they may make more mistakes.
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A user cannot call a Shared Ride to save money in the current MVP solution.
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A new elderly user may need help navigating the sign-up/set-up process in the MVP rollout.
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Editing a drop-off location may be a complex function for elderly users and should not be in the MVP. Thus, if a user calls a ride to the wrong address, they would have to cancel their ride and start over. However, this might be a more intuitive flow for this user group.
SMS MODE
Feature Description
Elderly users may link their phone number to an existing Lyft user’s smartphone. Texts from this phone number charge rides to payment methods on the existing Lyft user’s account. If the elderly user has a phone with GPS tracking, the elderly user may simply text “go home” or “go to x address.” If an elderly user does not have GPS on their phone, they may text the address of their current location. Users may also set their home address on their first use. Once they request a ride, the user will receive a text with information about their car and current estimated arrival time. Users also have the ability to cancel a ride with a simple “cancel ride” text.
Mockups
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User Experience
Through a simple text-based system, users may follow step-by-step directions to order a ride without asking a friend or relative. The user experience should feel more familiar to elders and other users who understand texting more than apps. This empowers the user to be more independent in their daily life without owning a smartphone.
Technological Analysis
The implementation of this feature could be challenging if we built this SMS solution from scratch. However, Twilio already currently enables real-time SMS communication for Lyft. Thus, we already have the technology in place.
Potential Risks of the MVP
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A user could text the wrong address and the passenger and driver may not be able to find each other.
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If a phone does not have a GPS tracker, the user may accidentally give the wrong pickup address or make a typo. In these situations, the ride may not go through or the driver may end up at the wrong location.
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Users with linked phone numbers will be unable to change their payment method (the original account owner has to) in the MVP of this feature.
The key metric I would track is the increased number of rides completed by users aged 50+ on Simple Mode and SMS Mode versus the original platform. This is important because it indicates whether these new features are actually effective for older users.
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Once we have built an MVP, I would test this metric with A/B testing. I would choose this method because it produces the fastest results and has the lowest chances of error through misuse. To get actionable data, I would first find a small subset of users aged 50+. I would randomly assign half the control and the other half the variation. Users with the control will see the current Lyft mobile experience and users with the variation will have Simple Mode and SMS Mode as options. If we see that the total number of rides completed from the variation group is greater than the control group, then we know that older people use Lyft more because of these new features.
METRICS AND TESTING
PRODUCT ROADMAP
Research
Are we solving the right problem for the elderly? Does Simple Mode and SMS Mode actually make it easier for elderly passengers to call a ride?
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Conduct in-depth user interviews with seniors to further understand their daily habits, motivations, and current pain points to make sure we are solving the right problem.
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Aggregate customer feedback and support requests. Are there any trends amongst this older user base that indicate whether this feature set is worth investing in?
Business
Does this feature meet our business needs? How does this fit in with our company goals and current pricing strategy? Are competitors already doing this? Can we differentiate ourselves in the market with these features?
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Meet with company executives and upper management to decide if this fits with our overall strategy and company mission.
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Meet with accounting to determine potential revenue outcomes. Work with business development to determine the best pricing strategy for this feature. Do we price all rides through Simple Mode and SMS Mode the standard Lyft price? Do we offer a Shared Ride price offering?
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Meet with market research teams to come up with a strategic plan to research what our competitors (i.e. Uber) are doing.
Design
How will seniors interact with these new features? What is the best way to display ride information in a simple, visually digestible way? What features are important to keep and what features can we afford to strip down?
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Prioritize features we think are necessary for Simple Mode and SMS Mode to work.
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Meet with designers to create basic wireframes and mockups of Simple Mode.
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Work with UX team to build out flow diagrams/user scenarios of SMS Mode.
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Conduct usability testing with seniors using the current Lyft app.
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Walk through the mockups of the new features with seniors who do not currently use Lyft.
Engineering
What are the engineering constraints? How are we going to divide the tasks amongst the engineers? How are we going to prioritize the features and what technical tradeoffs are we going to have to make to launch as soon as possible?
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Meet with engineering managers to discuss feature prioritization and potential technical tradeoffs and constraints. Brainstorm potential launch date.
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Work with engineers to build a potential timeline of sprints with tasks that detail their high-level requirements. Allocate the different tasks.
Some of these tasks may potentially be backlogged. I would first prioritize this backlog by assessing the impact of each task on the desired user goal, then look at engineering costs, and finally its potential revenue outcome.
LAUNCH PLAN
After building out the MVPs of these solutions, I would recommend a beta launch in Oklahoma City. Oklahoma City is the ideal place to beta test this feature because it recently received the highest “SeniorScore.” An advanced algorithm determines this score by incorporating over 100 variables across four major categories, including leisure and recreation, health and safety, affordability, and overall quality of life. Due to its high score, Oklahoma City is a place where many seniors reside and flourish. This city is also filled with many activities for seniors including golf courses, parks, churches, movie theaters, and walking trails. These features would help our launch because they would incentivize many seniors to leave their home and potentially use Lyft. Finally, after collecting feedback and data from the tests in Oklahoma City, we could improve the service before rolling out to more cities.
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When launching these features in Oklahoma City, I would focus my launch on two goals—acquiring new users and validating that this feature meets the market’s needs.
Pre-Launch
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Contact media outlets (i.e TechCrunch) to write about Simple Mode and SMS Mode.
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Prepare an article for the Lyft blog.
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Post video tutorials of how to use Simple Mode and SMS Mode.
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Partner with assisted living facilities, in-home care agencies, and other types of senior residential services to host a workshop about using Lyft’s new features after launch. (Free Lyft codes would be available here for first time Lyft users.)
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Have the engineering team build in-app tooltips about Simple Mode for users who are new to this feature.
During Launch
Offer free rides to current, younger Lyft users who refer their elderly relatives and community members to use Simple Mode and SMS Mode. I would increase awareness about this promotion by:​​
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Creating targeted ads on Facebook for users 20+ yrs to refer their parents and older relatives
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Contacting Caretaker Agencies
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Featuring it in caretaker newsletters
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Showing ads on job sites (i.e. when a user searches “caretaker” as a job)
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Posting in Caregiver forums
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Partnering with hospitals/medical practices to send a patient home using Simple Mode with Lyft promo codes
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Partnering with movie theaters to give out complimentary promo codes with a movie ticket purchase
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Leaving physical promotional flyers at parks, churches, gyms, and golf courses
Post-Launch
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Collect data on Lyft users who use Simple or SMS mode to measure the success of the features.
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Collect customer feedback on Lyft users that recommend an older friend or family member to use Simple or SMS Mode. I would track the users whose promo codes were used by someone older than 50. I would then collect this feedback by sending surveys and scheduling calls with these customers. I would incentivize them by giving them Lyft credits in return for their time.
LONG TERM EVOLUTION
SIMPLE MODE
Once we establish widespread adoption and retention of this feature, Lyft may expand this service further by incorporating in-app voice UI. Voice commands have become more common in people’s daily life as voice recognition software has improved significantly. In 2015, Grand View Research valued the global voice recognition industry at $51.09 billion. Voice UI specifically improves the user experience for elderly users because of how much faster and easier it is to speak than type. Thus, this user group will feel that Lyft is more natural to use.
Additionally, the numerous existing voice UI tools and APIs would facilitate the integration. As more Lyft users become familiar with voice UI, we may further expand this feature to be usable via Siri, Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and Apple Watches.
SMS MODE
Once we have validated this as a viable feature, Lyft may bring this feature to their Relief Rides program. In times of a natural disaster or crisis, people may not have any data to use Lyft. SMS Mode will help users call their Lyfts in times of need with a simple text. Additionally, Lyft may engage in more CSR programs with SMS Mode because it allows Lyft to offer free rides to low-income people without smartphones. For example, Lyft may give free rides to homeless shelters that provide transitional resources. Residents at these homeless shelters may then call rides via SMS for situations such as job interviews and rehab counseling.
Moreover, if the MVP launch is successful, Lyft may expand this feature to incorporate the full user journey from registration to usage through SMS. Registration via SMS would require users to text their credit card info, name, and birthdate.
In conclusion, I believe that Lyft has a great opportunity to include older Americans in its user base and innovate in a space that needs more attention. With Simple Mode and SMS Mode, Lyft may offer a much more competitive ride-hailing service that expands access to broader audiences. These features also align well with Lyft’s mission to scale more positive impact through transportation. Finally, Lyft may take another step towards unbiased technology and improve the livelihood of multiple generations.
