Uber assignment that involved assessing new product opportunities and to dive deep into the implementation and execution of one product or feature.

1. UBER PRODUCT ASSESSMENT
AUGUST 25, 2019

2. ASSIGNMENT ROADMAP
• Product Areas Explored
• Top 3 Product Opportunities
• Assessment of Product Opportunities
• Top Product Opportunity Chosen
• Opportunity Overview
• Alignment with Uber’s Story
• Stakeholders Involved
• Target Users and Use Cases
• Pain Points and Solution
• Execution Plan
• Success Metrics

3. PRODUCT AREAS EXPLORED
• Chose product areas based on interest, familiarity, and potential impact
• Rideshare
• Goal: Provide a reliable and positive trip for riders and drivers from point A to point B
• Last mile transportation (dockless e-bikes & e-scooters)
• Goal: Provide a simple transportation solution for short distance travel within the city
• Brainstormed problems and opportunities in each of these product areas in
order to ideate features and solutions

4. PRODUCT OPPORTUNITY: RIDE TYPE
• Problem: Uber trips can be awkward when there’s silence and uncertainty whether the
rider wants to have a conversation or prefers to be left alone during the trip
• This feature allows riders to select the type of ride they prefer after being matched
with a driver
• Social Ride – rider feels social and is open to having a conversation
• Quiet Ride – no conversation, for rides after a long day, or when you don’t feel
like talking
• Headphone Ride – rider will be using headphones, this tells the driver that the
rider won’t be paying attention and that the driver can get on a call or listen to
music
• This feature removes the awkwardness and uncertainty about the driver/rider
dynamics and therefore positively increases rider satisfaction
Your ride type:
Social Head
phone
Quiet

5. PRODUCT OPPORTUNITY: FOOD TO GO
• Opportunity: trips can be complemented with grabbing food as a convenience factor for
riders
• Grabbing coffee or breakfast on the way to work or to a meeting
• Grabbing lunch/dinner on the way home, to a friends house, or to an event
• This feature allows passengers to order food/drinks using Uber Eats and make the pickup
part of their trip. This could mean the driver picks up the food before picking up the
passenger or after the passenger is in the car
Starbucks
McDonald's

6. PRODUCT OPPORTUNITY: ELECTRIC SKATEBOARDS
• Opportunity: electric skateboards have exploded in popularity as a last mile
transportation option to get to work and ride within cities
• I’m proposing an electric skateboard rental service to complement Uber’s last
mile transportation efforts of bikes and scooters
• These electric skateboards will be docked at stations located in central locations
such as subway stations, college campuses, and in busy downtown areas

7. ASSESSMENT OF PRODUCT OPPORTUNITIES
Product
Opportunity
Alignment with
Uber’s story
Impact on
business &
strategy
Impact on
economics
Impact on
customer
experience
Level of Effort
Ride Type
Feature
Medium Low Low High Low
Food To Go
Feature
Low Medium Medium High Medium
Electric
Skateboard
Rental Service
Medium High High Medium High
• Based on the factors I’m considering and my assessment of each, it makes the most sense to build
out the “Ride Type” feature
• However, since it’s a simple feature and I want to demonstrate how I would implement a more
complex product opportunity that can have a big impact, I’m choosing the “electric skateboard
rental service” to pursue for the purposes of this assignment

8. OPPORTUNITY OVERVIEW: ELECTRIC SKATEBOARDS
• The electric skateboard rental service will allow people to use an e-
skateboard as a last mile transportation solution on a pay per use model
• The docking stations will charge and lock the e-skateboards when they’re not
in use. A docking station of regular skateboards is shown on the left and an
e-scooter docking station is shown on the right

9. ALIGNMENT WITH UBER’S STORY
• Electric skateboards are a big opportunity that aligns with Uber’s story of
enabling people to move, specifically within cities and short distance travel
• The rental service will also decrease traffic and congestion within cities by
providing an alternate mode of travel to complement last mile transportation
• Last mile transportation has been identified as a massive opportunity as
shown with the investment of Uber bikes/scooters, partnership with Lime, and
the increased population density in cities like SF, New York, and Chicago

10. STAKEHOLDERS INVOLVED
Users & Customers
People riding and renting the
skateboards
City & Government
Approvals, regulations, and
permits
Internal company stakeholders
Engineering, community operations,
legal, public policy, operations and
launch, and marketing teams
E-Skateboard suppliers
Either through manufacturing the
skateboards ourselves or through
purchasing them from a company
(like Boosted Boards)

11. TARGET USERS AND USE CASES
• In a 2013 study that surveyed skateboarding as a means of transportation found that
50% of riders are ages 18-25 and over 69% of riders were ages 18-29
• This is in alignment with my observation of friends that ride electric skateboards around
college and millennials that use e-skateboards to commute to work within the city
• Therefore I will be targeting millennials between the ages of 18-29 who’s primary use
involves riding within college campus or riding within the city for work
• This demographic is looking for a simple, quick, and fun solution to commute

12. PAIN POINTS AND SOLUTION
• Pain points of e-skateboards
• E-skateboards are expensive to own (upwards of $1,000) which limits the number of people that can
afford e-skateboards as a mode of transportation
• People who own e-skateboards often have trouble finding a place to charge their skateboards and
find it a hassle to carry it around classes in college or in the office at work
• The e-skateboard rental service solves both of those problems
• Allows rental of skateboards on a pay per use model without having to put up the hefty upfront cost
• The docking stations allow riders to “park” their skateboard and let it charge without having to carry
it around class or work

13. EXECUTION PLAN – MONETIZATION STRATEGY
• The e-skateboards will have a similar pay per use model to the e-scooters (unlock price
+ cost per minute) since it’s a proven model that aligns with other Uber products to
ensure consistency and simplicity for our customers
• I would recommend a lower “unlock skateboard” price of $0.50 instead of the
standard $1 since the e-skateboards are docked and the riders will be returning them
to the station which saves the expense that would have been paid out to people
collecting and charging the skateboards
• A potential monetization strategy in the future (after the proof of concept stage) is to
offer a subscription service for regular users. This can be in the form a monthly pass
that allows up to 2 rentals of 15 minutes per day for $20/month

14. EXECUTION PLAN – ROLLOUT STRATEGY
• The target customers are college students and millennial professionals (ages 18-29)
• Therefore this service should first be rolled out in busy college campuses and include
stations around central building like the food court, libraries, and college entrances
• Boosted Board also started with targeting college students which further proves that
this demographic is a an ideal user of e-skateboards
• The next step would be to rollout in busy parts of dense cities to target the millennial,
young professionals demographic. The docking stations should be located outside of
subway/train stations, large downtown companies and central attractions

15. EXECUTION PLAN – POTENTIAL CHALLENGES
• E-skateboards are harder to ride – the hypothesis is that the user base we’re targeting (ages 18-29) are
college students and millennials that are comfortable with this mode of transportation and find it cool
• Docking makes it more limited – this is a similar concept to docked bikes which are still popular and the
strategic placement of the docking stations becomes paramount for success
• Regulations and states banning the use of e-skateboards – this is a similar challenge to e-scooters and
their use on sidewalks and bike lanes which is constantly being debated and regulations vary by state
• Docking stations that are full – can be mitigated by warning users in advance based on their destination
and strategic placement of stations based on usage patterns
• Potential theft – mitigated by having a built-in tracker with the live location of the scooter and an alarm
mechanism that sounds when a scooter is deemed to be stolen

16. SUCCESS METRICS
• There are three important metrics that can be used to understand the success and feasibility of the
e-skateboard rental service
• Revenue & Profit – to measure the success of this alternate mode of last mile transportation in
comparison to the e-bikes and e-scooters business
• Rental Frequency & Duration – can be measure as Daily Active Users (DAU) to understand the
usage patterns of customers in order to validate the hypothesis of e-skateboards as a daily mode
of transportation for getting around college or the city
• Breakeven Point – to assess the success of e-skateboard rental operations and compare it to the
lifecycle of the e-skateboards to determine long term feasibility
• Using these metrics we can determine the success of the e-skateboard rental service as it aligns
with Uber’s mission of enabling people to move through alternate modes of transportation

17. REFERENCES
• https://cdn10.phillymag.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2018/02/uber-express-pool-900x600.jpg
• https://fsmedia.imgix.net/da/0c/e9/3a/f6b6/47df/bee2/c3370ce6868f/uberpool-and-its-multiple-
stops.png?auto=format%2Ccompress&dpr=2&w=691
• https://illuminatisymbols.info/wp-content/uploads/illuminati-symbols-Starbucks-Coffee-Logo.gif
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonald%27s
• https://www.groundcontrolsystems.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/05/SkateDock-High-
Density-Skateboard-and-Scooter-Parking-678x381.jpg
• http://movmi.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/how-it-work-bikes.png
• https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2515&context=open_access_etds