Uber Travel
8 launched products later, a strategic vision for travel continues to capture the other 75% of trips.
Uber was always widely used to get to and from airports, hotels, train stations, and other travel scenarios. However, Uber never knew if a trip was linked to another, or if they all were in the greater context of a trip somewhere. In order to grow market share, even more, we would need to capture the other 3 legs of a traveler’s trip away from home.
The strategic vision of Uber for Travel
This project was incredibly important since to date, Uber really only knew about the first leg of a trip. What we did not know was the context that that leg was even part of a trip. In terms of market opportunity, building travel-based solutions could increase gross bookings by at least 25%.
8 of the 14 concepts described here have become productized and are in the market today, including the latest one that you can read about here.
Design Sprint
Product leaders asked our team to begin work on defining the future opportunities for Uber to play a bigger role in everyday personal and business travel. Early on I pitched the idea of running a design sprint to really help kick things off. I then got to work organizing and facilitating a condensed 4-day design sprint with a 12-person cross-functional team. By the end, we developed design principles, a set of 14 concepts, and an executive presentation with 3 stories that would describe the future of travel on Uber’s platform.
For Hire
Eventually launched in 2020, Uber’s new “hourly option” allows riders to book a driver for multiple hours to run errands, extended shopping, and other long-distance or multi-segment trips. Read more about it here.
Rider Preferences
Another fan favorite in terms of personalization and safety, I designed not only this concept but also the shipping version of this product. Check out the project page to learn more.
Rentals
Launched in 2021, rentals was another transportation option not previously available directly within the app. Now riders had a choice of private driver, scooters, bikes, transit — and now car rentals. Read more about Rentals in this article.
Concierge Chat
From our earlier research, both riders and drivers desired better tools to communicate with one another. Drivers wanted more options to earn more, and riders wanted more efficient ways to get all they needed to get done in a day.
The Concierge feature (a 3-way conversational UX between rider, driver, and Uber assistant) would allow drivers to have more agency and let them sell other services—like offering to pick up dry cleaning before they pick you up at the airport, or take your bags to the hotel while you head straight to that important meeting or dinner.
Favorite Driver
Perhaps one of the most desired product features to come to Uber was the new ability to favorite a driver. Read more about this project on my Favorite Driver page.
Uber Lounges
Live at some venues today, this concept opened doors and conversations with venue owners and placed Uber in a strategic position to have the best-in-class arrival and departure experience. Check out this article on Uber’s recently launched comfort lounges.