Case Study: How would you improve Google Maps
Following is my take on the above question:
1. Clarification stage: Before proceeding with the problem identification and suggesting relevant solutions, I would first like to clarify all my doubts and assumptions right at the beginning. This will ensure that both I and the interviewer are on the same page.
i) My understanding of Google Maps- One of the many products of Google, Maps is an innovative tool that- in the simplest sense- allows one to go from location A to location B. Not only does the product provide the most optimized route to reach our destination, but it also displays the estimated time of reaching that place, after taking into consideration different factors like the distance between the source and the destination, real-time traffic conditions etc. Additionally, Maps has several other features like Trip Planner, AR (Augmented Reality) powered street view, “Explore” feature that showcases information related to nearby shopping/ eating places, hotels, hospitals and several other essential and non-essential services.
ii) The Business objective behind the improvement- Since Google is already an established company, I don’t think the goal behind the improvement would be so much as to acquire new users. However, there is still a significant section of existing Google users who don’t use the app up to its full potential. Hence, increasing engagement is one important goal that Maps would want to achieve through improvements. Also, users spending a longer duration of time on Maps will give rise to more user-generated data, which in turn can be used to create a highly personalized and smoother journey for the users. And a personalized experience on the platform will consequently lead to higher retention.
iii) Is this improvement aimed towards the web browser or the mobile app? The user flow (or the journey) on browser and mobile apps are very different from each other, which is why certain new and improved features which would look and feel good on the browser might make the app page feel cluttered.
2. My assumptions: For the sake of this case study, I will assume that the improvements would be done specifically for the mobile app (because of the surge in smartphone users who prefer to check locations and routes on the go).
3. User group analysis and prioritization: After I get proper clarity, the next step would be to identify and analyze those user segment/ segments of Google Maps who should be targeted through this improvement initiative.
a) User segments of Google Maps- Currently, Maps’ users can be bifurcated into the following groups:
i) Casual users which can be further broken down into-
· Tourists
· Private vehicle owners
· Ola or Uber cab riders
ii) Cab Drivers like Ola and Uber
iii) Online on-demand delivery companies like Swiggy or Dunzo to track their delivery agents in real-time
b) Prioritizing and choosing one segment to target- Given the chosen business objectives that the product improvements would focus on- ie greater engagement and retention- I believe that the tourist segment can be prioritized as there is a huge potential there. An increasing number of young, adventure-seeking people have adopted the workcation lifestyle, wherein they have temporarily moved to some exotic location, thanks to the work from anywhere culture. This allows them to work on the weekdays and go on short treks or trips in the weekends, thereby enjoying the best of both worlds.
c) Use cases- Some of the scenarios where tourists need to use Google Maps are:
i) To search for hotels or homestays and the corresponding quickest route — alternative route suggestions and automatic rerouting
ii) To search for popular and not-so-popular locations for trekking and sightseeing. Maps itself recommends tourist places along with public reviews, therefore reducing efforts
iii) To search for nearby restaurants and cafes
iv) To stay updated regarding the latest traffic conditions and road closures and accordingly plan trips
v) To check timings of public commutes like buses, trains and autos in case one does not have a personal vehicle
vi) To plan the entire trip using Google Maps Trip Planner
d) User journeys for each of the above use cases will be different. However, I will outline the journey for the most common use case, which is travelling from one place to another:
The tourist opens Maps→ Selects the “Go” tab→ Enters the destination location in the search bar either by typing or through voice note→ Clicks on “Directions” or “Start”→ Plans the trip based on the results such as ETA, road blockers etc.→ Embarks upon his/ her journey as per the optimized route shown on Maps→ Takes breaks in between for food and refreshments→ Successfully reaches the location→ Clicks on “Done” and exits Maps
4. Existing pain points of the prioritized user segment on Maps: Despite the plethora of benefits that a tourist can enjoy using Maps, there are still a few challenges that one faces while using the product. I can vouch for this fact because I had recently taken a trip to Himachal Pradesh wherein I was highly dependent on Maps, and the app disappointed me on several occasions. A few of the pain points that I want to highlight are:
i) As you might have also faced, the app is very slow to load in areas with bad network connectivity. This is particularly challenging for tourists, especially the ones visiting quaint locations surrounded by mountains, where not having a good internet connection is very common. Inability to use Maps at these places is extremely frustrating, and having to wait for 15–20 minutes for the map to load disrupts the user journey.
ii) Maps often shows inaccurate results which is a big challenge. This not only delays trip plans but also puts travellers at the risk of getting lost in unknown places.
iii) Maps does not provide any cautionary note about locations that tourists want to visit. For example, if the destination that is entered is located at a very high altitude where there might be a shortage of oxygen, Maps does not display this vital piece of information. Of course, users will do a fair bit of research before going to such places, but being reminded of these small facts within the Maps itself is useful, especially for tourists with specific conditions like say, asthma.
iv) There is no information regarding the availability of parking space at the destination location (except for good hotels and a few other places that themselves list parking space availability under the “Amenities” section). Maps also does not specify the best mode to reach the location. Again, referring back to my trip to Himachal, I had booked a homestay in a remote village. Unfortunately, roads leading to that homestay were not wide enough to support cars, and I had to carry my luggage all the way up to the hotel on foot. On another occasion, there was no parking available inside the hotel, and the car had to be parked at some other place which was also a big hassle. If only such information were displayed on Maps itself, one would not have had to go through so much trouble.
v) While travelling via road, tourists often come across several eye-catching unnamed locations comprising of small villages, water bodies, forests etc. that they want to know more about. Although these might appear on Maps (as long as the car is in the vicinity of that area), it is not easy to learn more about them.
vi) The explore tab on Maps shows the local restaurants, events, shopping centres and other similar details, however, it does not give any information about the places that are cheap to shop at or eat at, ones that are mostly visited by the locals there, the best time to visit so that one can avoid crowds or long queues and so on. People temporarily living in these remote locations want to save as much time and money as possible, so that they can instead use them to travel. Ratings and reviews are not usually available for such offbeat places, and this makes the lives of tourists a tad difficult.
5. Prioritization of the pain points based on their impact on users:
Therefore, based on priority, the order of the problems is-
3–4–5–6–1–2
6. Solutions to address the above pain-points: In addition to suggesting recommendations to each of the prioritized issues, I will also assess the effort and impact associated with the implementation of each solution-
i) For problem 3- As soon as the user enters a destination, Maps should immediately identify any abnormalities associated with the location and inform the same to the user, such as high altitude or bad road conditions. Such precautionary notifications will allow the travellers to take necessary steps before starting the journey and therefore avoid unnecessary risks.
Effort- Low (Maps already alerts users about several problems like road closures, accidents etc. Therefore, it would not be difficult for the application to also display specific facts about places that can impact the tourists’ health conditions).
Impact- High
ii) For problem 4- The availability of parking space is often not displayed on Maps for locations that are not that popular or are present in offbeat places. In such cases, users have to go through the hassle of either visiting the corresponding websites or directly calling up the hotel staff and inquiring about parking facilities. If Maps could display this vital piece of information on its platform, users would not have to switch from one channel to another. Specifications about the condition of the road leading to the destination should also be brought to the notice of the interested tourists by Maps itself. Say someone is planning to drive to that location in a Jeep, but the road only consists of bike lanes, then this small piece of data will let the user avoid a lot of trouble.
Effort- Low (All Maps needs to do is fetch the necessary details from the website of the destination location- maybe through an API call, or reroute the user directly to the website so that she does not have to search for it herself. In case the place does not have any website, Maps can automatically open the dialer with the location’s number already entered in).
Impact- High
iii) For problem 5- You might notice that on flights, the pilot always announces the names of important places when the plane flies over them. Similarly, Maps could have a voice-assisted feature (instead of text which could distract the drivers) that can notify users when they crossed some interesting place while travelling from one place to another (like driving from the airport to the hotel or during sight-seeing). The feature can also offer more information about the place, like why it is famous, what kind of habitat is found there (If it is a forest), whether it is safe to stop and explore the place and so on. A feature like this can make the user experience on Maps so much more enriching.
Effort- High
Impact- High
iv) For problem 6- Maps can provide additional data about the places of interest like which is the best time to visit based on its crowd intensity (Currently this is only displayed for popular places), which is the best dish to try out when visiting a restaurant, which are the shops where most of the locals like to shop because of cheaper prices and so on. Also, given the fact that most of these TG are young people who like to document their entire journey on social media through pictures and videos, Maps can highlight all the picturesque places where the users can click those Instagram-worthy aesthetically-pleasing photos.
Effort- Low (Since Maps already has a section dedicated to ratings and reviews, it can employ a machine learning model to perform sentiment analysis and based on the results, offer the above-mentioned recommendations to the users)
Impact- High
As mentioned earlier, I would be leaving problems 1 and 2 for now since they involve more technical solutions.
7. Prioritization of the solutions using action matrix:
Using the above matrix, the quick wins can be taken up in the short run, whereas the major project can be put on hold for the future. Therefore, the prioritized list of solutions are: (i), (ii), (iv) and (iii)- in that order.
8. Trade-Off: One potential con of solution (iv) might be that displaying so many notifications leads to disrupting the journey of the user on the platform, and making her feel coddled. Although the chances of this happening are very less, however, there might be a small segment of tourists who prefer making their own travel decisions after proper research or based on their prior experience, and would not like being hand-held so much.
9. Success metrics: At the beginning of this case study, I had considered that increasing engagement and retention should be the two primary goals behind these improvements. In alignment with these objectives, a few key success metrics that Maps should track are:
i) Engagement Metrics-
· Daily Active Users (DAU) and Monthly Active Users (MAU) using Maps,
· Number of travellers who actually visited the places that were suggested by Maps
ii) Retention Metrics-
· Number of repeat users of the voice-assisted feature on a Month-on-Month basis
10. Summarize:
To wrap up the entire analysis-
i) I would focus on improving the engagement and retention rates of Maps while targeting the ever-increasing tourist user segment.
ii) The prioritized actionable pain-points faced by this segment are: 1) Not knowing whether the destination location is safe health-wise, 2) No information regarding the availability of parking space or the best vehicle mode to reach the location, 3) Travelling from one place to another without any knowledge about the interesting places that they pass through and finally, 4) Getting confused regarding which local places are the best to eat or shop from.
iii) I identified 4 solutions corresponding to each problem: 1) Notifying users about the challenges that they might face in the destination place so that they can take precautionary measures beforehand, 2) Providing relevant information about which places are the best to hang out or eat at based on parameters like cleanliness, price, quality and so on, 3) Informing tourists about what vehicle would be the best to travel to a location and 4) A voice-assisted feature to update the travellers about any note-worthy places that they cross- which is more of a long-term solution
iv) I would measure the success by using 1) Engagement metrics like DAU, MAU, Number of travellers who followed Maps’ suggestions and 2) Retention metrics like the number of users who came back to use the Voice-assisted feature monthly.
