Blog 2 - Uber Site Visit

As an avid Uber user I was excited about the opportunity to be able to hear from the company about their operations, where they see themselves in the future and what they are doing to solve today's problems.  The presentation & Q&A with Mike Truong of Uber did not disappoint.  For this post, I would like to talk about two particular areas that stood out for me.  First was the double diamond process that Uber project teams use to analyze and find a solution for a particular problem.  Second were some of the cool initiatives that Uber was undertaking to become a better company for both drivers & riders.

Firstly, the double diamond analysis process was fascinating to me as it seemed so simple yet so powerful in it's ability to deconstruct a problem and then construct a solution.  The process essentially works by taking a problem a user has such as not being able to call an Uber for their mother, deconstructing it to find the larger problem & opportunity at hand, then taking this problem/opportunity and constructing a solution.  This solution is then tested using an AB process (another great tool) and eventually integrated into the app if the tests show a significant statistical result.  In the p2p economy, new issues will arrive each day, especially in a company that has seen the exponential growth that Uber has.  Therefore having these tools at hand has allowed for Uber to tackle these issues and improve upon its service.

Secondly, using the above mentioned tools, I was impressed by how proactive the Uber team was in addressing issues for both it's riders & drivers. Quite often in the news we hear about how Uber is negligent or doesn't care about their drivers but the initiatives, testing and open feedback that Mike provided really highlighted the exact opposite.  Mike was also very honest about the fact that Uber was not perfect in how it handles everything but they were trying to fix these problems using the above mentioned tools and utilizing feedback.  One example of an initiative they were undertaking was surrounding drivers having a "hard-stop" time for completing their shift and the issues that could arise if they have to take a passenger far away on their final ride.  While Uber does not want riders to constantly have their requests denied (hence a driver cannot see the location until the rider is in the car), Uber also does not want to completely inconvenience their drivers.  As a result, Uber has created an initiative where a driver can enter a stop time & location and as a result ensuring that they are not given any trips that would take them in the wrong direction and impact their stop time.  This is a net positive result for both the driver & rider as it also ensures the rider will not be cancelled on or not picked up if the driver see's their final destination beforehand.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the visit to Uber and found the presentation by Mike to be the most insightful of the trip.