Courier Optimization
Maximizing a courier's efficiency and earning potential
My Role
Collaborated on workshop facilitation, and designed all screens. Created and launched usability test, and synthesized results.
Timeline
Dec 2023
Project Type
Vision sprint
Outcomes
Impacted the roadmap with visiontypes, and established opportunities for the future
final visiontype
A visiontype is a tool that communicates a product vision. These are high level concepts coming from our Optimization UX discovery. These concepts are based on our persona Neel, a courier who wants to feel productive.
How might we make the courier’s delivery journey more efficient and maximize the courier’s earning potential?
In the logistics space, we care a lot about how we can motivate and incentivize our food delivery couriers to meet our network’s demands. This all starts from what the couriers want: how they can make the most of their time on our network.
Courier optimization is based upon improving delivery time efficiency and maximizing earning potential. It revolves around developing a closed loop process that optimizes pay & performance, increasing autonomy, and building upon the foundations of courier productivity.
From our previous discovery workshops, we identified these "Jobs to be Done", which are reasons couriers use our product.
Courier Jobs to be Done
I want to…
maximize my effort (distance & time) with high paying orders
avoid long restaurant wait times and sitting idly
receive offers above my pay anchor
find consistent high paying orders with big tips
meet my daily and weekly earning goals
We also identified these select business needs:
What do we want to achieve?
A closed loop process that optimizes pay and performance
Equilibrium where we aren't overpaying and couriers feel satisfied
More tipping
Help couriers save time in their delivery flow
How will we measure success?
Decrease rejection distribution by distance and/or time
Decreased multi-apping
Decrease delays
workshops to ideate on our HMW's
For this optimization sprint, we ran two workshops: ideation and review.
In our ideation workshop, we recapped our courier pay research and past workshop outputs. Then, we ideated on our HMW’s with sticky notes:
HMW develop a system that optimizes pay for performance
HMW give couriers agency towards receiving consistent high paying orders with big tips
HMW help couriers minimize their effort (distance & time) and maximize their earnings potential (consistent offers, bonuses, & tips)
HMW help couriers save time in their delivery flow
HMW help couriers meet their daily and weekly earning goals?
HMW make less favourable orders more attractive to couriers
We also conducted a Crazy 8’s exercise for our stakeholders to sketch out their ideas, which we presented to each other and voted on the top ideas.
Design and Reviewing our ideas
I took these ideas, and turned them into concepts on Figma.
Then, I put them on a journey map for our stakeholders to review and provide feedback on, noting questions, risk/concerns, likes, and dislikes.
Here's a summary of our stakeholder feedback:
Don’t guarantee good things:
We should be clear with our wording when offering preferred order types or convenient final destination locations that they are not guaranteed
We can’t meet all courier order preferences or we will have increased rejection rates
Goal setting with a caveat
Couriers love goal setting but would the business realistically be able to schedule shifts and provide the offers for couriers to reach their goals?
Too much autonomy
Forecasting earnings and hotspot locations is helpful for couriers but will it negatively impact the network?
Usability Testing
I evaluated the concepts through moderated usability testing, with the help of our user researcher. Couriers also rated how motivating the screens were from 1 (not at all motivating) to 5 (extremely motivating).
The final visiontype is shown at the top of this case study, and is an iteration of these mid-fidelity prototypes.
A summary of what we've learned
Don’t overcomplicate the delivery process: While couriers want to be guided towards better performance and thus better rewards, many couriers don’t want to put in the effort to learn a complex tiering system with many variables.
Reward couriers for just doing the job: While highly autonomous couriers will put in the extra effort to earn more by travelling to hotspots or earning points, a subset of couriers expect to reap rewards from just doing the job rather than going above and beyond.
Goal setting is motivating: All couriers have earnings targets, and showing this in the app would be enormously helpful towards motivating and personalizing the courier experience.
Tangible rewards are preferred: Couriers prefer tangible rewards. Money, gift cards, and food vouchers are more motivating, while secondary rewards such as consistent offers and preferential scheduling don’t feel as guaranteed.
Efficiency: Any way couriers can maximize their time is helpful. Setting their last delivery on their way home is highly appreciated.
Future opportunities for us
Use an intuitive performance & rewards system: Couriers mentioned that the points system was something they were already familiar with, and found the system extremely rewarding. This is a familiar concept and opportunity that we can leverage. From the business side, giving out points would open up opportunities for us to dynamically reward behaviours that positively impact the network with possibly a lower financial investment.
Invest in a personalized, efficient experience: When we help couriers save time, minimize their expenses, and help them be more aware of their earning targets, we can keep them happier and increase their motivation on the job.