Lyft Glow
Research / UX / Marketing / Design
Lyft Glow
Our goal for the new product was to imagine a device whose value is not predicated entirely upon marketing, but provides tangible improvements to the core ride experience while delivering incremental bookings and cost savings to the business.
We envision an in-car hardware device that can provide benefits to Lyft, Drivers and Riders with a core focus on Safety, Frictionless Pickup Experience, In-Ride Experience, and Brand Awareness.
Rolls and responsibilities
1 Marketing lead
1 PMM
1 Product design manager (Myself)
1 PM
1 EM
1 Firmware engineer
1 Product design lead (research, brand and hardware POC)
1 Hardware design/engineering firm (Bould and Mindtribe)
1 Brand creative
1 CD
1 Illustrator
Multiple design partners across Driver / Rider
We began the journey with research to understand what drivers and riders care about in working towards the development of a new in-car device.
Overall there were 5 features that resonated with both riders and drivers.
Daytime Illumination, Internal Facing Camera, Personalized Color, Airport Matching and a better Location Antenna for accurate pickups.
Many issues with the device pairing, mounting and understanding of the overall value prop was resulting in lost opportunity for Lyft and for customers, this provided us an opportunity to improve the current experience while delivering on a new one.
New KPIs were defined to help the team focus their attention on
1) increasing utilization through improved pickup times and
2) improved safety through better identification of the rider and driver at pickup.
Initial plans to include cameras was descoped due to cost and maintenance, we also learned that many drivers liked using their own camera and privacy issues posed a legal risk for the business.
With insights in hand we crafted the new user stories and value props in addition to a master feature list which established the MVP requirements.
In addition to the hardware we focused on redesigning the app experience to better integrate with the feature benefits of the device.
Over the course of 6 months we worked with Bould, a hardware design firm and Mindtribe, a Hardware engineering firm, to create the ideal device, then refined the product to something we could ship that was under an estimated $10BOM cost per unit by 2021.
As we began work on the device, we turned to the brand, marketing and in app product experience which would bring the experience to life for both riders and drivers. The team is targeting a 2021 launch.
Early results from drivers and riders was overwhelmingly positive.
