Foodbomb - Design Task | Product Designer

Working on a design task in a simulated environment

This is an attempt to solve a problem faced by Foodbomb ( an ordering platform that connects venues with wholesale suppliers ) in conjunction with its lead designer and Product Manager.

by Teja Srinivas

My Role

The Team

UX design & Strategy

Project Manager - Tony Ouk
UX Lead - Matt Fregola

The Timeline

4 weeks

Given Problem

Suppliers often deliver at a time when nobody is
there to receive the order and hence need a clear
set of instructions to follow.

This case study will follow a journal style as I

take you through days working on the project

with outcomes one by one.

Given User Stories

"You f-bomb buff-heads! I woke up with the sound of the bloody alarm at 5am! The baker tried to open the door to leave my lovely lemon merengues in the fridge but didn't have the alarm details! I had already told Foodbomb about it when I ordered from the meat supplier, why didn't you tell the baker?!?!" - Albertin, Pub owner

"You f-bomb mongrels! I had specifically requested that my adorable lemon merengues would be left in the right-hand side of the part of the street under the blue sign, is that so hard to understand?! What do you need a picture?!" -

Beth, Cafe owner

"You f-bomb morons! I have a lockbox where I leave a key so that suppliers can leave my precious lemon tarts in the fridge! Couldn't you have asked me for it?" -

Carlo , Restaurant owner

Day 1 - Goals & Sprint Questions

Long term goal - A seamless first order experience for people ordering via Foodbomb.

For a seamless experience, what has to be true?

The customer should leave an understandable note for

the delivery driver.

&

The delivery driver must be able to follow through with

the note.

Sprint questions

Can the customers leave better delivery instructions ?
Can the delivery drivers accurately follow the instructions ?

Problem Statement

\We have to provide a better way for customer to give delivery instructions so that their delivery is safe and

does not disturb the customer.

Day 2 - Understanding the business

I have set up a call with Mattia on day 3 to get to know him and ask him the following questions, as he has been with Foodbomb for a while now. This way I get to know more about the behind the scenes and also particularly the delivery experience.

What research brought you to the conclusion that suppliers are struggling to get their first delivery to

the customers.

What does a supplier see when the order is placed? Any printable delivery reports so that i get an idea about how the supplier side of things work.

What is the average amount a first time customer orders? From talking to some of my friends who work at the restaurant, I knew that for the customers may ignore little mistakes and care more about substantial orders. Small orders might not be so much of a loss even if they are ruined.

What research brought you to the conclusion that suppliers are struggling to get their first delivery to

the customers.

What does a supplier see when the order is placed? Any printable delivery reports so that i get an idea about how the supplier side of things work.

What is the average amount a first time customer orders? From talking to some of my friends who work at the restaurant, I knew that for the customers may ignore little mistakes and care more about substantial orders. Small orders might not be so much of a loss even if they are ruined.

Day 3 - Changing Focus

I previously came up with 2 sprint questions but after talking Mattia and gaining more perspective, I have

decided to focus on the suppliers, ie. the delivery drivers.

There are two reasons for this :

The website and online ordering experience is great already, and making any changes might make it harder for him to reach his goal of ordering food, and might introduce a learning curve that could frustrate the users. Hence i would not like to take a chance tweaking the website interface.
Getting the first delivery experience right could do wonders for the brand of Foodbomb. A seamless first delivery experience will lead more word of mouth, causing more customers to choose Foodbomb.

New Problem Statement

“Our delivery driver struggles to follow the delivery instructions given in the delivery slip.

Our solution should deliver a way to remind them of the respective delivery instructions”

Jobs to be Done -

Interview questions

for delivery drivers

Inteview Questions

Before the driver starts -

Take me through a typical work day for you?What time do you start and what time it ends??On an average how many deliveries do you do per day?? Do you pickup from multiple locations??How do you arrange it inside your truck

During the drive -

How do they travel to the location?Do you use GPS (company provide or personal).Do you have a mobile phone on you always?

After the Drive, during delivery -

When you reach your destination, whats the first thing you do when you reach the address??Take me through everything that happens from the time you park the truck to the truck moving again. How do you know of any special delivery instructions for the driver??How often do you follow them to the t. Why do you miss them??Take me through a delivery for which you have missed the instructions??Is there something your employer could do about it so you don’t miss any instructions at all ??

Further Questions

If you had to deliver something at 5 am and not disturb the customer. What do you do?? Did you take any such jobs in the past??(in case he does not deliver that early) How do you arrange them inside your truck? Do you do it suburb wise??

What is your general train of thoughts when you are driving?? What mental zone are you in?? What is your preferred Gps. If you don’t get a device, do you use your mobile phone?? Do you use phone for navigation?? Do you listen to music??(radio or from your phone), or bluetooth?? Do you know the routes by heart?? Do you drive to the suburb and then check your sheet for address?? How often do you touch your mobile phone while driving??

Do you cross-check the orders before you finally deliver?? Let’s say no one’s home - what do you do?? Let’s say do not have his number to call, then what would you do?? Let’s say you have done a wrong delivery, remembered it once you left the place. What would you do then?? Take me through any customer complaints you have received in the past?? How did you deal with them?? How did you company deal with them?? If there were a hands free device that could take you through the instructions instantly when you reach the location?? Would you like it??

WEEK 2-The Pivot

After spending a week with the task, I had a discussion with Tony and Mattia. We decided that focusing on the delivery drivers is too far-fetched, and something that the company cannot focus on right now. We also decided that focusing on the customers would be better. I understand where they were coming from and agreed that it was better to focus on the Customers.

So, for the weeks I worked on redesigning the checkout experience for the customers so that they give better delivery notes for the drivers to follow. I then showed the following presentation to Tony and got some suggestions.

Further refinements after discussing with the PM

Does the venue need to apply these instructions to multiple suppliers at once?
- If so, what restrictions are there? (Types of produce, certain things go into the fridge vs not)
More detailed view of how the presets work (note: for any details to appear on any other document it needs to be its own field)
Right now, we have delivery comments available, but venues do not fill them in. How do we make it more likely they will fill it in?
Suppliers routinely bring the goods at the wrong time ( the venue isn't there, or it's too late or whatever) - What is a way that we could make this work better
- Suppliers are not willing to commit to a certain delivery time. So if we ask the venue for a time to bring the goods, and the venues expect it will be listened to, they will definitely be disappointed.

WEEK 3 - First presentation with solutions

Refinements to be made

after meeting with PM

Clean up the page - make it tight - show the entire screen (include the money parts on the right, and the selection of location. We want to see the final page
- It would be cool if you could show the different pages based on what they've selected
Include the "How do i get here?" section. Try a couple of options not just a free text field
Explore the wider process flow
- How does a venue sign up, what questions do they see
  - What does that page look like now?
- When a venue orders something, what questions do they see
- When an order goes to a supplier, what do they see
  - What forms change
  - Is it just the first order for that supplier or not
- If a change happens, what happens?