IOMOB
How Customer Feedback Sparked a Strategic Pivot for a Startup
Iomob is a platform that enables people to discover, plan, book, pay, and fulfil any mode of mobility, anywhere in the world.
Context
Iomob is a startup building a white-label software solution that enables enterprises specialised in mobility to provide a full customer experience without building their own.
By partnering and integrating with mobility partners the platform allows users to create multi-modal, multi-country trips that consist of different types of transport like taxis, buses, scooters, trains, boats and others.
People are as different as the ways and reasons they travel.
Challenges at every step
To meet the needs of a large audience, we recognized that we will need to solve for challenges that we have observed in the space.
Future planning
Planning a multi-city trip that can span several countries where you need to find the right route, book a ticket for each leg of the trip and help guide through the journey requires separate apps because each step is owned by a different company.
Multi-modality
No service allows combining a taxi ride with a train ride with a rental scooter within a single trip.
All in one place
There is no single place for all tickets for a trip because each provider has a separate booking process.
Scattered information
Sensitive information like credit card and driver’s license details are scattered around each providers solution with security policies that are not transparent.
Inconsistent quality
The general user experience of existing mobility provider apps leaves a lot to be desired.
COMPANY
YEAR
2019
TIME
10 months
ROLE
Founding designer, entire product design, research, prototyping and user testing
Starting with a thesis
To get to a proof-of-concept and validate the idea, we started with a thesis that split into 2 ideas.
Explore and discover what is near you.
We started by focusing on the discovery to encourage bookings. Users would be presented with a map featuring a semi-curated list of attractions and destinations, easily accessible from the start page.
Once the user knows where they want to go, we help them get there.
Users can choose their preferred method of reaching their destination from the available transport options. We're also encouraging greener choices like e-bikes and public transport by including these options in the explore area and prioritizing them in search results.
Build a concept to align on the idea
I've found that using visuals to explain ideas and concerns helps me have productive conversations with non-designers, allowing everyone to move forward together.
Validating the concept with people in the park
While the concept seemed strong and the team was happy about the direction, it was not clear if this solves a real world need or if people would be open to changing their habits about how they discover attractions, use public transport and what level of trip assistance is expected.
Approach to testing
I created a prototype using the Marvelapp because at that point Figma prototypes were very slow when switching between screens. I went to a park in Barcelona because people of all backgrounds visited the city and started to approach people for guerrilla-style user testing. Over 3 days I managed to get insights from 28 people.
People found value in the concept
Most people found the concept as useful as Google Maps for transportation needs.
The explore feature seemed useful only for tourists while traveling.
Locals found the Explore feature unnecessary and would rather have the ability to plan a future trip and be reminded about it.
Users should be able to exit an active trip and return to it if they need to look for another address.
From a concept to a developed prototype
The concept provided insights into what users found valuable and what features we are missing. It also helped the founders to secure the next round of funding to continue developing the product which was a good sign that we are going in the right direction.
This led to hiring an external agency to develop brand guidelines to incorporate into the design.
Fitting it all together
Information Architecture helped understand how the different independent features work together, how to navigate between trips and sections of the app as well as have a broad overview of the overall scope that allowed the development team to start with the low-hanging fruit while the main user journey was still in a discovery phase.
How do people travel?
For the next iteration, we decided to focus on the door-to-door journey as it was becoming one of the main features of the product. We wanted to understand a few key things:
Are we providing routes that make sense?
Do people understand how a multi-modal journey works?
How do people manage the planning and booking of long trips?
In what circumstances would users want to use trip assistance?
Who would be our target audience?
To get more insights, I once again built a prototype and went to the local parks to talk with people and see what I can learn.
The concept provided insights into what will be useful to users and what is not necessary.
To get more insights, I once again built a prototype and went to the local parks to talk with people and see what I can learn.
92% of people completed all tasks successfully.
Overall, we had a very positive response from people. This round of testing took 4 days and had 42 participants.
Positive findings
85% found it surprising that you can combine multiple types of transports into a single trip.
76% found saving an upcoming trip as a good feature. “It is something to look forward to.”, said one person.
90% were positively surprised about the ability to buy tickets for a future trip without leaving the app. People were expecting to be redirected to a website outside the app.
54% found Trip history useful but would probably not use it often.
Main improvements necessary
80% of people did not immediately understand that it is possible to change the type of transport for a specific leg of the trip.
48% of people would use the guided trip assistance while 90% expect a navigation app to have step-by-step instructions.
People roughly fell into 3 categories
While most people had similar needs, I found specific use cases that did not seem to overlap.
The Tourist
To plan a multi-city trip later in the year
Buy tickets for the whole trip in one place
Direction guide to help reach a destination
The Frequent traveler
Convenience of easily accessible tickets
Have all mobility providers in one place
Schedule & book a trip in the moment
The Business traveler
Book a taxi in the same app as the train
A place to collect business travel expenses for reimbursement
Convenience of easily accessible tickets
What time is it? It’s pivot time!
The first potential customer made it clear that the product needs to focus on the planning, booking and trip assistance aspects. The product is not the star, it is the muscle - the infrastructure - making mobility providers more efficient in delivering their service.
The new focus was useful because we could drop the “Explore” feature which grew in complexity over time yet did not provide a clear path to monetization.
The Pilot program
To secure the first customer, we needed to be successful in the pilot program. The early product version was given to 40 internal client users who travel daily for work or leisure for 1 month. This would give insight into:
Does the app bring value to frequent travellers?
Are there any features that are missing?
Which app would the users prefer - Iomob or their existing app?
How battery-intensive is the trip assistance feature?
Focus on the product core
For the pilot, we had 3 months to deliver a working version of the product. This meant that we needed to cut scope, finalise the designs, validate with users and build the pilot release.
To simplify user testing, we got access to the business lounge of the largest train station in Barcelona to validate if the business users would be willing to change their existing habits and adapt Iomob for their business travel needs. Business users are big revenue generators.
The Business user
With the help of the client, we secured access to the business lounge of the largest train station in Barcelona for 3 days to focus on the needs of the high-value customers.
Seeing the ability to book a “taxi - train - taxi” combination in a single flow, about 60% of participants would be willing to try switching from their existing setup.
An additional 15% of users would be willing to switch if there was an easy way to send invoices.
Some users were not willing to switch because the existing habit is strong or because their company arranges travel in a way that doesn’t require additional apps - only navigation.
Helping the end user helps everyone
Since travelling is a personalised experience, we understood that users should be our main guide for what we need to build while mobility providers would serve as a constraint.
Mobility providers would serve as a constraint to the user experience as they are not technology companies and are not optimised for integrating with third parties.
Where can we make an impact then?
For our end users
Find routes, plan trips, purchase tickets and book mobility services within a single app.
Get step-by-step trip assistance to fulfil a door-to-door experience.
Select from a range of different types of transports to solve the first, last mile problem by providing multi-modal routing.
For mobility providers
Provide a better user experience than existing products without compromising on functionality.
Extend provider capabilities by combining routes from a variety of mobility providers enabling to reach destinations outside the operating area.
Reduce operating and development costs by providing an all-in-one SaaS solution.
Planning a trip
Plan trips easily with our app. Input destination, dates, and preferences for tailored recommendations on flights, accommodations, and activities. Compare, and read reviews, and books seamlessly. Use the itinerary feature to schedule days, set reminders, access maps, reservations on the go. Simplify travel planning, and enjoy stress-free trips.
Booking a trip
Book trips and plan future trips
Trip assistance
Plan trips effortlessly with our app. Input destination, dates, preferences for flights, accommodations, activities. Compare, read reviews, book hassle-free. Itineraries for scheduling, reminders, maps, reservations. No travel stress, just easy adventures with our platform.
Final thoughts
When building a product from 0, a short feedback loop between the designer and founders, and designer and potential users is very important because it allows to quickly validate product ideas without committing engineering resources.
Stakeholders need to be able to let go of a feature or an idea if initial feedback is not overwhelmingly positive because there is almost no space to build the wrong thing.
When user feedback starts to become repetitive, the designer needs to evaluate the idea or the script for any potential errors. Otherwise, the iteration is ready for polishing and then implementation.
Sometimes there is only time to focus on the power user but that provides a good baseline for the business to potentially give more time for the team to polish features for the rest of the users.
Users will always surprise you. The more users I interacted with, the more ideas for features and new use cases came up. Not all ideas will be great but they can enrich the board of ideas that stakeholders already have.