Real Problems We Tackle: Design #2

If you're curious about the interesting problems that the Clipboard Product Team solves day to day, here's our second edition!

(Clipboard’s marketplace has mechanics similar to a reservation-scheduling business, in that our users also “book a transaction in the future.” We use a food app analogy below to leverage the understanding many people have about that business to describe a very real challenge for us.)

Pretend you’re a product manager at FindFood, an app that helps users find and book meal reservations at restaurants. This is a Figma of the core Search screen in the app (screenshot below). Your objective is to revamp the shopping experience, with a focus on increasing utilization (number of bookings / user) among existing users.

The app currently has four tabs: Search (pictured), News Feed, Favorites, and My Account. 

Search allows you to scroll through restaurant cards, filter results, make reservations, and share restaurant details with in-app friends. To filter results, users tap the pills (which can horizontally scroll across the page) at the top of the screen; this opens modals distinct to each filter. Restaurant card “Highlights” are generated by an algorithm that examines social data, public user reviews, and restaurant-submitted details. To make a reservation, users press the restaurant card button, which surfaces a modal that asks for the number of attendees, displays open dates / times, and enters the payment flow. Finally, “Share with a Friend” opens a modal that allows users to choose in-app friends to send the restaurant card to. 

News Feed shows reviews written by friends, and app-generated restaurant news (e.g. new openings, Michelin Stars, etc.), sorted by recency. Tapping news feed posts opens restaurant cards, through which you can make reservations. Favorites displays cards for all restaurants you previously gave a 4+ star review to. You can book new reservations through these cards as well. Finally, My Account contains personal information, payment details, and your in-app friends list. 

Here is some background data about FindFood’s existing users:

• The average user makes 2 reservations per week. Utilization among all users is shaped like a normal distribution.

• Among app sessions that result in a reservation, 40% included interaction with Search filters, especially price and rating. 10% included expanding restaurant pictures.

• The average user has 4 in-app friends, and posts 1 review every five reservations.

• 70% of reservations are with restaurants that that user previously ate at; 30% are with “Favorites.” Of reservations at “Favorite” restaurants, 30% are booked through the “Favorites” page.

• 50% of reservations are for the same day; 80% are for sometime within the next two days. The remaining 20% have a long rightward tail, mostly shaped around pre-booking major holidays (e.g. Valentine’s Day).

• 5% of same-day reservations are no shows; this grows to 15% if a reservation is more than 3 days away. No shows are an extremely poor customer experience for restaurants.

Beyond this background data, you also speak with some customers about their experience using the app. Here are some quotes:

“I love FindFood because I know every restaurant in my town is on the platform, so I’m not going to be missing out on anything. Sometimes, however, the choice can be overwhelming… my partner and I will just scroll around and look at a ton of stuff and debate options for thirty minutes, and then it’s basically too late to go out. I’ve definitely had a couple unexpected grocery store frozen dinners because of that!” 

• Anton Ego

“I usually use FindFood after a long day at the office, when I know I’m going to be too tired to cook at home, to find open reservations really quickly. At this point it’s muscle memory: I open the app, sort for less than 2 miles, sort for rating > 4 stars, scroll down to the third card, and book at Gregory’s Greek Kitchen. If they’re fully booked, I’ll try Great Wall Chinese Restaurant instead. I prefer Gregory’s though – it might not be the best food, but it sure does the trick.”

• Colette Linguini

“It’s funny, my FindFood friends aren’t really people I’m close to in real life. I just sent friend requests to a couple people whose reviews I really agreed with, so I can see where they’re eating and what they think. Normally I just stick to my trusty Pho 63, but when I’m feeling fancy, I’ll scroll through my news feed and find a place Anton recommended that I haven’t eaten at before. His 3 stars is like my 5 stars, so any place with a good review from him has never let me down.” 

• Auguste Gusteau

“I don’t really use FindFood much at all – probably less than once a month – because I don’t have an easy way to figure out whether a restaurant can meet my dietary restrictions or not. Sometimes I’ll get lucky and the Highlights will mention it, but otherwise there isn’t really a good way for me to filter for what I need.” 

• Lalo Horst

Output for the Case Study

The ideal output for this exercise consists of two deliverables:

• A Figma mockup of a revamped shopping experience. Feel free to copy our mockup if you want to use it as a base. The Figma should clearly present a cohesive user experience.

• A written document that articulates your approach to the problem, how you would prioritize any changes you propose, any analysis you performed, etc.

The Clipboard Health Product Team Interview Process

First of all, thank you for applying to Clipboard Health. We’re very excited at the prospect of you joining our team, and we want to provide visibility into our process. We wrote this to give you a view into how we think about recruiting. We also recommend that you poke around the blog here to get an idea of how the Product Team works and our Team Standards.

Interview Steps:

1. Case Study 1: FindFood Design (above prompt)

2. Case interview. We will always give you the chance to ask questions during this stage as well, and if time allows, we may go into your background.

3. Case Study 2: Working Backwards Document. This is based on a scenario within our marketplace and mirrors the work we do as a product team.

4. Case Study 2 Interview

5. Meet with President / COO (Bo Lu)

We recognize that this is a time-intensive process. We have found this as the best way for us and for you to assess whether there is a mutual fit. If you're looking to grow your problem-solving skills in a feedback-rich environment, we think you'll have fun throughout our interview process and when you join full-time.

Additional Notes:

1. We don’t always follow this process exactly. We may move steps around, but in all scenarios, you should expect 2 cases (starting with the above) and 3-4 conversations with members of our team. We weigh cases heavily in our decision-making. 

2. As a general rule, we do not give case rejection feedback for case studies that do not progress to the interview stage. Our team is unfortunately time-constrained on how many candidates we can interview and get to know. That said, we’re continuously evolving our process to improve the candidate experience and we will update you here as we learn.

3. All prospective members of the Product Team will speak with George Markoulakis (Head of Product) and Bo Lu (President and COO) prior to an offer.

We’re excited for you to get started!