Leveraging Empathy to reduce Anxiety
A driver partner’s journey
Have you ever wondered what is the unarticulated need of a driver partner associated with a cab aggregator (Uber/Ola)?
Let’s begin with the common variables across both set of drivers.
- Both set of drivers are dependent on business from their customers.
- They may not be driving their own cars, operating merely as drivers (this is more prevalent in an Indian context).
- They may have financial commitments, in the form of vehicle loan.
Now, let’s look at this from the perspective of the cab aggregator service providers. Since these providers operate a dual-side business, it is important for them to have a steady supply of vehicles to fulfil the mobility needs of their customers. It is critical for them to engage their driver partners in a meaningful way, as more often than not, the drivers also ply for their competitor service as well.
The premise of this article is based on how empathy can be leveraged to understand the unarticulated needs of the user.
Need assumptions
The proposition of the cab aggregators was simple. It enabled an exchange of service between the customer and the driver partner, all through an app. In the process, providing a great deal of convenience to both parties.
It is a well established fact that this emerged, primarily from the needs of the customer and, the driver partner becoming the service provider — nevertheless a key part of the value-chain. At the same time, it is important to reflect upon the fact that the people involved in developing the technology were representing the customers and not really the driver partners. At best, it was more of an afterthought and built on “need assumptions.”
“Need assumptions” are the assumptions made to determine the real need of the user in order to proceed with plausible solution direction.
Let’s relook at the journey of identifying the need assumptions from a driver partner perspective. It begins with the following questions:
- What do they want to achieve by using the service?
- What motivates them to use the service?
- What can be done to improve the overall experience, leading to improve retention?
Empathise to build conviction
This is where empathy comes into play. Empathy enables us to understand the thoughts, emotions, motivations and inherent behaviour of the user by stepping into the user’s shoes (figuratively speaking). Empathy is a key tool that I have worked with while working across innovation strategy projects for Fortune 500 companies and startups alike.
Empathy can be leveraged through in-depth interactions with the users in a contextual environment or by spending a “day in a life” of a user. Let’s understand this through an anecdote. I was recently listening to a conversation, which had the Global Head of OD at Uber, Manavi Baveja talking about her experience of becoming an Uber driver for a day.
Q. What is the best possible way to understand the needs of the driver partner?
A. To step in their shoes.
The senior team of leaders signed up as drivers for a couple of days to experience first-hand the journey of a driver. During the course of this experiment, there was a key realisation. The convenience of choosing the time of work and the assurance of getting a ride even while sitting at home is no doubt, a game changer for the drivers. But the level of anxiety in terms of when and where the next ride will come from is a great un-settler for the driver partners.
Leveraging anxiety
With this insight, the next step was to translate it into a a plausible solution direction. The key “how might we” statement was —
How can we help driver partners deal with the anxiety of their next ride?
If we look at the Uber app which is used by the driver partner, it has a ton of features which acts as a dashboard for them. To make the insight actionable, there were changes which were made to the algorithm. The revised algorithm now nudged the drivers by pointing them to a location which had a higher probability of rides been hailed — in turn reducing the anxiety (which was the key need.)
This is an interesting case of how efficacy of the interplay of user needs and technology be improved through an empathic approach. This is again a reiteration of the fact that technology is merely an enabler and not the cure — understanding user needs is still the first step.
What’s your take on this? Would love to hear your thoughts.
Until next time!
~ Sajid
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