A few words before the article:
16-11-18/23-11-18
The goal of this research trip was to understand the impact of Retriever, as well as other cash features, and see what can be improved. I would like to thank all of my Uber team for letting me go with you!Here are some thoughts/learnings about this previous week:
I wanted to go on this research trip because I wanted to see Retriever in real life. I was expecting to also discover Mexico, this “dangerous” country. I’ve been hearing about OXXO every day for more than 6 months, so I was expecting to learn more about this “OXXO”, which was for me just a shop, like Albert Heijn in The Netherlands. 🇳🇱I was expecting Mexico to be a cash-only city, like 90% of trips would be with cash.
Retriever 👏 This project is my first production project at Uber. I’ve been working on it for around 8 months. (at the time of writing this)Even if I knew what Retriever was about, seeing this project in production “in real life”, and not just through our online metrics, adds a lot of value to it. It makes me realize even more that we’re building this feature for real people, and that it directly impacts their day, the way they work, and their life. A few things surprised me about the way drivers handle Retriever.
First, when they receive the notification “Payment due in 7 days”, they decide/hope to take more card trips so that their arrears will go down. I was surprised to see how well they were aware of that. If one day I’d receive this kind of notification, it’s a no-brainer, I’d just go and pay right away! Second, drivers were used to the previous way of handling arrears; a link in an email. Building a new flow/solution can seem straightforward for many of us, but I realized that many drivers were looking for a link to click, somewhere in the Retriever flow, so they were confused. This research trip showed me that it’s not as simple as pushing a new feature in production and expecting everyone to adopt it. Lastly, Retriever clearly impacts the way drivers plan their day. Some were saying that they preferred to pay at OXXO rather than paying the arrears with a card. In order to do that, they need to take a break in their day. For some it was early in the morning before the beginning of their busy day, for others it was during the lunch break, etc.
To conclude on that part, this week really showed me that our work directly impacts life of drivers. I knew that before but didn’t realize it as much as now.
I discovered this country through two cities; Merida and Mexico City. We were in Merida on Sunday, so we all took this opportunity to visit the state of Yucatan.I also learned from my parents that I went to Yucatan when I was younger. In conclusion, think twice before bringing kids on a trip with you because I didn’t remember much of my first time there! 🙄I was surprised by the temperature difference between Merida (+30C) and Mexico City (+20C). Many people told me that Mexico wasn’t safe.I felt that Merida was safe, nice and kid-friendly.I have only been in the financial area of Mexico City, and it felt a bit less safe than Merida, but still okay to walk in the street by myself. I talked to a few people at the office about the safety of this city, they told me that they could walk alone in the city, maybe not at 4am. Of course, like in any city, there are places not safe at all. Maybe more in Mexico City than Amsterdam!
Conclusion on safety: positively surprised. 👍
I was expecting 90% of trips to be with cash. Turns out it is less than that. I asked this question to all my drivers, and on average it seems to be around 60%. Some were saying 50/50, other 70/30, and even 80/20, all for more cash than card trips.