Premium Support for Lyft Drivers
This project offers an innovative support experience that utilizes safety automation to efficiently and compassionately address driver issues on the road.
Overview
For years, Lyft does not have any differentiated support experiences for lead drivers (20% of Lyft’s driver base) who drive for Lyft full-time, and deliver more than 53% of total rides to help 12.5 million riders getting around in the United States and Canada. In 2021, the company is committed to introducing a piloting support experience to help lead drivers solve their most pressing pain-points, drive more efficiently with Lyft, and leverage exclusive support perks to drive with ease. As the lead designer, I was responsible for leading the designs for the pilot launch and formulating strategies to make Premium Support a powerful tool for improving driver retention and satisfaction. I worked closely with product and multiple engineering teams to advance driver safety, enhance well-being, and ensure consistent earnings during drives.
Research
The research for this project involved multiple sources, including preliminary studies from Customer Platform, Driver Growth, Loyalty & Rewards teams, as well as first-hand driver interviews initiated by our safety team. Working with my research team, I actively contributed to research studies, led discovery and validation research, and developed design concepts to enhance usability in each release.
Quantitative analysis: Most churned driver issues
By collaborating with product and data science partners, we compiled a comprehensive list of the 12 most common driver issues that result in churn. The team then assessed the potential impact of addressing these issues on the key performance metrics, making it easier to understand the factors that should be considered when designing the Premium Support experience. From this analysis, we identified two primary driver issues as my main focus: broken ride streaks and post-pickup cancellations.
💸 Broken ride streaks
Drivers broke bonus ride streaks, which require completing a set of consecutive rides in high-demand driving periods. For example, a driver cancelled a ride because the rider did not wear any face coverage, and as a result, the streak was broken.
🚗 Post-pickup ride cancellations
Drivers may need to cancel a ride due to circumstances beyond their control. For instance, a driver may go offline after picking up the rider but still manage to take them to their destination.
How can we assist Lyft's top drivers in resolving driving issues with care, enabling them to drive efficiently and with ease?
Opportunity
My research peer and I recruited 9 Platinum drivers to participate in virtual interviews. We divided customers into two focus groups based on their experiences with post-pickup cancellations and broken ride streak issues in the past 30 days. During the interviews, we asked questions to specifically evaluate the value of providing a differentiated support experience.
1. When you experienced a broken streak, did you seek help from Lyft?
“When I’m getting help, there’s just so much going on.” - Cyntaia
2. What does Premium Support mean to you?
"You’d get this because you’re a quality driver you’re very important the business, so why wouldn’t you get extra support when you need it.” - Winfred
3. You experience Premium Support because of your Platinum status. How do you feel about it?
"I don’t think support to be different because I’m Platinum. I think you should get the same support whether you’re silver, gold, or Platinum. To be honest as a Platinum driver, I just don’t feel like I should have more support than any other driver. We probably have similar issues whether we’re silver or Platinum. We already have more benefits, I don’t think we need more support. It’s not fair." - Andri’a
How can we assist Lyft's top drivers in resolving driving issues with care, enabling them to drive efficiently and with ease?
Design solution
Feedback
I invited the driver design team and the Lyft Product Language (LPL) team to join me in reviewing the design explorations. During the review, I discovered that certain design choices would not be suitable for drivers.
1. Behavior constraint
A ride streak toast notification will appear below a ride-cancellation toast notification, creating competition for drivers' immediate attention.
2. Cognition constraint
A prompt panel notification should be concise to ensure that drivers' attention remains on the road. Using a center-aligned layout increases the cognitive load.
3. Behavior enforcement
A guidance notification is usually used to provide real-time driving directions, such as exploring power zones. Since the ride streak notification is a reminder and does not require immediate action, it should not be displayed in a highly attention-grabbing area.
Improvements
By incorporating feedback from multiple teams, I iterated on the designs and implemented a simplified prompt panel notification that appears after a cancelled ride. Depending on the driver's next actions (continuing with the next ride or returning home), the notification overlays on their screen for a few seconds and is then dismissed automatically.
Additionally, I closely collaborated with a content writer to explore various content options for the prompt panel notification. Our objective was to convey that drivers can take a break and still maintain their ongoing streak. However, there may be certain limitations, such as preventive measures like not allowing indefinite breaks. This content design challenge proved to be interesting, and we decided to test these content options in design validation tests.
Testing
I collaborated with the research team to conduct two rounds of testing. In the first round, we conducted usability testing to evaluate the new driver journey for a resumed ride streak. We specifically targeted a group of drivers who had experienced broken streaks in the past month. In the second round, we conducted content testing to assess drivers' expectations, perceptions, and preferences. We tested multiple variations of content to gather insights.
1. Usability testing
The positives:
We found that drivers loved the new Premium Support experience. It allows them to continue ride streaks even after taking a wellness break or experiencing unexpected interruptions. They also appreciated receiving a prorated streak bonus, which adds up to their earnings.
"Ok that's kinda cool! Emergencies happen. This looks good." - Quincy
"Wow! Yeah you guys need to add this." - Cyntaia
The negatives:
Drivers also challenged me to think more about the journey of discovering streak earnings with Premium Support.
"Normally when you reach out to help, it takes a little while, in the meantime I'm thinking I'm only here another hour. I need to be driving. If Lyft could reach out, that would be nice because you just forget.” - Cyntaia
Usability improvements
Below, I worked on additional designs to emphasize streak earnings and improve the help experience for drivers. I created this page-top banner to highlight the latest updates regarding Premium Support on the Help homepage, as well as to draw drivers' attention to important information. When drivers tap, they are directed to a detailed page containing a specific earnings card. This card displays their daily adjusted streak earnings and the total amount earned throughout the week.
2. Content testing
In the second round, we invited 8 new drivers, including 2 drivers who participated in the first round of usability testing. We presented the improved designs and asked specific questions about the content design throughout the new experience. Drivers had a better understanding of the nature of the Platinum Support banner, but were confused about which individuals had access to this new experience. Drivers understood the perk and appreciated the flexibility to take a bathroom break. They also wanted to know the duration of this break.
Content improvements
In the final designs, we made it clear that drivers will have the opportunity to access new support perks early during the offering period. Additionally, they can find information about an estimated time window for a short wellness break.
Outcome
During the pilot launch of Premium Support, which ran for three weeks and was exposed to 15% of all drivers in a 50/50 experiment (with an additional 30% exposure to existing Platinum drivers), Lyft's existing drivers experienced greater success. For the first time, their support experience wasn't a trade-off for driving hours. Instead, it became a win-win partnership that provided financial stability and the freedom to take a true break.
🚕 Increased driving hours
(Measured on a 28-day basis)
+4.1% or 273,000 hours
❤️ Improved driver retention
(Measured on a 14-day basis, segmented by Platinum & Gold drivers)
+12.18% (Improved from 76.96% to 89.14%)
📉 Saved cost
(Measured by Cost per Incremental Driver Hour, short for CPIDH)
-$17.77 (Reduced from $18 to $0.23 for all Lyft rides)
Testimonials
“Oh that's cool, I've never seen that. Now right there, that's cool! Sometimes when I’m driving on the way to pick up the person, the person canceled the ride. It’d be cool to be compensated for my work so far.”- Winfred, Platinum driver
“I did 1/3 rides on the streak and had to go offline, I actually did get that notice but I had a reason to go offline so I disregarded the message. A few minutes later I got a Lyft notification to my phone saying - as a platinum driver with early access to streak bonus privileges, you earned a bonus for the portion of the streak you were able to complete. I didn’t believe it so I clicked on the notification and it took me to the screen you see in the picture I added! Didn’t have to do anything extra for it, so hopefully Lyft keeps doing this!” - Anonymous Lyft driver
“I just got one too. Was one three but got hungry so went home. Checked my phone and bonus $6. Hell to the yeah! Only for platinum drivers I think.” - Anonymous Lyft driver
"Not just this project as a feature, but as an entirely new way of thinking about Support at Lyft - shifting us from solving purely cost-based outcomes to today considering outcomes-based/financial return on spend!"- Andrew Reback, Director of Product Management
"+1 love seeing this and the premium driver support progress!" - John Zimmer, co-founder of Lyft
“Awesome to see this - very exciting!” - Ashwin Raj, Executive Vice President, Head of Rideshare
“Thanks for sending this - and to the whole team for all the work over the last six months to launch driver premium support! We are already seeing great feedback from drivers on Reddit and other forums - and I can’t wait to see the results of the experiment!” - Eric Burdullis, VP of Customer Experience
Learnings
I took over this project when my design team experienced turnover, and as a newly onboarded Lyft employee, I stepped into the role. The biggest challenge I observed was that the design was already weeks behind schedule, causing cross-functional partners to be uncertain about the design strategy. To address this, I delved deep into the problem space and collaborated with stakeholders to establish an actionable design vision for Premium Support, both in the short-term (6 months) and long-term (12 months). I also closely worked with the research team to refine the vision through multiple phases of validation. The short-term design work was executed with the goal of delivering maximum value in mind, ensuring long-term benefits.