Fix unclear delivery addresses
Company: Uber
Role: Technical Program Manager
Category: Product / Decision Making
Difficulty: medium
Interview Round: Technical Screen
A customer does not receive a delivery because the delivery address is unclear.
As a product or operations leader, explain how you would diagnose the root cause, prioritize solutions, and improve the delivery experience for both customers and couriers.
### Constraints & Assumptions
- Do not jump straight to one feature; first define the failure mode and quantify impact.
- Consider the full journey: address entry, geocoding, pin placement, courier navigation, arrival, contact, and handoff.
- Balance prevention with recovery when a courier is already at the destination.
- Avoid adding unnecessary checkout friction for low-risk orders.
### Clarifying Questions to Ask
- What does "does not receive delivery" mean: cancellation, refund, wrong dropoff, late handoff, or customer unavailable?
- Which markets, address types, and order types are most affected?
- Are failures concentrated in apartments, campuses, malls, offices, hotels, or new developments?
- What data do we have on geocoding confidence, courier wait time, support contacts, and refunds?
### What a Strong Answer Covers
- Root-cause analysis across the delivery funnel.
- Segmentation by market, building type, platform, order type, and user history.
- Prioritized solutions using impact, reach, confidence, and effort.
- Preventive customer-side fixes and courier-side recovery tools.
- Metrics and guardrails for reliability, conversion, courier experience, privacy, and cost.
### Follow-up Questions
- How would you detect a risky address before checkout?
- How would you design the courier recovery flow?
- What data would you store from successful handoffs?
- How would you avoid making checkout worse for most users?
Quick Answer: Diagnose and fix unclear delivery addresses in a marketplace delivery product. Covers root-cause analysis, risky-address detection, address validation, courier recovery, metrics, guardrails, and phased rollout.