Measuring Google Flights: North Star, Search-to-Booking Funnel and Guardrails

How would you decide whether flight search on Google Flights is succeeding, and which metrics would you use to measure it? ```hint Follow the traveler past the results page A search is only a means to an end. Think about where a trip actually gets paid for, what Google can observe at that moment, and what success means for every party involved, not only the traveler. ``` ### Clarifying Questions - Does the traveler finish booking on Google, or click out to an airline or online travel agency to pay, and what booking data do those partners share back? - Is the scope the whole Google Flights product (search, price tracking, destination exploration) or only the core search results experience? - Are these metrics for overall product health reported to leadership, or a single metric that one team will optimize? - Does success include the airlines and agencies that receive the traffic, or only travelers? ### What a Strong Answer Covers - The product's mission and how value flows between travelers, booking partners and Google - A north-star metric that reflects a traveler finding a flight worth booking, defined precisely and honest about what Google cannot observe once the traveler leaves - Supporting metrics along the funnel from search to comparison, click-out, booking and the next trip, measured at the right unit given multi-day trip planning - Guardrails for price accuracy, speed, partner health and trust - Segments, seasonality and the ways the chosen north star could be gamed ### Follow-up Questions - Click-outs to partners rose sharply this quarter, but partners report flat bookings from Google traffic. How do you investigate? - Price-tracking alerts lead travelers to search less but book better. How should your metrics treat a feature that reduces searches? - How would you measure success differently for a traveler exploring destinations with flexible dates and one with fixed dates and a fixed route?