Ola Product Sense: Three Features to Build Rider Loyalty and Everyday Use

You are a product manager at Ola, the ride-hailing company in India. Ola's CEO, who is also one of its co-founders, wants riders to feel more loyal to Ola and to keep coming back to the brand and the app rather than drifting to alternatives. He believes the time has come for Ola to take up a bigger place in its customers' everyday lives, and you have been given the job of turning that vision into reality. Propose three features that would move Ola toward this goal while serving its users better. For each feature, explain why it would work and which users it is for. ```hint Pick whose habit you are changing Daily commuters, riders who switch between apps, and people who rarely book a ride each stay with Ola or leave for different reasons. Decide whose behavior each feature should change before you design it. ``` ### Clarifying Questions - Does a bigger place in customers' lives mean owning more of their travel (more trips and more kinds of trips), or should services beyond mobility be considered too? - Which loyalty measure matters most here: how often riders book, whether they are still riding several months later, or how much of their ride-hailing goes to Ola rather than rival apps? - Are the features for riders only, or can changes on the driver side count when they improve what riders experience? - Must the features pay for themselves quickly, or is some short-term spending on discounts and credits acceptable? ### What a Strong Answer Covers - A concrete definition of loyalty and stickiness for a ride-hailing app, and the metric each feature is meant to move. - Rider segments with the reasons each one leaves Ola or splits its trips across apps, and a stated choice of whom to serve. - Three features, each tied to a named segment and pain point, with a causal explanation of why it builds habit or loyalty. - An order for the three based on impact, effort and confidence, using what Ola already has. - Success metrics with guardrails on margin, driver earnings and service reliability. ### Follow-up Questions - A subscription raises rides per subscriber but lowers revenue per ride. How do you decide whether it is working? - Which feature would you launch first, and what result would make you stop it? - A rival copies your strongest feature within a month. What keeps riders loyal to Ola then?