Product Improvement Plan for Rover's Pet-Sitting and Dog-Walking Marketplace

Rover connects pet owners with people who board, sit for and walk their pets. What would you change to make the product better? ```hint Choose a side of the marketplace Rover has pet owners on one side, care providers on the other, and services ranging from overnight stays to daily walks. Decide which side, which service and which goal you are improving before you list ideas. ``` ### Clarifying Questions - Is the goal more first bookings, more repeat bookings, more sitters and walkers, or fewer safety incidents? - Should I focus on one service, such as overnight boarding or recurring dog walks, or the marketplace as a whole? - Is the scope Rover's existing markets, or would expanding to new cities or countries count? - Are changes to fees and the business model in scope, or only the product experience? ### What a Strong Answer Covers - A goal tied to marketplace health, with a reason for choosing the owner side or the provider side - A specific segment and service, and the moments in its journey where trust or convenience breaks down - Solutions weighed for their effect on the other side of the marketplace, prioritized into a first version - Success metrics with guardrails such as safety incidents, provider workload and bookings moving off the platform - Risks, and how the change would be tested in a two-sided market ### Follow-up Questions - An owner who finds a sitter they love can pay that person directly next time. How would you keep repeat business on Rover? - How would you run an experiment on a change that affects both owners and sitters in the same city? - How would your plan change if a new city had plenty of owners but too few sitters?