Product Levers to Lower Uber Eats' Cost per Delivered Order
Company: Uber
Role: Product Manager
Category: Product Design & Strategy
Difficulty: medium
Interview Round: Other
You are a product manager working on Uber Eats, the food-delivery marketplace that connects customers, restaurants and couriers. How would you reduce the service's operational costs? Explain where you think the money goes, which costs you would go after first, and what you would change in the product to lower them.
```hint Follow one order
Trace every cost the company pays between a customer placing an order and the food reaching the door, plus what it pays when something goes wrong. Which of those costs grow with every order, and which can a product change actually move?
```
### Clarifying Questions
- Which costs count as operational here: courier pay and incentives, customer support and refunds, payment processing, promotional spend, or also infrastructure and staff?
- Is the aim a lower cost per order across all markets, or fixing unit economics in specific cities or order types where the service loses money?
- Are there limits I must respect, such as no reduction in courier earnings, no slower deliveries, or local rules on how couriers are paid?
- Is the horizon quick wins this quarter or structural changes over a year or more?
### What a Strong Answer Covers
- A breakdown of the cost to serve one order across couriers, restaurants, customers and support, with a reasoned view of which buckets are largest and most controllable.
- Product levers tied to specific cost drivers, for example dispatch timing for courier wait time, order batching for courier cost per delivery, and order-accuracy tools for refunds.
- A prioritization of levers by likely savings, effort and risk, leading to a clear first focus.
- Guardrails on delivery time, order accuracy, courier earnings and retention, restaurant satisfaction and order volume, so savings do not shrink the business.
- A measurement plan that accounts for marketplace effects when testing changes.
### Follow-up Questions
- Batching two orders on one trip lowers courier cost per delivery but makes the second customer wait longer. How would you decide whether to expand batching?
- Refunds for missing items are climbing in one city. How would you separate abuse from genuine restaurant mistakes?
- How would your priorities differ between a market Uber Eats entered recently and one where it is well established?
Overview: A product strategy question on how a product manager would lower the operating costs of the Uber Eats food-delivery marketplace. It tests understanding of the cost to serve each order across couriers, restaurants, customers and support, prioritizing product levers, and guarding delivery quality and order volume.