Success Metrics for Uber's Ride-Hailing App: North Star, Funnel and Guardrails

How would you measure the success of Uber's ride-hailing product, where riders request and take trips? Propose the metrics you would track, choose the one you would treat as the main measure of success, and explain how the others support it. ```hint Success for both sides A trip only happens when a rider finds a car quickly and a driver gets a paid fare. Decide what a successful trip looks like for each side before you pick numbers, and be wary of metrics that can rise while riders are having a worse time. ``` ### Clarifying Questions - Does "success" refer to the whole ride-hailing experience, or to one ride option such as a shared or premium tier? - Should the answer cover riders only, or the marketplace including drivers? - Is there a current company goal I should anchor on, such as growing trips, gaining share from competitors or improving profitability, and in which market? - Is this for an ongoing health dashboard or for evaluating one specific change? ### What a Strong Answer Covers - The product's purpose for riders and drivers, a goal for the measurement, and the rider journey from opening the app to paying and rating. - A single north-star metric that reflects value delivered to both sides, with the reason it beats downloads, app opens or revenue alone. - Supporting metrics across the journey: first-trip activation, request fulfillment, pickup wait and ETA accuracy, cancellations, trip quality and retention. - Guardrails for drivers, safety and unit economics, such as driver earnings and utilization, safety incidents and contribution per trip. - Segmentation and a way to break the north star into components so that a change can be diagnosed. ### Follow-up Questions - Completed trips rose 10 percent last quarter while 4-week rider retention fell. What could explain it, and what would you check first? - Cancellations after a driver is matched have doubled in one city. How would you tell whether riders or drivers are behind it? - Which metrics would you change if the goal shifted from growth to profitability?