Zomato Group Lunch: Get an Office's Multi-Restaurant Orders Delivered Together

You are a product manager at Zomato, the food delivery app. Colleagues in an office often have lunch together, but each person orders from a different restaurant. Because the orders are independent, they reach the office at different times: the group cannot start eating together, and someone has to go and collect a delivery several times. Customers find this a poor experience. How would you solve it? ```hint Two complaints, not one The group wants to eat together, and it also has to collect several deliveries. Trace an order from checkout through restaurant preparation and rider pickup to the office, and work out which step creates each complaint before choosing a fix. ``` ### Clarifying Questions - Which part hurts more for these customers: not being able to start eating at the same time, or the hassle of collecting deliveries at reception again and again? - Do colleagues decide together before ordering, or does each person place an order on their own phone? - Must every person keep their own choice of restaurant, or is nudging the group toward fewer restaurants acceptable? - Is a solution that adds delivery cost or a short wait acceptable if it brings the orders together? ### What a Strong Answer Covers - A sharp problem statement, the groups who have it (offices first, possibly flatmates or students too), and how order data could show how common it is. - Root causes in the order and delivery flow, such as unrelated orders, different preparation times and separate riders. - A range of solutions, from timing separate orders to arrive together up to a single group order with one handoff, with one recommended and its trade-offs. - Operational feasibility: restaurant distance, preparation timing, food quality while waiting, rider capacity, pricing of a combined delivery and how the group pays. - Success metrics for arriving together, adoption and satisfaction, with guardrails on delivery time, cost per order and food quality. ### Follow-up Questions - In a combined order, one restaurant is running well behind. Do you hold everything, send what is ready, or something else, and who decides? - How would you price a combined delivery so it covers the extra pickups without costing the group more than separate orders would? - Teams that eat together every day could become repeat users. What would a recurring version of your solution look like?