Feature Expansion and Optimization To Drive 

User Engagement: A Deliveroo Case Study

October 18, 2023

6 min read

Across all industries and service channels, competition for market share, market dominance, and or customer retention is constant and ubiquitous. The experience is no different for industries that operate through technology delivery channels. For product managers in these technology companies, the challenge lies not only in building the right product and building the product right but also in crafting digital experiences that leave a lasting impression and keep users engaged.

Introduction

Assessment to Article

As a product manager, the new job acquisition cycle often involves an invitation to an assessment exercise. The nature of this exercise can range from technical assignments to case studies to PRD writing exercises or a combination of these or other exercises. Partaking in these exercises can lead to learnings, work products, and outcomes especially if the assessment is based on real-world products. 

I recently partook in one such assessment exercise and it was based on creating a PRD to improve user engagement by offering healthier food choices on Deliveroo, a food delivery app. The PRD was to come complete with wireframes, an assessment of developer time, and an outline of a backend/frontend implementation plan.

While creating the PRD, I got the idea of converting the learnings, work products, and outcomes of the assessment into a guide for product managers, enthusiasts, and professionals seeking to enhance their skills in feature expansion and optimization. Such a guide should cover essential considerations for prioritizing features, implementing user-centric design, and integrating new functionalities. Seasoned product managers or newer entrants should be able to use the guide to enrich their knowledge and empower themselves to make strategic decisions.

This is my attempt at such a guide.

Prioritizing Features: The Essential Spice for Success

Feature Assessment:

Successful feature expansion efforts start with an assessment of user needs, market trends, and technological advancements as well as a consideration of industry best practices, and competitive analysis. Proximate considerations such as alignment with your product's goals and potential return on investment are also key. 

For the assessment exercise, I was asked to decide on a feature to build to achieve the project’s goal of increasing user engagement by offering healthier food choices. 

I initiated the process by modeling the general persona of the target audience. My model generated a persona of health-conscious individuals and users looking to make nutrition-based food choices on the Deliveroo platform. 

Drilling down further, I modeled three user personas: 

• Health-Conscious Hannah

• Allergic Alex and

• Curious Carol

These personas in my estimation covered the three groups that make up individuals interested in making healthier dietary choices.

Next up, I performed an assessment of industry trends. My research revealed that within the food delivery sector, platforms emphasizing healthy dining options typically incorporated innovation in the following manner:

• Personalized onboarding flows that incorporate dietary preferences and nutritional choices for a personalized experience.

• Personalized meal display screens that provide users with an informative navigating experience.

• Detailed dietary analysis reports to empower users with valuable nutritional insights, fostering healthier eating habits.

• Integration with Health apps to promote holistic well-being and nutritional tracking.

This insight led me to develop theories on desired outcomes, user needs, user pain points, preferences and expectations, and design considerations for my user research findings.  You can see them below. 

Armed with these bits of knowledge, I moved on to the next stage in the process. Deciding whether to build new features or enhance the existing ones. 

The Balance Between New Features and Enhancing Existing Ones:

Building brand-new features is exciting and can generate positive attention for you as a product manager and for the product you manage but optimizing existing features can yield significant benefits too plus a lack of attention to the potential for feature creep can lead a product manager on the proverbial path to hell that is paved with good intentions. 

For the purpose of the assessment, I had to maintain a balance between introducing new functionalities and enhancing the ones users are already familiar with. Ultimately, after performing a small prioritization exercise using the Kano Model, I made the decision to refine existing features more than build new ones because I believed that optimizing the user experience within the platform was the best strategic approach. 

Meanwhile, I had never used the Deliveroo app and had no idea what features it had or didn’t have. I downloaded it on the App Store but the unavailability of Deliveroo services in my location meant that I could not use or trigger functionalities. I had to discover how stuff worked within the app. To do that, I did some research and discovered Screenlane. Screenlane is a website dedicated to providing a curated selection of user interface (UI) design inspirations and examples. It serves as a valuable resource for designers, product managers, and developers seeking insights into effective UI design practices.

Having gotten access to the Deliveroo app, I proceeded to the next stage of the process. Designing wireframes.

User-Centric Design: The Recipe for Customer Satisfaction

The market for service delivery is extremely competitive and quality user experience is paramount. A poorly designed app can lead to reduced engagement and high churn rates. Product managers address this challenge by embracing user-centric design principles. I’m no different. 

To create an app that users love, it's vital to adhere to key principles of user-centric design concepts like intuitive navigation, personalization, clean and appealing interfaces, and seamless interactions. Clean and appealing interfaces play a pivotal role by not only enhancing aesthetics but also facilitating user engagement. Personalization caters to individual preferences to provide a tailored experience that resonates with each individual. Seamless interactions make the user's journey through the app smooth and intuitive, resulting in a satisfying experience.

With these in mind, one of the first decisions I took was to expand the app’s onboarding flow to gather users' dietary and allergy information. The thinking behind this decision was to gather enough information about the user early on to ensure a personalized experience for them. I also sought to obtain users’ permission to track nutritional data, enabling the app to provide valuable dietary analysis that empowers their healthy eating efforts. This took care of the personalization aspect of implementing a user-centric design as you can see from in wireframes below.

Next, I wanted to modify the search result page to add information about the calories, ingredients, and allergens in each meal. I was juggling conflicting user and vendor-side considerations here. On the one hand, users may want to be able to filter out certain meal types while shopping but granting users that ability may disincentivize vendors from listing their restaurant's offerings on the other hand since there is a chance their offerings may not make it to the users' eyes.

To handle these conflicting considerations, I elected to use information icons to give users insights about calories, ingredients, and allergens and cutlery icons colored either green or yellow to show how close a given meal is to the user’s dietary preferences. 

To provide a dietary analysis of the users' preferred meals, I modified the My Account Page to have a Dietary Analysis section. This section takes the calorie and micro-nutrient information contained in the user’s food choices and uses it to present, daily, weekly, and monthly view dietary analysis in time periods, graphs, and pie charts.

Finally, to offer users centralization abilities of their nutritional data and enable seamless integration with Health apps, I modified the My Account Page to have a Health section. This section would enable users to integrate with and send micro-nutrient information to the default health apps on their phones.

Conclusion: The Perfect Dish

While product management is a dynamic field, the ability to expand and optimize app features is a core competency. This guide has attempted to take you through the critical aspects of this process, from prioritizing features to user-centric design and integrating new functionalities.

By embracing these principles and following the outlined steps, you can embark on a path that leads to user satisfaction and stronger engagement within your app. Remember, the key to success lies in understanding your users, staying agile in your approach, and delivering a user experience that leaves them hungry for more. 

Cook!