Design a bicycle-renting app for tourists? — PM Design Interview

5 min readSep 22, 2024

Hi guys!

I hope your interview preparation journey is going well! This exercise is a written version of the PM design interview, generally executed in a 1x1 verbal session setting. All the clarifications, questions/answers to/from the interviewers are assumed and documented.

Before we attempt this exercise, please come up with your version of the answer, and compare it with mine. Any suggestions, or improvements are most welcome!

With that said, let’s dive right in :)

My structure to solve PM interview design exercises:

Identifying the Goal/Objective
Understanding the Users
Establishing the gaps in the current process
Solving the gaps/pain points
Defining the Success Criteria
Summarizing the exercise

Identifying the Goal/Objective:

Problem Statement Elements: ‘Design’ + ‘Bicycle renting’ + ‘App’ + ‘tourists’.

Clarifying Questions:

Bicycle Renting: A pedal-operated two-wheeler bike that can be rented for a specific duration. Assume → YES.
App: Is it Android/iOS? based? Assume → Up to you! Are there any Technological limitations/constraints → Assume → No!

(We’ll go with no tech limitation and Android/iOS app)

Tourists: I guess, we plan to launch this service at tourist destinations like Goa, and Manali, making it a short-medium distance travel option. But there is no restriction per se, on who these tourists are (Domestic/International)? Assume→ YES to both.
Demographic restriction? Assume → Up to you! (We’ll go with India — Top 10 tourist destinations, with supporting infrastructure like internet availability, above average tourist footfall)
Could the users be localites too? Assume-> Yes | But let’s focus on tourists only.
Who are we: Small/Medium/Large scale company? And what’s our core expertise? I’m asking to clarify why we are doing this. Assume a startup run by entrepreneurs with no experience to test the waters with an idea.

Here’s our Goal:

Wheely! is a bike rental solution for tourists exploring their favorite destinations. By catering to health-conscious and environmentally-minded travelers, we aim to bridge the gap in short-to-medium-distance transportation. Our initial goal is to conduct a thorough market experiment to assess demand, optimize our service, and establish a foundation for future growth.

Understanding the users:

User Segment — Travelers:

Solo
Group of friends
Family/Couples

Locals Residents (Excluded, as this group does not represent our TG).

For this exercise, I want to focus on the ‘Group of friends’ user persona, as I believe this segment:

Represents a major portion of travelers.
Would be receptive to lower-cost alternatives.
Would be receptive to a healthy/environment-friendly theme.
Will see the fun side of groups traveling on bikes and creating memories.

I am excluding the Family/Couple segment because I believe they are comparatively more used to convenience (travel by car, Chauffer services, public transport).

I am excluding solo travelers as I believe they represent a comparatively smaller portion of our target market.

Pain points of the ‘Group of Friends’ segment:

(Available modes of travel: Cars, Cabs, Public transport, Bikes, Rented Scooters, Walking.)

Available options are either expensive or don’t work in crowded areas. Driving a vehicle also requires a local license.
Available rental options often require the vehicle to be dropped at the same place.
Tourists often run into language barriers while conversing with local vendors/drivers.
It’s a pain to find trustworthy rental vehicle vendors. Also, the rental bike marketplace is unorganized, and comparing prices upfront is practically impossible.
Walking is exhausting and takes a lot of time.
Exploring local tourist attractions is time taking.

Features:

I believe bike rental is an amazing opportunity to solve some of the pain points mentioned above.

Bike discovery: Enable users to find the bike pickup and Drop stations through the App (Maps integration). The app will also help navigate users to these stations.
Renting: Upon discovery, the user shall be able to unlock the bike and start the trip. For this, the user needs to identify the selected bike through the App. This requires QR code scanning to connect the bike and the App.
Authentication: Once the bike is recognized, the user needs to Authenticate themselves. This needs Signup/Login. Signup further needs the user to complete their KYC.

KYC — Ask for an Identity document and a Selfie. (External integration with identity verification vendors like Experian). Enable Foreign nationals to complete KYC with a ‘Passport’.

Payment: Once authenticated, the user will be shown payment options (integration with Payment Gateway). Amount will be calculated on the basis of the duration of the rental, and security deposit.
Trip: After successful payment, the bike will be unlocked, and the trip will start. One trip = one active session per user.
Location Sharing: The rider will have the option to share their location from within the app with friends/family.
Explore: List nearby tourist destinations, restaurants, and local attractions, and help users get there. (Maps integration)
Translate: Voice-based translation capability.
Localization: The app interface will be available in 10 global languages.
Drop-Off: This feature will appear for active trips, and list nearby drop-off points. Once the bike is connected to a lock installed at the drop-off station, the rider can press ‘End Trip’ and the trip will finish. Any remaining balance will be collected/reimbursed through the app (Payment module).
Help: This feature will appear for active/closed trips, allowing the user to connect to customer support or Emergency respondents.
Batch order: This feature will allow one user to start up to 3 simultaneous trips so that a group of customers can be catered to. The user will still need to complete the KYC process for all the users. We want to limit the number of parallel trips to mitigate fraud risk.

Bike Accessories:

Preinstalled phone stand (To help with navigation)
GPS
Helmet (for rider’s safety)

Prioritization: Impact(Low/Medium/High) & Effort(Low/Medium/High)

Version 1 (Limited launch — to test the basic features):

Discovery (High & High)
Renting (High & High)
Authentication (High & High)
Payment (High & High)
Trip (High & High)
Drop-Off (High & High)

(Despite being high-effort features, they are absolutely required to meet the minimum requirements.)

Help (High & Low)

(High Impact due to Safety and Grievances)

Version 2:

Location Sharing (Medium & Medium)
Localization (Medium & Medium)
Explore (Medium & Medium)

(These features will definitely make the app more useful, but can wait till the basic features are executed and tested.)

Version 3:

Batch Order (Medium & High)
Translate (Low & Medium)

Metrics (Success Criteria):

Business Goals → Acquisition, Revenue, Quality

NSM → Daily completed rides. {Indicates the usage of services}
DAU → (Activity based on the click of <find bikes>)

{Comparing DAU and Daily completed rides will indicate the value and can serve as a health metric}

App Downloads {Indicates discoverability}
ARPU {Revenue indicator}
CSAT {Quality indicator}
Number of support calls {Quality indicator}
Avg #trips/bike/day: {Utilization Metric → Cost indicator}

Summary:

To summarize, we’ll develop a bike rental app and launch our services in India’s top 10 tourist destinations. The app will allow tourists to locate nearby pickup/drop-off points, rent bikes, and find nearby tourist attractions. We’ll carefully monitor our success metrics like acquisition, revenue, and customer satisfaction to track our progress.

And, that’s a wrap! Hope you found this exercise helpful. Do consider following me for more such exercises!! Thank you :)