Design a product to buy flight tickets.
Google- Bina Campos
First, I would ask the following questions for the interviewer:
- Whether this should be a software solution or should it also cover hardware?
- Is this product for a specific airline or any specific kind of user segment?
Second, I would state that my structure would be looking like this:
- I would think about user segments that usually buy airline tickets
- I would like to break down the goals for the most lucrative user segment
- I would like to think of a solution that would address one of the user goals and highlight how a user journey for this could look like
1) User segments that are typically buying airline tickets are
– Business customers who want to visit clients or get to business meetings
– Tourists who want to travel to have an adventure and make holidays
– Families who want to go on vacation with their kids
– Commuters who travel back on weekends and are working somewhere else
– Elderly people who want to visit family or travel
I think for the following part I will focus on commuters who fly between their jobs and home bases.
The reason I would like to explore this segment further is that despite the ongoing pandemic, we are living in a society that becomes more and more connected world more alternative lifestyles are possible through cheaper airline travel. Such as living in Barcelona and working in London for example. I think this is a trend that is going to continue and for a lot of people, there is still a lot of potentials when it comes to this.
2) Commuters are in general interested in seamless transit. They do not want to have to coordinate their flight schedule with their business appointments or personal events.
Therefore, flexibility is a very important aspect of the buying experience.
Moreover, commuters want to know exactly what are the time windows from door to door and when they can take the last flight to get to their home base on a Friday evening after work for example. Therefore, it is important to have tangible ETAs for door-to-door travel including public transport and cabs. This can be summarized as the ability to have tangible and reliable time statements.
Lastly, commuters are interested in getting cheap prices and participating in loyalty programs to collect miles.
In summary, commuters really care about
- Flexibility
- Reliability
- Prices
Now, I think the most important aspect would be the flexibility goal for the commuters. Where a ticket app could enable them to be more flexible with their flight schedules. I think the ultimate goal would be that a commuter could buy a ticket for any given day, and would be allowed to use any flight for that day. Where the commuter would pay added markup to the service for a flexibility ticket, which in turn would allow them to board any flight they would want to take.
The service itself could reserve a certain number of seats on different flights between major commuter cities, and issue the tickets within minutes before the flight to the users. Where the commuters could first pay for the flexibility ticket but the app would still require them to reserve the seat up to 60 minutes before the flight (to manage to get through security). Where other commuters would at any given moment see the left capacity of the remaining flights.
To make this more tangible walk you through the user journey step by step.
First, a new commuter would register with the app and leave every information that is necessary to book an airline ticket.
Second, the commuter could buy a flexibility ticket for a given day at a little higher price than the average ticket price for that day.
Third, the commuter finishes work and drives to the airport.
Fourth, as he arrives at the airport to fly back home, he reserves a seat for the next flight that is covered by his flexibility ticket.
Fifth, the app issues the boarding pass, and the commuter could proceed to security and then to the gate.
There are some caveats that are noteworthy, for example:
– To have this flexibility the app would need to build tech partnerships with various airlines.
– The booking system would need to keep track of how many seats are left.
– Finally, the system would rely on a sophisticated forecasting model to predict the capacities accurately.
To summarize, I would build a flight tickets system that would allow commuters to buy flexibility tickets for any given day. The premise of the flexibility ticket would be that they do not need to follow a schedule anymore but rather could jump on the next flight home whenever they are done with work.