Airports Context: Airports usually come under a countries Airport authority, this body usually regulates a lot of things pertaining to airports i.e. safety, security of travelers etc. Airports usually make their revenue predominantly from rentals from stores that are in the airport, from consumer purchases in airport kiosks and other smaller ventures owned by airport. In addition to this fee paid by airline companies for letting them pick passengers from a specific airport (not sure exactly what this is called). If the airport is in a nice central location with appropriate amenities airplane companies what to pick passengers from the location and travelers would not mind taking a flight from the location. Across the globe airport experience is often spoken about by travelers unlike an experience with a railway station or a bus station due to the nature of the setting. Some airports like the Singapore Airport is appreciated by travelers across all segments as a splendid experience where as a Dubai airport is appreciated for the wide variety of shopping it offers.

Travelers and Segments I am considering travelers as a segment and will segment them further with various factors like demographics i.e., adult vs kid travelers vs old age travelers, business vs casual travelers, domestic vs international travelers. The reason I do this is this is a huge driving factor for businesses to be onboard and for additional airplanes landing in the airport etc. Hence, I am not prioritizing other players like business, etc. Before jumping into a segment let us evaluate the general traveler journey through an airport for the most part the journey flow assumes is consumer is purchasing a ticket online. Arrival Journey Parking the vehicle, checking in the bag, going through the security, going to the right gate, boarding a flight. Departure Journey Get out of a plane, go through immigration if it’s an international travel, collect luggage, get through customs, and get out of the airport. Layoff Journey (specific for connecting flight travelers) Get out of a plane, going to right connecting flight and board the other plane (sometimes this also includes moving luggage and checking it in.) Although this journey seems exceptionally common to all the travelers some pieces are specifically applicable to international travelers and there are specific issues pertaining to it so I’d like to focus on international travelers. With globalization and covid lockdowns easing, a lot of international travel is resuming so this segment is a big enough segment to prioritize. I will confirm from the interviewer if this segment makes sense before moving forward.

Segment Pain points Now that we have zeroed down on a segment let us identify some issues that they face · Getting through immigration checkpoints and customs. · Navigating around in airport. · Unable to communicate with airport staff due to language barriers. · Unable find right native food options. · Options to help kill time i.e., easier shopping experience and entertainment experience. I would like to prioritize the pain point navigating in airports overall. Primary reason for this is a lot of other issues identified are descent enough issues, but they do have alternative solutions, like say killing time during waiting period in airport is predominantly handled these days with a mobile phone that is connected to WIFI. I will confirm from the interviewer if this pain point makes sense before moving forward. Before jumping further into the discussion, I want to lay out the vision here. We are going to design an airport experience for international travelers that feels like navigating an airport in their home country. “An airport experience that makes you feel local”

Features and Solutions The idea is to build an airport app where all that travelers must do is just pick their local language and country. Feature 1: The app opens an internal map of airport that basically shows directions to every vendor location that has a rep who can speak the local language. Feature 2: The app opens the camera and the moment you point the camera at departure schedules board it translates things into your local language. Feature 3: App also instantly converts currencies to local currency when consumers point the camera at a price of a product. Prioritization I will prioritize feature 2 because that is the most crucial detail that travelers are worried about to catch connecting flights and going towards the right gate and right terminal etc.

Impact Due to language barriers a lot of young people use assistance facilities in airports due to which the much-needed service specifically built for disabled, and the octogenarian is mis utilized. This will make people self-sufficient and make them much more comfortable navigating through the airport with out help of anyone.

KPI’s to measure: · Number of users downloading the app · Reductions in assistant support requests

Trade-Offs

• Not all international travelers have smart phones, I.e., as an example there are still 220 million consumers in India still on 2G network feature phones.
• Inspite of App being there, getting visibility to consumers about this app will be a challenge and even if visibility is provided the general challenge with using mobile apps might be an issue.
• Might have a negative impact on overall business due to conversion rate calculations.

Clarify and scope out the problem and goal:

• Is there a specific part of the experience we want to re-design? Let’s assume we need to pick that as part of the answer
  • I would walk through the funnel of the airport experience at a high level
  • I would then prioritize one part or aspect of the funnel
• Is there a specific goal for this re-design? e.g. improve traveler satisfaction score, or increase number of passengers or reduce wait times. Let’s assume we need to pick this as part of the answer as well!
  • If I had to pick, I would outline pain points and build our goal once I prioritize one pain point
  • Or I would pick a goal that was well known as a pain point – like reduce idle/wait time for travelers at the airport.
• Are we specifically talking about building a digitized product to improve the airport experience? Let’s assume the interviewer says “your call”.
• Finally, I am assuming we are talking about a generic airport experience and not specific to a region/airport type (domestic vs international). Let’s assume yes, generic, unless we decide to focus on one type for some reason. Let’s focus on airports within the US (because there are some airports which have different

Goal At this stage, I am leaning towards improving aspects of the airport experience which would reduce the wait times and improve the quality of time spent at the airport (except in case of flight cancellations and delays – which are major issues but are harder to control and build a product around). That said, let’s outline users and their needs, revisit if needed.

Users and their needs (1) Travelers: want to spend as little time waiting and idle, want stress-free experience (stress of making the flight on time, forgetting things, navigating a new airport) (2) Airport Staff: their daily place of work (or shift-based, but frequency and length of time spent there is highest); they need some staff-only spaces like kitchens or rec rooms (3) Airline Staff: frequent travelers but not at the airport much; want to also spend as little time in the formalities and procedures before boarding the flight; they do have a separate queue and process than regular travelers (correct if wrong assumption) (4) Staff or owners – restaurants, shops, etc: similar to #2, it is their workplace, and they would want more people to visit their business, leading to more revenue.

Prioritizing a user segment based on a framework of (1) size of segment, (2) severity of pain and (3) frequency of pain, especially because of #1, I would pick Travelers – and my hypothesis is that solving their pain points would fuel the entire flywheel and indirectly offer more structure and efficiency for airport staff and potentially more revenue to airport businesses.

Prioritizing a pain point based on the same framework, I would pick reducing idle/wait times. I feel like this will automatically help with the pain point of stress – which is usually the stress around missing a flight or being in the wrong place..

Re-stating goal more specifically: Redesign the airport experience for travelers so as to reduce idle/wait times, from time of entry into the airport until they get on a plane, and from exiting a plane to exiting the airport.

Solutions Brainstorming:

1. Airport companion app – with a wallet, with real-time info on flights and gates, and a kiosk on the go – so you never have to interact with a human, potentially use QR scanning or IR tech to take thermal images and scans of the body and luggage, and submit it automatically to the airport security logs — which asynchronously give you a confirmation in a few minutes by the time you reach the gate; and this confirmation is needed to board the flight. When de-planing, app notifies you fo the baggage claim, gives you a simple map fo the terminal and how you should leave and where ride share is located. If immigration is needed, the form will be in-app and can be submitted to the local authorities (no paper copy needed); app can also save some (non critical) information to auto-fill these.
2. Something like the TSA program, but with a lower barrier to entry, or build a web solution for the TSA program itself – to reduce the time at security checks?
3. Portable/hand-held x-ray/scanning device for facial recognition, ID verification, luggage scans. need to figure out who purchases? Airport or travelers? How can you guarantee if latter?

I’ll pick #1 – prioritizing by level of effort/feasibility (legal, regulatory or technical constraints) and impact to the goal of reducing wait times.

Metrics:

1. # of app downloads
2. SLAs: Time for ID verification confirmation, Time for luggage scan approval
3. App reliability – crashes, availability
4. Time from app launch to process completion (measure time saved vs current average time spent at airport from entry to gate for example)

Trade-offs? Should we monetize? People would probably be willing to pay for this service, like they do for TSA pre-check. I think I would do some more analysis on travelers’ WTP through user surveys/studies so we can take the right decision.

Pitfalls or other considerations? Homeland Security is always a key consideration and risk because with this solution, you are putting a lot of control in the hands of travelers. We may need some guardrails in place so as to avoid a security fiasco.

Clarify:

• Airport – A hub that people visit to catch a flight to another location. This could be a small airport that provides a few flights a day, or a large international airport that facilitates layovers and transfers to other airlines.
  • Note: We will place a focus on human processing, and not cargo for this.
• Timeframe – Let’s make an assumption here and design this for what it should look like today and in the near future (5 years from now)
• Part of the experience – No definition as of now, so we’ll touch on this later in the conversation

Users:

• Passengers – This may be people traveling for business, people going on vacation, or people traveling for a personal matter
• Airline personnel – These are the employees of individual airlines that support travelers at every step of the user journey
• Airport personnel – These are people not associated with a specific airline that support travelers and airline personnel at every step of the traveler journey. We can include (TSA, help desk employees, and airport vendors (food, rental cars, souvenir))

Jobs to be done: Let’s go through the user journey as it works today: What we can takeaway as the jobs to be done for the airport experience are:

• Allow passenger to take required actions (per airline policy) prior to security experience
  • Purchase tickets
  • Check in
  • Print tickets
  • Check bags
• Allow airport personnel (TSA) to make sure passengers are meeting security regulations
  • Verify the right person is checking into the flight (identity verification)
  • Verify no restricted items are being brought in past security checkpoint
• Allow passengers to experience delight after the security experience, and before their flight
  • Food and drink
  • Shopping
  • Lounge access
  • Allow passengers to take care of personal tasks
  • Read

Pain points: For each of the jobs to be done, we want to focus on what the pain is for each of these:

• Allow passenger to take required actions (per airline policy) prior to security experience
  • Not knowing what is left for them to do to go into the next step
  • Not knowing where to go (physically) to take action on this
• Allow airport personnel (TSA) to make sure passengers are meeting security regulations
  • Passengers have to wait in line to start process
  • Passengers have to show ID and boarding pass
  • Passengers must take out all items on their person and have it go through scanning
  • Carry on luggage must be reviewed by scanning devices
  • TSA has to review many items and do 2nd screening where needed
• Allow passengers to experience delight after the security experience, and before their flight
  • Don’t know where to go for food
  • Don’t know what they want to do
  • Don’t have enough time to experience delight (are in a rush)

Let’s start by going over the first pain point, allowing passengers to take required actions prior to the security experience. There are many solutions that exist for purchasing (travel websites), checking in(airline specific apps), and generating a ticket/boarding pass (airline specific apps). Not everyone will need to check a bag, so our level of impact is slightly diminished by this. Airport personnel are typically around to help guide you to the next part of the airport experience. Meeting security regulations.Everyone needs to go through security to make sure they are meeting regulations, and this is currently one of the biggest factors that concerns passengers when going to the airport. There are apps built around checking this wait time and if often a main consideration when planning a trip to the airport. There are programs built around this to speed up the process (Clear, TSA pre-check), but they still follow the traditional structure of verifying identity, then reviewing a persons belongings. The programs mentioned here are becoming more adopted, but there is still a gap that exists in getting users to use these services, and you still need get in a line with your stuff.

Passenger delight. Not everyone will be in this category, some might arrive and go straight to their gate if they are in a time crunch, others may not want to partake in these activities of leisure. Although there is pain here that we could address (create a more efficient way to allow these users to experience delight), it is not the biggest pain point that exists today and one that does not apply to all people who go through the airport experience.

With this, i’d like to focus on addressing the paint point around meeting security regulations. This is still the most painful part of traveling and applies to most if not all users (passengers, and airline staff). The airport experience as we know it has not adapted to this security process and it is ripe for a re-design.

Goal: Our goal of redesigning the airport experience will be centered around addressing this pain point.

Improve: For the security experience i’d like to focus on the following pain points and provide improvement suggestions:

• Passengers have to wait in line to start process
  • One of the issues here is that we lump all passengers together. Regardless of a large or small quantity of luggage a passenger may have, all people must go through the security line together.
  • Suggestion: Passengers can organize in lines by the amount of items they have. Think of the express check out lane in a grocery store. We could have a line for those that only have a personal item (purse, backpack, briefcase), one for people that have an overhead carryon item (suitcase, duffel bag, large backpack), and one for people that have none
• Passengers have to show ID and boarding pass
  • As mentioned above, there are services out there today that exist around quickly verifying identity.
  • Suggestion: For this to have a larger impact, we could expand biometric services so that all people need to do is scan their fingerprint, or have facial recognition software verify their identity when they arrive to the airport and that will serve as the verification point, removing this step from occurring when in line.
• Carry on luggage must be reviewed by scanning devices
  • We need to confirm that people are not brining restricted items and remove those items as needed. Going back to the problem of lumping passengers together, some don’t have as many items to review as others.
  • Suggestion: Carry on baggage is dropped off when you get to the airport for review (does not include personal item). The carry on items have an Airtag that contains all the information about the passenger and their flight. Once dropped off, the passenger can see where their bag is in the review process and can be altered if there are items that need to be addressed on their device. They can video chat the TSA agent if there are questions to be answered. Once the review is complete, they will be notified and will be able to find their bag in a security locker at the gate for their flight.

Bring this all together the redesigned airport would look something like this:

• Ticket purchase and bag is packed before arrival
• Upon arrival, passengers/airline staff verify identity via biometric data point (fingerprint, face recognition) and are sent a suggested path to follow. They are automatically checked in and don’t need to show a boarding pass since it’s verified with the airport systems
  • Passengers that don’t have a boarding pass or do not meet the verification are flagged at the security checkpoint via second biometric check point, and are not allowed to proceed
• In the suggested path, they drop off their Airtaged bag (check in or carry on) and the tracking process for the bag begins. They proceed to the security checkpoint for an additional screen
• In the security checkpoint, the passengers organize via having a personal item or not and the lines are able to move faster. They walk through an upgraded biometric sensor that does not require them to remove their belongings, and are free to proceed, or do an additional screening if needed.
• When they get past this, they are notified the luggage review is done and is waiting for them in a secure locker at their gate, or they are notified that there are action items to take
• The passenger reads this update while enjoying a pre flight coffee

I would like to speak loud to narrow the scope of this question so I can be effective in identifying a solution to the problem on hand. Hope that is OK.

You mentioned, “Re-design the airport experience”. Is there a goal for this re-design exercise? Some top goals that come to my mind are the following. Please guide me so I can set it and we can proceed from there.

“Increase the number of passengers who travel to and from this airport”

“Improve customer satisfaction”

“Get into the top 5 in national or international ranking for the best airport”

“Increase the number of airlines who operate from this airport”…

Of all the goals, I will pick the first goal I noted — “Increase the number of passengers who travel to and from this airport”.

With the goal set, I want to make some assumptions and please give me a redirect if you want me to alter anything I say.

This is for an international airport. The airport is located in a location that makes it a very preferred as the hub. There is no limitation to the technology or money at this time. Privacy is not of concern at this time.

I want to list a few things to help me think through the user profiles and then look at their pain points and list some possible solutions. Is that OK?

The user profiles for folks you use an international airport are SO many. But let me just list a few and we can pick one.

1. Travelers: Business, or Personal – Time is of importance
2. Airport Staff – Traffic tower, Security officers, cleaners,
3. Govt officials – Immigration officers, police officers,
4. Vendors – book store, food court, etc.
5. Airlines and Airline staff, Airline crew etc. food suppliers, etc.

Each of the user profiles is interesting. However, for the sake of time and coverage, I want to pick Travelers.

Some pain points for Travelers:

6. Getting to the gate and exiting from the gate takes a lot of time
   1. I would divide this problem to be
      1. The architecture of the Airport
      2. Logistics at the airport

ii) Logistics at that Aiport

Exiting:

7. Lines to get out of the aircraft
8. Customs and Immigration for passengers
9. Wait and walk time to get baggage from baggage claim
10. Getting out of the airport
11. Not comfortable enough during transit – Food, entertainment, sleep, services such as massage, meditation room, prayer room, etc.
12. Not able to step out to get fresh air during international transit – stuffy, strict policies for entry and exits

There are of course a huge list of pain points for travelers. But I would rate the time to get into the aircraft and getting out of an airport to be a place where the airports can make a difference.

What I want to propose is a Smart Cart at the Airport that is going to be your companion to help you get in and out of the airport in minutes.

Let me explain what the Smart cart can do.

13. It can scan your documents
14. It can scan, weigh, and carry your luggage
15. It has compartments that can be divided to check-in and carry on parts
16. It can auto-drive and doesn’t need to be pushed

Traveler’s Journey up to entry to the gate at the aircraft:

17. Get out of the car/transportation at the entrance of the airport
18. A smart cart will come up to the passenger
19. The passenger puts the luggage on the cart for check-in compartment and/or put the luggage for carry-on in the carry-on compartment of the Smart Cart.
20. The cart has an infra-red technology to scan verify the contents of the luggage
21. The cart has an ID check – Face reader, ID validity, ticket validity
22. With the luggage and ID checked, the passenger can now proceed to the gate.
23. If there is check-in luggage, the check-in compartment of the smart cart disconnects, and the luggage lines up at the luggage drop off place. The passenger or the staff doesn’t need to lift or carry the luggage to put on the conveyer belt
24. From there onwards the passenger can walk through an infra scanner which will check the body before allowing entry to the gate. Once at the gate the passenger can continue to keep the cart or the cart can come back outside to serve the next passenger
25. Thus with the Smart cart, the passenger gets to the gate in minutes.
26. This solution will drastically improve the user experience and more passengers would prefer to come in and out of this airport.

Now as I am designing I see lots of places that need considerations and need to plan for edge cases.

27. What if the cart has security concerns? The passenger along with the cart has to go a stop in the airport to ensure the issue is resolved
28. How many such carts can be going around the airport?
29. How can the carts get back the check-in compartment of the cart?
30. How to service passengers without any luggage?

Tradeoffs:

31. Designing the Smart Cart and bringing to market would drastically reduce the huge lead time passengers have to set aside when their travel by air
32. With less lead time, there will be lesser passengers in the airport premises and more open room for the Smart Cart to navigate

Pitfalls:

33. Government, law enforcement, technology, airport, etc should all come together.
34. Technology should be advanced enough to enable stricter digital screening and digital background checks by the smart cart.

“Smart Cart at the Airport” will be a mobile solution to reducing the time taken to get the traveler to the gate in minutes. I am confident that this solution will delight the travelers who will prefer to fly in and out of this airport.