How we run design-led UX research at Lyft
By: Hannah Chen
Tags: UX Design, UX Research, Research, Industrial Design, Lyft

How we run design-led UX research at Lyft

I’m lucky — I might be one of the last Lyft employees to experience the unique Lyft orientation. Soon after I joined, we entered lockdown and began working from home due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Tuesday after President’s Day, I walked into Lyft HQ, located in the beautiful Mission Bay neighborhood of San Francisco. This was the first day of my new job.

Me in front of the Amp wall at the Lyft HQ

I expected the normal onboarding stuff — setting up computers, learning about the company culture, socializing with new friends who also joined the company at the same time, and so on. Unlike my previous onboarding experiences, however, Lyft had a nice surprise for us. Right before lunch, our orientation host announced: “After lunch, we’re going on a field trip!”

“What did she mean? A virtual field trip on Google Maps? A simulation of a Lyft ride experience?” I thought.

“Yes, a field trip! We’re going to see our San Francisco Driver Hub and Driver Center,” she said as she started to hand out maps — physical maps — to each of us, as well as coupon codes for us to take Lyft rides there.

I’ve never done anything like this on my first day at a new job. It usually happens later when I’m working on a project that has a specific need. So I’m excited, keeping in mind that I’m joining the Driver experience team and will be interacting with drivers a lot.

We gathered in groups, requested Lyft rides, and got picked up by our fabulous drivers. I immediately felt so close to my users, the Lyft drivers. Unlike other products I’ve worked on before, users are generic consumer groups or people on the backstage managing HR or Payments operations. The drivers are so unique, and they rely on our product to make a living.

I want to make their lives easier and better.

We got dropped off at The Lyft Hub in Potrero Hill, San Francisco. Dan McQuigg, our Community Associate, welcomed all of us, toured us around the hub, and shared with us his own story of driving for Lyft (later joining Lyft to serve the fellow drivers). His story was inspiring, and he invited us to come back any time to chat with drivers or see how things work in the hub.

What’s the design-led UXR process?

My role at Lyft is to lead the design of our next generation of Amp, Lyft’s front light-up emblem. Amp is already a successful product. When I talked to our drivers, they said they love it because it makes them feel so proud to be part of Lyft. When we sent a survey, 93% of passengers say the Amp “makes finding my ride easier.”

The challenge I was given is to make this amazing product even brighter, bolder, and better.

The problem is so ambiguous, so where do I start? The answer is: user studies. I believe in the philosophy, “Focus on the user and all else will follow.”

After onboarding, I worked with the industrial design agency. We needed quick feedback from drivers on a few physical prototypes. We aligned with the research team to have our researchers draft a semi-structured discussion guide, and the designers facilitated the sessions. That became a model for most of the driver studies we conducted later in the project.

Conducting lightweight UX research helps me get the feedback I need to make quick decisions and move forward in the design process, especially when UX researchers aren’t available. At Lyft, I’ve conducted effective design-led studies through the following channels:

Asking for feedback in our Driver Hub Learning from Driver Advisory Council Testing on-site at Level 5 Usertesting.com

1. Asking for feedback in our Driver Hub

The next generation of Amp is designed with our drivers and riders in mind. To better understand our users (in this case, Lyft drivers), I made arrangements to visit the Lyft Driver Hub. The Hub team welcomed me, and a few team members introduced us to individual drivers. I asked each driver if they would have time to help us test the physical prototypes.

We recruited six drivers who were excited to test out our new product and be part of the beta group. I used the discussion guide drafted by our UX researcher, but I was flexible in my approach so I could witness the user’s natural behavior. This gave me an opportunity to ask questions when I witnessed unexpected outcomes. The drivers shared with us not only their thoughts about the prototypes, but also their stories and experiences driving with Lyft and using Amp. The feedback we gathered helped us narrow down from three prototype directions to one.

Lyft Driver Hub

I realized there is so much I can learn from the drivers and from the people who serve and interact with the drivers daily. During my third week at Lyft, I decided to shadow our Community Associate Dan for half of a day to observe how people work in the Hub and why drivers come to the Hub. To better understand how users are using the current Amp, I got permission to ask one question to each driver that came to the counter. Dan was excited and introduced me to every driver. I spoke to a wide range of drivers about their experience using the Amp — drivers who are new to Lyft, drivers who gave more than 8,000 rides, drivers who drive with Lyft rental cars, and more. The information I gathered in those conversations set a strong foundation for my design thinking process and rationales for each design decision I would make.

Then, the pandemic happened. We closed down all hubs for health and safety reasons. I was bummed that we made a tough decision to close our San Francisco Hub permanently, but I’m glad that I got the chance to meet our drivers there and got to meet people like Dan, who has continued supporting our design team and providing insights virtually on Slack.

2. Learning from Driver Advisory Council

Our research team has adapted to the needs of drivers during the global pandemic. We can’t run in-person studies, which is challenging for this type of hardware project. Fortunately, we have a Driver Advisory Council (DAC) at Lyft.

Launched in 2016, the DAC is a diverse group of drivers who serve as a link between Lyft and the driver community nationwide. DAC members test new product features and weigh in on programs and policies that impact drivers.

I connected with our drivers on DAC through our internal Driver Success Operations team, who designed multiple ways for designers, product managers, and many other roles to engage with drivers virtually. I ran a few different studies with the DAC team. Nora Danskey, our Driver Success Operations Lead, has been a huge supporter of this research effort throughout the design process.

We had a general idea of how the end-to-end experience could work based on our new hardware development. I was hoping to get some initial reactions to the concept and user journey to prove we were going in the right direction. I consulted the methodology and discussion guide with our UX researcher. I then created a story describing how a driver and rider would interact with our new product features. Nora helped me recruit five drivers for 1:1, semi-structured interviews. In the interviews, I told them, “I’m going to tell you a story about the new Amp experience with some screens. Just imagine you’re watching a YouTube video, and tell me what you think.”

The reactions to the story were overwhelmingly positive. I got feedback from the drivers on what features they liked vs. didn’t like and why. It gave our team the green light to confidently move forward with our proposal with some adjustments suggested by drivers.

One of the other formats that the Driver Success Operations team facilitates is an informal conversation with one driver or a small group of drivers. When I was working on a specific feature of the product — tracking usage, I requested a lightweight conversation with DAC. I needed a better understanding of what types of usage data is useful for the drivers so that I can present helpful information in-app.

There are many drivers on the DAC. Narrowing down who to recruit by providing clear participation criteria is crucial, especially if you’re only talking to a small group of users. We worked with the data team to find drivers that can provide us the best insights.

Time management is another thing to pay close attention to during the small group panel discussion because the discussion can start to diverge among multiple people. Also, because the sample size is small, this technique works best when you already have solid design assumptions and only need some input from users. The report from this type of lightweight research can also be more informal. Instead of creating a full presentation, just two slides summarizing the methodology, participants’ info, 3–5 top findings, and recommendations are usually sufficient.

3. Testing on-site at Level 5

Testing prototypes in person is still essential because we’re designing a physical product. The holistic experience is not only in-app; it includes drivers learning about the device, earning it, receiving the package, unboxing, installation, pairing with Bluetooth, regular usage, and settings.

During COVID-19, in-person testing has become extremely difficult. In-person testing requires many cross-functional teams to pull in all available resources and creatively develop a research methodology that complies with our current health and safety guidelines.

Our UX researchers came up with the idea for contactless, on-site testing. We created testing questionnaires using Google Forms, and drivers could fill out answers on an iPad while they were alone in a car interacting with the prototype. The engineering team of our self-driving division (Level 5) hosted the sessions, provided vehicles for testing, and set up GoPros inside the cars to record the research sessions. The Level 5 team has connections to test drivers, which makes the recruiting process possible. The on-site testing gave our team strong confidence in our design decision to create the best experience for drivers.

Testing onsite at Level 5

4. Usertesting.com

In addition to internal forums, we also leverage third-party platforms for user studies. Usertesting.com is a convenient tool to get quick feedback from users. It’s easier to recruit the correct consumer product users by utilizing screening questions to narrow down our target audiences. I conducted a few studies for the rider-related experience — participants would record videos of their screens and answer 10–15 questions with audio responses. To verify they are Lyft riders, we ask the users to log in to their accounts and show us a screen of their ride history. It’s straightforward to test digital prototypes by providing links for the users to click through. I also used it to test our initial concept explorations by presenting participants with manga-style storyboards to get their first reactions. We got responses on usertesting.com very fast; 10 responses usually come in within a couple of days. Usertesting.com is an effective method for design-led lightweight research — you can get very fast feedback with less team involvement.

Summary: Do it with your team

Design-led research doesn’t mean that I have to do everything alone. I received help from many cross-functional team members, especially from our UX Research team. There are multiple researchers who provided consultancy on my initial research brief, discussion guide, and final reports. Generally, the steps to run these types of studies include:

Step 1: Identify objectives and research methodology

Step 2: Recruit participants and draft discussion guide

Step 3: Review the discussion guide and run a pilot study

Step 4: Conduct research sessions and gather feedback

Step 5: Synthesize data and create a report

However, every study is different. I would evaluate the situation and figure out how to execute on each step based on what kind of help you can get from research and operations teams.

These design-led lightweight studies helped me get faster feedback from Lyft drivers and riders, design with empathy, and confidently make decisions that will help create intuitive and delightful product experiences.