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Building Together: When Research Went Viral at Uber

Published: 02 May 2019 Publication History

Abstract

In late 2017, Uber was nearly a year into a complete redesign of its driver-facing mobile app. This case study describes the research program we executed to support the app's global beta launch, which aimed to "Build Together" with drivers across different geographies. With the goal of minimizing the time-space-cognitive distance between beta drivers and the product team, we deployed researchers in 7 cities for a 3-week research sprint, combining four high-touch ethnographic methods to understand drivers' reaction to the product. Unusually, we used an internal Google+ social media site to post a continual stream of raw, unsynthesized "atomic evidence" from research activities. The G+ unexpectedly went viral, creating extremely high engagement, impact, and stakeholder sentiment. Here we discuss the pros, cons, and impact of our approach, and also how success came from creating space for others to create, engage with, and act on raw evidence from the field.

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References

[1]
Jay Dautcher and Mike Griffin. 2018. Ethnography, Storytelling, and the Cartography of Knowledge in a Global Organization: How a Minor Change in Research Design Influenced the Way Our Team Sees, and is Seen by Our Organization. Retrieved in July 2018 from https://www.epicpeople.org/ethnography-storytelling-and-the-cartographyof-knowledge-in-a-global-organization-how-a-minor-change-in-research-design-influenced-the-way-our-team-sees-andis-seen-by-our-organization/
[2]
Stefan Holmlid and Fabian Segelström. 2018. One Case, Three Ethnographic Styles: Exploring Different Ethnographic Approaches to the Same Broad Brief. Retrieved in June 2018 from https://www.epicpeople.org/one-case-threeethnographic-styles-exploring-different-ethnographic-approaches-to-the-same-broad-brief/
[3]
Jonathan Bean and Zeynep Arsel. 2018. Understanding Mediated Practices: Combining Ethnographic Methods with Blog Data to Develop Insights. Retrieved in June 2018 from https://www.epicpeople.org/understanding-mediatedpractices-combining-ethnographic-methods-with-blog-data-to-develop-insights/
[4]
Alexis C. Madrigal.2018. 3 Million Uber Drivers Are About to Get a New Boss. Retrieved in April 2018 from https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/04/uber-driver-app-revamp/557117/
[5]
Andrew J. Hawkins. 2018. Uber redesigned its driver app with input from actual drivers. Retrieved in April 2018 from https://www.theverge.com/2018/4/10/17215298/uber-redesign-driver-app-promotions-gamify
[6]
Cliff Kuang. 2018. Uber's Quest To Redesign Its Toxic Relationship With Drivers. Retrieved in April 2018 from https://www.fastcompany.com/90171157/ubers-quest-to-redesign-its-toxic-relationship-with-drivers
[7]
Megan Rise Dickey. 2018. Uber's new driver app identifies areas with the best fares. Retrieved in April 2018 from https://techcrunch.com/2018/04/10/ubers-new-driver-app-identifies-areas-with-the-best-fares/.

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  1. Building Together: When Research Went Viral at Uber

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    cover image ACM Conferences
    CHI EA '19: Extended Abstracts of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
    May 2019
    3673 pages
    ISBN:9781450359719
    DOI:10.1145/3290607
    Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for third-party components of this work must be honored. For all other uses, contact the Owner/Author.

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    Published: 02 May 2019

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    1. app beta
    2. engagement
    3. ethnography
    4. google+
    5. research deliverable

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