Grab · Product sense · Entry · 45 to 60 minutes

Improve rider driver communication

Grab is a Southeast Asian app that lets people book rides and connect with drivers. Answer this product management case and get it graded line by line against a weighted rubric.

Problem framing
MVP scoping
Metrics
Experiment design
Cross functional judgment

The situation

You are a new PM at Grab. An engineering lead and a data scientist bring you a recurring problem during active ride bookings: riders and drivers often struggle to find each other, especially in dense cities, changing pickup spots, and areas with unreliable mobile networks. Today many interactions happen through phone calls or external messaging apps, which can expose personal numbers, vary by country, and are hard for Grab to measure or improve. Leadership wants a recommendation this month on whether Grab should invest in a product change to improve rider driver communication inside the app. The team is small, the app serves markets with weak connectivity including 2G, and drivers cannot be distracted while on the road. You need to decide what problem to solve first, what the smallest useful solution is, and how you would know if it is working before a broader rollout. The hard part is that the users most likely to try a new communication feature may already be less likely to cancel, so simple before and after comparisons could mislead the team.

What to produce

Write a 1 to 2 page PM brief.

Your answer must

Name the primary user problem and the 2 highest priority trip moments to solve first.
Recommend one MVP approach for rider driver communication, including key capabilities and what you would not build yet.
Explain the main tradeoffs, including build versus third party, privacy and safety, and driver distraction.
Define success with 1 primary metric and 2 supporting metrics, plus an evaluation plan that addresses selection bias.
Propose a first quarter rollout and iteration plan, including top risks and how you would mitigate them.

Constraints

Connectivity is unreliable in some markets, and many users may be on 2G or weak Wi Fi.
Any solution must protect personal phone numbers and support safe communication between rider and driver.
Drivers are often in motion, so the experience must minimize distraction and work quickly.
Assume a small cross functional team can ship only a narrow first version in one quarter.

Format

Use sections: Problem, Users and moments, Recommendation, Metrics and evaluation, Risks, Rollout and next steps.

How Grab actually played it

An engineer and a data scientist at Grab walk through how an early idea for in-app chat became GrabChat, a core feature used by riders and drivers. The post lays out four steps from idea to essential feature inside a fast startup team. It is a short, practical look at how a small bet becomes a platform feature.

Start with a narrow version and prove usage before scaling.
Pair engineering with data early to know if the idea works.
An essential feature earns its place through repeated behavior.

Built from How to Go from a Quick Idea to an Essential Feature in Four Steps by Grab Engineering.