Zepto · Product sense · Entry · 45 to 60 minutes

How should Zepto drive first order activation?

Zepto is a quick commerce app in India that delivers groceries and household items in minutes. Answer this product management case and get it graded line by line against a weighted rubric.

product sense
user empathy
prioritization
funnel thinking
experimentation

The situation

You are the PM for new user activation at Zepto, whose brand promise is grocery delivery in 10 minutes. The growth lead and design lead ask you for a recommendation on how the product should better convert skeptical first time users from discovery to first successful order. Zepto already reaches users through its website and app store listing, lets them browse and add items, and brings them back into the app after payment while an order is in progress. Assume recent funnel data for first time users in live cities looks like this, 100,000 visitors to entry points each week, 32,000 installs, 18,000 users add at least one item, and 9,000 complete a first order. Leadership believes many new users do not fully trust the 10 minute promise until very late in the journey, but different teams want different fixes, stronger acquisition copy, cart and checkout improvements, or more focus on the post order experience. You have one sprint and limited engineering support, so you need to decide where to intervene first and what changes to test.

What to produce

Write a 1 page product brief, 700 to 900 words.

Your answer must

Define user activation for this case and state the core user problem in one or two sentences.
Map the first time user journey from discovery to active order, and identify the 2 most important moments where Zepto must earn trust in its speed promise.
Propose 2 to 3 concrete product changes on existing surfaces, and explain why each should improve activation or reduce friction.
Prioritize your recommendation for one sprint, including what you would do now and what you would defer.
Specify one primary metric, 2 guardrail metrics, and a simple experiment plan to validate your recommendation.

Constraints

Keep scope to the first time user journey before and just after the first order.
Do not change delivery operations, assortment, or add new discount budget.
Assume only one sprint of limited engineering support, so prefer lightweight changes to existing surfaces rather than a major rebuild.

Format

Use short sections with bullets, problem, journey diagnosis, options, recommendation, metrics, risks.

How Zepto actually played it

A teardown of Zepto's path from site and store listing through cart to order tracking, looking at how the 10-minute promise drives activation. Ends with lessons a PM can reuse for onboarding a quick commerce app.

Make the core promise visible at every step
Order tracking can be an activation moment
Cart flow decisions should reinforce the value proposition

Built from Zepto: Drive User Activation through USP by Tear Them Down.