Designing for Business Impact: A Transformation Journey at Uber

Joann Wu at UXDX USA. Video: https://youtu.be/9fUdxS3LeCA

Readable transcript: edited from the recording's captions for readability (fillers and false starts removed, punctuation and section headings added). Wording is the speaker's own. Timestamps are positions in the video. Names marked [?] could not be verified against the audio.

Uber design at scale

[00:00:07] Joann: Hi, my name is Joann Wu, head of design at Uber. It's such a great pleasure to see all of you here and share our story of transformation. We transformed ourselves from craft to business catalyst. Moments like this are a really great opportunity for me to reflect, share and learn from all of you.

[00:00:27] Uber is a well-known high-technology company that created a marketplace platform for people to go anywhere and get anything. Currently we have 7.8 million active drivers and couriers on this platform, and we create economic opportunity for them as well. We move at massive scale, a scale we're really proud of. Currently we have 175 [?] monthly active users and 1 million merchants. We operate in 17 [?] countries across 10,000 cities. In 2024, we accomplished 11 billion trips.

[00:01:14] As a design team, we design product experiences for riders, consumers, drivers and merchants as our customers. The Uber design team is a multidisciplinary team, including product designers, user researchers, content designers and design operations, globally. I'm very proud of being on this team and of having led the team for the past three and a half years.

Where we started: a siloed studio

[00:01:38] When I first started, back in January 2022, I did a listening tour. I listened to our designers as well as the cross-functional partners, and also did a deep dive into all the product design. I was really impressed by the talent and the breadth of work. But by listening to each designer as well as stakeholders, I found some challenges, or say opportunities, underneath the craft, underneath the pixels.

[00:02:08] So what were the challenges? First of all, for various reasons, Uber design was in a studio model, which naturally created a siloed function within a technology company. So you can imagine the design team didn't feel they had ownership or responsibility. At the same time, our cross-functional teams didn't know who to talk to. So there was a big gap in terms of collaboration. The design team, of course, felt left behind in some important conversations, or didn't have a seat at the table, and therefore the confidence and morale was low.

Three years of transformation

[00:02:46] So here's where I came in, and with all the support from our team, we started our transformation journey. We made some big moves in 2022. We completely changed the studio model to become an integrated partnership, and that helped change our transactional service-provider mode into relationship-building collaboration. We started building trust, regaining our trust, as well as establishing ownership and responsibility through our craft and the depth of our work.

[00:03:19] The success of the first year helped set us up for the second year, which I call transformation. We had a pretty big goal: one, transform ourselves, the design team; transform our product experience; and also transform the company. We intentionally built a very strong design culture aligned with Uber's cultural values, to reinforce belonging and inclusion. And as low-hanging fruit, I pushed very much for design system adoption, so that across the entire board, across the platform, our apps can be consistent and accessible. At the same time, we took a big swing in alignment with business strategy, and therefore we did some redesign work in 2023.

[00:04:08] The next year, because of the first two years' success, with small wins and medium wins, the team had gained a reputation, a runway for the future. So design-led innovation became a key lever for R&D, including planning and vision work across Uber. We aimed for even better cross-functional integration, including very clear communication and collaboration. Design started to establish a very clear point of view, a stronger point of view actually, to help our company change from metric-driven to a more consumer-facing, product-led company.

[00:04:56] So the journey continues, keeps going. What I learned, and want to share with you, is that there are three aspects: inspire, invest and deliver. Inspire means defining the vision and roadmap and illuminating the destination, so everyone knows where we're going. Invest in our culture: nurturing and growing our people, because a great culture really enables people to take action and put their best work forward. Along the way, also create framework guidance, so we provide the toolbox for people to operate with day to day. And continuously delivering, that's important, because the results will show how we might create magical experiences that people love and delight to use, and at the same time deliver business impact. So let's unpack each one of them.

Inspire: defining high quality

[00:05:49] To inspire the team, we started with defining who we are. Uber is a company with a big mission, to reimagine the way the world moves for the better, and as a design team we established our mission statement: we design high-quality product experiences with user insight, across platforms, at scale. That all sounds amazing, but how might we achieve that? The first step is really about defining a high-quality product. I truly believe quality is at the center, the intersection, of three aspects.

[00:06:29] Start with user value. A great quality product addresses real user needs and pain points. We use the Jobs to be Done framework, which most of you already know. The second part is that quality design delivers business value. This is the part the Uber design team put a lot of effort into, starting with understanding business strategy and understanding business acumen. As a design team, we tend to believe creativity always has impact, but in order to amplify that visibility and impact, we need to incorporate our design practice with business objectives. Therefore we align with company strategy and aim for driving key business results. The third part is that a quality product is well crafted and well executed, both from design and engineering.

[00:07:26] I think defining that quality really set up the right expectations cross-functionally, to aim for the same goal. It removes the us-versus-them mentality and also encourages co-ownership. Even in the AI-empowered world right now, and we will talk about AI, the lines between different functions are blurry, but I truly believe defining quality is still very essential for the team's success.

Be brave

[00:07:59] Through practice: as I mentioned, the design team was still a little bit timid, with less confidence. Therefore I encouraged the team to be brave, to step up. Being brave means believing our craft can bring impact. It requires us to actually make some difficult UX decisions, so our users don't have to. Being brave means asking thoughtful questions, and also confidently saying no, or "no, but," as an answer, and that's OK. It demands always proactively sharing constructive feedback, sharing fresh ideas, and continuously raising the bar higher.

[00:08:46] Being brave means developing a clear point of view and advocating for it with confidence. It compels us to be advocates, influencers and facilitators, both within our team and beyond our team. Being brave means inviting ourselves into important conversations, making sure our voices are heard, and strategically building stakeholder relationships with those who can become our partners and allies. Being brave also means embracing vulnerability, acknowledging things we don't know, but constantly reminding ourselves of that growth mindset, so we're always ready to learn, to adapt and improve.

Invest: culture in the field

[00:09:32] That naturally gets into how we might invest in our team culture. Every member of the design team is a driver of the company's cultural values. We believe in standing for safety. We work as one team. We do the right thing, and we're truly trip obsessed. Beyond the regular UX research sharing insights, we push our team into the field, including cross-functional teams. Each quarter we ride along with our riders. We learn how to do three-wheelers or bicycles. At the same time, we literally put ourselves in the driver's seat to see how our product actually helps drivers and earners using this platform. We go to stores to shop, pick up bananas and avocados, to really feel the pressure when the clock is ticking and you have multiple batches to deliver as a courier or shopper. We observe how merchants work and listen to their pain points. Therefore we can push the envelope to think about innovation, as well as come up with good research insights to influence our design process.

[00:10:50] We love building with heart; that's dear to my heart. We started creating a point of view on a magical user experience. We don't shy away from talking about that in company all-hands or tech meetups. We also show and tell what a magical user experience may look like and feel like. We're also true and very honest with ourselves about how we are doing. We combine auditing and bug fixing together, and also use usability benchmarking, and share the results in front of our CEO and in front of our company executives. So among ourselves we know where the data says we can improve.

[00:11:34] We define the craft further, at the foundational level, the emotional level and the aesthetic level. I do believe the foundation secures usability, emotional resonance fosters a personal connection with the brand and product, and aesthetics bring clarity and visual harmony. Therefore we can create a holistic user experience.

Seeing the forest and the trees

[00:12:00] We see the forest and the trees. That's about balancing vision work and day-to-day execution. We ask our UX researchers to share insights very proactively and strategically before H1 planning or H2 planning, so we can influence the roadmap and OKRs. We're also using our superpower to do hackathons or vision work, so we are showing what the future could look like.

[00:12:29] When we zoom out, we see a bigger picture; that's the forest. We co-created the Uber product principles with our product leaders, actually led by our UXR team. We believe in people problems over, or before, business metrics, because when users win, Uber wins. We believe in velocity over speed. Moving fast is very important; working at Uber, we have a really high pace. But at the same time, if everyone moves in different directions, it doesn't matter how fast you move, the result won't be great. So velocity means speed plus intentional, purposeful movement in the right direction. Quality over quantity: we want to make sure everything we deliver into users' hands meets a high quality bar. Proactivity over reactivity: working in a marketplace, sometimes we have to be reactive, but we should never forget the long-term goal, so we hope the business remains sustainable. And systems over one-offs: that's how we operate. We optimize for the platform, and we break silos when we work together.

[00:13:43] When we zoom in again, this is about how we work. We see cross-functional alignment as essential for success beyond our team. So we intentionally use our design Double Diamond, which everyone is probably familiar with, in combination with our cross-functional checkpoints. This process actually helps us co-define the problem, co-own the solution, and start building, testing and learning. It's very healthy and robust, so we steer all the initiatives and projects forward.

[00:14:20] We also embrace fresh minds that think alike. We invite industry experts to teach us about business outcomes and strategy, so our ICs can practice it in their day-to-day operation. We continue learning about accessibility fundamentals, and internally we have a program called design e [?], which is a peer teaching program, so people can share their knowledge and expertise. Therefore we're elevating our team's competency together. We also go out to share what we have learned and best practices, like today, where I'm standing in front of you sharing, and our Uber design nights across the globe have become very inspiring and fun events. I hope one day you might want to participate.

Deliver: the Rider and Uber Eats redesigns

[00:15:12] All the inspiring with vision and investing in our culture paid off when the team started delivering excellent results. Here are a few highlights. In 2022, we redesigned the Uber Rider app, which offers an array of services across the globe. We emphasized anticipating people's needs, but still remembered being simple and intuitive: click a button and you get a reliable ride to your destination. As we anticipate every move, we serve people who need wheelchair assistance, or who need a service animal to ride along with them. We're there for you.

[00:15:56] We also pushed very hard to think about lifetime use cases. That's where we think from the user's perspective, from caregivers and patients to families with teens, like myself, and most recently we created, designed and launched simple mode for senior adults. So the more we come from the user's perspective, thinking about different use cases, the more we can help people engage with our platform, and you can imagine how that helps our business grow tremendously. We always keep safety first, and also keep accessibility and inclusion in mind when we design.

[00:16:38] In 2023, we also redesigned and refreshed our Uber Eats app. We got into the system, simplified our design system colors, and also redesigned the icons for cuisines, to bring more delightfulness to the app. The app redesign also aligned with business strategy, because we want to expand from food delivery to delivering everything. So the app redesign really focused on discoverability, whether we're helping you discover local restaurants, popular dishes or offers, or you're doing grocery or retail shopping, we're here. It's a combination of e-commerce principles plus on-demand service, all wrapped in this delightful user experience.

[00:17:31] Through the redesign, there's something I'm really proud of, because we really got into usability through both user insights and data. We looked at the full lifecycle journey, from early-stage users to sporadic users to active users. We meet our consumers in their purchase flow, so our recommendations for add-ons or deals make sense, and help them either save money or save time. So the redesign, as you can imagine, wasn't just a facelift. It also drove business growth in terms of gross bookings, retaining high-value active users, and acquiring new users on this platform.

Where digital meets physical

[00:18:22] One thing about designing for Uber that I always find fascinating is designing at the intersection between the digital and physical worlds. We continue to imagine and identify those moments where we can bring humanity into the product sphere, getting into service design. For example, we remind you not to forget your belongings before you step out of the car, or to watch out for bike lanes, to stay safe. Or we remind drivers not to forget to charge their phone, or EV drivers to get to a nearby charging station before accepting the next request.

[00:19:01] We create immersive experiences for local flavor to dial up your appetite, or leverage technology like this 3D map to guide our drivers and couriers to help deliver the food on time. We're also tapping into the tablet experience as a new territory for us to explore. Can this tablet experience become your companion when you ride? That also opens up a business opportunity for advertising. Advertising doesn't need to be intrusive. It can be relevant, informative and entertaining.

[00:19:36] We do believe design can bring emotion. When we look into the power of words, or micro-interaction animation, I hope our design will bring a smile to your face while using our product. And the most rewarding, heartwarming moment is when users feel the platform is taking care of them, through technology and the human element it brings in, like this user. She was stuck in traffic for 20 minutes, and the system sent her a notification checking on her: "Are you OK? Do you need help?" That's the power of user experience. Now I'm going to run a video that quickly summarizes how we create the experience, from the user's perspective, to go anywhere and get anything.

[00:21:46] All right. A quick summary, a quick takeaway of what I just talked about. By inspiring the team with vision and investing in team culture very intentionally, we continue delivering the best results, both for the business and for user experience. So you can imagine we transformed our team from a siloed design function to an integrated partnership. We transformed our team from lean ownership and accountability to a team fully committed to delivering business impact. We also bridged the cross-functional gap, and now cross-functionally we're guided by principles that put users first and emphasize quality collectively. The team continues to embrace a culture of bravery, collaboration and operational excellence. These are the beautiful faces and talent behind the scenes. They have been running with me, putting in a lot of effort, and continue delivering. So on behalf of the entire global design team, I thank you for listening to our story today. Thank you.

Q&A

[00:23:15] Host: I don't know about y'all, but I've seen a lot of presentations over the years, and often we see presentations that are really pretty, and we see presentations that have really good case studies or process diagrams. And Joann, you kind of did both. That was really impressive.

[00:23:36] Joann: Thank you. And without speaker notes; they couldn't show me speaker notes. So hopefully I did OK.

[00:23:42] Host: Anybody else pick up on that flex? Yeah. Interesting. I'm not shocked whatsoever. As far as lines of questions go, we'll get some that are going to be streaming in up here behind you in a moment. I'm just curious: as it pertains to some of the other presentations that you've seen today, where do you think Uber has a unique perspective or a distinct opinion?

[00:24:12] Joann: I see some common themes. I was listening this morning to a panel discussing how design makes impact. I do think Uber in particular, as I showed, in the past three years was really forward thinking and pushed very hard for design to deliver that business impact. Because, as I mentioned, if design only practices our craft, our pixels, in the corner, people will naturally leave you behind. So really leaning in, I keep making this gesture, leaning in and being brave, means you can create the confidence, and naturally you will become the strategic partner in a big organization.

[00:24:58] Host: I love the perspective of strategic partnership. I'm curious, if we stay on the theme of strategy: Uber doesn't exist in a silo, in a vacuum. Many of our companies that are here don't exist in that vacuum either. So can you talk at a high level about how the feature and requirements race works with somebody like DoorDash or Lyft, for instance?

[00:25:28] Joann: I think Uber strategically has the advantage that we have both the rides business and the Eats business. That's why we say "go and get." Compare that to DoorDash with their delivery, although they recently acquired someone and are also getting into the rides side. You also see Lyft getting into the Eats side. So our strategy and platform, the power of the platform, really proves it works, and that's our advantage. In terms of how we design, we're also looking into how we can empower the platform: go and get.

[00:26:07] Host: Love it. When it comes to any type of decision making that we do, as either individuals or organizations, we have intuition on one side and data on the other. I'm curious how many of the decisions that are made at the product level are a function of research versus intuition.

[00:26:31] Joann: I think we use both, and we should: both intuition and, as I call it, mind, gut, heart. You use intuition because it's based on experience, on your understanding of the business through the years. At the same time, data always tells your story, and qualitative research will tell you the why. So we really embrace bringing both together: gut-feeling decision making with data-driven, insight-driven input, in combination, to make decisions. That's how we practice.

[00:27:07] Host: When you're meeting with stakeholders and advocating on behalf of the design organization, how were you able to advocate for the pivot that your team underwent? There were some gorgeous slides that dealt with transformation there.

[00:27:26] Joann: We're still in the transformation journey, for sure. One thing is what we just talked about: data. Leveraging user research insights is one of the levers everyone should just proactively use. And second, have a point of view. Sometimes I'm in that room and I have a point of view, and I'm not holding back. It's not because of my position; I encourage my team to do that too. Have a point of view and speak up. At least you give that point of view, so people listen. Maybe people haven't thought about this. Maybe your question, and when I talk about being brave, asking questions, may trigger people to say, "Oh, what about that?" So in those moments, don't hold back. Lean in. That's where you can help cross-functionally in making the right decision.

[00:28:13] Host: You don't strike me as somebody who holds back.

[00:28:16] Joann: Yeah, always lean in.

[00:28:18] Host: Awesome. Joann, thank you so much for your time and your presentation. It was really great.

[00:28:24] Joann: Thank you, everyone.