2014
Hyperlocal, real time
In cities with an incredibly high concentration of people.
Choice
The most diverse food in the world, so better choice, faster.
Chapter 1
We started by observing people.
We learned about their food journeys, across their lives and through their regular days.
- Hygiene before the meal
- Guilt about eating out
- Budget at every meal
- Small choice dilemmas
- Hedging bets with a thaali
- Experimenting once a week
- Social biases, fast decisions
Moments of truth: food courts, office canteens and social gatherings.
The fundamental truth
Paucity of time.
- 01In making a decision,
- 02and in the time taken to deliver food.
Hygiene and budget constraints added to it, and both led to guilt-based drop-offs.
Chapter 2
Leaner funnel, better choices.
We started with paper prototypes and quick feedback cycles with food-court consumers. The idea was to put the product in the hands of the humblest user.
- Veg only
- Indian
- Spicy
- Ghar ka khana
- Biryani
- Jain
- Healthy
- Noodles
- Pizza
- Cake
- Salads
- Sweet and sour
- Mexican
- Sweets
- Daily eats
- Meetha
- Thalis
- Sandwiches
- Add-ons
- Desserts
01Too many choices, and too little time.
02So we eliminated choices, starting at onboarding.
03Then with behaviour, social tags and ratings.
04Curated, not personalised, so there's always something new.
05Two ways in.
Conversions, as high as
12%
Our highest. By the end of 2015, Tinyowl was regarded as the best user experience in food delivery, across Foodpanda, Zomato and Swiggy.
Chapter 3
Magical fridge and serendipity.
Food is an immersive experience. It combines culture, stories and personal reflection around taste, health and happiness, with craft and care from the people who make it.
Personal
Open the fridge, and today's lunch is waiting.
Serendipity
Similar dishes, and once in a while, something new.
Trust
Every dish shows how it's made, and who made it.
After the magical fridge
Increase in conversions
+22%
Increase in NPS
+29%
Chapter 4
Homemade and cultural experiences.
Ghar ka khana
Home food
Bahar ka khana
Restaurant food
In India, food is a battle between home food and restaurant food. From ingredients and care to hygiene in production, food from outside lacked trust, and carried deep anxieties.
Chefs
The finest home chefs, across cuisines.
Slot
Lunch, in a slot that suits your day.
Story
Every dish carried its chef's story.
Homemade NPS
+70
Sold out, every single day. The highest NPS the food delivery industry had ever seen.
Chapter 5
Focus and care.
I started with a design team of 4 and scaled it to 40, structured in pods built around consumer touchpoints.
Each pod brought product, design, data science, supply chain and engineering together, pointed at the consumer experience and measured by user delight.
What mattered most was to deeply care for our consumers, to understand their core anxieties and motivations, and to deliver delight.
Our process
Dartboard and arrows.
- 01DartboardUnearth innately mundane insights.
- 02ArrowsPrototype ideas against them.
- 03BullseyeHone them to the simplicity that hits.
The craft
Focus and care in every screen.
An illustration and icon language unique to Tinyowl, developed twice.
Menu listing, for easier navigation and a quick understanding of each dish.
Simple onboarding, with pointed navigation from day one.
Error states, designed to make people smile.
An illustration and icon language unique to Tinyowl, developed twice.
Menu listing, for easier navigation and a quick understanding of each dish.
Simple onboarding, with pointed navigation from day one.
Error states, designed to make people smile.
It showed that design can be central, not incidental, to business.
We built one of the finest design teams in India, and used design to collaborate better and deliver refined solutions to core problems.
