Peter Talks Shop with Zipcar CEO Scott Griffith
Peter Merholz recently spoke with UX Week speaker and CEO of Zipcar Scott Griffith about the balance of user experience and business concerns in the design of Zipcar’s service. The conversation below excerpts about one-third of the full 40-minute conversation. (You can find the audio file and the full transcript here.)
PM: In terms of the design of that service — you’ve got a lot of components — a web site, mobile (I don’t know if it’s SMS), you’ve got the cars themselves, and a call center. How explicit is the design of the service? How planned is it? What does Zipcar’s blueprint look like? Is it really refined and detailed, or is it a bit more organic?
SG: Well, we have one. We have a culture that we’ve tried to develop that, we hope, matches the brand that we deliver; and that’s all around self-service. The design is meant to be simple in nature, elegant, and self-service focused. It starts in the company’s culture and in the DNA of our brand. We’re very serious about keeping all of our user systems very simple, but we have a group internally that we call our product group. They focus on the lifetime experience that a member has with our service, from the first time they go to our web site through the last time they ever use one of our cars and decide not to be a member any more. They map that cycle and follow it; we’re constantly trying to refine and improve that map, that architecture. That timeline, by the way, lasts for typically four or five years, our members stay with us for multiple years.
We think about that whole experience as they use the cars for the first time or review their online billing for the first time. They might have a problem on the side of the road, to refuel the car, get into an accident; these are all experiences that we have to deal with, because we’re treating these cars very much like car ownership, but you’re just buying it one hour at a time.
PM: I think that one thing that would be interesting, especially for the people who are listening to this, is getting a better sense of the product group you mentioned. How many people are working on it, and what are the roles involved in it?
SG: It’s a small team — four people in total — and they work collaboratively with the engineering team. Often their key impact is on the online, wireless, or other tools that we’re building for our membership base to use. But often they’re also looking at our call center and how that experience going, or what the in-vehicle experience looks like. For example, last year we refreshed our in-car materials, and we now call it our co-pilot. It’s a plastic laminated series of cards that are all held together in a little ring binder for all the of the questions you might have about our service and the many ways you can answers them. It’s meant to be simple and fun. Any time we’re thinking about changing that experience, the product group focuses on it.
They also work collaboratively with our engineers if there is a technology implementation. We have a wonderful set of about eight or nine engineers who are really culturally aligned with the self-service, keeping it simple model. Many of them use the service on a regular basis and they’re very intrigued by the self-service simplicity idea…
Don’t forget to register for UX Week 2008. Get 15% off of registration with discount code “NEWS.”
Last Chance for UX Intensive San Francisco Early Bird Registration
Early bird registration ends for UX Intensive San Francisco — February 19-22 at the Hotel Kabuki — on February 3. Register now for a deep discount. Don’t forget to use discount code “NEWS” for an additional 15% off of the registration price.
Join Brandon at the Commonwealth Club
Join Brandon Schauer on January 30 at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco for the panel Conscious Capitalism: Resolving the Conflict Between Consumerism and Progressive Innovation. This panel of experts will debate why a deeper understanding of human nature needs to be central to a 21st century business strategy and how it can challenge people’s attitudes toward consumerism. Reservations suggested.
- Reception 5:30 PM; Program 6:00 PM
- Club office, 595 Market Street, 2nd Floor, San Francisco
Charmr an Answer to Function Dysfunction in the New York Times Online
The Charmr was recently featured in the New York Times Online Opinion section as an answer to Function Dysfunction. Allison Arieff discusses the Charmr as a concept that “is really about improving quality of life” in a world where devices are so often designed for obsolescence.
Adaptive Path’s Top 10 Blog Posts of 2007
#1 Design Schools: Please Start Teaching Design Again by Dan Saffer
#2 Why usability is a path to failure by Todd Wilkens
#3 My personal war against Crackberry by Todd Wilkens
#4 Charmr: A Design Concept for Diabetes Management Devices by Jesse James Garrett
#5 Experience design is not about brands by Peter Merholz
#6 Charmr: Interaction and Visual Design by Alexa Andrzejewski
#7 iPhone’s (Lack of) Buttons by Dan Saffer
#8 “I’m an accountant… and you?” by Alexa Andrzejewski
#9 Most Hated Internet Terms? by Henning Fischer
#10 Is Email On The Way Out? by Dan Harrelson
The Scoop on MX San Francisco
This year’s MX San Francisco conference — April 20-22 at the Mark Hopkins — will explore the many challenges facing user experience managers including what it takes to get great experiences out into the world. MX brings together the people that excite us here at Adaptive Path. We’ve invited a fantastic group who will inspire, teach, and give us tools to take back to our daily lives. Our speakers will talk about crucial ideas and themes in design. No hidden agendas or sales pitches, just honest discussion about the things that concern user experience VP’s, Directors and Managers.
Register for early bird pricing and use discount code “NEWS” for an additional 15% off the registration price.
Jesse Gives BusinessWeek Online the Skinny on Apple
Jesse James Garrett gives Matt Vella of BusinessWeek Online the skinny on Apple’s success in, What Should Apple Do Next?
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