Context

Major competitors let riders get paid whenever they wanted. We were still operating on a manual 2-week pay cycle. Riders requested this feature constantly, and on-demand payment was better aligned with Deliveroo's rider proposition of flexibility

We were asked to design the feature in a single sprint, without changing the backend payment process or the design of the Earnings page in the Rider app. Our amazing team included a product designer, user researcher, product manager, data scientist, and front and backend engineers.

What I did

• Partner with product designer, researcher, and product manager to define and document the problems to solve, our design goals, and the constraints of the project
• Review existing research on what riders needed to know about their money and when while requesting a payment (legally and personally)
• Co-designed payment experience, simplified payment language
• Independently gather, rank, and simplify a list of complex API responses into a usable set of payment statuses for the Rider app and the corresponding payments admin dashboard for operations teams
• Localize prototypes and attend (summative) lab research
• Partner with engineering to define and write top nine payment errors
• Brief the operations leads on those changes
• Brief comms and marketing on the language and usage of this feature
• Write product marketing collateral, clear with stakeholders, and help define roll out plan

Problems

We didn't do specific generative and formative research for this feature. We knew for months if not years riders wanted this feature. We reviewed other Earnings-related research which gave us insights into how riders manage their money when they're working (and when they're not).

For the rider

I have to wait to get the money I already earned (sometimes for two weeks!)

I can't access my money when I want or need it most

I don't know the status of a payment

I can't resolve payment issues without contacting Deliveroo

For the business

Our competitors have a better offering than us

We spend time and money resolving payment issues manually

We make mistakes when we process payments manually

Design + content goals