Product Pitstop: Lyft

7 min readOct 5, 2022

Hello! Welcome to a spinoff series of Product Perspective: Product Pitstop. In Pitstops, I’ll be giving one idea for a new feature of a product instead of writing about the entire platform, app, etc. It should be a little bit more digestible overall, yet a little more in-depth about one feature. If you want to read my last Product Perspective on Zillow, click here!

Today, I’ll be talking about Lyft. I’ll take you through how I came up with this idea, some supporting evidence as to why I think it’s a good idea and why it’s aligned with Lyft’s mission, and finally a mock PRD for the feature. Enjoy!

Brainstorming Process

From my research, one of Lyft’s long-term goals is to reinvent cities “around people instead of cars, and replace parking lots with green spaces and parks”(1). Taking this mission statement along with the fact that traffic congestion has worsened, I set out to imagine new ways Lyft could solve these problems while still supporting key business objectives like boosting revenue, accessing new markets, and increasing customer loyalty.

Decreasing traffic (through increased ride-sharing and fewer cars on the road) would have a positive impact on cities and lead to more parking lots being replaced with green spaces. But how could Lyft decrease traffic in the most impactful way? It was then that I then learned that lack of access to public transit is a main cause of traffic (2).

I knew from using the app that Lyft already provides free route options for people looking to take public transport, but I also knew from experience that it’s often far more time-consuming or too confusing with many steps for users; plus it doesn’t generate Lyft any revenue! There had to be a better way…

Enter Lyft Assyst: Optimized, automatic, first and last mile rides to public transport — for your longer journeys.

Opportunity & Market Defense

But before I went any further, I had to make sure 1. Lyft Assyst was the best method to tackle traffic congestion, 2. Lyft Assyst was aligned with Lyft’s business objectives, and 3. Lyft Assyst was actually going to ease congestion.

First, I looked at the data. According to Figure 1 from the US Department of Transportation, bottlenecks and traffic incidents are the main causes of traffic. I didn’t think Lyft could tackle these causes easily, thus a focus on reducing the number of cars on the road would be the best method: à la public transportation.

But isn’t that counterintuitive to Lyft’s business of providing users with car rides? Not if you tackle an entirely new market: long-distance travelers. The average Lyft ride is 5–6 miles and around 10 minutes (4). Riders rarely rideshare long distances likely due to the high prices.

If we assist riders getting to the public transport they will use for the majority of their journey, we will be targeting a new user segment who previously would not have used Lyft. But how much will Lyft Assyst actually aid in decreasing congestion? According to a study done on Los Angeles public transport, there was a 47% reduction in freeway congestion from access to public transit (5). Additionally, Lyft Assyst would drastically decrease VMT, decreasing traffic congestion and pollution. Lyft Assyst is aligned with Lyft’s mission of providing positive value to cities and decreasing traffic, as well as Lyft’s business objectives like accessing a new user segment and increasing revenue.

But there were still two outstanding questions to answer before I could be confident that this feature was worth pursuing: 1. What transport mode do people really use for long journeys? and 2. Why are people not using public transport? According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, “Americans take 2.6 billion long-distance trips [trips over 50 miles] per year or 7.2 million trips per day. Almost 9 out of 10 long-distance trips are taken by personal vehicle [2.34 billion trips per year]” (6). This represents a significant market opportunity for Lyft Assyst. Finally, people do not use public transport because it is often inconvenient: “…vast swaths of urban areas [are] untouched by full-service bus routes. For those who do live near one, it’s quite likely that the bus wouldn’t get them where they need to go unless their destination is downtown” (7). Especially if users are beginning or ending their journeys in the suburbs, public transport is likely of no use. Lyft Assyst solves this problem.

Now that we know through the data that Lyft Assyst has a sizable market opportunity and supports Lyft’s business objectives and mission, let’s move to the PRD.

Summary and PRD: Lyft Assyst

Background & Strategic Fit

The majority of Lyft rides are between 5- 6 miles and last for approximately 10 minutes meaning users do not consider Lyft as a viable option when traveling longer distances. More than 2.6 billion long-distance journeys (50+ miles) are taken every year, 90% by cars. Additionally, Lyft strives to have a positive impact on the cities they serve and traffic congestion is one problem that Lyft can help solve.

Objective / Vision

If Lyft can aid long-distance travelers in completing their journey by providing first and last-mile rides to and from public transportation, we will be expanding to a new user segment, increasing user loyalty, and decreasing traffic in cities. This results in four individual Lyft rides booked for every round-trip journey taken with Lyft Assyst while simultaneously having a positive impact on the cities Lyft serves.

Minimum Viable Product / Requirements

For the MVP, users will be able to select a “Lyft Assyst” journey as another ride option in the ride-type menu.
Lyft Assyst will use the public transportation option already provided in the app and substitute the beginning and end steps with Lyft rides.
The MVP needs to be able to determine which steps to take out automatically — initially optimizing for providing Lyft rides to and from one public transit option.

Example: Instead of “Walk 10 mins, Bus 5 mins, Metro 90 mins, Walk 15 mins, Bus 10 mins”, Lyft Assyst would offer: “Lyft 6 mins, Metro 90 mins, Lyft 5 mins.”

Edge Case: Lyft Assyst must be able to offer Lyft Assyst journeys that otherwise would have “Public Transit Unavailable”. This may require extra lift, but is important to be included in the MVP as these types of journeys, with a lack of good public transit options, are exactly the types of journeys we are looking to “Assyst”.

North Star Metric

Our North Star Metric for Lyft Assyst is total miles using public transportation during journeys as we can convert this into decreased emissions or cars-off-road statistics to measure Lyft’s positive impact on cities.

Other Metrics

Number of journeys taken & individual rides ridden through Lyft Assyst
Revenue generated from Lyft Assyst journey rides
Churn for users who have used Lyft Assyst

Further Improvements

Offer different journey types. For example, there could be “eco-warrior”, “time saver”, “smooth sailor” and “$$ saver” options to choose from. This would allow users to make their journey more cost, time, or eco-oriented.
Offer the ability to schedule Lyft Assyst journeys because 1. most long-distance journeys are planned, 2. it will shorten the total journey time, and 3. it would feel like a premium service to have Lyfts waiting for riders while on their journey.

Risks

Customer Experience Risk — if the Lyft is late and the customer misses the public transport leg of their journey, that would result in a very poor customer experience.
Customer Behavior Risk — this feature requires users to think about Lyft in a new light: helping them go long distances. This is difficult to do and will require a large marketing budget.

Conclusion

Lyft Assyst provides users with a convenient way to leverage public transit while simultaneously positively impacting cities and the environment, increasing revenue, reaching a new user segment of long-distance travelers, and increasing user loyalty.

If you liked this and would like to read more from me, check out: The Bad Startup Advice Everyone Loves to Give!

About Me!

Hey y’all!👋 My name is Luca. I’m a Partner @ Crescent Fund🌙 and a student @ UCLA. I love building, brainstorming🧠, and absolutely everything having to do with the startup world🚀.

Feel free to reach out to me via LinkedIn, Twitter, or my email — always happy to chat!