WHO is signing up
Ideal Customer Profile

Product Pitch

Porter is a goods transport agency catering to on-demand, intra-city goods movement. Through technology, Porter connects a highly fragmented largely SME customer base with a highly fragmented largely driver-cum-owner partner base.

• Demand side user : Customers
• Supply side user : Driver Partners

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Understand the customer and the product

Porter is in the business of providing on-demand, intracity goods transport for small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
Porter is present in 20 cities in India and 2 international countries (UAE, Bangladesh).
Porter has goods vehicles ranging from 2w all the way to 14ft trucks.

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Core value proposition

For a tech savvy SME who needs a reliable yet affordable way to transport goods on demand, Porter is a goods transport agency that provides transparent, cost-effective goods transport pickup within 15 minutes.

Brand wedge

If industry perception is that only a known driver will pickup and deliver goods reliably, and SME customers feel that they do not know how to get vehicle on time to move their goods, Porter will always prioritize building trust with the customer by ensuring that goods are always immediately transparently transported.

Positioning against competition

User insights

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Ideal customer profiles formulated through insights

ICP prioritization

Nuances

• For customers without vehicle, the need is for all goods moment whereas for customers with a vehicle (own or captive through long term contract), the need is for peak management which spills over and above planned.
• While individually, ability to pay of small SME may be low compared to medium SME, collectively they make it up through volume.
• For the TAM evaluation, present or near future product capability is considered. This means that while for enterprises, TAM could potentially be very high, it is low in our case due to their use case (credit period, APIs etc.) not being addressed by the product.
• In some cases, the decision maker on which logistics service provider to be used, and the operational executor are not the same person. In such cases, one of the two parties could potentially be influencers or turn out to be blockers.

Prioritization

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Why not the other ICPs?

1. Medium SME with vehicle: While they are usually more tech savvy and have higher budgets, they also typically have a set arrangement, if not their own vehicle. They will use Porter only for the peaks.
2. Retail: While they are tech forward and more convenience seeking, the use case is limited mostly to 2w service and does not cover majority of the core services (trucks) offered by Porter. It is a valid ICP to pursue specifically for the 2w line of business but not at company level.
3. Enterprise: While they have high budgets and high frequency of usage, they have long term contracts with fixed providers.
4. Specialty SMEs: While the frequency is high, they need specialized vehicles that are not available on the platform.

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Selected ICP deep dive

WHAT are they trying to do
Customer Journey Map

Customer persona: Small SME without vehicle.

Goal of the map: Onboarding and activation.

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Overall perspective:

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Porter app experience focused perspective:

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WHY are they signing up
Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) and Validation

Small SME without vehicle (selected ICP) deep dive

Why is the JTBD primarily financial and not functional?

• There is high pressure on margins due to low bargaining power and competition from big online and offline players.
• It is relatively manageable if there is some delay in ETA etc. since there is not much scheduled upstream or downstream activities lined up (as opposed to Enterprise of Medium SMEs).
• Functional goal is still important because the goods still need to be reliably delivered. The small SME cannot afford pilferage or other issues. Also, they do not have the clout to get good service from unorganized player and hence, getting vehicle from Porter is an important functional need.

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Validation of the financial and functional JTBD through "what keeps him awake at night" customer insights

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Aha Moments

Moment 1: Transparent options

For selected pickup and drop locations, immediately, the cost and ETA of different vehicles is displayed. This is quite a contrast to the competition (unorganized sector) where

1. Multiple calls need to be made to get vehicle availability.
2. Price finalization is a painful negotiation.

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Moment 2: Tracking of vehicle

As soon as the trip is accepted by a driver partner. There is clear tracking on the map all the way till goods are picked up and subsequently dropped.

This is quite a contrast to the competition (unorganized sector) where

1. Multiple calls need to be made to see when pick up will happen.
2. Post pick up, multiple calls need to be made to see where the vehicle is and when drop will happen.

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Moment 3: Rebooking without entering details

There is no need to select pick up and drop locations again. Directly, the details can be reviewed and booking can be made.

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Onboarding Teardown

Porter Customer Onboarding Teardown.pdf

Android app teardown summary (Refer to above pdf for screen by screen)

App discovery

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Installation

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Account creation

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First order and largely subsequent orders

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Support

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Website teardown summary (Refer to above pdf for screen by screen)

Discovery

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Website Flow

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Help

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Activation Metrics

Activation metric 1

Reasoning:

Why orders:

1. Every time a customer does an order, they experience the aha moments around clarity of price and eta, tracking.
2. On every order, they experience the core value proposition of transparent, 15% to 20% lower cost goods transport pickup within 15 minutes.

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Why three orders:

1. Once they experience the core value proposition 3 times, they internalize and associate Porter with consistent value for money, hassle free service and will then continue using Porter due to habit formation.
2. Using Porter 3 times would also provide the experience at different times of the day and potentially different vehicle categories within Porter, leading to more confidence building.

Why 1 week:

1. It is important to experience the core value 3 times within a week so that the augmentation of experience happens. If it is over a longer duration, there may be lack of connecting the dots back to earlier experience.
2. Given that a customer may be placing ~10 orders a week, there may also be opportunity for the competition to win back the customer if they do not do at least 3 trips with Porter.

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Activation metric 2

Reasoning:​

Why five star rated orders:

1. A 5 star rating implies that the customer had a delightful experience. There was no part of the journey where they felt dissatisfied.

​Why two star rated orders:

1. Two 5 star ratings showcase that the customer has experienced the core value prop multiple times with a delightful experience.
2. Two ratings also ensures that customers are assured of consistent experience across multiple driver-partners.
3. Since it is a pattern, habit will get formed and customer will continue to use Porter.

Why one week:

1. A customer typically does ~10 orders a week. To rate Porter order twice, they need to do at least 3 orders (assumption of 66% conversion of order complete to rating). This ensures that they have experienced the product sufficient times so that consistently across time, across vehicle categories, they have experienced the core value proposition.
   It is important to get 2 five star rated orders within a week so that the augmentation of experience happens. If it is over a longer duration, there may be lack of connecting the dots back to earlier experience.

Activation metric 3

Reasoning

Why booking using "book again" feature:

1. Booking using the book again feature further makes it almost an "one click" type of experience where there is no need to enter pick-up and drop-location, the vehicle category is already selected. Using this feature provides and additional level of delight.
2. If a customer is using "book again", it is a fair signal that for that particular trip (pick up, drop, vehicle category), they recall that had used Porter earlier and had a good experience.

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Why 3 orders booking using "book again" feature:

1. Using the "book again" feature 3 times results in augmentation of good experience by going through the core value proposition multiple times.
2. Since it is a pattern, habit will get formed and customer will continue to use Porter.

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Why 1 month:

1. Since there may be need for multiple pick up and drop locations, the need to repeat same combination may arise only 4-5 times in a month.

Activation metric 4

Reasoning:

Why referrals:

1. When a customer refers, they are putting their social credibility on the line.
2. A customer will only refer if they are convinced by the product and see a significant improvement over the competition.
3. Referrals provide social proof.

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Why five referrals:

1. One or two referrals may be done for the monetary incentive.
2. Five referrals would cover a significant social circle and hence, it is a higher risk that customer is taking, which can be taken as strong endorsement.
   

Why 1 month:

1. Since referrals involve personal credibility, customer will only refer 5 times after they have experienced the core value prop multiple times and have become a regular user.

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Activation metric 5

​Reasoning:

​Why usage of multiple categories:

1. When a customer uses multiple categories, they experience a further delight that they can now chose the vehicle fit for purpose and only pay for the most efficient way of transporting their goods.
2. Further, the customer can, at one place, get access to the right vehicle for right circumstances such as a two wheeler or three wheeler for congested places, closed body truck when it looks rainy etc.

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Why two categories:

1. The categories are structured in such a way that there can be a use case serviced by possibly the adjacent categories by considering factors such as over sizing and over loading.
   2w: 20 kg, 3w: 500 kg, Ace: 750 kg, Pickup 8ft: 1250 kg
2. Using two categories provides sufficient validation and captures majority of the needs of the customer such that they do not need to go outside for any other needs. This is reflected in wallet share.
   

Why 1 month:

1. Occasion to use multiple categories of vehicles may only arise 2-3 times in a month.
2. Using Porter for at-least one such time in a month indicates the habit formation and trust.

Metrics to track

North star: M12 retention

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