Onboarding project | Airbnb

Index -
- Context + Story
- The Product
- The User
- - ICP
  - JTBD
  - Customer Journey
- Onboarding Teardown
- - Analysis Summary
- Activation Metrics
- - 5 Hypothesis
  - Tracking Metrics

Context + Story

After COVID-19, the world has seen a surge in travellers and the most hyped is the youth between the age of 18-35. This can not be a coincidence and I believe that it is correlated with the evolution of human psychology over time, and how it has changed the purpose of "Travel" for all of us.

The Evolution of Travel -

In the Stone Age, humans travelled to survive. The purpose was to either to tackle weather conditions or to find more food. It changed as we invented agriculture, built societies and discovered religion.

Over time, humans have travelled to

spread the religion,

explore new land

concurring land,

trade goods,

and some crazy people even travelled to explore and blog about it (Ibn Battuta).

yet, most of the travel was "'Purposeful" and remained a Privilege.

After industrialization, as the modern age started, for the first time ever we see travel as a commodity. People started travelling to escape from their routines, relax for a while, and explore new cultures. These were our grandparents.

Over time, as the industry grew, we saw an increase in consumerism and problems like overcrowding, Infrastructure Strain and environmental impact.

Today, the young generation sees travel very differently. They not only seek to escape and explore but also seek authenticity and real connections. Their travel patterns are causing a shift in the industry and it is called as "experience-oriented-tourism".

( We will dive deep into the psyche of the experience-oriented traveller in the ICP section)

And one of the very few products that cater to the needs of the new age is "Airbnb".

The Product

Airbnb is a marketplace for hosts of unique stays and experiences. It caters to both travellers and hosts by providing both of them access to the market in a secure and convenient way. It provides value to the travellers by offering a wider range of stay options which are often cheaper and better quality than traditional hotels. On the B2B side, Airbnb allows hosts to organize their business with Airbnb's efficient user experience and generate wealth through their properties.

Business Model Canvas

Airbnb Busines Model canvas (1).png

Core Value

To the User :

-To offer a wider variety of stays.

-To offer an alternative to the traditional hotel experience.

-To offer (comparatively) lower cost options.

To the Hosts :

-To give easy access to the market.

-Organize business with tech.

-Generate wealth through selling experiences.

The User

(focusing on the B2C side of the product.)

ICPs (Who?)

Priority (P1 being the highest)	P1	P1	P2
ICPs (Indian context)	Saloni	Sourabh	Pratik
Persona	Experience-Oriented Traveler	Biz Traveler	DIY Traveler
Age	28	48	22
Occupation	Marketing Manager	Tech CEO	Freelance Designer
Annual Income	12-18 LPA	Above 40 LPA	6-10 LPA
Location	Pune	Bengaluru	Varanasi / Hrishikesh / Hampi (Digital Nomad)
Psychology	Passionate about food and culture willing to talk and engage in activities with other people willing to take risks or to try out new ideas or experiences	Time-conscious Focused on productivity Value comfort and reliability Willing to pay extra for it	Budget-conscious Loves to plan and customise expect personalised experiences Seeks value for money
Pain points	Overcrowded destinations Generic touristy experiences Hard to find authentic experiences	Locations of the stays from work place Stay's work-friendlyness Tired of constant travel and traditional hotel experiences	Expensive accommodations Location of the stay and access to local transport. difficulty in finding unique stays and amenities like kitchen and washing machines.
Where do they spend their free time?	Cafes, Malls, Social Media	Flights, Cafes, Social Media	Exploring New Locations, Social Media
Other Apps	Cred, BookMyShow, Instagram, Youtube, Skyscanner, Zomato/Swiggy,	LinkedIn, Skyscanner, Moneycontrol, Zomato/swiggy, Bookmyshow, Makemytrip, ixigo	Instagram, Youtube, ixigo, Zostel, Tripadvisor, Quora
If Airbnb fails them then where would they go next?	Sadly, there's no alternative as of now	MakeMyTrip (Traditional Hotels)	Zostel, The Hosteller, GoStops
Duration between discovery and action	Avg 1-1.5 Month	1-7 days	Unpredictable / Random
Duration of stay?	3-6 Nights	1-2 Nights	10-30 Nights
Likelyhood of using Airbnb experiences? (Experiences category of the listings)	High	Low	Maybe
How do they discover Airbnb? (Primarily)	Social Media / Google Search / Friends & Family	Google Search / Friends	Social Media / Google Search / Communities / Friends
Features they like (Exclusive to Airbnb)	Wishlist Sort by property type ( Huts, Treehouses, A-frames, etc ) Sort by Self-check-in and Super host Host profile and reviews Explore experiences near-by	Sort by availability Map view Host reviews Sort by beds / amenities The Work Collection	Wishlist Sort by property type ( Huts, Treehouses, A-frames, etc ) Sort by Price and property type Host profile and reviews Explore experiences near-by

JTBD (Why?)

JTBD	Primary	Secondary
Saloni	Functional	Social
Hiring the Product to - Find me a reliable and comfortable stay	Hiring the Product to - Offer me unique experiences that I can show off
Sourabh	Functional	Personal
Hiring the Product to - Find me a reliable and comfortable stay	Hiring the Product to - Give me the control to choose the kind of property and easyfy my booking experience
Pratik	Functional	Financial
Hiring the Product to - Find me a reliable and comfortable stay	Hiring the Product to - Give economically viable yet unique stay options

Onboarding Teardown

We are considering the Airbnb "App" over the "website" as the usage of the app is more than the website and the users who have downloaded the app are more serious as they are already making a small effort to search and download the Airbnb app. ( Hypothesis )

Airbnb _ Onboarding Teardown _ Growth X (2).pdf

Conclusion -

Overall Airbnb is great at onboarding new users, as far as the user is tech-savy and knows what they really want. The product does not push you to take any actions and provides correct information to help you make an informed decision. It really stands out with its clean user interface and prime features like Map View and Wishlist.

Improvement -

As soon as a user has signed up, rather than exposing him/her to the main page filled with multiple options (Hick's Law) they can be guided to a "first-time booking experience" with progressive disclosure.

Ask them where they want to visit first, What kind of stay they like, what amenities do they prefer and then show them what they are looking for.

This will decrease the 'time to value'.

It will give some hand-holding to the user, to figure out the app and become comfortable with UI

Activation Metrics

As I do not have access to Airbnb's user behaviour data, I will be relying on the information I could gather through user calls and my own experience with Airbnb App.

( I have chosen Airbnb as it is a competitor/inspiration for Compass Crew which is still in the Pre-PMF stage )

We will be treating Airbnb as an early-stage product when it comes to validating the activation metric.

Hypothesis 1 : Booked 1 stay within a week after downloading the app.

Reason : If someone is downloading the app, they must be seriously looking for some quality stays, so it would be a good metric to judge if they had a healthy onboarding.

Tracking :

Does the metric demonstrate user commitment? - Yes