AN ANALYSIS ON UBER’S PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT PROCESS AND ITS APPLICATION IN VIETNAM

Contents LIST OF ABBREVIATION........................................................................................ iii LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES............................................................................iv INTRODUCTION..........................................................................................................1 Thesis Objectives..........................................................................................................2 Thesis Scope .................................................................................................................2 Thesis methodology......................................................................................................2 Thesis structure.............................................................................................................3 CHAPTER I: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK.......................................................4 1. Introduction to product development :..............................................................4 1.1.Definition: ...........................................................................................................4 1.2.Product development service product:..............................................................4 1.2.1.Difference between service development and traditional product development: .............................................................................................................4 1.2.2.Types of service development:...............................................................5 2. Product development process: ............................................................................6 2.1.New product development process: ....................................................................6 2.1.1.Philip Kotler and group of Sak Onkvisit and John J. Shaw:..................6 2.1.2.Karl T. Ulrich and Steven D. Eppinger:.................................................8 2.1.3.Stage – Gate model: .............................................................................11 2.2.Product development process – service product: ..............................................22 2.2.1.Factors that make service development different from traditional development: ...........................................................................................................22 2.2.2.Emerging Trend in Service Development Process ..............................23 CHAPTER II: UBER’PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT PROCESS: CASE OF UBERPOP IN NETHERLANDS................................................................................26 1. Introduction about Uber : .................................................................................26 1.1.Business Idea:....................................................................................................26 1.2.Uber‘s development timeline: ...........................................................................27 1.3.Uber‘s product lines: .........................................................................................29 ii 2. Uber’s product development process – the case of UberPOP in Netherlands: ..............................................................................................................31 2.1.The application of Stage – Gate model on UberPOP case:...............................32 2.2.The applied product UberPOP ........................................................................33 2.3.UberPOP‘s development process ......................................................................34 2.3.1.Idea generation .....................................................................................34 2.3.2.Stage 1+ 2: Scoping and Building Business Case: ..............................35 2.3.3.Stage 3: Development ..........................................................................41 2.3.4.Stage 4 + 5: Pilot launching as Testing and validation:.......................46 2.3.5.Post launch review as pilot evaluation:................................................49 CHAPTER III: APPLICATION TO TRADITIONAL TAXI IN VIETNAM.......55 1. Overview about taxis in Vietnam: ....................................................................55 1.1.Overall current practices: ..................................................................................55 1.2.Practices of the product development in traditional taxi in Vietnam and some problems:........................................................................................................58 2. Lesson learnt from product development process of Uber and suggestion for application in traditional taxis in Vietnam: .....................................................61 2.1.Adapt to the competitive environment:.............................................................62 2.2.Be customer oriented: ......................................................................................63 2.3.Include drivers in product development process:..............................................65 2.4.How to make use of media channels effectively:..............................................66 2.5.How to cut down the cost:.................................................................................67 2.6.Be flexible with the change in the market:........................................................69 CONCLUSION.............................................................................................................70 REFERENCES.............................................................................................................72

FACULTY OF ECONOMICS AND INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS

-*** -

GRADUATION THESIS

Major: International Business Economics

AN ANALYSIS ON UBER’S PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

PROCESS AND ITS APPLICATION IN VIETNAM

Student’s name : Tran Phuong Anh

Contents

LIST OF ABBREVIATION iii

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES iv

INTRODUCTION 1

Thesis Objectives 2

Thesis Scope 2

Thesis methodology 2

Thesis structure 3

CHAPTER I: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 4

1 Introduction to product development : 4

1.1.Definition: 4

1.2.Product development - service product: 4

1.2.1.Difference between service development and traditional product development: 4

1.2.2.Types of service development: 5

2 Product development process: 6

2.1.New product development process: 6

2.1.1.Philip Kotler and group of Sak Onkvisit and John J Shaw: 6

2.1.2.Karl T Ulrich and Steven D Eppinger: 8

2.1.3.Stage – Gate model: 11

2.2.Product development process – service product: 22

2.2.1.Factors that make service development different from traditional development: 22

2.2.2.Emerging Trend in Service Development Process 23

CHAPTER II: UBER’PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT PROCESS: CASE OF UBERPOP IN NETHERLANDS 26

1 Introduction about Uber : 26

1.1.Business Idea: 26

1.2.Uber‘s development timeline: 27

1.3.Uber‘s product lines: 29

2 Uber’s product development process – the case of UberPOP in

Netherlands: 31

2.1.The application of Stage – Gate model on UberPOP case: 32

2.2.The applied product - UberPOP 33

2.3.UberPOP‘s development process 34

2.3.1.Idea generation 34

2.3.2.Stage 1+ 2: Scoping and Building Business Case: 35

2.3.3.Stage 3: Development 41

2.3.4.Stage 4 + 5: Pilot launching as Testing and validation: 46

2.3.5.Post launch review as pilot evaluation: 49

CHAPTER III: APPLICATION TO TRADITIONAL TAXI IN VIETNAM 55

1 Overview about taxis in Vietnam: 55

1.1.Overall current practices: 55

1.2.Practices of the product development in traditional taxi in Vietnam and some problems: 58

2 Lesson learnt from product development process of Uber and suggestion for application in traditional taxis in Vietnam: 61

2.1.Adapt to the competitive environment: 62

2.2.Be customer- oriented: 63

2.3.Include drivers in product development process: 65

2.4.How to make use of media channels effectively: 66

2.5.How to cut down the cost: 67

2.6.Be flexible with the change in the market: 69

CONCLUSION 70

REFERENCES 72

LIST OF ABBREVIATION

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES TABLES

Table 1.1: Factors that make service development different (Kahn 2013) 5

Table 1.2: The most popular sale tools used in B2B product launch (Adam 2012) 21 Table 2.1: Uber's successful timeline ('How Uber work' 2015) 28

Table 2.2: The ultimate Uber driver training course ('The ultimate' 2016) 43

Table 2.3: Uber's communication phases - stakeholders - activities (Leeuwen 2014) 48

FIGURES Figure 1.1: New Product Developement (Kotler 2006) 7

Figure 1.2: Key activities and responsibilities of different functions within organization (Ulrich and Eppinger 2012) 9

Figure 1.3: The typical Stage - Gate model (Cooper 2001) 12

Figure 1.4: Sources of product idea (Mahmutllari 2014) 13

Figure 1.5: Eighteen diferent media used in B2B product launch (Adam 2012) 20

Figure 2.1: The typical Stage - Gate model (Cooper 2001) 33

Figure 2.2: Dutch government cost per passenger (Davids et al 2014) 37

Figure 2.3: Uber's pricing strategy (Lawrence 2014) 41

Figure 2.4: Proportion of UberPOP's driver education (Davids et al 2014) 42

Figure 2.5: Uber's pricing overview (Leeuwen 2014) 44

Figure 2.6: Uber's price comparison (Leeuwen 2014) 45

Figure 2.7: Partner Economics Calculation (Leeuwen 2014) 45

Figure 2.8: UberPOP's users by gender (Davids et al 2014) 50

Figure 2.9: Customers' response to the importance of different aspects in their choice of transport alternatives (Davids et al 2014) 50

Figure 2.10: Customers' response to the importance of different aspects in their choice of transport alternatives (Davids et al 2014) 51

Figure 2.11: Customers' rating on uber POP drive(s) safety (Davids et al 2014) 52

Figure 2.12: Netherlands's average number of person in car (Davids et al 2014) 53

Figure 2.13: UberPOP's strong growth in usage (Davids et al 2014) 54

Figure 3.1: Vietnamese's public transportation preference (Q&Me 2015) 55

Figure 3.2: Vietnamese's choice of taxi brands (Q&Me 2015) 56

Figure 3.3 Taxi price comparison among South East Asia countries 60

Figure 3.4: Uber's pricing strategy (Lawrence 2014) 68

INTRODUCTION

Taxi is a potential industry in Vietnam among different public transportation available in the market as it is preferred by the users in terms of speed, time convenience and privacy However, the way traditional taxi brands in Vietnam or the traditional taxi industry as the whole functions for decades seems to remain unchanged since its birth, which, therefore, create no difference among the brands The emergence of newcomers with distinct function such as Uber or Grabtaxi with their initial success in attracting the users in local market recently soon put the traditional ones under pressure The case put conventional taxi brands with the matter of innovation

Innovation, in these modern eras, is considered a key factor in managing the business‘s growth, particularly the innovation in products In other words, how to develop and manage the process of creating the new product or even just to improve the former ones play a significant role in deciding whether the company is capable

to expand its business and grow

Uber – a technology - based taxi brands, which entered the market 7 years ago, has evolved into one of the most valuable start – up ever Starting from the idea with the incentive of solving a practical problem of finding the cab, Uber was successful in developing their initial idea into a complete modeled product Uber keeps growing

by successfully develop many new product lines and expand the business over hundreds of nations and attract billions of investment despite the fact that the company has also faced the disapproval from the local governments in many countries, claiming that Uber has competed unfairly with the local traditional taxis

In the case of Uber, it would be worth studying the process of how a start - up develops its new product so successful that it has rapidly taken over a remarkable proportion of market share while at the same time dealing with the pressure from the authority

The content for the thesis topic covers the studying of model, which Uber uses to develop their product line by looking at a specific case of UberPOP development in

Netherlands In further extent, the thesis would also briefly generalize the current practices and problems faced by traditional taxi in Vietnam with the access of technology-based companies and draw out the lesson learnt from UberPOP case in order to help the traditional taxi brands in Vietnam to compete in local market

 Analyze a case of Uber – how Uber developed the new service of UberPOP

in Amsterdam, Netherlands

 Lesson learnt from UberPOP case and application suggested for Vietnamese traditional taxi brands

Thesis Scope

Content: The thesis specifies the research content on the product development

process that Uber applied to UberPOP and those activities taken by the company in each phase of the process Moreover, the practices of traditional taxi brands in Vietnam together with some lessons and suggested application would also be

covered to the extent of this thesis

Time: Though in analyzing the case of UberPOP, the timeline would fall in the

range between 2014 and 2015, the time scope would be tracked down from the time

of Uber establishment up to present time since the thesis would give an overall view

on Uber In chapter 3, the thesis would cover the content of the current practices of Vietnam taxi market; therefore, the timeline covered would be from 2014 up to this day

Thesis methodology

In the thesis, the main method used is synthesis and analysis Qualitative, description and comparison method will also be used Data and statistics from

reliable and/or official sources will be compiled and processed in order to give firm grounds for the reasons and findings of the thesis

Thesis structure

Aside from the introduction and conclusion, the thesis consist three parts:

Chapter 1: Theoretical framework

Chapter 2: Uber‘s product development process: case of UberPOP in Netherlands Chapter 3: Application to traditional taxi in Vietnam

CHAPTER 1 CHAPTER I: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

1 Introduction to product development :

1.1 Definition:

According to Karl T Ulrich and Steven D Eppinger (2012, p.2), product is

―something sold by an enterprise to its customers‖ and product development is ―the set of activities beginning with the perception of a market opportunity and ending in the production, sale, and delivery of a product‖

In other more specific definition, product development process is defined as ―the sequence of steps or activities that an enterprise employs to conceive, design and commercialize a product‖ (Ulrich and Eppinger 2012, p.12)

The rule is to focus on improving systematic methods for guiding all the processes involved to bring a new product to the market

1.2 Product development - service product:

1.2.1 Difference between service development and traditional product

For this fundamentally difference from tangible product, service requires unique considerations in its creation and development

The best approach for developing innovative new services is lying upon solving customers‘ problems and meeting their needs A company can develop innovations that separate it from rivals and establish real differentiation – which is a great development in service through delivering new improvement that address customer needs, which is not fulfilled

Due to its different nature, service development has its own set of attributes, challenges, and processes that need to be distinguished from those of traditional product development For example, ―manufacturing‖ in service development often consists of support or ―delivery‖ processes components that ultimately create the customer‘s experience Customers play a direct role in the service delivery process, making their involvement in development much more essential In addition, because the success of service delivery is highly influenced by the person, people, or technology that interfaces with the customer, minimizing variation in delivery quality and consistency is critical for success (ed Kahn 2013, p 52)

The table below would summarize four main factors – ―4I‖ that, according to Kahn (2013, p 52-56), make the service development different from traditional product development:

Table 1.1: Factors that make service development different (Kahn 2013)

Individualized experience Services are consumed differently from different

consumers Intangible value The core aspect of a service is not a physical hard good,

but the intrinsic value customers receive and the

memories they retain Instantaneous Evaluation Customers‘ reaction to and assessment of the service is

immediate

Inseparable components Services should be thought of as the holistic sum of

their individual parts

1.2.2 Types of service development:

There are three ways in which an enterprise could develop its product that is in the service form Either way can lead to the result of a new face of the product offered due to the changes and development in width or in depth

Service line extension is the augmentation of the existing service line such as in the

case of a restaurant adds a new item to the menu or an airline offering a new route

Service improvement is referred to the changes in feature of the original services

that are already offered

Style changes referred to the way of bringing changes that have significant effect on

customer perception, emotion and attitudes For example, a brand changing its colour theme or logo shape is considered a style change

2 Product development process:

2.1 New product development process:

Different authors, in general, have almost the same ideas on the activities that should be involved in the procedure of developing a new product These activities are grouped into stages and the stages are ordered into a process, of which the later maybe the result of the earlier or the preparation for the one after that

Despite the similarity in most of the activities involved; however, each author or group of authors‘ studies is differentiated by the way they investigate the process

2.1.1 Philip Kotler and group of Sak Onkvisit and John J Shaw:

According to Philip Kotler (2006 p 261), ―in order to successfully develop a new

product, firms must carry out strong new-product planning and set up a systematic, customer-driven new product development process‖ for finding and growing new products The process, which he believes is made to serve this purpose include these eight following steps:

Figure 1.1: New Product Development (Kotler 2006)

In the process, Idea generation is the systematic search for the new-product ideas

(Kotler 2006)

Idea screening is the following step with the aim of reduce the number of ideas to

the most worthy and possible ones, which is spotting good ideas and dropping poor ideas as soon as possible

Concept development and Testing is the step in which the idea is developed into a

detailed version and then brought into testing with a group of target customer (Kotler 2006)

Marketing strategy development is the phase in which the project team would

design a marketing strategy in order to introduce the design of complete version of the product to the market later on (Kotler 2006)

Business analysis is the stage reviewing some financial factors with the aim of

figuring out whether the sales, costs and profit projections for new products would meet the objectives of the firm

Product development is the stage in which an assigned department would develop

the product concept into the physical version This step cost a lot of efforts in investment because its result would decide the possibility of the idea to be developed into a workable product

Idea

Generation

Idea Screening

Concept Development and Testing

Marketing Strategy Development

Business Analysis

Product Development Test

Marketing Commercialis

ation

Test marketing is the following step that the product and its proposed marketing

program are tested in realistic market settings (Kotlers 2006)

Commercialization comes after the test marketing process and the decision on this

step is dependent in the result of the previous step The test marketing will provides the needed information for the management board to decide on whether to launch the new-product Once it is agreed that the product would be introduced into the market, it is called commercialization

According to group of Sak Onlvisit and John J.Shaw, the new product

development process consists of 6 distinct steps in comparison with 8 steps given by Philip Kotler, which starts from the generation of new product ideas to the full- scale commercialization

The process is on the same basis with Philip Kotler‘s; however, it omits the two steps of Concept Development and Testing and Marketing strategy development Nevertheless, this difference does not make the two given processes divergent in their essences In fact, the product development phase may include the Concept development and Testing‘s activities such as lab and technical tests as well as manufacturing pilot models that Kotler mentioned in his separate step named accordingly Furthermore, the Test marketing phase of these two author groups consists of same activities and serves the same purpose of finding out the potential marketing problems and the optimal marketing mix While Kotler splits Building marketing strategy as a distinct step that need to be considered even prior to the product development step, the other two do not think that it is necessary

2.1.2 Karl T Ulrich and Steven D Eppinger:

Karl T Ulrich and Steven D Eppinger, with a slightly different perspective from

the groups of marketing authors, give out another process that includes six distinct steps that is more focusing on the product development activities

This process is designed mostly to be applied by the company whose product is in tangible form as it is more focusing on product design Ulrich and Eppinger, with

the overview on the organisational structures and functional orientation tendancy, give a map on what each functional department should carry out in each phase of the process

Though difference in the names of the phases, it can be obtained that the activities that these two authors belive to be taken out in each step is somehow similar to what Philip Kotler and group of Sak Onkvisit and John J Shaw think

The below figures shows the six phases in generic development process and also identifies the key activities and responsibilities of the different function in the organization during each development phase given by the two authors:

Figure 1.2: Key activities and responsibilities of different functions within organization (Ulrich and Eppinger 2012)

Planning: The planning activity is often referred to as ―phase zero‖ because it

precedes the project approval and launch of the actual product development process (Ulrich and Eppinger 2012, p 13) In this phase, all the opportunities for the new product would be recorded and scanned together with the identification of market goals and available technology assessment

The outcome of this phase is the statement which includes the market target for new planning product, project mission statement, business goals, key assumptions, and constraints (Ulrich and Eppinger 2012, p 13)

Concept development: ―A concept is a description of the form, function, and

features of a product and is usually accompanied by a set of specifications, an analysis of competitive products, and an economic justification of the project‖ (Ulrich and Eppinger 2012, p 15) In this phase, a list of different product concepts

is planned and evaluated One or some qualified concepts out of the list would then

be chosen for further stages of development and testing

System-level design: “The system-level design phase includes the definition of the

product architecture, decomposition of the product into subsystems and components, and preliminary design of key components Initial plans for the production system and final assembly are usually defined during this phase as well‖ (Ulrich and Eppinger 2012, p 15) Since this process is said to be best applied to tangible products, this phase of the process focused on material design for the product with the expected output of the layout for the functional specification for future product

Detail design: If the system-level design focused on the structure or the outline

design of the product then detail design is the stage in which the layout is filled with details ―The detail design phase includes the complete specification of the geometry, materials, and tolerances of all of the unique parts in the product and the identification of all of the standard parts to be purchased from suppliers‖ (Ulrich and Eppinger 2012, p 15)

Testing and refinement: The testing and refinement phase involves the construction

and evaluation of multiple preproduction versions of the product Usually there would be two versions of prototypes tested in order to evaluate the effectiveness of

the product Early (alpha) prototypes are usually built with production-intent

parts—parts with the same geometry and material properties as intended for the production version of the product but not necessarily fabricated with the actual processes to be used in production Alpha prototypes are tested to determine whether the product will work as designed and whether the product satisfies the key

customer needs Later (beta) prototypes are usually built with parts supplied by the

intended production processes but may not be assembled using the intended final assembly process Beta prototypes are extensively evaluated internally and are also typically tested by customers in their own use environment (Ulrich and Eppinger

2012, p 15)

The goal for the beta prototypes is usually to answer questions about performance and reliability in order to identify necessary engineering changes for the final product (Ulrich and Eppinger 2012, p 16)

Production ramp-up: In the production ramp-up phase, the product is made using

the intended production system The purpose of the ramp-up is to train the workforce and to work out any remaining problems in the production processes Products produced during production ramp-up are sometimes supplied to preferred customers and are carefully evaluated to identify any remaining flaws The transition from production ramp-up to ongoing production is usually gradual At

some point in this transition, the product is launched and becomes available for widespread distribution A postlaunch project review may occur shortly after the

launch This review includes an assessment of the project from both commercial and technical perspectives and is intended to identify ways to improve the development process for future projects (Ulrich and Eppinger 2012, p 16)

2.1.3 Stage – Gate model:

Another reputable and reliable model that is used widely by many world-largest companies and was investigated by Robert Cooper is Stage gate model

The Stage Gate model is an organized, structured product development and launch process which is used to decrease the product failures and increase the success of the companies in launching new products It is a series of stages and gates As

shown in the figure below, there are five stages and after each stage is followed a gate The stages represent the activities that are taken during the NPD process Gates are checkpoints that are determined by certain criteria from which companies decide either to continue with the project or not

Figure 1.3: The typical Stage - Gate model (Cooper 2001)

One of the differences between Stage-Gate model and the other models is that the

Planning (Idea generation) phase, in the process is mentioned by Discovery, is

prerequisite for the product development process; hence, it is separated and not included in the process In this very fundamental ground, thousands of idea is recorded from many sources and then is evaluated to narrow down to the very best ideas before coming to the decision of whether to be developed or not

The figure of the process of idea generation step based on the theories of getting product idea from many resources would be drawn as followed:

Figure 1.4: Sources of product idea (Mahmutllari 2014)

It can be taken that ideas can come from various sources, which are Voice of customers (VOC), Internal Sources, Market research and Competitors

The VOC methods come from the idea of getting the consumer insights in the products, which is very expensive; however, effective Another way to get the idea from this method is to work with the very innovative customers and come up with the developed features of the product (Lead user analysis, Eric von Hippel)

The Internal source is another method which uses team knowledge and creativity to generate new ideas This method is often called brainstorming In this method the aim is to generate as many ideas as possible and normally two general guidelines are defined; the first one is that all judgment must be deferred and all ideas are welcome Criticism is not good and should be inappropriate This helps to generate high quantity of idea (Kahn 2011, p 73; Ulrich & Eppinger 2012, p 127-128) Ideas come from market research is generated from identifying and investigating the market trend and customer response to the product This method can be assigned as one of the sub-method of VOC though

Another source, from which the ideas is generate from competitors The aim is not

to copy the competitor‘s products but to analyze their product to gather ideas to an improved product When using this method it is very important to analyze each part

of the competitors‘ product and define what is wrong with it It is also important to

analyze how well the product is doing and what are the materials which have been used for the positioning of the product

Scoping is the first stage of the new product development and launch process In

this stage firstly a preliminary market assessment is done During the preliminary

assessment a quick scoping of the market prospects for the product is essential Such assessment includes; the potential of the product, market acceptance and the requirements for the product This process is not a detailed market research but a

desk research which is based only in the existing recourses Secondly a preliminary technical assessment is con-ducted The technical assessment is focused on the

conceptual assessment and the technical feasibility, manufacturing process

assessment, intellectual properties and technical solutions A preliminary financial and business assessment is the final check before the recommendations are given In

this phase only a surficial check of business rationale and financial prospects is done (Cooper 2001, p 178-184) The information gathered from the assessments above will provide the ground to justify the elimination of some projects and acceptance of some others After reviewing the results the gatekeepers should the decision on the project be given When a project has been approved the project team together with the gate keepers should propose an action plan for the continuation of the product development At the same time the criteria for the next gate are decided

by the project team and the gatekeepers (U.S Department of energy 2007; Cooper

2001, p 184)

Building Business Case

After the preliminary assessments the second stage is the last predevelopment stage

In this stage the studies are more detailed Firstly a study of user needs and wants is conduced Defining the customer value and benefit can determine a successful

product (Cooper 2001, p 184-188) To support this idea even further, in a video webinar, John Hogan - a value management advisor states that in order for a company to success with a product the company needs to bring in the customer value The customer value will enable the company to understand the profit

implications of the development decision The research is important but a product cannot success without the customer value (Hogan 2013)

Competitive analysis is another important part of this stage In order to be

successful a company should provide greater customer value and satisfaction than its competitors do (Kotler et al 2013, 76) A detailed look of the competition should

be conducted to determine who are the competitors, what are their strengths and

weakness, pricing and business model Furthermore, market analysis determining

the market size, trends, segmentation and buyers behaviour, is combined with the two studies mentioned above This analysis in is a continuation of the preliminary analysis which was done in the first stage; however, this is a more in depth analysis (Cooper 2001, p 197)

Cooper also defines the detailed technical assessment as very important in this

stage During the assessment the company maps out the technical solutions and defines the possible risks which the product may face Manufacturability, suppliers and intellectual properties are also analyzed in this phase After technical detailed

assessment a concept testing is very important before going to development The

concept testing helps the company to prove the interest of the customer or end-user

and to add the final components to the concept As conclusion, financial business analysis and a plan of actions are the final reports which should be prepared before

going to the stage 4, which is development (Cooper 2001, p 184-191)

also very important during this stage The product should reach the market as fast as possible in order to gain competitive advantage and receive faster revenue

Moreover, Stefan Thomke and Donald Reinertsen (2012) from Harvard business review have analysed several interesting myths on product development Such myths can influence the product development and launch process Firstly, from the economics point of view the authors are arguing that when purchasing components for a project it should be done in small amounts and tested in each process without creating batches This process will help in improving cycle time, efficiency and quality Secondly, for organizing the resources the authors are recommending the managers to not concentrate all resources in one project as this would not fasten the product development process but create queue in other projects At the same time it

is also recommended to avoid starting the development too early as such action will not increase the development speed if the company is practically not ready for starting it (Thomke and Donald 2012)

Once the product's first prototype has been developed and tested with the customers, continuous improvement is necessary The development team should always give priority to customer feedback and features that bring value to the customer and not the product itself (Hogan 2013) Moreover, Robert Cooper (2001) states that a post launch plan is very important to be developed in parallel with the product development At this stage the company will need to define what will occur after the product launch; what should be measured and how it will be done?

Testing and Validation

The purpose of this stage is to completely validate the product and prepare it for the final launch Testing is very important to validate the functionality and documentation of the product Avoiding this stage can very often result in a failed product launch (Soni & Cohen 2000)

There are several test methods that can be implemented starting with the preference test, which measures the market acceptance During this test the finalized product is

presented to the customer, facing its preferences The concept and development tests, which are done in previous stages are applied only in description models, and

cannot be fully reliable for the final product launch According to Cooper (2001), this type of testing would help in minor improvement in the design of the product The message received by the customer preference test is a valuable source of information that can determine how the product should be communicated to the customer However it is recommendable to not oversell the product but let the customer evaluate it Measuring how much customers like the product is more important than measuring how good the salespeople are performing

A Beta test is another testing methodology, which is carried out for a longer period

of time and includes the customers and partners Commonly, beta testing is the second phase of the testing after the internal testing The product is given or loaned

to the customer who will use it in its working environment During this test, the product is displayed in the real working environment The display will help in defining the strengths and weakness of the product Some deficiencies that the product may have, sometimes are not properly shown in the lab testing (Cooper, 2001) All features of the product, benefits and functionality are tested during the beta test The feedback received is very important and should be analyzed carefully The customer responses will provide very valuable marketing material that can be used when launching the new products The underlined benefits and features received from the customer feedback can be used in designing promotional and sales material (Vellandi, 2008) According to Soni and Cohen (2000) beta test is a very important part of the Testing and Validation phase Other aspects such as creation of legal document, building up manufacturing plan, and training of sales services are undertaken during this stage (Soni and Cohen, 2000)

Market Testing is the final testing methodology that can be done before the product

is launched The benefits and the cost will depend on the product strategy, distribution channel and the uniqueness of the product According to Vellandi (2008), this testing is completely optional and can be utilized to test the launch strategy and the marketing plan, in a limited market or group of customers The segment chosen to apply the testing is exposed to the complete launch plan and the finalized product The main goal of this type of testing is to verify the expected sales and market acceptance before going to the gate five which gives the green/red

light for the launch of the finalized products The second outcome of this type of testing is that company can evaluate different launch plans by introducing them into small segments in two different groups In the industrial products such type of testing is also called trial selling where each detail is in accuracy with the final launch plan (Cooper 2001, p 273-274; Vellandi 2008)

Launching

The final stage of the product development and launch process is the introduction of the product into the market On this stage the role of marketing and sales is crucial For instance developing a marketing plan is very essential activity in this stage (Cooper 2001, p 278-279) For better understanding of the content of a marketing plan, the appendix three present the content of marketing plan defined by Kotler et al.(2013, p 56)

A common definition of marketing is, putting the right product, in the right place, at the right price, at the right time (Manktelow & Carlson 2012) According to Mankte-low & Carlson, if one of the previous stages is underestimated or not considered the launch of the new product can be a failure

(i) Defining Marketing strategy

In a product launch process, the company's mission and objectives are defined by the company since the beginning of product planning The goal of Marketing is to create value for the customers and ensure a profitable relationship with the

customers To accomplish this, a marketing strategy is necessary The marketing

strategy defines which is the group of the customers company will serve and how will it be served to this customer group The group of customers is defined through segmentation and targeting and the answer on how the company will serve to its customers comes via differentiation and positioning

A market segment consists of a group of customers which have similar needs and respond very similarly to the marketing activities The marketing target involves the analyzing of each market and selecting one or more segments as potential customers

Furthermore, Kotler defines positioning as a place which companies occupy in the customers mind to distinguish their products from the competitors In the positioning of a company, the customer value differentiations and the advantages of the products towards the customers are very important If a company promises better value than the competitor, it is a must to deliver those values This process is reached through the differentiation of the market offering to create greater customer value

(ii) Defining on marketing mix

After defining the marketing strategy, the company should prepare the marketing mix The marketing mix is the most important set of marketing tools which companies can use to influence the demand of the customers for its products This set of tools is collected into a group called the four P´s of marketing The four P´s stand for product, place, price and promotion (Kotler & Keller 2009, p 92)

Product is the article which has been developed by a company or manufacturer which desires to sell it to the customer Product is the main competing item of the company and it is considered to be the heart of marketing mix If a product does not fulfill the customer needs, or satisfaction, the price, promotion and place will not be able to achieve the marketing target (Akrani 2010)

Price of the product defines the value of the product to the customer It is the most important factor which influences the marketing Price can be determined by several factors such as; product manufacturing cost, market share, target customers, type of the product (Van Vliet 2013)

Promotion is all about defining the way how the company will communicate with the customers The core message is delivered to the customers via defined promotion tools used in sales and marketing Promotional activities help to differentiate the product from competitors, and create a good relationship with the customers (van Vliet 2013, Akrani 2010)

Place is considered as distribution channel which is used to deliver the products to customers However the type of product, which a company offers, influence the way how it should be distributed (Ehmke et al 2013)

(iii) Media channels

Before launching a new product it is important to understand which media preferences the target customers have By using the right media, a company can use more efficiently the investment in promoting the new products into the market (Gray 2012) On the picture below, nine traditional media and nine online media are listed

Figure 1.5: Eighteen diferent media used in B2B product launch (Adam 2012)

The factors that influence the company‘s decision should firstly be decided in a search where customer's media preferences are listed Then, company should consider the available resources to implement each listed media The industry in which the company is operating and the position of the company in the industry, are two other important factors which influence the decision on which media channel should be used (Adams 2012)

re-(iv) Sale promotion

The factors that influence the company‘s decision should firstly be decided in a search where customer's media preferences are listed Then, company should consider the available resources to implement each listed media The industry in which the company is operating and the position of the company in the industry, are

re-two other important factors which influence the decision on which media channel should be used (Adams 2012)

The factors that influence the company‘s decision should firstly be decided in a search where customer's media preferences are listed Then, company should consider the available resources to implement each listed media The industry in which the company is operating and the position of the company in the industry, are two other important factors which influence the decision on which media channel should be used (Adams 2012)

Product Background Sheet Product – Data Sheet

Product Specification Product Safety Data – Sheet Product Brochure Presentation for Distributors Product Presentation Technical Report/ Study

Leave Behind Presentation Competitive Comparison

News Release Reprint Customer Testimonials

Product Video Customer Evaluation Guide

Table 1.2: The most popular sale tools used in B2B product launch (Adam 2012)

Post launch review

To measure the success or the failure of the product launch it is necessary to conduct a post launch review In a post launch review it is important to discuss what went well during the launch of the product and what can be improved in the next product launch A typical post launch review should be held within two months as the team members have all the information still fresh in mind The launch process is recommended to take place in a friendly environment, with continuous constructive feedback without blaming team members for things that have gone wrong However, according to the company case study conducted by Scott Edgett (2013) a

product post launch review is held between three to six months after the launch In authors opinion the example shows that the time of post launch review can be applied differently by companies according to their business type or industry The author supports the idea that the industry and the type of the product which company is offering influences the timing in which a company can receive reliable results from its product launch

2.2 Product development process – service product:

Since service is a special form of the product in general, the process that is stated by different author s can be applied to service product, however, with some changes to ensure the adaptation to this kind of intangible product

2.2.1 Factors that make service development different from traditional

development:

2.2.1.1 Differentiation through Delivery

Because services generally cannot be patented, are extremely susceptible to replication, and require few barriers to entry, it is imperative to garner customer feedback on a new service in order to improve and tweak it before a full-scale launch (ed Kahn 2013, p.60)

The launch is another unique aspect of service creation because it is essentially a never-ending step When a product is launched, a company‘s hard work is essentially over; it is exactly the opposite with services (ed Kahn 2013, p.60-61)

A service needs constant monitoring and assessment to make sure that it is still addressing relevant customer needs in the most efficient and effective way possible There is always room for improvement with service, so constant customer feedback

is essential (ed Kahn 2013, p.61)

Moreover, it is said to be very difficult to forecast the extent to which users accept a new service in comparison to a new product even though it is possible to test this level in both kinds through qualitative or quantitative research One reason for this difficulty would be blamed for the influence of external factors in the service‘s value perception While many of these factors may be unforeseeable prior to launch,

it is possible to mitigate the consequences of this lack of information by testing plausible market occurrences in prototype testing Developers should start by identifying key variables that can impact the service experience For example, the value of a service can be directly related to the number of people who will use it The service can then be tested at different usage levels with customers in order to determine its effect on the service‘s overall value

The possible impact of external circumstances, either positive or negative, also calls for constant customer feedback and monitoring after launch Only with continuous understanding of the changing value propositions of the services provided can a company effectively reevaluate the service offered (ed Kahn 2013, p.61)

2.2.1.2 Training as a part of the New Service development Process

Services, unlike products, are ultimately delivered either by people or with the assistance of people Because all people are unique and respond differently in given situations, certain measures must be taken to ensure that employees have the resources and knowledge to act in the best interest of the company(ed Kahn 2013, p.62)

Training employees to see the larger picture will help ensure that they have the company goals in mind in every decision made Furthermore, employees need to be trained in extensive crisis management and troubleshooting situations Only when they are well versed in the plausible mishaps will they be able to respond in a consistent and appropriate manner It is imperative to invest in extensive training for the basic delivery of the service Learning by doing is not an acceptable approach in service development, as this will lead to alienated customers and lost business (ed Kahn 2013, p.62)

2.2.2 Emerging Trend in Service Development Process

Another characteristic unique to services is the alacrity with which they move and adjust to societal trends Kenneth B Kahn and his associates (2013) believe that while certain products continue to demonstrate their value decade after decade, few

services stand this test of time, as people‘s expectations and needs are in constant flux

As customers continue to change, the group of authors find these trends evolving into four interconnected trends, which they call the four ―S‖ of service innovation: Seamless interactions and communications, Social technology integration, Stellar customer experiences, Scalability and expansion potential (eds Kahn 2013, p.63)

2.2.2.1 Seamless interactions and communications

This trend is based on the fact that “Customers now expect to connect with companies through multiple channels and get the same quality of seamless service across all of them”

Growing communication technologies have impacted service development at its core by elevating both service development capabilities and customer expectations For example, the explosion of smart phones has redefined how customers interact with a company These forces work both for and against each other in the service development equation: as technology access increases, providers are able to better communicate and meet the demands of their customers, who, in turn, continue to increase their minimum standards (ed Kahn 2013, p.63)

Additionally, the same customer now expects to be able to do any and all of these things using the smart phone app alone—and get the same quality of service and response as he or she would have by talking to a company representative (ed Kahn

2013, p.63)

2.2.2.2 Social technology integration

The proliferation of social media technologies has significant consequences for new

services as well “The way customers communicate and share information has fundamentally changed” This is something developers need to take into account

when creating new services (ed Kahn 2013, p.64)

Social media and technologies can play different roles as they relate to any new service offering For many services, social media integration can be an important feature that customers demand (ed Kahn 2013, p.64)

These new technology platforms have become trusted hubs for modern customers, and they give companies an effective channel to engage in two-way communications with their target audience (ed Kahn 2013, p.64)

Social media have provided both businesses and customers with unprecedented reach

at an extremely low cost One additional impact of this trend is the ease of feedback collection for the service providers (ed Kahn 2013, p.64)

2.2.2.3 Stellar customer experiences

Another big impact of the social revolution is on the rate at which customers are able

to share information among themselves This can significantly benefit a company Customers can now tell others of their great experiences and spread the word through reviews about services online, bringing new customers to a company But these comments can work against the company as well Due to the archival nature of the Internet, negative reviews can exaggerate a single bad experience, making it seem

representative to new online customers Hence, companies are now “under extra pressure to ensure that every customer receives great service” (ed Kahn 2013, p.65)

2.2.2.4 Scalability and expansion potential

This is which the authors believe to be relevant to the development capacity of the

firm in the future “Services should be designed as expandable business platforms, not individual offering”

An important new trend for innovators is to design services with additional scalability and expansion potential from the start, going far beyond the direct growth potential of the initial service This does not mean adding new customers or expanding geographically It means developing services as a platform on which further new services can be built Since the service is now tend to be blend into full experience rather than being separate offerings, it is easier for the service product to be developed that to the product that is in the commodity form (ed Kahn 2013, p.66)

CHAPTER 2 CHAPTER II: UBER’PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT PROCESS: CASE OF

UBERPOP IN NETHERLANDS

1 Introduction about Uber :

Uber Technologies Inc is an American multinational online transportation network company The company is located in San Francisco, California in the USA Uber‘s main product is to operate the service with the key involvement of the mobile application, which allows user to submit a trip request by their smartphone The request, consequently, routed to Uber‘s drivers who use their own cars.The service now is available in over 60 countries and 404 cities all over the world

1.1 Business Idea:

Where the idea come from

The story of Uber started in 2008 when Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp – two co-founders of Uber, were attending LeWeb conference in Paris Uber is unlike many other start-ups, it was not founded in someone‘s garage but was brought up in

a cold night in Paris (Belarbi 2015) It was a late night and the two founders were struggling finding a cab whereas no taxi seemed to pass by It was raining and they were packed with luggage They started to complain about many bad things we all have to deal in life including finding a cab

Later on, in an interview, Travis said that it was hard to find a cab in Paris and that Paris was the inspiration for Uber They then came back to San Francisco with the expectation to create a process that put the passenger into a ride and moreover, they wanted it to be a classy ride (LeWeb 2013)

Uber‘s business idea is built based on technology It is seen that the development of Internet mobile app have dramatically change the way our society function Many entrepreneurs has taken the advantage of this; however, not so many are having such a significant impact as Uber since two things were made certain - the solution had to be mobile, fast and the rides had to be picked up from personal garage (Belarbi 2015) Kalanick said that Uber‘s success lies behind the company‘s

investment in technology and that people can only see the button – push but they do not realize the efforts in logistic and math that Uber has devoted to such a magic

How Uber’s business model works

Travis, in another event, added that ―The idea of pushing a button and getting a ride was a magical one‘‘ (LeWeb 2013) and Uber has made the magic happen by the function of its service

Uber allows users to use a smartphone application to locate a driver in some cities with several classes of service and instantly book a ride The user can submit a request for a ride Uber‘s approved drivers in the area are notified by the app and respond

Uber does not employ drivers or own their vehicles They instead use independent contractors with their own cars It has become a key player in the "sharing economy", which allows the drivers to operate the business on their own together with taking the risks and profits One study conducted concluded that "most driver-partners do not turn to Uber out of desperation or because they face an absence of other opportunities in the job market However, the thing that‘s attracts them rather because the nature of the work, the flexibility, and the compensation that Uber offers‖ (Hall and Krueger 2015, p.2)

In term of payment, Uber access the customer‘s credit cards and take the advantage

of its application in order to pass the payment from the rider to driver without using cash

The app also tracks and shows riders exactly how far away the prospective Uber rides are by making use of smartphone GPS capability equipped in every Uber car

It can be seen that the app Uber use and the technology lying under it is quite simple; however, Uber provides a completely new approach that would challenges how taxi services have been viewed for decades

1.2 Uber’s development timeline:

Uber was founded in March 2009 as UberCab and the company received $200,000

in seed funding that same year After launching the beta test in summer 2010, it went live in San Francisco in 2011 By the end of 2011, the company changed its name from UberCab to Uber and raised additional fund of $44.5 million

Owning one of the most promising business models, Uber easily attract many investment sources from the investors, even Google venture

Below is the table which sum up Uber‘s development and funding timeline from its establishment until January 2016

March 2009 Uber founded as UberCab

Jan 2010 New York Test run with only 3 Uber cars

July 2010 Uber went live in San Francisco Raised $1 million in series A round February 2011

May 2011 Started to expand into New York, Chicago,

Washington D.C Raised $37 million in series B round December 2011 Entered the first oversea market - Paris Raised $258 million in series B round

funding

2012 - 2013 Expanded rapidly into oversea markets such

as Canada and Australia in 2012, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea and Mexico in

2013 Raised $1,2 billion in funding series D

round

June 2014 Expanded to China, India, Laos and Nigeria

August 2014 Announced UBERPOOL rider share

platform Raised $600 million in funding series E

round

December 2014

Raised $1.6 billion January 2015 Uber cargo launch

Raised $1 billion in series E round February 2015

Raised $1billion in series F round July 2015

Raised 100 million private equity funding August 2015

Raised 1.2 Billion private equity funding September

2015

Raised 2 billion private equity funding January 2016

Table 2.1: Uber's successful timeline ('How Uber work' 2015)

After its establishment, starting in May 2011, the company expanded into different cities in the US New York City was the first one, then came Chicago and Washington D.C

Paris was the first city outside of the U.S which Uber entered in December 2011 In

2012 it launched the services in Toronto, Canada, then London in England Sydney was Uber's first launch in the Asia Pacific region Later in the same year, Seoul was introduced with Uber service, then came Mexico in June 2014 and Beijing – China

in mid – July 2014

Following the large scale expansion to Asia, Uber was proved to be the most powerful and the fastest growing start-up by heading into the markets of Europe in

2014 then Africa in 2015

Google Ventures decided to invest $258 million in Uber in 2013

As its rapid growth globally, Uber began to experience disputes with not only the governments and taxi companies in those regions, but also with its contractors – the taxi drivers For instance, in April 2014, Uber was banned by the government in Berlin, although the company remains active in other German cities On June 11th,

2014, taxi drivers in London, Berlin, Paris and Madrid staged a large-scale protest against Uber

1.3 Uber’s product lines:

Starting with only three Uber cars to go on the test run in New York in 2010, Uber soon take over the market with its different kinds of products, which are improved day by day

Uber has now been showed up in more than 404 cities, it is crucial that it has to change in order to adapt to many distinct markets For example, in Thailand, Uber even offer the service, which is run by motorbike in order to get along with the demand of the customer in this country

With so many product name that any users may come across to such as UberPOP, UberEAT, UberSUV, UberSELECT, UberRUSH and many more; Uber still keep

the most basic and conventional product lines that most widely applied in any market such as:

UberX

Uber X is the cheapest and most common platform offered, which can have up

to 4 passengers The car types may vary from a Toyota Prius to a Ford Explorer UberX is positioned to be the most conventional and least expensive

of Uber services, making it a great choice for users (Uber Movement 2016)

UberXL

Uber XL is the larger version of UberX It is used when riders need more room for big family or a larger group of friends UberXL service is somehow similar to the UberX; however, the cars are usually larger and can seat up to six people rather than the standard four It costs more than an UberX (Uber Movement 2016)

Uber Black is perhaps the most expensive service that Uber has in most cities since

it is the luxury version of UberX

UberWAV

UberWAV allows riders with relevant disabilities to request wheelchair accessible vehicles When riders select the UberWAV option, they are connected with vehicles equipped with ramps or lifts (Uber Movement 2016)

With UberWAV, the firm is expanding on the city‘s and state‘s efforts by connecting riders with wheelchair accessible vehicles directly through the Uber app

For the first time, riders requiring a wheelchair accessible vehicle now have access

to reliable, on-demand transportation

Those mentioned services could be named as the most fundamental products that Uber formed in any country However, as the widely expansion of the firm keep going, apparently, it has to make the change for adaptation to customer‘s needs, which leads to different kind of services and distinctive product names in different countries or regions

2 Uber’s product development process – the case of UberPOP in Netherlands:

Uber has been known for its amazing business ideas; hence it is arisen as an unbearable attraction to investors and the being one of the most valuable start – up

in these recent years Nevertheless, the brand still place any global user from a particular country in a very confusing situation when he travel to another country that happen to be the market of Uber as well This is due to the intensive product customization, which makes particular services may be varied in diverse countries Being a very strong start-up in the market; however, with its rapid expansion into the world, Uber has faced a lot of disputes and criticism by not only the traditional taxi brands but also the local governments In addition to this, the other reasons that play a more important role for the incentives to customize the products for Uber and any other multinational business are the local‘s cultures, consumption habits and the local needs and preferences

Thanks to this adaptation to the local markets, Uber now own a lot of different product lines Moreover, the most significant point that should be mentioned is that the company has managed to exploit them well

In learning how Uber have expanded and developed its product, we shall go further

on the process, which the company follow in order to most effectively create the new product while, at the same time cost leas resources Since Uber‘s product is serving the customers need by offering the ride on request, it would be better if the analysis would be more focused on the product of Uber as a kind of service product

2.1 The application of Stage – Gate model on UberPOP case:

On investigating the product development process taken by Uber, it is implied that the Stage – Gate model is the best fit that was applied, despite the fact that some alternations have been made, apparently, to fit the situation of the company itself Stage – Gate model is more specific than the model offered by the two groups of marketing authors Philip Kotler and group of Sak Onkvisit and John J Shaw, those are more focused on the marketing perspective of the products Moreover, unlike the process studied by Karl T Ulrich and Steven D Eppinger, which is better to apply within the organization with the collaboration of all the function, Stage-Gate model, on the other hand, is applied to the project group, which is created only for the purpose of making the new product possible

Then before going into details how the process worked by Uber, we would review the model Stage – Gate by its different respective stages and the decisive gate that is matched to transform among them

Figure 2.1: The typical Stage - Gate model (Cooper 2001)

On the way of analyzing the process late, we would look further in how Uber make the change to this pattern process to fit the current practice of the company

2.2 The applied product - UberPOP

UberPOP is one of Uber‘s products that connect passengers with drivers who use their own cars and typically do not have a taxi license, allowing them to offer rides for a much lower fare then regular taxis

When first launched in Netherlands, Uber faced a Dutch court declaring the service illegal, banning it because it unfairly competes with strictly regulated taxi services Despite that fact, Uber first kept on flouting the ban, operating UberPOP with unlicensed drivers However, in the effort to tackle the problem, later that year the company said it has decided ―to accommodate‖ Dutch authorities by requiring UberPOP drivers to have a proper taxi license It said on its blog that ―With this step, Uber hopes to meet the government‘s concerns regarding the safety, reliability and quality of UberPOP‖

UberPOP is not the traditional Uber‘s product that shows up in the product line of every market such as UberX or UberBLACK It is, on the other hand, the product of customization with the effort of market- adaptation

UberPOP has risen a lot of disputes between whether it is a problem or a solution by many people Those arguments given by newspaper and some commenters are yet criticism given by the outsiders Then let look at into details from the inside perspective of how Uber brought this product to the market of Netherland and how they evaluated this project by themselves

2.3 UberPOP’s development process

2.3.1 Idea generation

As it is mentioned in chapter 1 that while in other models, the very first step of a product development process is to generating the idea of new product or the improvement feature for the current product, in Stage – Gate model, this step is not considered one of the phases in the development process It is, on the other hand, the prerequisite for the process The notion for the new product must be there so that the process could be started to investigate the possibility of launching the product in the market With UberPOP, this phase did not take the firm long time to come to the decision of making the idea become visible

UberPOP is one service product that belongs to Uber Therefore, it is apparent that the service is created based on the core value and vision of the company, which is offering a solution for the difficulty of catching the taxi in many countries and cities

The internal motivation for the idea was creating the carpooling service that is convenient and environment-friendly All of the current products that Uber has already offered also based on this ground and align to the value that the company set out UberPOP is not an exception Though the frame that UberPOP is created is said to be the same with the other services, the purpose, through which, the company strives to achieve thanks to this product is different

In my opinion, the main leverage that urge the company to make the decision to launch UberPOP lies under the exogenous factors, which is the practices in some markets including Netherlands The main problem with these markets that Uber faces is that the governments tend to be opposed to the business due to the

possibility that the company will violate terms of license and transportation safety

in these countries Moreover, the tendency to protect the traditional local taxi brands also adds to the reasons that the government try to offend Uber from the local market

Among those markets, Uber decided to launch a pilot of UberPOP in Netherlands first Due to the fact that Dutch regulators are expected to move aggressively against Uber, Uber‘s strategy is designed to make this as difficult as possible, by framing UberPOP as a transportation solution that Dutch policymakers have dreamed about for decades Uber decided to approach the fact by taking the opportunity given in this country The fact that Dutch cars are being used extremely inefficient with the average occupancy is 1.4 people leads to negative impact on environment, congestion, parking, spaces and energy usage Uber decided to take the opportunity and offer their service – UberPOP as a solution for this situation To some extent, I think the aim that the management board of Uber looking for is not just offering one of the most cost – saving service that help to solve the transportation of the city but also to create a more positive image of Uber if it is accepted in Dutch market If the pilot launch of UberPOP in Netherlands give the positive outcome from the government, it would, to some extent, change the way that other countries look at this destructive model of business that Uber is running at the time

2.3.2 Stage 1+ 2: Scoping and Building Business Case:

At Scoping phase, the preliminary market assessment, preliminary technical assessment and the preliminary financial assessment are conducted with the aims of skimming for the prospect of the market, preparation for the concept and the technical feasibility of the product as well as the allowable financial capacity for the project respectively

On the other hand, in the Building Business Case phase, all of the assessment mentioned in the Scoping phase would be analyzed further one more time in details