3 Mobile Product Lessons From Uber

** This post guest post by Sophie-Charlotte Moatti was adapted from the original article on Product School Blog. **

Uber is the darling of the mobile revolution and one of the leaders of the sharing economy. Why is it so good?

Uber is beautiful

Uber is one of the most beautiful smartphone apps out there. It’s well laid out, and there is no wasted space or overly crowded area. Using it super simple and easy. When I signed up, the tutorial made it very clear when and why I would find Uber useful. And it only took a couple of taps to enter a destination and order my first car. Uber is also completely integrated with its environment. Knowing my location is necessary for Uber to personalize my experience, but it’s a very personal piece of information. It asked me for permission to use my base location before I finished signing up. As a result, it works everywhere.

To be successful, mobile products need to be beautiful. Just like in the above example of Uber, beauty in mobile comes from efficiency and what I like to call ‘wow’. Is your product efficient? Does it wow your users? Is it easy to operate in any environment?

Uber does things that matter to us

Uber makes it easier for us to get to the places we need to be. For many people, it’s a lifesaver. They no longer use their car to commute to work. They get to work relaxed and energized. They feel taken care of. On the way, they even meet new people, drivers or passengers. They join the growing community of ride sharers.

The best mobile products are with us every day, so they should do what they can to make our lives easier. They bring us meaning. Like Uber, meaning from mobile comes through personalization and community. What filters do you use to personalize every user’s experience? What decisions do you need your users to make in order to comply with the social norms of the group? What can you do to make them feel like they belong?

Uber keeps learning about us

Some people may recall that Uber started as a high-end black car service. Then it expanded to offer a taxi service and, soon after, a carpooling service. It started in San Francisco; it’s now operating in dozens of cities. As if this wasn’t enough, Uber realized that people wanted more door-to-door services than just a car pick-up, so it recently started to offer food delivery. The people behind Uber comprise one of the most ambitious teams I’ve ever met. They constantly observe how their users like to use Uber, how their behavior changes from one month (or day) to the next.

Like Uber, great mobile products get better with time. Regardless of the maturity of your business right now, you continually need to find ways to adapt if you want to survive. Are you rewarding impact and results over effort? Do you track your Net Promoter Score? Have you implemented iterative processes such as agile methodologies? Maybe you need a growth team to help you keep up with the pace of innovation?

To learn more about the formula for mobile success, including how to apply it to your own company, check out Sophie's book, mobilized: an insider’s guide to the business and future of connected technology or visit scmoatti.com.

For more articles on product management, visit Product School Blog.