The silent cash switch

A root cause analysis question from a product manager interview, set at Chakra Rides, a fictional ride-hailing company.

The question

Skills this case tests

A starting metric tree

Completed rides = requests × driver accept rate × (1 − driver cancel rate) × (1 − rider cancel rate)

How to approach this case

Start by confirming what counts as a completed ride, how the drop built up over the ten weeks, and that only two cities are affected. Requests are flat, so demand is not the issue. Walk the funnel from request to finished trip, find which step leaks, and check whether riders or drivers are doing the cancelling. Then segment the leaking step by city, vehicle type, time of day and rider and driver groups. A marketplace has two sides, so when you ask what changed, ask about drivers as well as riders, and about policy changes as well as app releases. Look for a group inside the same cities that did not get the change, to prove cause. A strong close sizes the lost revenue per month, weighs it against whatever the change was meant to achieve, and gives a fix with guardrails.

The full method for root cause analysis questions · A worked example answer

After the mock interview you get scores on five skills, what to fix with quotes from your answers, and the ideal path for this case.