Deliveroo + UserTesting

Deliveroo launched in 2013 with a mission to transform the way the world thinks about food delivery, bringing food from a locally curated selection of restaurants.

Seven years on, Deliveroo is now one of the top online food delivery companies across Europe. However, as the COVID-19 pandemic changed the world, they had to adapt quickly to meet their customers’ needs—and stay competitive.

The Deliveroo team knew that it needed increased flexibility to continue growing amidst market headwinds yet still adhere to high research standards to gain insights remotely. Deliveroo also wanted to gain deeper attitudinal insights to fully understand their consumers, delivery riders and restaurant partners across their three-sided marketplace, as behaviours were shifting during this challenging time and it was impossible to meet with them in person as they previously did to conduct research. It was also critical to keep track of the maturity curve of the pandemic’s effect on their global audience, to ensure that they were on top of the individual market’s needs.

During this time, the research team was at full capacity. They needed a solution to empower their design team to launch tests and gain insights quickly across their individual focus areas.

The team looked to UserTesting to gain fast and reliable insights across their three key audiences, covering multiple geographical markets. Initially, the research team implemented UserTesting to gain fast feedback on tactical activities, such as usability testing and product design.

However, as the team began to launch more tests on a daily basis, they also started to adopt UserTesting to support strategic planning. Additionally, to scale research across the organization, Deliveroo empowered its designers with access to the UserTesting platform, enabling them to conduct regular tests with their target audience throughout key design stages. This has allowed the research team to focus on their own projects and add further value to the strategic planning of the business.

The research team also relies on the UserTesting platform to reach hard to find ‘Rider’ and ‘Restaurateur’ audiences and has been able to verify the contributors as genuine Deliveroo partners through ID codes requested via screener questions, ensuring the authenticity of the insights generated.

To conduct remote research with riders and restaurateurs, Deliveroo has also used UserTesting's Invite Network to bring their direct contacts into the platform and streamline contributor recruitment.

Incorporating fast, remote human insight through the UserTesting platform has allowed the research and design teams at Deliveroo to work quickly and efficiently.

Naming a new product can take a lot of time and resources, yet when utilising remote feedback, the team was able to get the insights they needed within days, and was able to choose a name with confidence, knowing that it resonated with their target audience.

The research team was also able to maintain the high level of quality in their projects, as the platform ensured they were continuously testing and learning every week from their audience, ensuring no loss to productivity due to COVID-19.

The research team has become a vital part of strategic planning for Deliveroo through delivering high-quality consumer insights to the wider organization and adding value by investing more time in foundational insights to get to know their audience even better. Now, the team launches three to four tests a week to ensure that they cover all tactical needs while supporting the wider strategy of Deliveroo as it grows.