A closer look at how I led content design for one of the most successful delivery restaurant recognition programs
Uber Eats had many restaurants on its platform, but no way to distinguish the top performers. This was a problem for both sides of the marketplace. Customers were frustrated that they didn't have clear signals to decide which restaurants had the best quality food and were the most deserving of their order. The high-performing restaurants were frustrated because they were being treated the same way as all the others ones and didn't receive performance incentives or special in-app placement.
Design and create a program that would distinguish and highlight the top performing restaurants on Uber Eats. This initiative, which was later named "Top Eat," would be successful if it increased restaurant satisfaction scores and increased customer orders from Top Eats restaurants.
As the lead content designer on the team, I got to travel to Sao Paulo, Brazil where I helped lead and facilitate research with 10 top-performing restaurants in the market. This research helped uncover the main pain points and needs restaurants had. We learned many things, but the biggest takeaways were that restaurants wanted the rules of the program clearly defined and outlined for them, they wanted guidance and help from Uber Eats to increase their chances of success, and they wanted to have multiple chances to attain Top Eats status rather than have the program be an all-or-nothing, annual effort.
I was able to take these learnings and translate them into a content strategy statement to align the cross-functional team around. Part of this included a channel strategy that also dictated where we'd make certain educational points to restaurants. For example, I determined that "guidance about how to get Top Eats from Uber Eats" should be solved by a white paper developed by the marketing team rather than housed directly in the product user-experience because it was too lengthy and detailed.
After I had the cross-functional team of a product manager, product designer, product marketing manager, data scientist, and user researcher aligned on my editorial approach, I moved into execution along-side product design and began developing the Top Eats UI. We made an effort to keep the UI simple and informative to have it remain a sort of "diagnostic" space where the restaurant could tell at a quick glance if they were on track for Top Eats or not. The state of the page and the tones in the UI content adapted based on their current performance, and I made specific editorial decisions throughout to ensure a clear, yet encouraging user-experience. When the restaurant got Top Eats status, the UI became celebratory so it could mirror the state the user would likely find themselves in.
The global launch of Top Eats was highly successful and is still used by Uber Eats today. We saw a statistically significant increase in sales from Top Eats restaurants and did further qualitative research to confirm that Uber Eats customers did in fact feel more comfortable ordering from a Top Eats restaurant vs one that did not have that status. We also learned that restaurants that retained Top Eats status for 3 or more quarters were far less likely to churn from Uber Eats.
Here are some of the major challenges and tradeoffs I negotiated with the team throughout the project. If I had to do this work all over again, I'd find ways to try to resolve these issues proactively.
Use this form to reach out if you're interested in working together on a content design project, a private or semi-private yoga session, or to explore life coaching.
If I think it's a good fit, I'll reach out to schedule a totally free 30-minute discovery call to learn more about you and your needs.
Michael Restiano
Michael Restiano is not a licensed medical or mental health professional. All information on this site should not be interpreted as medical or professional mental health advice. Michael takes no responsibility for any results you may or may not achieve instituting practices outlined here. By reading this website, you agree to not hold Michael accountable for any adverse events you may experience. Use your discretion and judgement when instituting new practices. Michael offers no guarantees about the results of any of his offerings.
