Samsara Virtual Coach
Role: Lead Product Designer
Our enterprise customers often did not have time to coach every driver for every minor infraction we captured through the cameras in their vehicles. Managers also had to rely on Samsara’s desktop-focused cloud app to facilitate coaching their drivers, which was inflexible for hard to reach drivers who are on the road for days at a time. By the time the driver had returned to the depot, the impact of the conversation was lost because the driver’s behavior had happened days ago.
Additionally, drivers had little visibility in to what was impacting their Samsara safety score or the videos of the behaviors themselves, giving them little opportunity to self-correct. Instead, they had to rely on speaking to their manager to understand what went right or wrong.
An inflexible system
Customers were looking for a way for drivers to coach themselves on less severe or first-time unsafe behaviors to fill in the gaps between in-person coaching sessions.
From competitive and generative research with customers, I identified some key insights in to what would make an ideal experience for drivers.
Driver coaching needs to feel lightweight and simple, with nudges to view events and performance at appropriate times.
Coaching should feel like a two way conversation between drivers and coaches, with comments from managers to keep a human connection and opportunities for drivers to tell their side of the story.
Positive reinforcement would be critical to motivate drivers to keep driving safely and make the experience not feel punitive.
Driving behavior change
In-App Coaching – MVP
Performance reporting
Drivers didn’t have full visibility in to their scores, which many employers linked to bonus pay and recognition. I added in a way for drivers to understand exactly what was impacting their score, how their score changed over time, and where they stood in their fleet’s ranking system. Future features will include more positive reinforcement, including streaks and badges.
Behavior coaching
I focused behavior coaching on showing a driver their pattern of behavior through actual examples captured by our in-cab cameras. Tied to those examples, I added advice on how to drive more safely so drivers can understand how to avoid the behavior in the future. After viewing their videos and comments from their managers, drivers can acknowledge their behavior, which is reported back to their manager. Future features will include links to training materials and a way for drivers to comment back to their managers so they can tell their side of the story.
Safety Events
Drivers can view their events from both in-cab and on the road and see speed data to better understand the context around the event. I redesigned our video player to accommodate for better performance and the ability to view comments from managers.
The results
3.71
Avg. Driver CSAT Score
20%
Of reviewed events shared with drivers