Dan Heath

They had a problem back in 2012 where of every hundred customers who booked a reservation on the site, 58 of them ended up calling the call center for support, which is just kind of mind-boggling, right? Because the whole point of an online travel site is that you can do it yourself. And yet almost 60% of the people who did it themselves ended up needing help.

So this guy named Ryan O'Neill starts digging into this to figure out what in the world is going on. And he figures out the number one reason that people are calling is to get a copy of their itinerary. That's it, to get a copy of their itinerary. 20 million calls. were placed in 2012. That's like every single person in Florida calling Expedia in one year to request a copy of their itinerary.

So this guy named Ryan O'Neill starts digging into this to figure out what in the world is going on. And he figures out the number one reason that people are calling is to get a copy of their itinerary. That's it, to get a copy of their itinerary. 20 million calls. were placed in 2012. That's like every single person in Florida calling Expedia in one year to request a copy of their itinerary.

So this guy named Ryan O'Neill starts digging into this to figure out what in the world is going on. And he figures out the number one reason that people are calling is to get a copy of their itinerary. That's it, to get a copy of their itinerary. 20 million calls. were placed in 2012. That's like every single person in Florida calling Expedia in one year to request a copy of their itinerary.

And so if you ask, how do you solve that problem? It doesn't take a genius, right? Well, they added a branch to the IVR, press two if you're calling for a copy of your itinerary. They allowed people to self-serve online. They changed the way that they sent out the confirmation so that they wouldn't end up in spam, which is part of the problem. The solutions were easy.

And so if you ask, how do you solve that problem? It doesn't take a genius, right? Well, they added a branch to the IVR, press two if you're calling for a copy of your itinerary. They allowed people to self-serve online. They changed the way that they sent out the confirmation so that they wouldn't end up in spam, which is part of the problem. The solutions were easy.

And so if you ask, how do you solve that problem? It doesn't take a genius, right? Well, they added a branch to the IVR, press two if you're calling for a copy of your itinerary. They allowed people to self-serve online. They changed the way that they sent out the confirmation so that they wouldn't end up in spam, which is part of the problem. The solutions were easy.

The more interesting thing to me is how does a problem like that boil up to that point? Why wasn't there a kind of red flag triggered when you got your seven millionth call for an itinerary? And the answer is back to that idea of fragmentation, where at Expedia, like virtually every other business, you have these distinct groups of people with different goals.

The more interesting thing to me is how does a problem like that boil up to that point? Why wasn't there a kind of red flag triggered when you got your seven millionth call for an itinerary? And the answer is back to that idea of fragmentation, where at Expedia, like virtually every other business, you have these distinct groups of people with different goals.

The more interesting thing to me is how does a problem like that boil up to that point? Why wasn't there a kind of red flag triggered when you got your seven millionth call for an itinerary? And the answer is back to that idea of fragmentation, where at Expedia, like virtually every other business, you have these distinct groups of people with different goals.

The marketing team's goal is to attract people to Expedia. And then you've got a product team whose job it is to design such a smooth, easy interface that they get to the point of booking a transaction. And then you've got the IT team whose job it is to keep everything humming and keep uptime as high as possible.

The marketing team's goal is to attract people to Expedia. And then you've got a product team whose job it is to design such a smooth, easy interface that they get to the point of booking a transaction. And then you've got the IT team whose job it is to keep everything humming and keep uptime as high as possible.

The marketing team's goal is to attract people to Expedia. And then you've got a product team whose job it is to design such a smooth, easy interface that they get to the point of booking a transaction. And then you've got the IT team whose job it is to keep everything humming and keep uptime as high as possible.

And then you've got the call center and their job is to resolve people's issues quickly and keep people happy. And on an individual basis, all those goals make perfect sense. They sound logical. But then when you ask a very basic question like, whose job in this ecosystem is it to make sure that customers don't need to call us for help? The answer is nobody. It's nobody's job.

And then you've got the call center and their job is to resolve people's issues quickly and keep people happy. And on an individual basis, all those goals make perfect sense. They sound logical. But then when you ask a very basic question like, whose job in this ecosystem is it to make sure that customers don't need to call us for help? The answer is nobody. It's nobody's job.

And then you've got the call center and their job is to resolve people's issues quickly and keep people happy. And on an individual basis, all those goals make perfect sense. They sound logical. But then when you ask a very basic question like, whose job in this ecosystem is it to make sure that customers don't need to call us for help? The answer is nobody. It's nobody's job.

It's even worse than that. Like there's no one in this whole system who would even be rewarded if that happened.

It's even worse than that. Like there's no one in this whole system who would even be rewarded if that happened.

It's even worse than that. Like there's no one in this whole system who would even be rewarded if that happened.

Well, this is another layer of the upstream challenge. is thinking in systems and realizing that when we intervene in systems, they're likely to have unintended consequences. There was an example in New York City where a Google engineer, a young guy, was walking through Central Park and a branch from an oak tree fell down and hit him on the head and caused brain injuries and paralysis.