Steemit Challenge S26-w3 : The Boss's Challenge

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The Boss's Challenge

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Bing.com

They (John and Timothy) left the meeting room with mixed feelings, and excitement before worry came up. A rental car application with a real-time algorithm is no small task. 6 weeks seemed too small for them to complete their projects.

John leaned his back on the door frame and said, "What we need now is a plan that won't just meet the deadline but that will surprise the boss. What do you think about this?" As they both walked back to their office.

Timothy, the calm one, replied, "Let's first understand the problem clearly. The fares must adjust in real-time peak hours, off-peak hours, and promotional offers. We must try to balance competitiveness with revenue.*

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The Plans

A rough mind map was quickly drawn on the whiteboard by the two project managers.

• Team Formation: Choose engineers skilled in algorithms, data analytics, and mobile app development.

• Core Focus: Build a pricing engine that supports and shows live demand.

• Unique Touch: Introduce a "smart saver mode" for customers who want fewer rental hours if they can adjust their time.

• Testing Strategy: Simulate off-peak demand and rush hour traffic using historical data.

John came up with a suggestion of creating similar groups for designing the algorithm and the other group to integrate what has been designed into the app. Timothy agreed to his ideas, but added, by saying "We will need daily check-ins. If something fails, we pivot instantly"

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The Execution

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Source

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The office buzzed like a hive within a week. The engineers debated about the algorithms, coders typed furiously and analysts plotted graphs. On one faithful evening, after a frustrating round of testing, the fares fluctuated wildly, rising too high during peak hours that customers would abandon the application.

John slammed his pen 🖊️ on the desk in front of him. "If this problem continues will lose more users"

"Not if we use predictive balancing. Let us try to smooth out the spikes first using the average of historical demand, not just real-time data. With this way, prices will remain fair but still adaptive." Timothy responded with a grind voice.

The idea was okay. At midnight the team gathered and rewrote part of the algorithm. The graphs stabilized slowly. This time around the fare became perfectly adjusted.

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The Conversation:

Throughout the whole night, they were busy brainstorming, trying to solve the problem.

One of the engineers asked "John, do you think the boss will like the 'Smart Saver Mode"?

John replied "Definitely, he is going to like it. This tells us we aren't just building what he asked for; instead, we are adding value to it.

Timothy added by saying, "And you guys should remember, we aren't just coding; we are solving a real human problem. Travelers want flexibility without feeling cheated."

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The Result

Everything became ready in 6 weeks and the demo app was displayed with live adjustments:

A car that cost $25 in the early hours, cost $20 in the late hours with a pop-up notification showing different customers different cheaper options.

Discount price appeared to keep customers engaged.

Revenue projections increase by 15%.

The boss watched what they were doing silently from his seat, even as Timothy and John showed all the features, he was still silent.

The demo display ended, and there was still silence. The boss smiled at them as he leaned back, he said, "Gentlemen, you guys have exceeded my expectations by creating an app that serves as a revolution for car rentals."

Timothy and John were happy to meet the deadline, which they both see as proof that teamwork and creativity are what is needed to produce positive results.

I am inviting: @abdullahw2, @ruthjoe, and @Ihorgic

Cc:-
@dove11