Recently, Sanjeet Sahoo, (a product manager at Groww), shared his experience about placing an order on Blinkit.

Only, this order was a little different.

Sanjeet was at a hospital when he placed it.

And while his order was being completed, he noticed this message from Blinkit “We’ve prioritised your order! We noticed your order is from a hospital. Sending you and your dear ones our warmest wishes.”

The message provided emotional support.

Blinkit prioritised the order.

It was delivered sooner than normal

Sanjeet loved it.

Share it online.

It went viral.

This small change made Sanjeet (and many others) smile.

As a product manager, I know that this feature looks simple. But identifying and solving real user problems is not straightforward.

Let’s talk a little more about that.

Before we go into the details, here is a short description of what Blinkit does.

Blinkit is an online grocery delivery service in India that offers quick delivery of daily essentials.

It is the country’s most used grocery delivery app.

Fruits, Vegetables, Flowers, Meats, Pulses, Bakery products, Milk products, and Kitchen, home, and office items.

A general note about me: I am a PM and I love it. Which also means that every time I see something (new app, new feature, physical product, or basically any product) that I like or hate in the real world, I get into a mental tear-down mode. I start asking “What is the problem it’s solving? For whom is it solving? Is this the best solution for the problem?”

Then, I answer all of the questions. (It’s a really fun activity I recommend all PMs to do by the way..)

Blinkit’s hospital priority functionality is one such feature that got me excited.

So here is a summary of what I think about it:

This is a great addition to their product for two reasons:

Hospital orders are often about necessity, instead of convenience.

Whether it’s food for a caretaker, snacks for a patient, or urgent supplies, time is critical.

The product team identified, understood, and solved a simple need.

In the process, they set a great benchmark for customer empathy.

Standing out in such a competitive online food/grocery delivery market is tough.

But, a simple, personalised message and a few algorithmic changes did the job for Blinkit. (Sanjeet’s story is proof, that customers are loving it and that Blinkit is getting the love they deserve!)

Not to forget—such instances build long-term trust, which makes users more likely to stick with and recommend the brand.

Blinkit did not advertise or publicise this feature. Even if they did, I was not aware (and mind you, I’m a power user.)

One user loved it—loved it so much that he decided to post about it. That created mass awareness. For free.

That’s the thing. When you solve real problems, you don’t need to do marketing. Users will do it for you.

The most important takeaway is that this small initiative has a fairly high ROI.

It doesn’t require too many operational changes—riders still pickup and deliver orders like they always do. User’s place orders like they always do.

It doesn’t need too many product changes—minor changes to the algorithm, maybe a few incentives (for store owners and riders to prioritise packing and collecting the orders), and short, positive message for the users in the app.

To be clear: I am not trivialising the solution. All of this takes work—careful planning, roll out, alignment, and execution. But at the scale at which Blinkit operates, the effort required to build this would probably be “small” or at the most “medium.”

For the impact it could potentially unlock, it is definitely a “should-do” in my eyes.

(Yes, it is easy to look at other’s product decisions and say it was a good decision. But believe me, the more you do this, the higher the chances that you make good decisions even for your problems.)

So getting back to the ROI of this feature…

Users in hospitals get deliveries faster. Riders don’t have to do anything different. Same for the store owners. Users are so happy they talk about it (like Sanjeet did.) Blinkit loves the publicity. Everyone wins.

Well almost everyone…

The only party that could lose something in this transaction is the “other” user.

The user who placed an order from home (or anywhere except a hospital.)

For no fault of theirs, their order is now lower on the priority list. A delivery partner will get allocated to their order only after all hospital orders are allocated.

But here is where it gets interesting:

In essence, the number of orders impacted, and the actual impact (in minutes) to those orders will be minimal.

While this makes sense theoretically, PMs at Blinkit probably did not decide to launch only based on theory.

It is fairly easy to test the above hypotheses, and Blinkit would have tested extensively before a public launch.

A simple addition to the product can make a big difference for users in urgent and emotionally draining situations.

But even simple additions need a lot of careful thought and planning:

And that is how every decision (no matter how big/small) should be made. Just thinking about the right problem, impact, and the solution.

With that said,

Talk soon

—Sid