WhatsApp-First Logistics MVP & Auto-Dispatch
Scoping a lean delivery MVP and an auto-dispatch engine for a WhatsApp-first Lagos courier marketplace.
Errandigo is a WhatsApp-first courier marketplace for Lagos. The founder wanted order tracking, wallets, pricing logic, dispatch, ratings, surge pricing, fraud detection, dashboards, analytics, and AI improvements — all before launch. This work cut through the feature-rich paradox to define a lean MVP, wrote the PRD for the system's hardest feature, and laid out the execution rhythm, metrics, and first-90-days plan to ship it.
In a market where customer patience is thin and trust is the primary currency, a bloated MVP dies by a thousand bugs. The job was to ruthlessly scope to the 'critical path to transaction' — capture an order, assign it, deliver it, pay the rider — while deferring everything that didn't validate the core WhatsApp-to-rider loop. The hardest scaling problem was dispatch: manual assignment becomes infeasible beyond ~50 daily orders, yet customers expect rider confirmation in under five minutes.
How it came together
MVP Scope Definition
Applied a 'critical path to transaction' framework: kept WhatsApp order capture, simplified pricing, a manual dispatch console, a basic rider app, live tracking, and a simple wallet — and explicitly killed surge pricing, leaderboards, and advanced AI for v1.
Auto-Dispatch PRD
Specified an engine that geo-fences available riders within 5km and ranks by distance, acceptance rate, and idle time, with a 60-second accept timeout, re-offer logic, and escalation to manual dispatch after failed batches.
Execution Rhythm
Designed a 2-week sprint cadence with explicit Definition of Ready / Definition of Done, async standups, weekly founder reporting, and a tiered escalation protocol — built around the 'Nigerian Factor' of power and connectivity volatility.
Metrics & 30-60-90
Defined North Star and early-warning metrics for a WhatsApp-first marketplace and a Listen-Build-Launch 90-day plan culminating in MVP launch.
What we shipped
- WhatsApp order capture via the 'Timi' bot with guided prompts for item, pickup, drop-off, and contacts — zero app download required.
- Simplified, predictable pricing (base + distance + time) and a manual dispatch console to learn real rider behaviour before automating.
- Auto-dispatch engine ranking riders by proximity, acceptance rate, and idle time, with timeout, re-offer, and manual-escalation fallbacks.
- Lightweight rider app engineered for low-end Android and slow networks, with payment-on-delivery to remove gateway risk from the critical path.
- A metrics dashboard tracking fulfilment rate, order-to-assignment time, rider liquidity, and early-warning signals (rider churn, failed pickups, API error rate).
Results that mattered
target auto-dispatch success rate
target order-to-assignment time
manual dispatch share after automation
orders targeted in launch week
Q2 order volume goal
The discipline was saying no. Every feature the founder requested was reasonable in isolation, but shipping them together would have buried the one loop that needed validating. WhatsApp-first is the right on-ramp for the first 12 months — not a permanent moat — and the plan deliberately segments casual users on WhatsApp from future power users on a native app.