The Boss's Challenge

The Challenge
Leaving the room beside each other after the meeting were John and Timothy. John's face showed anxiety; Timothy maintained his typical tranquility.
First, John broke the quiet.
"Tim, this sounds like a dream. Six weeks? A realtime demandbased algorithm with promo flexibility? This isn't child's play!"
Timothy smiled, his voice firm.
“Nightmare? No. Challenge? Yes. And you know I like challenges. Let's think this through. First, we need the right engineers.”
They had created a shortlist already by the time they got to their office level. Data scientist, two frontend application engineers, and three backend developers. "We'll also need a sharp tester, someone," John added. No matter how excellent the algorithm is, a bug could ruin everything." Timothy concurred.

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Pixabay

The Plan
Later that evening, they assembled their team. "Our client wants rental rates that change in realtime," Timothy stated calmly, hence we will be monitoring demand. Peak hours, as well as user activity, present the difficulty of making it profitable while maintaining low prices.
John continued, "Don't overlook promotions. Discounts that draw in customers without negatively affecting revenue. Our algorithm has to strike a balance among demand, time, and promotions. I Let's begin with a demand-supply pricing strategy akin to those of airlines, then add promo logic on top.
The team brainstormed late into the night. Keywords strewn across the walls were: Dynamic Pricing, GPS monitoring, Traffic Patterns, Weekend Surge, Loyalty Offers.

The Execution
Week one was on creating the skeleton model and research. Clara, the data scientist, produced models of demand surges and city traffic flow. By week two, backend developers had created a dynamic pricing engine driven by active requests that changed rates every fifteen minutes.
While John examined the prototypes, discovered loopholes and made corrections, Timothy supervised documentation and structure. John said, "Look," during one latenight session, our system spikes Too high weekend pricing; People will protest; we require a cap.
Timothy nodded. "Good catch. Let's build a soft ceiling. The program has to seem equitable."
They started incorporating promotional logic: loyalty points, referral discounts, and offpeak specials by week four. Clara created a predictive model that would forecast demand one hour ahead so enabling the system to proactively rather than reactively adapt.

The Complication
Crisis week five arrives. During a test run, the system crashed when far too many promotional codes were used concurrently. Frustration drove John to pound his desk.
"Tim, we are out of time. Should this keep going on, we will be finish it."
Timothy stayed composef. “being afraid won't mend it. Prioritize then. The promo engine has to go in line with the pricing core without memory misbehaving. Let's divide them into Two services having a common API.
The engineers toiled all day and night. Coffee mugs stacked high, and fights erupted; but, little by little, the parts came together.

The Result
On the sixth week's final day, John and Timothy displayed the completed project to the General Manager. The app offered a straightforward interface: realtime rates changing by traffic and demand, capped to prevent client anger with clever discounts drawing in customers while yet maintaining income.
The General Manager reclined in his chair, fascinated.
Perfectly fine work. You have made car rental future, it's not only an application.
Relief shows by the two project workers. What John had thought as a problem became among the most big successes of their lives.

Hello teacher @dove11

I invite @olawalium @sors @olawalium

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Steemit Challenge Season 26 Week-3: The Boss's Challenge

Dear @opeyemioguns, below is the detailed assessment of your submission.

CriteriaMarksRemarks
Story start to finish4.5/5Good
Originality & Uniqueness2.75/3Good
Presentation0.85/1Good
My observation0.75/1The use of headings made it read like a project report, not a fiction story.
Total8.85/10

Feedback

  • You met the brief in a literal sense, but you didn't stretch your creativity far enough to make it stand out.

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