Food Delivery Surd - On-Demand Food Delivery Platform
Overview
When I took on the Food Delivery Surd project, my job wasn’t to build just another food delivery app; I was to build a logistics engine disguised as a lifestyle product. The client wanted a platform that could handle real-time orders, dynamic delivery zones, & a seamless user experience for customers & couriers. My job was to bring that vision to life, one sprint at a time.
We kicked off with a Scrum discovery sprint, diving deep into user personas: the busy professional ordering lunch, the local restaurant managing peak-hour chaos, & the delivery partner navigating traffic. I structured the backlog around these core experiences, ensuring every feature we built solved a real-world friction point.
Technologies
To deliver a fast, reliable, & scalable platform, we selected tools that could handle real-time interactions & high-volume transactions:
Mobile: React Native for cross-platform app development
Backend: Node.js with NestJS for a modular, testable architecture
Real-Time Services: Firebase Cloud Messaging, WebSockets for live order tracking
Mapping & Routing: Google Maps API, OpenRouteService
Payments: Stripe for customer payments, Paystack for merchant settlements
Cloud Infrastructure: AWS (ECS, S3, CloudFront), Docker, Jenkins for CI/CD
Product & Design: Jira, Figma, Miro, Confluence
Team
I led a cross-functional team of eight to actualise this project’s mission:
- 2 Mobile Developers
- 2 Backend Engineers
- 1 UI/UX Designer
- 1 QA Analyst
- 1 DevOps Engineer
- Product Owner (Myself)
I ran all Scrum ceremonies, standups, sprint planning, reviews, & retrospectives, while maintaining a tight feedback loop with restaurant partners & beta users. My focus was always on clarity, velocity, & value.
Challenges
Challenges
Real-time delivery management: One of the biggest challenges was managing delivery logistics in real time. We had to account for prep time, traffic, courier availability, & customer location, all while keeping the ETA accurate. I worked closely with the backend team to build a predictive delivery engine that adjusted dynamically.
Restaurant stakeholders onboarding: Another challenge was onboarding restaurants with varying levels of tech literacy. We designed a simple, tablet-friendly merchant dashboard & created a guided onboarding flow that reduced setup time by 40%.
Uniqueness
Food Delivery Surd had a few standout features that made it special:
- Smart batching of orders to optimise delivery routes
- Heatmaps for couriers to identify high-demand zones
- In-app tipping & loyalty rewards for repeat customers
- A “no-contact delivery” toggle that became essential during health-conscious times
Conclusion
It took five sprints before we launched Food Delivery Surd in Masterton, a mid-sized metro area, with 50+ restaurant partners & a growing fleet of couriers. Within the first month, we hit 10,000+ orders with a 94% on-time delivery rate.
What I loved most about Food Delivery Surd was the balance between speed & empathy. We weren’t just delivering food, we were delivering convenience, reliability, & a little joy in every order.
Project name : Food Delivery Surd
Role : Product Owner
Industry : Food delivery solution
Methodology : scrum
