Nuggets: bite-sized travel wisdom at your fingertips

Ever walked into the office pantry for your usual evening coffee, only to overhear someone say, “Those cheesecake jars were divine!” And you pause, cheesecake? What cheesecake? You were right there. Seconds ago. And yet somehow, you missed it.

That tiny sting of “how did I not know about this?” is exactly what we are trying to steer our users away from. The feeling of being in a new country, an exciting adventure but missing out on an experience just steps away because they did not know about it.

We believe booking your ticket should be the beginning of the journey, not the end of your interaction with us. Introducing Nuggets, a bite-sized, visual-first immersive story experience that uncovers treasures beyond the tourist trail.

How it all began

Nuggets didn’t start with a roadmap or a product spec. It started with a whiteboard, four coffee-fuelled individuals, and one golden rule - no boring tools.

This was during our annual internal Hackathon - Hackin’24. We knew one thing for sure: we didn’t want to build another itinerary generator. Because let’s be honest, travel isn’t just about crossing things off. It’s about the detours. The unexpected café on the corner. The view you stumble upon because you took a wrong turn. That’s the good stuff.

While trying to find interesting avenues to delve into, we realised we’d been focusing on making checkout seamless and redemption easier. But somewhere along the way, we forgot to make travel fun, real and memorable.

So, we zoomed out. We asked ourselves a simple question-

How can we not just enable users to Headout with us, but how can we Headout with them, together?

We explored different directions, whether it was creating a go-to resource for the experience booked, an influencer friend suggesting the best photo spots of and around the POI (Point of Interest), or a companion for uncovering the city's hidden gems. The last bit resonated the most. It helped us be a part of users in-between moments, the hour before their Eiffel Tower slot, the morning they wake up in Rome, the 10-minute walk to the Vatican. Simply giving them the joy of discovery.

That’s how Nuggets was born. It is more than a travel guide, a local friend that recommends the best eats, sights, and hidden gems at your destination. A quiet “psst, try this” at the right time.

A huge shoutout to Ligil, Neil, and Saichand, for being amazing teammates, sparking the idea during our Hackathon, and bringing it to life.

It is an app-exclusive feature with a sole purpose of driving engagement. With most of our bookings coming from the web, and all users are redirected to the app post-booking - Nuggets became a value add (having 3 app developers in the team did not influence this decision xD)

The Road from Concept to Creation

The hackathon lit the spark, but turning it into something scalable was a different game altogether. We went back to the whiteboard, this time with clearer intent. Nuggets couldn’t just be a list of things to do. It had to feel alive. Like a friend nudging you to try a place they love, not a bullet point in a guidebook.

Manually curating tips was time-intensive and was a no-go from the start but we had to test the waters before we jumped right in. 

We had to truly understand the effort involved to set ourselves up for scaling this in the future. We began by kicking off a pilot where we rolled up our sleeves and researched things to do around a POI, firsthand.

It wasn’t just about checking off a list - we immersed ourselves in a variety of resources, digging through blogs, YouTube videos, user reviews, and tapping into the insights of our own well-traveled Headouters. 

The goal? To find those hidden gems that weren’t on the average tourist radar but had glowing reviews.

Once we had a treasure trove of ideas, we sifted through the findings, cherry-picking the most unique spots, and then refined our messaging through multiple rounds of copy iterations. The challenge was to not only share the facts but to keep the excitement and sense of discovery alive with every tip.

For the release, we brought GPT into the mix to help sort through everything, provide suggestions, and organize the insights we had gathered. While GPT did an impressive job of narrowing things down, we didn’t stop there.

Of course, good tips are only half the story. The visuals had to work just as hard. Every image had to do two things: look stunning and actually help. No generic stock photos here, if we tell you to walk to the Vatican from Castel Sant’Angelo for that iconic view, you should know exactly what to expect.

So from content sourcing to visual storytelling, everything was designed to make each Nugget feel like a moment worth discovering.

Nuggets in Action

We approached Nuggets like an Easter egg 🥚, something thoughtful, unexpected, and waiting to be found at just the right moment. Instead of adding yet another thing inside the experience ticket we tucked Nuggets into the places users naturally go next. 

So here’s what happens when you book with us. You open Headout to view your booking a tab slides into the nav bar after a slight delay. And if you haven’t noticed it yet, a friendly coach mark gives you a gentle nudge.

There's also a subtle banner to view Nuggets placed in close proximity of the experience the booking card, hinting that there’s something special waiting for you.

Clicking on the tab or the banner below the booking card, you land in a space that feels like a curated bookshelf, the Nuggets landing page. Every card here is tied to a place you've booked, filled with recommendations around it.

The stories are short, visual, and crafted to feel like you’re flipping through a travel journal. You’ll see a striking image, a crisp tip and a subtle distance marker showing how far the spot is from your booked location. Getting directions to the place that interests you is a tap away.

Every detail is designed to make you feel like you’re gliding through inspiration, not digging through information. We have made sure you can revisit these stories anytime, even a week after your trip’s done. Because sometimes, the joy of discovery is just as sweet after the moment has passed.

Behind the scenes, we’re already seeing some magic, strong engagement, high revisit rates, and plenty of users happily spending 35 to 50 seconds inside a single Nugget flow. And that’s just the beginning.

But we’re not done. Next up, we’re running A/B tests to fine-tune the experience and learn what content really clicks. Exploring ways to make the value of Nuggets clearer, with better onboarding, bolder CTAs, and more prominent placements. Finally, gradually expanding to more cities, more stories, and more types of Nuggets. 

Because every great trip is made of little moments. And we’re here to make sure none of them go unnoticed.

Let’s keep Headouting, one Nugget at a time. ✨

Before we wrap up, I would like to take a moment to express my gratitude to all the incredible people who made Nuggets possible.
A special thank you to Debanwita and Hardik, for their invaluable help with the initial build that set the foundation for everything. Roshan, for bringing the magic to life with his amazing motion design and animations. Prathiksha, Zanetta, and Ajith, for their stunning illustrations that perfectly complemented the story. Raghav, Ligil, and James, for their relentless work in helping bring this product to life.
Lastly, Ramakrishna and Anurag, for their continuous support and invaluable feedback throughout the journey. This is just the beginning, and we couldn’t have done it without each of you.