Design a product that helps with forgetfulness
Design a product that helps with forgetfulness
Google PM Interview: Product Design - Design a product that helps with forgetfulness
The primary responsibility of a product manager is to lead the vision, design, and development of a product. When a business decides to create a product, it is based on the recognition of a genuine customer need, one for which the customer is willing to pay. The product manager plays a crucial role in recognizing customer needs and steering the design and development of products that effectively address those needs.
This product design interview question assesses your comprehension of the process involved in transitioning from customer needs to product development. This process entails clearly defining the customer's identity and understanding what they aim to achieve. It also involves outlining various use case scenarios where the customer engages in activities related to the product, and subsequently, prioritizing the features to be developed.
What is the interviewer looking for?
The interviewer is gauging your performance based on the following:
Can you offer insightful observations about the customer and their requirements?
Are you capable of presenting a variety of use case scenarios that cover different aspects?
Is your response well-organized and coherent, or does it deviate from the main topic?
Do your solutions delve beyond superficial suggestions, offering in-depth descriptions?
Can you introduce unique ideas that set you apart from other candidates?
Does your demeanor convey confidence and credibility? Would your guidance be compelling to engineers and product professionals?
How to answer Product Design Questions?
Here is a step-by-step guide/framework, you should follow while answering product design interview questions:
Ask clarifying Questions to narrow the scope. (Q)
Define the Goal you want to achieve. (G)
List the User Segments and choose one segment to focus on. (U)
List and prioritize the Pain Points. (P)
List out your Solutions. (S)
Evaluate the solutions and prioritize them. (E)
Walk through the MVP & Define the Success Metrics (M)
Summarize your answer (S)
State which solution you would recommend.
Recap what the solution does and why it is beneficial.
Explain why you prefer this solution.
(PQ-GUP-SEMS) -> Mnemonic to help you remember the steps & their order.
Answer
1. Ask Clarifying questions
Here are some clarifying questions,
Are we focusing on any specific target audience for this product?
Answer: It’s up to you to decide.
Are we focusing on a specific demographic, such as older adults, students, or professionals?
Answer: Up to you to decide.
What types of forgetfulness are we addressing with this product? (e.g., short-term memory loss, absent-mindedness, forgetting tasks or appointments)
Answer: No, it’s up to you to decide.
Are there any common triggers or patterns associated with forgetfulness that we must consider?
Answer: It’s up to you to decide.
What existing products or solutions are currently available to address forgetfulness?
Answer: Assume there isn’t any proper solution targeting this problem. The common solutions are using reminders on their phones, writing notes etc.
Are we targeting any specific platform or OS? like, App/Web, Android/IOS.
Answer: No, it’s up to you to decide.
2. Define the Goal
The primary goal of designing a product that helps with forgetfulness is to enhance the daily lives of users by providing effective tools and solutions to manage and mitigate forgetfulness while achieving profitability and user satisfaction:
Enhance User Experience and Engagement: Track user engagement metrics such as daily usage, time spent on the product, and task completion rates to gauge the impact on improving quality of life.
Drive Product Adoption and Market Penetration: Track user acquisition metrics such as the number of new users, conversion rates, and customer retention to assess the success of adoption strategies.
3. User Segments:
At this step, list down the different user groups that are part of the ecosystem of the problem you’re solving for.
User groups should be distinct from each other and have unique characteristics.
Here are some of the major user segments:
Students: Students of all ages, from elementary school to university, often struggle with remembering information for exams, homework assignments, and class presentations.
Working Professionals: Individuals in demanding jobs may face challenges in remembering important meetings, deadlines, tasks, and details relevant to their work responsibilities.
Elderly Individuals: Aging can sometimes lead to memory decline, with older adults experiencing difficulties recalling names, events, and other everyday details.
Caregivers: Support individuals with memory impairments, seeking tools to help them organize caregiving tasks, medication schedules, and appointments.
Focus Segment: Working Professionals
Reasoning:
High Frequency of Forgetfulness: Working professionals often juggle multiple tasks, deadlines, and responsibilities, leading to frequent forgetfulness.
Impact on Work Performance: Forgetfulness in the workplace can have serious consequences, such as missed deadlines, overlooked meetings, and task errors.
Market Size and Growth Potential: The working professional segment represents a large and diverse market, comprising individuals from various industries and occupations.
Purchasing Power: Working professionals typically have the financial means to invest in tools and solutions to improve their work efficiency and effectiveness. This aligns well with the business objective and would help increase revenue growth and market expansion.
4. Pain Points
Following are some of the Pain Points for the ‘Working Professionals’ user segment,
Forgetting deadlines for projects, reports, or meetings can lead to missed opportunities, decreased productivity, and potential repercussions at work.
Forgetting important details discussed in meetings or conversations can result in miscommunication, task errors, and misunderstandings with colleagues or clients.
Juggling multiple tasks and responsibilities at work becomes challenging when memory lapses lead to forgetting critical steps or commitments, hindering efficiency and performance.
Forgetting past decisions, outcomes, or data relevant to a current project or task can impede decision-making, leading to suboptimal choices and potential setbacks.
Feeling overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information to remember leading to mental fatigue and cognitive overload.
Forgetting to respond to emails, messages, or phone calls promptly due to a busy schedule or overwhelming workload.
Struggling to maintain a balance between work responsibilities and personal commitments due to forgetfulness or poor time management.