How to Answer Product Improvement Questions? | Product Management

Here is a step by step guide on How to answer Product Improvement Questions asked at top tech companies with detailed Answers by Senior PMs at FAANG

May 23, 2021

To help you with your Product Manager interview preparations, we have compiled a complete list of the most asked Product Management Interview Questions and Answers at companies like Facebook, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Netflix, etc. answered by PMs at FAANG.

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Why are Product Improvement Questions asked?

Product Improvement Interview Questions are frequently asked by interviewers during Product Management interviews to gauge your aptitude on whether you are able to properly,

Create a methodical thought process in an uncertain situation.
Explain the product and the issues that it addresses for the various user groups.
Identify the problems with the product that the users of different segments are having.
Think of innovative ways to enhance the product.
Assess your options and create a product roadmap with priorities.

How to Answer Product Improvement Questions?

Here is a step-by-step framework, you should follow while answering product improvement interview questions during your interview:

0. Pay close attention to the keywords in the question.

1. Describe the Product. (P)

2. Ask clarifying Questions to trim down the scope of the question. (Q)

3. Define the Goal you want to achieve. (G)

4. List the User Segments and select one segment to focus on. (U)

5. List and prioritize the Pain Points for that segment. (P)

6. List out your Solutions to solve those pain points. (S)

7. Evaluate all the solutions and prioritize them. (E)

8. Define Metrics to measure the performance of the solutions. (M)

9. At the end, Summarize your answer (S)

(PQ-GUP-SEMS) -> Mnemonic to help you remember the steps & their order.

Now, let’s go through each of the above points and understand them in detail,

Step 0: Pay close attention to keywords in the question

It’s crucial to pay close attention to the interviewer’s question and understand what the interviewer wants as the outcome.

Example Question -

How would you improve LinkedIn?
How would you improve the retention of LinkedIn Premium?

Both of these are product improvement questions, they look kind of the same but are very different from each other. The same generic solution (which you may have in mind) might not work in both scenarios.

My Suggestion -

Take a minute and write down the question.

This will make sure you don’t deviate from the Goal throughout the journey of answering that question. In the end, when you will have to summarize, you need to connect how your proposed solution will solve the problem stated by the interviewer at the beginning.

Step 1: Describe the Product

The key thing to keep in mind while solving any product problem is that you will have to keep the interviewer on the same page as you are on every step.

Once, you have a clear understanding of the question, start by describing how you understand the product. Cover the following things about the product,

What does the product do?
Who is it for?
How are they using it?
What pain point is it solving for its users?

If you get a question where you are not familiar with the product, you may ask the interviewer to give a brief idea about the product. They would usually help out.

Before continuing, make sure the interviewer concurs with your understanding of the product.

Step 2: Ask clarifying Questions to trim down the scope of the question.

You should ensure that each keyword in the problem statement is properly defined.

Example:

Let’s say the question asked is, “How would you improve LinkedIn?”, ask for clarification on the definition of “improvement”, what does the interviewer mean by improvement? does it mean more engagement, retention, revenue, acquisition or anything else?

Is there any particular segment of users or any particular region the interviewer wants you to focus on?

Is there a particular platform that we need to focus on (e.g. App (Android / IOS), mobile web, or desktop web),

or can we decide on all the parameters?

Step 3: Define the Goal you want to achieve.

Next, you would need to define a goal if the interviewer doesn’t specify which business area needs improvement.

Once you have decided which goal or business area of the product you want to improve, justify your decision to use that particular goal and make sure that the interviewer is on board with it.

An ideal selection of goals would be, the areas where the product or business is struggling or areas where the product can get huge strategic growth and improvements in key business KPIs.

Some business areas for improvement could be:

Revenue — Does the company need to increase the number of paying customers to increase revenue? Or perhaps to boost the amount that paid users spends?
Retention — Are customers using the product only for a short period of time and churning from the platform? Can you lower the percentage of users who are dropping off from the product?
Conversion — Does the platform need to convert more platform visitors into paying customers?
Engagement — Are users not engaging much with the product? Can you make the product more engaging for users?
New Users: Is the new user acquisition on the platform too low? Is it possible to increase the platform's user base?

Step 4: List the User Segments and choose one segment to focus on.

Next, list down the various user segments who use the product along with mentioning some of their unique attributes.
Remember: User segments must be distinct from one another and possess distinct attributes.

Again going back to the LinkedIn example, here are a few user groups that use LinkedIn:

Job Seekers:
- Uses LinkedIn to find jobs and connect with employment opportunities.
- Usually browses through companies, and different job listings, and applies for a lot of jobs.
Recruiters:
- Uses LinkedIn to search and connect with top talents on LinkedIn.
- Usually browses through candidate profiles and manages job postings.
Sales People:
- Uses LinkedIn to find and connect with potential leads for their business.
- Usually sends a lot of connection requests and direct messages to potential leads.

Once the different user segments are listed, select a user segment you would like to focus on and improve the product for. Also, mention the reason for the segment selection and how it would help you achieve the product goals and improve the platform.

“For the scope of this question, we plan to go ahead with the Job Seeker segment, as this segment of users are very large in number who are looking for the right opportunity that could help them achieve their career goals.

If we can solve the pain points of these users, and help them engage more then that would increase the user engagement, which in turn can lead to an increase in retention and revenue as well.”

Read more on:

How to Easily Segment Users?

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Step 5: List and prioritize the Pain Points for that segment

Next, you need to come up with a list of problems the chosen segment of users are facing with the product or a list of use cases that are currently unmet.

Your ability to understand and identify the most pressing issues, that the users are facing in the product, and their prioritization is what the interviewer would want to see at this stage of the answer.

Tips: Ask for 2 minutes to think about all the use cases before discussing them with the interviewer.

Here is a detailed guide on how to come up with user pain points easily:

How to Easily come up with User Pain Points?

If we were listing some pain points for a LinkedIn’s Job Seeker segment, here are a few items that come to mind:

Job seekers don’t have any clarity regarding the status of their applications.
They are unsure about the format and structure of their resumes.
They are not aware of the shortcomings in their profile that are leading to the rejection of most of their job applications.
Job seekers while browsing through job listings find it difficult to distinguish between a startup and a big corporation.
They have difficulty in finding reviews and feedback about the companies & their work culture on LinkedIn.

Next prioritize your pain points based on factors like the impact on the user, potential business value, and implementation effort.

Note: Please note not to mix pain points with solutions. At this stage, you are just listing all possible problems of a particular user segment. We will discuss solutions once we are done listing and discussing all pain points.

For example,

“User is unsure about his resume” is a pain point.

“Build an automated system that could review resumes and provide feedback” is a solution

Step 6: List out your Solutions

Now that you have the list of all use cases/pain points of the selected segment of users, you can start thinking of solutions to address the discussed pain points.

Here, you can go ahead and start listing all the new, creative yet practical ideas which should be built into the platform that would not only solve the user’s pain points but also help us achieve the business goals.

Tips: Ask for 2 minutes to think about all the use cases before discussing them with the interviewer.

List down at least 4-5 solutions that would efficiently solve the user’s problems and help you achieve the business goals. Your proposed solutions or ideas should be new, innovative, solve the user’s problem efficiently, and should be practical enough to get implemented in real life.

Check the list of solutions for the LinkedIn example here:

My PM Interview - Product Manager Interview Question Answers

LinkedIn Product Manager Interview: How would you improve LinkedIn

a year ago · 3 likes · 1 comment · My PM Interview

Step 7: Evaluate the solutions and prioritize them

As a next step, you should demonstrate your ability to evaluate and prioritize solutions based on a various set of criteria like,

Customer experience & Business Impact.
Implementation Costs & Effort.
Usage Frequency.

This set of criteria would help you evaluate and prioritize your listed solutions.

You should also discuss a few trade-offs of your proposed solutions with the interviewer to show the ability to objectively assess the ideas, trade-offs and create a roadmap with the proper priorities.

You might even be asked to sketch wireframes or walk the interviewer through the user journeys for the feature you're proposing during some interviews.

Step 8: Define Metrics for measuring performance

Next, how would measure the impact of your features/improvements in the product?

You need to come up with a set of success metrics that would help you measure the impact of the features/changes you’re proposing.
You can list them as primary and secondary metrics that you want to measure.

Step 9: Summarize your answer

At the end you need to summarise the whole interview by highlighting the objective of the improvement, what are the user segments you listed and which one did you decide to focus on, what are the pain points of the selected user segment, and listing down the solutions of those pain-points and achieve the business goals. Finally, mention the solution you prioritized and the metrics you would measure to measure the impact of your suggested changes.

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