How would you improve Zomato?
Product Improvement Question - You are a PM at Zomato. How would you improve Zomato?
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.
Let’s get started with the solution (remember to follow the framework),
Step 1: Describe the Product
Zomato is a leading online food delivery and restaurant discovery platform founded in 2008 and based in India. It connects millions of users with restaurants for dining, takeout, and delivery services. Through Zomato’s mobile apps and website, users can discover restaurants, read and write reviews, browse menus, order food for delivery, and even make table reservations for dining out. Zomato’s mission is “better food for more people”, reflecting its aim to ensure no one has a bad meal and to make great food more accessible
Its major competitors include Swiggy (another Indian food delivery giant) as well as global players like Uber Eats (which Zomato actually acquired in India), DoorDash, and restaurant discovery services like Yelp and Google Maps. The food-tech market is highly competitive; for instance, in India Zomato holds roughly 40-45% market share in food delivery, slightly ahead of Swiggy. These competitors are all vying for users’ attention and orders, pushing Zomato to improve constantly to retain its leadership position.
Step 2: Ask Clarifying Questions
Before jumping into solutions, it’s important to clarify the problem space and goals. In an interview, I would ask the interviewer a few clarifying questions. For this scenario, let’s consider some key clarifications and assume possible answers:
Q: What specific business vertical of Zomato should I focus on?
A: It’s up to you – for this question focus on the food delivery business.Q: What specific aspect of improvement should I focus on for Zomato? Are we looking to improve user engagement, retention, revenue, user experience, or a specific feature?
A: It’s up to you – choose an aspect that you feel is important. (For the sake of this discussion, I will choose to focus on improving user engagement (# of orders per week) and retention on the platform, as these closely tie into Zomato’s mission and business health.)Q: Who is the target audience or user group for these improvements? Zomato has consumers, restaurant partners, and delivery partners; which segment should we prioritize?
A: You are free to choose. Pick a user segment to focus on. (I will focus on end consumers (customers) who use the app to order food or find restaurants, since they directly drive Zomato’s engagement and revenue.)Q: Are we focusing on any particular platform or use-case (e.g., mobile app vs. web, food delivery vs. dining-out)?
A: Consider improvements across all platforms and use-cases. (We will consider the overall product experience, primarily via the mobile app which is where most user engagement happens)Q: Should we consider a specific geographic region for these improvements or a global audience?
A: It’s up to you; you can choose a market. (We will focus on the Indian market for Zomato, since India is Zomato’s home base and largest user market.)Q: Why are we thinking about improvements now? Is there any particular motivation or issue prompting this?
A: No specific crisis; assume it’s part of continuous product evolution.
With these clarifications, we have a focused scope: Improve Zomato for end consumers in the Indian market with the goal of boosting user engagement (# of orders per week) and retention, thereby also supporting long-term growth and customer satisfaction.
Step 3: Define the Goal
Having clarified the scope, lets define a the goal for improvement,
Goal: Increase user engagement ( in terms of # of orders per week) and retention among users in by enhancing the user experience and value proposition, thereby increasing their long-term loyalty to the platform.
This goal aligns closely with Zomato’s mission of better food for more people and addresses the competitive challenges.
This goal will guide the rest of our discussion, from identifying the right users and pain points to crafting solutions and metrics.
Step 4: List the User Segments
Zomato serves multiple user segments, each with distinct needs. Major user segments include:
Individual Consumers (Diners/Customers): These are people who use Zomato to order food or decide where to eat. They could be subdivided further:
College students looking for affordable & healthy eats.
Busy professionals who order meals to save time.
Families who get dinner delivered or plan weekend outings.
Travelers or explorers seeking the best local cuisine.
Health-conscious users seeking diet-specific options.
Foodies and reviewers who love to try new places and share their experiences.
Restaurant Owners/Partners: Business owners who rely on Zomato for online orders, table bookings, and visibility. They care about order volume, customer feedback, and tools to grow their business.
Delivery Partners (Riders/Drivers): Individuals who deliver orders. They care about getting efficient delivery assignments, fair pay, and safety. (While crucial to Zomato’s operations, product improvements for them might involve logistics optimizations or app features specifically for the delivery fleet, which is a different scope.)
Advertisers/Brands: (A smaller segment) Companies that run campaigns on Zomato (like banner ads or sponsored listings). They care about reach and ROI from Zomato’s audience.
For this discussion, we will focus on the Individual Consumers segment (primarily the student and the working professional segment), as clarified earlier. This segment constitutes the end-users whose engagement and retention we want to boost. They are the core audience using Zomato for satisfying their food cravings and dining decisions. Improvements geared towards them will likely have direct impact on Zomato’s usage metrics and business.
Step 5: List and Prioritize the Pain Points
Now we will identify the key pain points experienced by individual consumers on Zomato. These are the problems or frustrations that, if solved, could greatly improve user engagement and satisfaction.
After listing them, we will prioritize which ones are most important to address. Here are the pain points for consumers, in order of priority:
Users feel overwhelmed by too many restaurant and menu options, leading to decision fatigue and defaulting to the same places.
They are not able to decide - what to order? and from where to order?Users don’t get personalized recommendations; the experience feels generic with irrelevant suggestions and offers.
Health-conscious power users struggle to find healthy and quality meals.
Users face delivery frustrations such as delays, uncertain ETAs, cold food, and limited communication with delivery partners.
Users perceive high costs from delivery fees, surcharges, and inconsistent discounts, reducing the sense of value for money.
Next, using these pain points, we will brainstorm solutions.
Step 6: List Out Your Solutions
For each major pain point identified, let’s propose a solution or feature improvement that Zomato could implement: