Just as with every other PM interview question, structuring your thoughts and ensuring your answer is comprehensive is crucial. Jumping to conclusions and simply naming the top 3–4 metrics is generally not the recommended approach. So, what’s the right structure?

Let’s find out!

What is Netflix?

Netflix is a leading global streaming entertainment service offering a wide variety of award-winning TV shows, movies, anime, documentaries, and more — on thousands of internet-connected devices. Its core value proposition is personalized entertainment delivered on demand.

Mission — To ‘entertain’ the world

Clarifying Questions

• Do we want to focus on any specific features/elements of the home page? Like ‘Search’, or ‘recommendations’?

Assume — No, generic

• Platforms: Web/TV/Mobile?

Assume — TV.

The Goal

To realize Netflix’s ultimate goal of ‘entertaining the users’, the Home page is a stepping stone. It’s where a user chooses the entertainment.

The goal is to ‘Help users discover the content they love and keep coming back for’.

When considered carefully, it’s evident that a mature product like Netflix (in the later stages of Growth) has to ensure that the users are engaged, and are returning.

User actions

Which user actions have a meaningful impact on the goal?

• Scrolling/Browsing: Indicates engagement with the homepage layout and content presentation.
• Hovering (Preview Interaction): Shows interest in a specific title and the effectiveness of the preview.
• Clicking (Title Details/Play): Demonstrates a strong intent to watch or learn more.
• Adding to “My List”: Signals future viewing intent and helps improve recommendations.
• Searching: Suggests the homepage isn’t effectively surfacing relevant content.
• Playback initiation: Ultimate goal — signifies successful content discovery and engagement.

These actions define a user’s intent and by identifying the actions we can create a direct link between what we want to achieve and what we can actually measure!!

Top 3 Metrics

Our goal is for users to discover relevant content, driving engagement through Playbacks (series, movies, etc.) and ultimately leading to retention through quality recommendations.

1. Title CTR (Click through Ratio) and Conversion

I would prioritize click-through rate (CTR) as a key indicator of user interest in the recommendations.

Analyzing CTR across categories such as ‘Recommended for you,’ ‘Top 10,’ and ‘Originals’ provides valuable insights for algorithm development teams, helping them assess performance.

While CTR indicates interest, the true measure of value is conversion to playback. Measuring conversion alongside CTR highlights recommendation effectiveness and provides crucial data for algorithm optimization.

For example, if users click a movie title but then leave the description page after viewing the trailer or cast list, this signals the recommendation engine to reduce the visibility of similar content.

2. Time spent on Homepage

Time spent on a page is a key metric that can indicate user delight or frustration. The most effective way to analyze this metric is to compare it against a benchmark (the average time spent on the page). Time spent exceeding the benchmark may indicate inefficient suggestions, while time spent below the benchmark may suggest the opposite

Usually best used with CTR, hover time, bounce rate, add to watchlist, etc., the combinations can result in multiple hypotheses and use cases, for instance, high time spent, and low CTR will mostly result in frustrated users and will impact the overall engagement of the platform.

3. Bounce Rate

A good health indicator metric measuring the %users who leave the homepage without interacting. A high bounce rate suggests the homepage isn’t engaging users effectively and needs improvement.

Other Important Metrics:

• Hover Duration and Hover Rate per Category to register user interest per section (movies, top 10, suggestions, etc.).
• Search bar CTR to measure if users resort to ‘search’ to find relevant content, and whether that’s because of inefficient suggestions.
• Scroll Depth to measure engagement and compare against time to first click, or time to first hover.

And, that’s a wrap! Hope you found this exercise helpful. Do consider following me for more such exercises!! Thank you :)

You’re a PM for Netflix. How would you measure success for Netflix’s homepage? was originally published in Bootcamp on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

1. Let’s start with Clarifying Scope:

Contractors could be of different types, performing multiple jobs, or providing various services. Which type of contractors do we want to focus on?

• Let’s Assume contractors in the construction business.

Are we looking for personal or commercial constructions, and what would be the scale of these projects?

• Assume personal, and scale from small to medium (10Lakhs — 2 Crore).

Will this be a mobile app, web app or both?

• Assume Mobile.

Do we have any technology constraints regarding resources, tech stack, etc.?

• Assume, No

Who are we building this product for? Who are we as a company?

• Assume a startup with founders with a background in real estate, and technology.

On a high level, I think people who are looking to hire a contractor to help with the construction, decoration, renovation, and repair of their own home are the potential audience here. I’m not considering builders since they generally have their own workforce, and the scale of their projects is bigger. So I’m envisioning a marketplace for buyers and service providers to connect, and execute projects. On a high level, is that understanding correct?

• Assume, Yes!

Are we only considering finding contractors or executing/planning projects too?

• Assume only finding.

2. Based on the scope, our Goal:

Design a marketplace Android/iOS App for property owners looking to hire a contractor to help with the construction, decoration, renovation, and repair of their home, and for contractors looking to provide their services for the execution of such projects.

As a startup, our focus will be on acquiring new users and monitoring the effectiveness of our services.

3. Users Personas:

Clients:

• Persona 1: Working professional(s) (business/govt or private job) with little knowledge of construction, costs involved, timelines, raw materials, etc. The project is for the properties where they are either currently residing or planning to reside shortly. The investment is a mix of loan and savings and getting it right (quality) in a cost-effective manner (efficiency) with a focus on trust matters the most to them.
• Persona 2: Working/Retired professionals who know the nuances of construction and know people who can help with raw materials, etc. but don’t have the time to oversee the project. These users generally already own some other property and have experience with such projects. The project is for the properties where they are either currently residing or planning to reside shortly or are planning to lease it to third parties. Timelines and cost-effectiveness matter the most to them.
• Experienced/New Contractors looking for clients.

We’ll prioritize Persona 1 for clients as it resonates with most of the property owners in tier-1,2 cities who have recently started a personal project (varying scales) and as the scale of these cities increases, so will the demand for such services. The ‘experienced group persona’ might already have some contacts, and might be less inclined towards paying additional fees for finding contractors.

4. Pain Points:

Clients: Unsure of project costs, lack of contractor network, difficulty assessing contractor trustworthiness, unfamiliarity with construction processes.

Contractors: Reliance on word-of-mouth referrals, difficulty finding new clients, managing multiple projects, and client communication.

Prioritized Pain points

• Finding Contractors: Need for a comprehensive contractor listing.
• Trust: Need for verified reviews, portfolios, track records, and project completion guarantees.
• Cost Transparency: Need for project cost estimations and clear breakdown of contractor costs.
• Contractor Comparison: Need for a filtering and comparison system.
• Finding Clients: Need to find suitable projects for contractors.

5. Solution:

A mobile marketplace app with the following features:

User Onboarding: Phone number/email signup with OTP login and app tutorial.

Contractor Listing & Verification:

• Contractor registration with detailed profiles (name, contact, picture, experience, services, portfolio, etc.).
• KYC and on-site project verification by the platform.

Marketplace:

• Service-based search (construction, repair, renovation, etc.).
• Filtering by location, price, experience, reviews, portfolio.

Contractor Profiles: Detailed profiles with photos, service areas, experience, completed projects, reviews, pricing (partially hidden until contact request), “favorite” option, and sharing.

Customer Profiles: Basic profile information.

Project Proposals (Bidding):

• Clients post project requirements (service type, area, budget, materials, etc.).
• Contractors bid on projects.
• App facilitates contact upon bid acceptance.

Direct Contact: Clients can request contact with contractors (unlocking contact info). Contractors can only initiate contact after bid acceptance.

Pricing Model:

• Clients: One-time fee for posting a project proposal and fees for unlocking contractor contact information.
• Contractors: Monthly/yearly subscription with a limited number of bids.

5. Key Metrics:

• User Acquisition: Number of app downloads, and registrations (client and contractor).
• Engagement: Number of searches, contractor profile views, contact requests, proposals posted, bids submitted.
• Conversion: Number of successful connections between clients and contractors, project completion rates (measured through user feedback or platform tracking), and subscription renewals (for contractors).
• Customer Satisfaction: App ratings and reviews, user feedback surveys.
• Average Revenue Per User (ARPU): Tracking revenue generated from client fees and contractor subscriptions.

6. Summary:

This product aims to address the challenges faced by homeowners seeking reliable contractors. By providing a verified marketplace with transparent information, secure communication, and a robust search/comparison system, the app empowers users to make informed decisions and find the right contractors for their projects. The focus on user acquisition, engagement, and conversion, along with continuous monitoring of key metrics, will ensure the platform’s growth and success.

As with every PM interview question, strategy questions should start with:

Clarifying questions

• What does growth mean? Users, revenue, profits, etc.? Assume-> Revenue.
• What’s the timeframe? Assume-> 2 years.
• Are we focusing on any specific product? like Games, live stream, etc.? Assume-> Overall.
• Are we focusing on any specific location? Assume-> Globally.

Before jumping to strategies, take a minute or two to talk about:

The company and the product

Netflix’s mission is to ‘entertain’ the world. Through its mobile, web, and TV applications, Netflix offers Movies, TV shows, and Originals, through its streaming service. In the last decade and more, Netflix has reached millions of users across the globe (190+ countries) and boasts around ~280 Mn paid subscribers. Recently, Netflix has started venturing into more verticals like Live Streaming (Comedy, Sports), and Games. Netflix has an early movers advantage in the US, Europe, and other parts of the world and commands a well-recognized brand power, so much so, that ‘Netflix and Chill’ has become synonymous with weekend hangouts with friends, for many age groups.

Let’s do a quick Strengths & Weaknesses analysis:

Netflix’s current revenue sources are:

• Subscriptions Fees
• Ads (in some countries)
• Content Licensing

The Strategy

Considering the revenue model and how Netflix operates (focusing on primary revenue driver — subscriptions), revenue can be increased by —

• Increasing the number of paid subscribers OR
• Increasing the cost of subscription

Let’s understand, how can we achieve this:

Increasing the #paid subscribers

• Expanding into new territories: Although Netflix is already available in 190+ countries, most of the paid subscribers are from the Americas, Europe, and top Asian countries. Expansion for Netflix could mean adding more local and culturally diverse content on the platform. This could be achieved by partnering with local production houses to procure existing content, and with directors, and content creators to add Netflix Originals.
• Acquisitions: One step further would be meaningful acquisitions of independent production houses like TVF in India, and so on. This needs a thorough analysis of new markets and consumption patterns alike.
• New offerings: Keeping Netflix’s mission in mind, I believe Netflix could explore new ventures. I have come up with 2 initiatives:

1. Sports Streaming
2. Netflix Merchandise

Sports Streaming

Netflix has already dipped its toes in live-streaming and has received mixed responses. But I believe with their strong technology and distribution network, it’ll only get better. Sports is a major entertainment business across the globe. Live events like the NFL, Football World Cup, IPLs are a testament to the fact that sports streaming has unlimited potential. It can prove to be the next wave of user onboarding for the streaming giant.

Netflix Merchandise

Netflix currently does a version of this with Netflix.shop, but I believe adding the shopping experience to the streaming app could be an experiment with great potential. I’m thinking about shopping recommendations along with streaming on mobile devices (easier navigation compared to TVs) to start with. This could be a subtle tweak in the UI, which is not obviously visible(accessible on 2+ clicks during streaming).

Prioritization

For prioritization, I’m going to use the RICE framework!

Expansion:

This needs identifying the collaboration opportunities, and careful analysis of local content consumption patterns. It is my strong belief that more local content in culturally diverse countries like India is the way to go. Moreover, global streaming platforms like Netflix are perfectly positioned to make local content available worldwide. Great examples of these themes playing out — Squid Games, Money Heist, etc.

• Reach — 3/5 (Identifying new geographies and adding relevant content is a slow process given we are looking at 2 years timeframe, especially when Netflix is already available in most countries across the globe)
• Impact — 4/5 (High, due to the possibility of adding new customers and revenue opportunities)
• Confidence — 70% (Moderate, as I believe this will be expensive and gradual)
• Efforts — 4/5 (We’ll need infrastructure investments, regulations analysis, etc.)

Acquisition:

Just like expansion strategy, the acquisition is all about the right opportunities and what makes business sense. This works best with smaller local players who are in the growth phase. The key deciding factor is the ROI.

• Reach — 3/5 (The reach might vary based on markets. For instance, acquiring new players in mature markets might not be as useful as new ones.)
• Impact — 3/5 (Moderate to high depending on the nature of acquisition)
• Confidence —70% (Moderate, as I believe this will be expensive and time gradual)
• Efforts — 3/5 (Not too difficult to add content, but regulations might come into play)

Sports Streaming:

I believe this is the next big thing for Netflix!! Different sports have loyal fan bases across the world and a consistent viewership. Sports fit the bill with the entertainment factor they bring and the capability to pull the crowd. Netflix will have to work hard on positioning the sports packages (with Ads, subscription tiers, etc.), producing the right deals, choosing the right games, working out legalities, and picking the right demography. I believe Netflix has the tech prowess to pull this off, but the rollout should be gradual, which gives Netflix the time to learn and adapt.

• Reach — 4/5 (The reach will mostly be high given the type of sports we decide to enter)
• Impact — 5/5 (Very high as it opens mega opportunities around new users acquisition and revenue)
• Confidence — 100% (Very high, because of proven models of sports from around the world.)
• Efforts — 4/5 (High due to costs, and collaborations)

Merchandise:

If brought within the Netflix experience, merchandise could prove to be a great global expansion strategy. In my opinion, this is a high-effort, high-impact feature with considerable risk too. Merging shopping into a streaming app experience needs UX A/B testing and meticulous design. The initial rollout could be about expressing interest in an item, like ‘T-shirt’, and a follow-up email with sopping details. Results can be monitored and if worked well, can be expanded to better positioning, marketing, influencers/celebrity collaboration, and so on.

• Reach — 5/5 (Potential to be a global product)
• Impact — 5/5 (Very high as it opens mega opportunities revenue)
• Confidence — 80% (High, considering loyal fans’ inclination towards buying into becoming a part of their favorite shows)
• Efforts — 3/5 (Moderate as we plan to expand it gradually with light MVPs to start with)

Summary

Based on the above evaluation, I plan to start with the roll-out of merchandise and sports features with respective MVPs and closely monitor the results to make adjustments, if required.

Expansion and acquisitions should be the priorities as and when the right opportunity arises, as these strategies open doors for new user and revenue opportunities.

And, that’s a wrap! Hope you found this exercise helpful. Do consider following me for more such exercises!! Thank you :)

Grow Netflix 2x | PM interview product strategy question was originally published in Bootcamp on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Hi folks!

We’re back with another guesstimate exercise :)

Just like any guesstimate exercise, we’ll start with -

Clarifying questions and assumptions:

• Are we focusing on specific transaction types: P2P, P2M, Autopay, etc.? Assume -> No, consider everything.
• Assuming this is across the board, and includes all the banks, and UPI apps available in India today? Assume -> Correct!
• Should we also consider non-smartphone, non-internet-based transactions? Assume-> Up to you! (As this number is not significant compared to other transactions, we’ll neglect this)

Our Base Equation =

#UPI transactions = Qualified users * Avg #transaction per user

Thought process:

• Any UPI transaction needs -> Smartphone + Internet connection + Bank Account.
• The number will depend on earning capacity, which can further depend on geography. Therefore, a split of <urban/rural + Earning member/ dependent> will help!
• Target Age group — 18–60 (based on access to tools mentioned above).

Segment — Urban

India’s total population = 1.4bn,

Urban Population: 30% *1.4bn — 400M

Age groups

• Qualified Age Group (A1): 18–60 → 60% → ~250M users.
• Users with smartphones and bank accounts → 80%*A1 → ~200M users.

Bucket-wise UPI transactions —

1. Earning member, regular account transactions:

• Merchant transactions channel → Credit Card, Debit Card, UPI, Netbanking, etc.
• Maximum usage around weekends, 10–15 weekly transactions. On average, P2M (person to merchant) UPI transaction frequency - 1/day. (assuming almost half of the total transactions are through UPI).
• In addition, P2P (peer-to-peer) transaction channels→ UPI, Netbanking, etc.
• Frequency: 3–5 times a week (of which assuming 60–80 % are through UPI) ~0.5/day.

Total UPI transactions → 1.5/day.

2. Dependents, low transaction rates:

• Merchant Transactions channel → Credit Card, Debit Card, UPI, Cash, etc.
• Distributed usage around the week, 5–10 weekly transactions. On average, P2M (person to merchant) UPI transactions → 0.5/day (assuming 60–80% of total transactions through UPI).
• In addition, P2P transactions→ 3–5 times a week (80% UPI) ~0.5/day.

Total UPI transactions→ 1/day.

• Let’s consider for urban users, the ratio of earning members to dependents is 70:30.

Total UPI transactions :

• 200M*0.7 = 140M * 1.5/day = Daily 210M transactions
• 200M0.3 = 60M * 1/day = Daily 60M transactions.

Total → 270M transactions (Urban)

Segment — Rural

India’s total population = 1.4bn,

Rural Population: 70% *1.4bn — 1bn

Age groups

• Qualified Age Group (A2): 18–55 → 60% → ~600M users.
• Smartphones and bank accounts → 30%*A2 → ~200M users.

Bucket-wise UPI transactions —

1. Earning member, regular account transactions:

• Merchant transactions channel → Credit Card, Debit Card, UPI, Netbanking, etc.
• Maximum usage around weekends, 5–10 weekly transactions. On average, P2M (person to merchant) UPI transaction frequency — 0.5/day. (assuming more than half of the total transactions are through UPI).
• In addition, P2P (peer-to-peer) transaction channels→ UPI, Netbanking, etc.
• Frequency: 3–5 times a week (of which assuming 50–60% are through UPI) ~0.3/day.

Total UPI transactions → 0.8/day.

2. Dependent, low transaction rates:

• Merchant Transactions channel → UPI, Cash, etc.
• Distributed usage around the week, 0–5 weekly transactions. On average, P2M (person to merchant) UPI transactions → 0.2/day (assuming 50–60% of total transactions through UPI).
• In addition, P2P transactions→ once a week ~0.1/day.

Total UPI transactions→ 0.3/day.

• Let’s consider for urban users, the ratio of earning members to dependents is 30:70.

Total UPI transactions :

• 200M*0.3 = 60M * 0.8/day = Daily 50M transactions
• 200M*0.7 = 140M * 0.3/day = Daily 40M transactions.

Total → 90M transactions (Rural)

Therefore, Total UPI Transactions: 360M

And, that’s a wrap! Hope you found this exercise helpful. Do consider following me for more such exercises!! Thank you :)

As with any product design interview exercise, let’s start by breaking down the problem at hand —

Make users “feel less guilty about using the product” + “increase revenue”

Clarifying questions:

• What is guilt? From my viewpoint, I have observed people wanting to reduce excessive use of social media platforms like Instagram because it leads to increased screen time, less productivity, potential health issues, seclusion, etc. If these people consciously recognize this need and repeat the same patterns, the results could lead to ‘GUILT’. So, can we assume, Guilt = Screen Time?

Assume → YES.

• Do we want to target any specific user persona? (Maybe based on age, gender, etc.?)

Assume→ No, up to you.

• There are multiple ways to increase revenue (for instance, through e-commerce, increasing Ads margins, etc.). Are we focusing on methodologies that would ‘reduce guilt’ and ‘increase revenue’ simultaneously?

Assume → Yes.

• Do we need to stick to any timeline?

Assume→ No, up to you.

• Do we have any resource constraints?

Assume → No.

• Are we targeting any specific geographies?

Assume→ No.

Less guilt: This can be achieved by actually reducing the screentime, or tweaking the content suggestion and adding more meaningful content suggestions to the users’ feed.

Increasing revenue: Instagram’s sources of revenue are: Ads and e-commerce. Both of these rely on user engagement. Instagram uses sophisticated algorithms that learn and re-learn user’s behavior, and choices, and produce relevant content. More engagement, more chances of revenue.

Our goal is to help users break out of excessive usage patterns and suggest meaningful content and while doing so, also maintain/increase engagement or revenue opportunities.

Who are the Users:

Instagram’s users can be divided broadly into these categories:

Types of users:

• Individual users (Power users | Casual users | Passive Users)
• Businesses
• Content Creators

From the definition of Guilt mentioned above, it makes sense for us to focus on power users who have more propensity to get ‘addicted’ to the platform.

User Persona:

• Demography — 18–25 years
• Not working/Early stage job | Have time at hand | Have career aspirations
• Greatly Influenced by social media.
• 3–5 hours of daily Instagram usage.

Pain points:

(What results in guilt)

• Users consciously recognize the excessive use of the platform, but the psychological hooks keep bringing them back (update from a friend’s life, the need to detach from the current environment, etc.) and the pattern never breaks.
• The platform algorithm is too smart to keep producing relevant content to bring the users back.
• Users recognize that time spent on Instagram can be utilized to learn relevant career skills (they have career aspirations and are influenced by others’ achievements). Unable to do so leads to more guilt.
• Users are stuck in the ‘not-useful content’ loop so deep that they don’t recognize the useful content anymore. Suggestions keep making it even more difficult to break the pattern.

Solutions:

Summary: The ideal solution would be to nudge the user to ‘reduce the usage’ or ‘engage with more meaningful content’ in a way that we don’t push them to a drop-off point. The drop in engagement (thus revenue opportunities) can be countered by adding substitute products (like courses, classes, etc.).

1. Content Restructuring → Recognize excessive platform usage (e.g. more than N logins/day, or 3+ hours/day, or 90 minutes/session for <Power users> → who are active daily in the past 1 month), and thereafter, push more learning-oriented content (Educational content, Sponsored courses — content specification through metadata like hashtags, or certain keywords). The platform can learn the interest (like investing, photography, etc.), and adjust the choice of content. Thereafter, readjust the clock daily!

I believe this will benefit content creators too, as they stand to gain more engagement. In terms of revenue, Instagram can benefit from sales commissions (in the case of sponsored content).

2. Lazy Loading → Introduce Lazy loading or Excessive usage prompts after extreme use (more than 5+ hours daily). The drawback is that the engagement will reduce without Instagram producing any additional revenue.

3. Add more Ads after certain usage: This will prompt the user to break out of the doomscrolling pattern and at the same time, will increase the CLTV.

Prioritization:

Since there is no resource or time constraint, I’m going to choose feature(s) that have maximum impact and that makes more sense for Instagram.

Out of the mentioned features, ‘Content Restructuring’ is my top pick as Instagram doesn’t have to compromise on engagement, and at the same time, the users get more value for their time. I believe that if a user leaves the platform with new learnings because of more meaningful content on their feed, it’ll ultimately help reduce the guilt. Also, this sounds more ethical and benefits content creators and consumers too.

Success Criteria:

• Avg time spent on app per day *(Monitor for before and after launch)
• DAU, MAU, WAU

{This will indicate the target group’s engagement patterns}

• ARPU {To indicate revenue}

And, that’s a wrap! Hope you found this exercise helpful. Do consider following me for more such exercises!! Thank you :)

Hi guys!

I hope your interview preparation journey is going well! This exercise is a written version of the PM design interview, generally executed in a 1x1 verbal session setting. All the clarifications, questions/answers to/from the interviewers are assumed and documented.

Before we attempt this exercise, please come up with your version of the answer, and compare it with mine. Any suggestions, or improvements are most welcome!

With that said, let’s dive right in :)

My structure to solve PM interview design exercises:

• Identifying the Goal/Objective
• Understanding the Users
• Establishing the gaps in the current process
• Solving the gaps/pain points
• Defining the Success Criteria
• Summarizing the exercise

Identifying the Goal/Objective:

Problem Statement Elements: ‘Design’ + ‘Bicycle renting’ + ‘App’ + ‘tourists’.

Clarifying Questions:

• Bicycle Renting: A pedal-operated two-wheeler bike that can be rented for a specific duration. Assume → YES.
• App: Is it Android/iOS? based? Assume → Up to you! Are there any Technological limitations/constraints → Assume → No!

(We’ll go with no tech limitation and Android/iOS app)

• Tourists: I guess, we plan to launch this service at tourist destinations like Goa, and Manali, making it a short-medium distance travel option. But there is no restriction per se, on who these tourists are (Domestic/International)? Assume→ YES to both.
• Demographic restriction? Assume → Up to you! (We’ll go with India — Top 10 tourist destinations, with supporting infrastructure like internet availability, above average tourist footfall)
• Could the users be localites too? Assume-> Yes | But let’s focus on tourists only.
• Who are we: Small/Medium/Large scale company? And what’s our core expertise? I’m asking to clarify why we are doing this. Assume a startup run by entrepreneurs with no experience to test the waters with an idea.

Here’s our Goal:

Wheely! is a bike rental solution for tourists exploring their favorite destinations. By catering to health-conscious and environmentally-minded travelers, we aim to bridge the gap in short-to-medium-distance transportation. Our initial goal is to conduct a thorough market experiment to assess demand, optimize our service, and establish a foundation for future growth.

Understanding the users:

User Segment — Travelers:

• Solo
• Group of friends
• Family/Couples

Locals Residents (Excluded, as this group does not represent our TG).

For this exercise, I want to focus on the ‘Group of friends’ user persona, as I believe this segment:

• Represents a major portion of travelers.
• Would be receptive to lower-cost alternatives.
• Would be receptive to a healthy/environment-friendly theme.
• Will see the fun side of groups traveling on bikes and creating memories.

I am excluding the Family/Couple segment because I believe they are comparatively more used to convenience (travel by car, Chauffer services, public transport).

I am excluding solo travelers as I believe they represent a comparatively smaller portion of our target market.

Pain points of the ‘Group of Friends’ segment:

(Available modes of travel: Cars, Cabs, Public transport, Bikes, Rented Scooters, Walking.)

• Available options are either expensive or don’t work in crowded areas. Driving a vehicle also requires a local license.
• Available rental options often require the vehicle to be dropped at the same place.
• Tourists often run into language barriers while conversing with local vendors/drivers.
• It’s a pain to find trustworthy rental vehicle vendors. Also, the rental bike marketplace is unorganized, and comparing prices upfront is practically impossible.
• Walking is exhausting and takes a lot of time.
• Exploring local tourist attractions is time taking.

Features:

I believe bike rental is an amazing opportunity to solve some of the pain points mentioned above.

• Bike discovery: Enable users to find the bike pickup and Drop stations through the App (Maps integration). The app will also help navigate users to these stations.
• Renting: Upon discovery, the user shall be able to unlock the bike and start the trip. For this, the user needs to identify the selected bike through the App. This requires QR code scanning to connect the bike and the App.
• Authentication: Once the bike is recognized, the user needs to Authenticate themselves. This needs Signup/Login. Signup further needs the user to complete their KYC.

KYC — Ask for an Identity document and a Selfie. (External integration with identity verification vendors like Experian). Enable Foreign nationals to complete KYC with a ‘Passport’.

• Payment: Once authenticated, the user will be shown payment options (integration with Payment Gateway). Amount will be calculated on the basis of the duration of the rental, and security deposit.
• Trip: After successful payment, the bike will be unlocked, and the trip will start. One trip = one active session per user.
• Location Sharing: The rider will have the option to share their location from within the app with friends/family.
• Explore: List nearby tourist destinations, restaurants, and local attractions, and help users get there. (Maps integration)
• Translate: Voice-based translation capability.
• Localization: The app interface will be available in 10 global languages.
• Drop-Off: This feature will appear for active trips, and list nearby drop-off points. Once the bike is connected to a lock installed at the drop-off station, the rider can press ‘End Trip’ and the trip will finish. Any remaining balance will be collected/reimbursed through the app (Payment module).
• Help: This feature will appear for active/closed trips, allowing the user to connect to customer support or Emergency respondents.
• Batch order: This feature will allow one user to start up to 3 simultaneous trips so that a group of customers can be catered to. The user will still need to complete the KYC process for all the users. We want to limit the number of parallel trips to mitigate fraud risk.

Bike Accessories:

• Preinstalled phone stand (To help with navigation)
• GPS
• Helmet (for rider’s safety)

Prioritization: Impact(Low/Medium/High) & Effort(Low/Medium/High)

Version 1 (Limited launch — to test the basic features):

• Discovery (High & High)
• Renting (High & High)
• Authentication (High & High)
• Payment (High & High)
• Trip (High & High)
• Drop-Off (High & High)

(Despite being high-effort features, they are absolutely required to meet the minimum requirements.)

• Help (High & Low)

(High Impact due to Safety and Grievances)

Version 2:

• Location Sharing (Medium & Medium)
• Localization (Medium & Medium)
• Explore (Medium & Medium)

(These features will definitely make the app more useful, but can wait till the basic features are executed and tested.)

Version 3:

• Batch Order (Medium & High)
• Translate (Low & Medium)

Metrics (Success Criteria):

Business Goals → Acquisition, Revenue, Quality

• NSM → Daily completed rides. {Indicates the usage of services}
• DAU → (Activity based on the click of <find bikes>)

{Comparing DAU and Daily completed rides will indicate the value and can serve as a health metric}

• App Downloads {Indicates discoverability}
• ARPU {Revenue indicator}
• CSAT {Quality indicator}
• Number of support calls {Quality indicator}
• Avg #trips/bike/day: {Utilization Metric → Cost indicator}

Summary:

To summarize, we’ll develop a bike rental app and launch our services in India’s top 10 tourist destinations. The app will allow tourists to locate nearby pickup/drop-off points, rent bikes, and find nearby tourist attractions. We’ll carefully monitor our success metrics like acquisition, revenue, and customer satisfaction to track our progress.

And, that’s a wrap! Hope you found this exercise helpful. Do consider following me for more such exercises!! Thank you :)

Hi there!

If you’ve recently started going through Guesstimate exercises for your PM interview, you know that in a PM interview setting, guesstimates are hypothetical estimation questions designed to assess your ability to think critically, make quick assumptions, and arrive at a reasonable solution under pressure, which a PM does on a daily basis.

In this article, we are going to solve one such exercise —

Estimate the number of ATMs in India

(Before jumping onto mental calculations or slipping into panic mode, it’s necessary to take a minute and think about the structure of the problem and make sure we comprehend what’s asked)

Taking a structured approach, let’s start by clarifying the question and the scope with the interviewer (Re: means response from the interviewer)-

1. My understanding of an ATM is — An Automated Teller Machine is a self-serving banking kiosk used to check balance, withdraw money, transfer, and even deposit money. Is my understanding of the scope correct? or are we considering any other type too?

[Re: That’s correct, let’s go with it]

2. Are we considering the ATM of any particular financial institution?

[Re: No, it’s open to all banks]

3. Should we only consider active ATMs?

[Re: Sure]

4. Any geographic constraints?

[Re: No, consider it to be pan India]

(Now that we have the answers to our questions, the next step is to choose the structure or flow of the guesstimate exercise. For this example, we are following a Top-Down approach)

The idea here is that we’ll estimate the number of ATMs in India by figuring out the #ATM card users.

• The population of India — 1.4 bn

Out of this, the current Urban-Rural split stands at 3:7

Therefore,

• Urban India population = ~400mn
• Rural India population = ~1 bn

Assuming the household size in India to be 4,

• Number of families in Urban India = ~100mn
• Number of families in Rural India = ~ 250mn

At this point, we have to make an assumption based on how many families in India would have one or more ATM users.

Hypotheses: ATM is used only by people who have an ATM card linked to a bank account. Therefore, for rural India, we can assume that all the individuals who have regular access to banks will have access to ATMs too. For this reason, we can keep the low-income class (below 20K INR earnings) out of this group. Similarly, we can eliminate the low-income class from Urban household consideration too.

• Assuming 60% of rural households have ATM user(s). ~150mn
• Assuming 90% of Urban households have ATM user(s). ~90mn

Hypotheses: One family might have more than one ATM user in a family.

• Assuming 10% of rural households have 2 users per family & 90% have only 1
• Assuming 30% of urban households have 2 cards per family & 70% have only 1

Therefore, the total ATM users in rural India

2 cards per family [2*(10% of 150mn) = 30mn] + 1 card per family [90% of 150mn = 135mn] = ~160mn

and, the total ATM users in urban India

2 cards per family [2*(30% of 90mn) = 54mn] + 1 card per family [70% of 90mn) = 63mn] = ~120mn

Hypotheses: Based on my experience of living in different parts of India, the number of ATMs per user in Rural India would be lower than in Urban India because of factors like frequency of usage, technology constraints, resource constraints, etc.

Therefore, assuming one ATM/5000 users in Rural India, and one ATM/500 users in Urban India,

ATMs in rural India = 160mn/5000 = 32,000

ATMs in Urban India = 120mn/500 = 240,000

Total ATMs in India ~ 270,000

Fact check: In 2022, there were over 249 thousand automatic teller machines (ATMs) across India

And, that’s a wrap! Hope you found this exercise helpful. Here are a few more guesstimate exercises for you to practice:

Product Management — Guesstimates | The number of pizzas Dominos sell in India in a day

Product Management — Guesstimates |Number of ATMs in India was originally published in Bootcamp on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Interviewer: How would you go on to design a washing machine for blind users?

Raghu: Before proceeding further, I would like to clarify my understanding of the problem and the product. Users with visual impairment can be categorized into a few categories based on the level of impairment like blurred vision, light sensitivity, low vision at night, etc. Do you want me to focus on any special category?

Interviewer: Let’s focus on total loss of sight.

Raghu: Can I assume that the age bracket for the users is about 20–60. Doing so would assure that the users know the basic functionality of the machine and can operate it safely.

Interviewer: Sure!

Raghu: Alright, thanks. About the product, I am focusing on a washing machine that shall let the users wash, and dry clothes with some added features designed specifically keeping the impaired user in mind.

Interviewer: Sounds good, let’s proceed!

Raghu: Is there any constraint on the resources which we can use?

Interviewer: No such constraint.

Raghu: I would like to lay down my approach to tackling this problem before we proceed. First, I am going to identify the users this could be fit for. After this, I am going to talk about the user pain points, potential solutions, and the metrics to track. Does this sound ok?

Interviewer: It does.

User Personas:

1. Rohan, aged 31, was born visually impaired with no vision. Rohan lives with his parents who are working. Rohan likes to be self-dependent and performs the majority of daily chores himself. Rohan loves technology and uses a lot of products that assist him with his daily routine.
2. Sunita, aged 53, who lost her eyesight about 5 years ago in an accident, lives with her family. Sunita is a mother of two and she lives alone for 10–15 days a month when her family is away. Since she has lost her sight recently, she is self-dependent and has a habit of doing most of her daily chores herself. She is, however, not very tech-savvy and needs her children and husband’s help with a few things occasionally.

For this exercise, I would like to focus on Rohan, who is comfortable with technology and is self-dependent. Since he is born with visual impairment, we are going to design solutions that can cater to individuals with less or no experience using such products before.

User Journey :

1. Rohan’s user journey starts with collecting his laundry and locating the washing machine to start the washing process.
2. Rohan then goes on to check the state of the machine, in order to verify if the machine is currently in use or not.
3. Once verified that the machine is ready to use, Rohan puts his clothes in the container and pours in the detergent and water.
4. After this, Rohan starts the timer, adjusts the washing level, and heads to his room.
5. Once the timer runs out, the machine beeps to alert the user. Rohan heads back to the machine, drains out the water, and starts the drying process.

Pain-Points :

• Rohan sometimes finds it difficult to locate the machine as there is no specific washing area in his house.
• Rohan has to physically touch the machine to find out if there’s water in it, if it is plugged in, or if the dryer is empty or not.
• Rohan has to locate the detergent and measure it carefully before pouring it into the machine. Rohan also has to be careful with the machine’s water level.

Solutions :

My solution to these problems is going to be an automatic smart washing machine that can be connected to smartphones (through a mobile phone app) and wi-fi.

I am assuming that the visually impaired person’s hearing capabilities are functioning properly

The mobile app and the washing machine can be equipped with a voice assistant for better control.

1. In order to locate the washing machine, the mobile app can be equipped with ‘Locate machine’ function which will result in triggering a buzzing/ringing sound from the washing machine. The user can follow this sound to locate the machine.
2. The machine’s knobs and buttons can be enhanced with Braille’s markings.
3. To know the current state of the washing machine, the mobile app can be used. Water sensors can be installed in the machine to check the presence and the level of water inside. This feature can also be installed in the machine with the help of an in-machine speaker and a dedicated button.
4. The machine can be equipped with a detergent dispenser which can be filled once and used every time to dispense the required quantity with the help of a mobile app or a dedicated button on the machine. The input for quantity can be controlled from the mobile app or a knob on the machine.
5. The mobile app can also be used to check the timer and to receive alerts.
6. The mobile app can be used to start or stop the machine.

Out of the proposed solutions, I think connectivity to a mobile app is a must-have solution as it opens up possibilities for other solutions as well. Whether to equip the machine with a speaker and a voice pack or not, can be decided on the basis of price point and market positioning as the in-machine speaker is a supplement to mobile-app.

#2 (solution) is an expected feature, therefore, a must-have.

#3 The alternative to water sensors and electricity plug-in indicators is touching the machine, which users might be used to with other equipment at home. Therefore, the priority is medium.

#4 In terms of usage, I would like to prioritize the detergent dispenser above #3, as it removes the pain of finding the detergent. But the cost associated with it might be high because of the weight and water level sensors. Therefore, priority is medium.

#5 is a must as mobile app can be used to alert the users about the washer time-out and dryer state.

Success Metrics:

1. # of machines sold.
2. # of mobile app downloads.

(We can compare #1 and #2 to check app requirements)

3. Mobile App NPS (App store/Play Store ratings)

4. Mobile App session length

Disruption is common across businesses, thanks to competitors, politics, geographies, changing user needs, and so on. So it’s only natural to face hurdles while trying to address these disruptions using rigid processes and frameworks.

In traditional project management setups, these disruptions/changes can end up costing a huge amount of time and resources.

Agile is the answer to all these problems. In an agile setup, ‘being ready for change and accepting it’ is at the core of management. Yes, we are still gathering requirements, designing & developing solutions, and testing the deliveries, but rather than focusing on extensive upfront documentation, processes, and plans, agile shifts the focus to an iterative approach of dealing with small tasks with much more collaboration.

4 Agile values are 🎯-

For product managers, the responsibilities still include being responsible for product strategy, goals alignment, development, and launch; the methodology employed to get there (scum, kanban, lean, etc. in agile) might differ across organizations.

Before we assume that agile can be a solution to a majority of product/project management problems, let’s establish that it is more of a mindset than a rigid framework or process. Let’s have a look at the improvements agile has offered over the traditional waterfall approach.

Agile vs Waterfall 🤜🤛

Before agile came into the picture, major IT and services companies were managing their projects/products by employing Waterfall lifecycle. As the name suggests, Waterfall is an incremental and linear management methodology. Development is often a sequence of processes with dependencies on the stage that precedes them.

For instance, as the image suggests, product designing cannot start unless we have frozen all the requirements. In this case, to the product manager who is thinking of going lean with the MVP 😆—

Waterfall by design is very rigid because of dependencies and averseness for change. Any change to requirements during the later stages of development needs to be approved, documented, and analyzed for risk. These methods might still work for organizations with less or no appetite for risk, the need for upfront budgeting and timelines, but not so much for the dynamic markets we often find ourselves a part of.

To tackle the challenges and shortcomings of traditional development methodologies, agile follow these 12 principles -

1. Customer satisfaction is at the core of work delivery
2. Welcome changing requirements, even late in development
3. Continuous delivery, with a preference to the shorter timescale
4. Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project
5. To support and trust individuals to get the work done
6. Preference for face-to-face conversations
7. Working software is the primary measure of progress
8. Promoting sustainable development to be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely
9. Attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility
10. Simplicity is essential
11. The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams
12. At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective

Combining the values and the principles of agile, we can understand that agile focuses heavily on collaboration, technical excellence, continuous delivery while making sure we devise ‘just enough’ processes, documentation, and plans.

Agile methodologies and frameworks:

Alistair Cockburn, one of the initiators of the agile movement in software development suggested that a methodology is a set of conventions that a team agrees to follow. Although there are many famous methodologies under the umbrella of agile, Scrum (and a few others like Lean, Kanban) is so widely used, that it has become a framework now.

The key objectives of scrum are to bring people together to productively address and solve complex business problems while self-organizing, learning through experience, and building iteratively.

For some of us, who have been confusing scrum with agile, let’s establish:

“scrum is the framework that helps get the work done and it inherits the principles like continuous improvements from agile”

At the core, scrum is about making sure that :

• The workstream is drilled to the simplest level (epics, stories) and
• The teams understand the business and user problems they are trying to solve
• The work gets delivered in continuous iterations
• The team collaborates and learn regularly while delivering the work

Circling back on how these methodologies and frameworks affect a product manager’s job, while the roles and responsibilities remain the same, the execution gets changed. Let’s talk about some of these responsibilities:

1. Product Strategy and road mapping — One of the key differences between how roadmaps are done in agile vs how they were done earlier is how distant in the future are they planned for. As we understand, agile is all about accepting changes. While having a long-term roadmap helps teams prepare well for the future, in agile the guiding principle is flexibility. Therefore, roadmaps in an agile setting are less rigid and concrete. They do not dwell deep on exact features and long stretched timelines but focus more on direction, vision, and outcomes.
2. Prioritization — Prioritization is one of the most, if not the most important skills of a product manager. Once a PM has a roadmap, the next task is to pick what gets built and why. Prioritization in agile is done to address ‘just enough’ requirements and scope. In scrum, the product backlog holds the upcoming requirements in the form of epic, user stories, bugs, and tasks. It is then the responsibility of a product owner/manager to make sure that the team has at least one iteration worth of task prioritized. More about prioritization techniques like RICE, MoSCoW, Impact-effort matrix coming soon 🤝
3. Development and delivery — The development process in agile is iterative. This means that the work gets done in measurable and manageable timelines (called sprints in scrum). Iterations help teams manage change well and pivot easily if necessary. For a product manager, this works like a charm if the product belongs to a fast-paced industry or if it is in the initial development phase. Small iterations also help deliver and ship products faster.

Agile Implementation for Product focused organizations

Although agile seems like a perfect fit for today’s markets and dynamic teams, it is not a one shoe fits all solution. If the products are built for an industry that has very little appetite for risk and change (like defense, healthcare hardware, etc.) with fixed budgets and timelines, waterfall might work like a charm.

However, if the organization and the product teams resonate with the agile principles, undertaking an agile transformation needs the product leaders to take care of the following points:

1. The appetite for change and uncertainty should be communicated with all the stakeholders. As we’ve already discussed, long-term budget, timelines, and roadmaps are not ideal in an agile setup. This might not be accepted openly by all the stakeholders like executives, investors, etc.
2. The expectations around communication should be established. If the majority of the team believes in writing long documents and communicating in silos, it could affect the implementation strategies as soon as a few days (due to continuous iterations).
3. A product manager doesn’t have to manage everything by himself/herself. Thanks to agile, new roles like Product Owner, Scrum Master have come into the picture to aid the task of product development and delivery. Defining a clear product vision and making sure the product is headed in the right direction can be a task shared among the Product Manager and Product Owner.

Agile is an ever-evolving mindset that is open to interpretations from industry experts and individual teams alike. The most important thing to remember is the values and principles that have built agile.

If you have any feedback, I’d love to hear it. And yes, do follow to read more of these articles!

In the first part, we understood our users through surveys and interviews and defined their pain points. We also analyzed high-level solutions and came up with potential features.

In this part, we’re going to work on the following —

1. Create User Persona on basis of user research
2. Prioritize key features to identify MVP
3. A high-level Product Roadmap
4. Develop user flows for key product components
5. Come up with Wireframes for product features
6. Key Product Metrics

To get the context, please go through the 1st part of this case study —

Product Case Study: Product Development Lifecycle | Cohort Based Courses (Part-1)

This case study is a part of ProductHood’s APM fellowship program and I’ve had the pleasure of working with an amazing team — Kopal Jaiswal, Pavan Preetham Immandi, Sambhaji Sawant, and Dheeraj Tiwari. Thanks guys! 😀🥂

User Personas 👥

Before starting the case, we had a basic understanding of the user's behavior, expectations, and frustrations. This understanding helped us establish who to reach out to and what shall we ask for.

After we conducted the survey and talked to a few users, we got to know them more. Our key personas are —

Key Product Features and MVP

On the basis of the user research, we were able to prioritize the problems we need to solve. We used the impact vs effort exercise to understand what we need to solve first and how.

To start off with cohort-based learning and to address the pain points of lack of interaction, engagement, and expert’s time, we proposed to launch the absolute lean version of ‘Co-Learn’ by using as many third-party tools as possible. We believe that this model would help us establish the quality of the courses and the community.

In terms of product, we have identified the following features to be the part of MVP -

Cohort based learning -

1. Live classes with mentors — To tackle the drop-off rate, we want the content to be exclusive and engaging with live content and QnA. We’ve chosen ‘Zoom’ as the content delivery platform.
2. Content Management — To manage the session notes, assignments, case studies, and articles, we have decided to choose ‘Slack’. The ability to create, host, add/manage participants through slack channels shall allow us to achieve the short-term goal of 3rd party-based content management system. The content for mentors would be curated with the help of designers, and content creators.
3. Community Management — we have decided to recruit community managers who would manage participants’ subscriptions, access to slack channels, and invitations to ‘Zoom’ live sessions.

Courses Marketplace -

4. Explore courses — The ability for the users to browse through our course offerings on our website (optimized for computer and mobile)

We plan to include separate pages for each course which shall provide the following information —

• Course details
• Course structure
• Course preview
• Instructor details

(Rationale: Course marketplace is the first place learners and new instructors visit in order to know more about the courses and instructors/mentors. Therefore, we want this feature to be a part of the MVP)

Product Roadmap

The roadmap helps the teams and the stakeholders understand a high-level plan around the development and the delivery. We have designed our roadmap on the basis of prioritised features and pain points.

User Flow & Wireframes

User flows and wireframes help designers, developers and the product team establish a common understanding of what the users expect from the platform and what could the experience look like.

Our team brainstormed on the design and UX ideas to come up with high-level workflows and wireframes. The wireframes are designed in Balsamiq:

Key Product Metrics

Since we are starting with an MVP and our initial goal is to find the product-market fit, the metrics we are going to focus on are-

Retention :

• Retention Rate — Active learners/total learners. The retention rate will help us establish the quality of courses and the engagement pattern. Target Retention rate — 70%
• Bounce Rate — % of users navigating away from the website after visiting only one page. Bounce rate will help us understand the user experience on the website. Target bounce rate > 50%

Acquisition :

• Unique Visits on the website — This metric will help us understand the footfall we are attracting to the website
• Traffic mode (Paid/Organic) — As we intend to acquire customers through organic (google search results, LinkedIn, Instagram) and paid modes (Google Ads), we want to understand where our traffic is coming from.
• Cost of acquiring customers (CAC): As we intend to spend money on acquiring customers through targeted ads, it’s imperative that we track this cost. To get this cost, we’ll add up the costs associated with acquiring new customers (the amount we’ve spent on marketing and sales) and then divide that amount by the number of customers we acquired.

Activation

• % of users who register for a course/total unique visitors — This metric will help us understand users’ responses to the quality of information we have on courses pages.
• %of Users who Pay for a course/total number of course registrations
• %of Users who join a course after opting for waitlist/total number of users on waitlist

With this, we conclude this series of the product development lifecycle. If you have any feedback for me, feel free to drop comments, or find me on LinkedIn :)