Airbnb Product Design: A Furniture Offering for Hosts or Guests, From Scope to MVP
Company: Airbnb
Role: Product Manager
Category: Product Design & Strategy
Difficulty: medium
Interview Round: Other
You are a product manager at Airbnb, and the interviewer asks you to design a furniture offering for Airbnb. The prompt does not say what form it takes. Decide what the offering is and whom it serves, then design its first version and explain how you would judge whether it works.
```hint Who touches the furniture
Hosts choose, buy and replace furniture; guests live with it for a few nights or a few months. Decide whose problem a furniture product solves best, and whether Airbnb has to make anything physical to solve it.
```
### Clarifying Questions
- Does designing furniture mean Airbnb creating physical furniture of its own, or an in-app way for people to buy or rent furniture?
- Is the main customer the host furnishing a listing, the guest during a stay, or both?
- What should this do for Airbnb: raise listing quality and guest satisfaction, bring more new listings online, or open a new revenue line?
- Which listings are in scope: whole homes, private rooms, or stays of a month or longer?
### What a Strong Answer Covers
- A stated interpretation of the ambiguous prompt and a goal tied to Airbnb's mission and business
- Segments across hosts and guests, such as new hosts setting up a listing, hosts refreshing one, and long-stay or family guests, with a justified focus
- Pain points specific to furnishing short-term rentals: upfront cost, durability under frequent turnover, cleaning, damage, delivery to a property the host may not live in, and photos that win bookings
- A prioritized first version with the build-versus-partner trade-off and its operational demands
- Success metrics tied to listing and host outcomes, with guardrails
### Follow-up Questions
- Should Airbnb make its own furniture or partner with existing retailers, and what evidence would change your answer?
- Guests on month-long stays ask for a proper desk and chair. Would you serve them through the host or directly, and why?
- How would you show that furnishing through Airbnb causes more bookings, rather than more motivated hosts simply choosing to use it?
Overview: An open-ended Airbnb product design prompt about furniture: interpret what a furniture offering should be, decide whether it serves hosts or guests, and define its first version. It tests handling ambiguity, segmentation, prioritization, build versus partner trade-offs and success metrics.