Assess an Unfamiliar Non-Google Product When You Are Not a Heavy User
Company: Google
Role: Product Manager
Category: Product Design & Strategy
Difficulty: medium
Interview Round: Other
In a product management interview at Google, you are asked how you would assess a product you know little about. The product is not made by Google, and you are not one of its heavy users, so you cannot lean on your own deep experience of it. Describe how you would carry out the evaluation and reach a conclusion.
```hint Treat the outsider position as the constraint
The interviewer is testing what you do when your own experience is thin. Settle why the evaluation is being done before choosing criteria, then plan where you will get the understanding a heavy user already has, and notice where a newcomer's view is actually useful.
```
### Clarifying Questions
- What is the evaluation for: deciding whether Google should build a competing product, partner with or acquire the maker, or giving a general critique of the product's quality?
- How much time and access do I have: only public information and my own use, or also conversations with its users and some of its usage data?
- Is it a consumer or a business product, and should I judge it against its competitors or on its own terms?
### What a Strong Answer Covers
- Settling the purpose and audience of the evaluation, and letting them set the criteria and their weights.
- Concrete ways to make up for not being a heavy user: structured first-hand use, conversations with and observation of real users, reviews and community discussion, and public market signals.
- Criteria spanning user value, experience quality, market and competition, and the business model.
- Awareness of the biases in a newcomer's view and how to correct for them.
- A synthesized verdict with evidence, a confidence level and next steps, not just a list of observations.
### Follow-up Questions
- Walk me through your approach on a specific product you have never used, in a category you know little about.
- Your first impression is poor, but the product is growing fast. How do you reconcile the two?
- You have one afternoon instead of a couple of weeks. Which steps do you keep and which do you drop?
Overview: A Google product management question on how to assess a product you know little about, one that Google does not make and that you do not use heavily. It tests framing the purpose of an evaluation, gathering the insight a heavy user would have, applying clear criteria across users, experience, market and business model, and reaching a verdict.