Build a scheduling product that lets small businesses take customer bookings
Company: Meta
Role: Product Manager
Category: Product Design & Strategy
Difficulty: medium
Interview Round: Other
Design an app that small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) use to schedule appointments with their customers. Decide which businesses it is for, what problems it solves for the owners and for the customers who book, what goes into the first version, and how you would measure success.
```hint Start from the owner's day
In many small service businesses the owner is also the person cutting the hair or fixing the bike, so booking requests arrive while their hands are busy. Judge each feature by the time and lost revenue it saves them, not by how complete the calendar is.
```
### Clarifying Questions
- Which SMBs: appointment-led services such as salons, clinics, tutors and repair shops, or every kind of small business, including restaurants taking table reservations?
- Solo operators, teams with several staff, or businesses with several locations?
- Is this a standalone app, or should it connect to the business presence owners already have on Facebook Pages, Instagram and WhatsApp Business?
- Is success measured by how many businesses adopt it, by revenue from the app itself, or by more customer bookings flowing through Meta's apps?
### What a Strong Answer Covers
- A goal, and a reason the app would win against established scheduling software and against booking by phone and chat.
- A segmentation by business type, size and how digital the business already is, with a reasoned choice.
- Pain points for both owners and customers, mapped to solutions prioritized into a first version, including how quickly an owner can set it up.
- A business model and how it affects adoption.
- Metrics for both sides with guardrails such as double bookings, no-shows and unwanted messages, plus the main risks.
### Follow-up Questions
- Many owners already handle booking requests in chat threads. How does your app fit that habit instead of fighting it?
- A salon already pays for another booking system. Do you try to replace it, integrate with it, or leave that salon alone?
- How would you charge, and what happens to businesses that never pay?
Overview: A Meta product manager design question asking for an appointment scheduling app built for small and medium-sized businesses. It tests choosing which businesses to serve, understanding both owners and the customers who book, prioritizing a first version, picking a business model, and defining metrics with guardrails.