Child-Safe Heater Product Design: Hazards, Parent Controls and First Version
Company: Google
Role: Product Manager
Category: Product Design & Strategy
Difficulty: medium
Interview Round: Other
You are asked to create a heater intended for children. The brief is open on purpose: you decide what kind of heater it is, which children and which adults it serves, and what problems it solves for them. Walk through the users, the ways a heater can harm a child, what the first version would include and how you would know the product is succeeding.
```hint Let the hazards lead
Before you pick features, list the ways a child could get hurt by a heater or misuse one, and how that changes with age. Let that list, not the heating technology, shape the product.
```
### Clarifying Questions
- What kind of heater is meant: a portable heater that warms a child's room, a heated blanket or bed warmer, a bottle or food warmer, or something the child wears?
- Who is the primary user: the child who operates it, or the parent who buys it and sets it up for a child's room? Which age range should it serve?
- Is this a Google smart-home device that parents control from a phone or a voice assistant, or a standalone appliance?
- Is the aim a premium safety product for families, or an affordable heater that is simply safer than ordinary ones?
### What a Strong Answer Covers
- A reasoned choice of heater type and child age band, and a clear split between the child who lives with the heater and the parent who buys and controls it.
- A child-specific hazard analysis (burns, fire, tip-over, cords, misuse as a toy, being left on) that maps each hazard to a design response.
- How control is shared: what, if anything, the child can change, and how parents keep authority without standing next to the heater.
- A prioritized first version with stated trade-offs among safety, heating performance, size, price and connected features.
- Success measures that put safety incidents and parent trust ahead of sales, plus launch risks such as certification and liability.
### Follow-up Questions
- If the heater relies on an app for alerts, what should it do on its own when the Wi-Fi or the parent's phone is unavailable?
- How would you test the design with real families and children before launch without putting anyone at risk?
- An ordinary heater with a tip-over switch costs much less. How would you convince parents that yours is worth the difference?
Overview: A product design exercise about creating a heater meant for children. It tests how you choose the heater type and age range, separate the child who lives with it from the parent who buys it, turn child-specific hazards into features, and measure safety, trust and adoption.