Choose a lesser-known app you love, set its success metrics as PM, and improve it

Name a few mobile apps you genuinely like and explain why, choosing apps that are not the obvious mainstream ones. Then pick one, imagine you are its product manager, and set out the product's key performance goals and the metrics that would show it is succeeding. Finish by proposing how you would improve it. ### Clarifying Questions - Roughly how many apps should I name before narrowing to one, and how much time should go to the deep dive? - Where is the line for "not mainstream": does a niche product from a large company count, or should it be an app most people have never opened? - Do you want to choose the app for the deep dive, or should I pick it? - Should the improvement serve the goals I set in the metrics discussion, or is any improvement fair game? ### Part 1 — Favorite apps and why List a few lesser-known apps you use and, for each, explain what makes it a good product: the need it meets and the product or business decision that makes it stand out from the alternatives. ```hint Explain the insight, not the look For each app, say what it does better than the next-best alternative and which decision by its team makes that possible, instead of praising its design in general terms. ``` #### What This Part Should Cover - Apps that honor the "not mainstream" request, each tied to a real user need - A reason for each that points to a specific product or business choice - The app picked for the deep dive and why it is worth managing ### Part 2 — Goals and success metrics Take one of the apps (or the one the interviewer chooses). As its product manager, state the key product performance goals and the metrics you would track to know whether the app is meeting them. ```hint Start from how the app creates value Before naming any metric, describe who uses the app, who pays for it and how it earns money, then derive each goal from that. ``` #### What This Part Should Cover - What the product does, its user groups and its business model - A small set of goals, each with a primary metric and how it would be measured - Guardrails that would catch a goal being hit in a way that hurts users or the business ### Part 3 — Improving the app Propose how you would make the app better: choose the users you are improving it for, identify their main pain points, suggest solutions and say which you would build first. ```hint Rank before you build Pick the two or three pain points that matter most to your chosen users, and compare candidate solutions on impact, how often the pain occurs and effort before committing. ``` #### What This Part Should Cover - A target segment and its pain points, ranked by severity - Several solutions compared on explicit criteria, with one chosen to build first - How the change would be judged with the Part 2 metrics, and its main risks ### What a Strong Answer Covers - One consistent story: why the app is good, its goals and the improvement all build on the same value proposition - Goals and metrics specific to the chosen app's users and business model rather than generic engagement counts - Prioritization that ends in an explicit choice, with the reasoning stated - Constraints particular to the chosen app, such as trust, privacy, regulation or partners it depends on - Time management that leaves room for the improvement after a brisk app list ### Follow-up Questions - If your primary metric rose but one of your guardrails fell, how would you decide whether to keep the change? - How would you test your top improvement before launching it to everyone? - Which competitor or substitute most threatens the app you chose, and how would your roadmap respond?