Choosing a north-star metric and supporting metrics for Yelp's local reviews marketplace

You are interviewing for a product manager role at Yelp, which helps consumers find local businesses such as restaurants, salons and contractors through ratings, reviews, photos and search. The interviewer asks which metrics you think matter most for Yelp and why. Lay out the metrics you would pick, explain how they relate to each other, and say which one you would treat as the most important. ```hint Count the sides Yelp only works when several groups each get something out of it: people searching, people writing reviews, and businesses, some of which pay. Ask what a healthy outcome looks like for each group before you pick a headline number. ``` ### Clarifying Questions - Are we choosing metrics for Yelp as a whole company, or for one area such as the consumer app, the review community or the advertising business? - Is this for a leadership health dashboard, a single goal for one team this quarter, or both? - Should restaurants and service categories such as home repair be measured the same way, given how differently and how often consumers use them? - Which high-intent consumer actions can Yelp actually observe: calls, directions, reservations, quote requests, website clicks? ### What a Strong Answer Covers - A map of Yelp's ecosystem (searchers, contributors, business owners, advertisers) and how value and money flow between them. - A north-star metric that reflects value delivered to both consumers and businesses, with a reason it beats raw traffic, review counts or revenue. - Supporting metrics for each side, including content freshness and trust, not only volume. - Guardrails for tensions particular to Yelp, such as ad placement versus trust in reviews and review growth versus fake reviews. - Segmentation by category, geography and platform, and a split between leading and lagging indicators. ### Follow-up Questions - Reviews written per month dropped noticeably while searches stayed flat. How would you decide whether it matters and what caused it? - Your north star rose after a change that showed more paid placements in search results. How would you tell whether it was a real win? - How would the metric set change for home services, where a consumer may hire a business only once every few years?