Critique and Improve a Low-Tech Product From Your Daily Routine
Company: Google
Role: Product Manager
Category: Product Design & Strategy
Difficulty: medium
Interview Round: Other
Pick a product you use every day and genuinely like that is not a technology product. Explain why you like it, then describe how you would make it better.
```hint Like it for a reason
Describe what the product does well in terms of the job it does for you and the trade-offs its makers chose. Then aim your improvements at a real pain that remains, without breaking the things you said you like.
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### Clarifying Questions
- Does "non-technical" rule out anything with electronics or a companion app, or only software products?
- Can the answer be a service or a place you use daily, or should it be a physical object?
- May the improvements add technology, such as a sensor or an app, or should the improved product stay non-technical?
- Should the improvements fit the product's current price, or is a more expensive version acceptable?
### What a Strong Answer Covers
- A product that clearly fits the brief, chosen quickly, with context on how and when it is used.
- Reasons for liking it that go beyond taste to the job it does, its design trade-offs and why it beats the alternatives.
- User segments, with one chosen, and real pain points for that segment.
- Improvements prioritized by impact and effort that protect what makes the product good.
- How the success of an improvement would be measured, and the trade-offs or risks it introduces.
### Follow-up Questions
- Which improvement would you ship first, and how would you know it worked?
- If you were the product's maker, how would you grow sales without making it worse for current users?
- How would your answer change if the main user were a young child or an older adult?
Overview: A product sense warm-up that asks candidates to pick a non-technical product they use every day, explain why they like it, and propose improvements. It tests whether the reasons go beyond taste to the job the product does, and whether the improvements target a chosen user's real pain with clear priorities and metrics.