Design a Google product that helps people discover, organize and attend events

Google wants to build a product for event gathering, and you are the product manager asked to design it. The brief says nothing more: it names no type of event, no target user and no platform. Explain how you would interpret the brief, whom you would build for first, what the first version would include and how you would tell whether it works. ```hint Decide what "gathering" means The phrase can describe finding something to go to, or getting a group of people to the same place at the same time. Pick the job you will solve, then look at where people start that job today and which Google services already sit at that point. ``` ### Clarifying Questions - Does "event gathering" mean helping people discover public events to attend, helping someone bring a group together, or both? - Which events are in scope: public events such as concerts, meetups, classes and local festivals, private get-togethers, online events, or all of them? - Should this be a standalone app, or part of existing Google products such as Search, Maps and Calendar? - What does Google want from it first: user value and engagement across its products, or revenue from organizers through ticketing or promotion? ### What a Strong Answer Covers - A stated interpretation of "event gathering" and a goal for Google, grounded in where Google already meets people who are planning to go out and in what event and social apps already do well. - The ecosystem of attendees, organizers and venues, with a justified choice of one segment to serve first. - Pain points across the journey from spotting an event to actually showing up with other people, and solutions prioritized by impact and effort, including the standalone-versus-integrated decision. - A north-star metric based on events people actually attend, with guardrails for listing accuracy, spam and privacy. - Risks such as stale or fake listings, getting organizers on board and spreading invitations without a friend network to draw on, each with a mitigation. ### Follow-up Questions - Organizers already publish on ticketing sites and social networks. How would you get complete, up-to-date listings without asking them to post in one more place? - Your data shows many people save events through the product but few attend. How would you investigate and respond? - Leadership wants to sell promoted event listings. How would you add them without hurting trust in the results?