Design a product that cuts phone storage use for people who keep running out of space

You are interviewing for a product manager role at Microsoft and are asked to design a product that reduces the storage space taken up on a mobile phone. Explain who the product is for, what it does, and how you would measure whether it works. ```hint Find where the space goes Before designing, list what typically fills a phone and what a third-party app is actually allowed to see and delete on each mobile platform. The answer to the second question shapes what you can build. ``` ### Clarifying Questions - Does reducing storage mean freeing up space on a phone people already own, or making apps and media take less space from the start? - Should this be a standalone app for Android and iOS, a feature inside an existing Microsoft app such as OneDrive, or something phone makers would ship? - Who matters most: owners of low-storage budget phones, people who shoot a lot of photos and video, or heavy users of chat apps that keep every shared file? - Is the business goal user satisfaction, growth in paid cloud storage, or both? ### What a Strong Answer Covers - A segment choice backed by why and when people run out of storage. - Awareness of what a third-party app can access or delete on Android and iOS, and of the built-in tools it competes with. - Solutions that cover finding, removing, offloading and preventing storage use, prioritized, with one developed in detail. - Safeguards against deleting something the user wanted, and privacy for scanning personal photos. - Metrics showing that space was reclaimed and stayed reclaimed, with guardrails. ### Follow-up Questions - How would you price this, and does tying it to paid cloud storage help or hurt adoption? - In markets where mobile data is expensive, people cannot upload large videos. How does your design change? - The phone's built-in cleaner gets much better next year. What keeps your product relevant?