Design Special Requests for Restaurant Table Bookings in Zomato's District App
Company: Zomato
Role: Product Manager
Category: Product Design & Strategy
Difficulty: medium
Interview Round: Other
Zomato's District app lets diners reserve tables at restaurants. The team wants diners to be able to attach special requests to a reservation as they book it. How would you go about building this feature?
```hint Follow one request to the table
Pick a single request, such as a birthday dessert or a wheelchair-accessible table, and trace it from the moment the diner adds it to the moment the restaurant acts on it. Note every point where it could be missed or left unanswered.
```
### Clarifying Questions
- Should requests cover only free asks such as seating, occasion notes and dietary needs, or also paid add-ons like a cake or table decoration?
- How do partner restaurants receive District bookings today: through a partner app or dashboard, on a device at the host stand, or through their own reservation software?
- Does the restaurant have to confirm each request, or is a request a best-effort note that travels with the booking?
- Is the main goal higher booking conversion, better visits and ratings, or a new source of revenue?
### What a Strong Answer Covers
- A goal for the feature that serves both diners and partner restaurants, and how success would be judged.
- Which request types to support, how structured options and free text are balanced, and which needs to handle first.
- The end-to-end flow on both sides: adding a request, the restaurant acknowledging, accepting or declining it, and the diner learning the outcome, including edits and cancellations.
- The building blocks behind the flow: request data tied to the reservation, options each restaurant configures, notifications, status changes and escalation when a restaurant does not respond.
- Success metrics with guardrails for booking-funnel friction and for requests that are accepted but not honored, plus a phased rollout.
### Follow-up Questions
- A diner writes that a guest has a severe nut allergy. What should the app promise, and what must happen on the restaurant side before the visit?
- In the first month, most restaurants leave requests unanswered. How do you find out why, and what do you change?
- Later you want to sell add-ons such as decoration packages. What changes in the product and in the system?
Overview: A product design question about letting diners attach special requests when they reserve a restaurant table in Zomato's District app. It tests scoping request types, designing the flow for diners and restaurants, sketching the supporting system, and choosing metrics and guardrails for a phased rollout.