Diagnose Retail Revenue Drop and Predict Ad Impact
Scenario
You are a data scientist for a consumer fintech app preparing to run a Super Bowl TV ad and investigating a recent revenue decline.
Part 1 — Super Bowl Ad Lift Estimation
Estimate how many users will register as a result of a single Super Bowl advertisement. Build a clear, top-down funnel and justify every assumption you use. Provide a base case and a sensitivity range (e.g., low/base/high) and explain how you would validate the estimate after the event.
Hints:
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Think reach → attention → site/app visit → install → registration (and optionally KYC).
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Use realistic conversion rates and call out any tail effects (same day vs. 7–14 day follow-on).
Part 2 — Revenue Drop Diagnosis
Retail revenue has fallen. Use a structured framework to diagnose the drop and give concrete example cases that could explain it.
Hints:
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Decompose revenue. For general retail: Revenue ≈ Traffic × Conversion Rate (CVR) × Average Order Value (AOV).
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For a consumer trading/fintech app, tailor the decomposition (e.g., active users × funding/deposit rate × trades per user × average trade size × take rate).
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Show how you would quantify contributions, identify root causes, and propose next steps.
Constraints & Assumptions
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Preserve the scope, facts, inputs, and requested outputs from the prompt above.
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If the prompt leaves a detail unspecified, state a reasonable assumption before relying on it.
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Keep the answer interview-ready: concise enough to present, but concrete enough to implement or evaluate.
Clarifying Questions to Ask
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Clarify the business objective, unit of analysis, time window, exposure definition, and primary metric.
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State assumptions about instrumentation, randomization, sample size, and data quality.
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Separate descriptive analysis from causal claims.
What a Strong Answer Covers
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A metric framework with primary, guardrail, and diagnostic metrics.
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A credible analysis or experiment design with clear assumptions and bias checks.
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SQL/statistical logic for segmentation, variance, confidence, and data validation where relevant.
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An actionable recommendation that explains trade-offs and next steps.
Follow-up Questions
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What sanity checks would you run before trusting the result?
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How would you handle novelty effects, seasonality, or selection bias?
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What decision would you make if metrics disagree?