Practice a dog-walking marketplace and architecture case covering owner and walker journeys, MVP scope, trust and safety, payments, matching, real-time GPS tracking, backend services, marketplace liquidity, scaling, and unit economics.
##### Question
Design a dog-walking marketplace app. Describe core user journeys, MVP feature set, high-level architecture (mobile clients, backend services, APIs), and key scoping or scaling considerations.
Overview: Practice a dog-walking marketplace and architecture case covering owner and walker journeys, MVP scope, trust and safety, payments, matching, real-time GPS tracking, backend services, marketplace liquidity, scaling, and unit economics.
mediumProduct ManagerOnsiteProduct / Decision Making
6
0
Design a Dog-Walking Marketplace App
Design a two-sided marketplace that connects dog owners who need walks with vetted dog walkers who provide them. The product should be reliable, safe, scalable, and capable of reaching marketplace liquidity in a constrained launch area.
Constraints & Assumptions
Start with scheduled walks in one dense city or region before expanding to on-demand dispatch.
Treat trust and safety as core product functionality, not only operations.
Support owner, walker, and platform-admin workflows.
Include a high-level architecture but keep implementation detail appropriate for a PM or product-system design interview.
Variant: the interviewer may frame this as a feature Facebook builds inside its app and website rather than a standalone startup, reusing existing pieces such as Messenger and people's interest and activity signals. In that version, justify the product against Meta's mission and business goals, including advertising revenue from pet products.
Owners who come to trust a walker often swap phone numbers and arrange later walks by text or another messaging app. Success metrics must still hold up when repeat bookings and searches leave the platform, and an owner searching again for a different walker should count as a sign of a poor match, not as engagement.
Clarifying Questions to Ask Guidance
Are we designing for scheduled walks, on-demand walks, recurring walks, or all three?
What market should be used for the first launch and what density is required?
Are walkers contractors, employees, or partners, and what compliance constraints apply?
How much detail should I provide on marketplace strategy versus technical architecture?
Part 1 - Core User Journeys
Describe the primary journeys for dog owners, dog walkers, and operations or support teams.
What This Part Should Cover Guidance
Owner onboarding, pet profiles, booking, live walk tracking, payment, review, and support.