Finding and Fixing the Biggest Gaps in Walmart's Online Product Search

You are a product manager at Walmart on the team responsible for its online store, the website and app where shoppers buy groceries and general merchandise. The interviewer asks how you would make search on that platform better. Decide which shoppers and which search problems you will focus on, propose the improvements you would build and in what order, and explain how you would measure success. ```hint Map how searches fail Before proposing features, list the ways a search can end without the shopper getting what they wanted: no useful results, results that ignore part of the query, a crowd of near-identical listings, or the right item that cannot arrive in time. Then ask which failure costs your chosen shopper the most. ``` ### Clarifying Questions - Is the goal to turn more of today's searches into purchases, or to get shoppers to use search for needs they now handle elsewhere, such as browsing for ideas? - Is grocery shopping for pickup and delivery in scope, where shoppers search item by item to fill a basket, or only general merchandise? - Should results from third-party Marketplace sellers, and the sponsored listings shown in search, be treated as part of the problem we can change? - May we assume modern language and image models are available for understanding queries, or should the plan work within the current search stack? ### What a Strong Answer Covers - A goal and a chosen shopper segment, justified by Walmart's mix of grocery, general merchandise, store pickup and third-party listings - A breakdown of where search sessions fail, with pain points tied to the chosen segment - Several distinct improvements compared on impact, effort and confidence, with a clear first bet and sequence - Metrics for both search quality and business outcome, with guardrails such as latency, sponsored-listing revenue and order value - An experiment plan suited to ranking changes, plus risks and edge cases ### Follow-up Questions - How would you balance sponsored listings against relevance for a staple query such as "paper towels"? - How would you handle searches for products Walmart does not sell? - A ranking change raised conversion but lowered average order value. Would you ship it?