Google Maps: Boost Consumer Engagement with Local Small Businesses and Drive Owner Adoption

You are a product manager on Google Maps. Your objective is to increase how much people engage with small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) through Maps. Decide what you would build or change to achieve that, and then explain how you would get the businesses themselves to adopt and keep using your solution. ### Clarifying Questions - What counts as engagement with an SMB: actions on its listing (calls, direction requests, website visits, bookings, reviews), actual visits to the business, or both? - Which SMBs are in scope: every category and market, or businesses that depend on local foot traffic, such as restaurants, salons and independent shops, in a chosen market? - Should the solution be free for businesses, or may it connect to Google's paid local advertising? - Is the target engagement from consumers using Maps, from business owners maintaining their presence, or both? ### Part 1 — Increase Engagement Between Maps Users and SMBs Choose the users and businesses you would focus on, identify what stops them from engaging today, and propose and prioritize a solution. ```hint Follow the decision moment Trace what happens when someone opens Maps to decide where to go. Look for the point where information about a small business is missing, out of date or hard to act on, compared with what a large chain offers. ``` #### What This Part Should Cover - A precise engagement goal and a justified choice of consumer segment and business categories - Pain points on both sides of the journey from discovery to visit - Several solution options compared on impact and cost, with one chosen and specified ### Part 2 — Get SMBs to Adopt the Solution Explain how you would get SMBs to start using your solution and to keep using it once the novelty fades. ```hint Owners have little time Think about what a busy owner gains in the first week, how little effort the first step can take, and where Google already reaches these owners today. ``` #### What This Part Should Cover - The barriers that stop SMBs from adopting (time, skills, trust, unclear return) - Acquisition and onboarding channels that cut setup effort - How the solution proves its value to owners so that usage lasts beyond sign-up ### What a Strong Answer Covers - A definition of engagement measured with signals Maps can observe, tied to the chosen segment - A solution that uses Maps' unique context (location and intent to visit) rather than a generic social or shopping feature - A plan for the cold start: consumer value depends on SMB participation, and SMB participation depends on consumer value - Success metrics for consumers and businesses, plus guardrails on accuracy, spam and consumer trust - Explicit trade-offs, such as owner-supplied versus automatically inferred information ### Follow-up Questions - Restaurants adopt your solution quickly, but service businesses without a storefront barely use it. What do you change? - How would you stop businesses from posting misleading offers or fake updates to climb the results? - Should the solution stay free, and how would charging for it affect adoption?