Google Residential Building as a Product: Choosing Residents, Features and Metrics
Company: Google
Role: Product Manager
Category: Product Design & Strategy
Difficulty: medium
Interview Round: Other
As a product manager, you are asked to design a residential apartment complex for Google. Treat the building as a product: decide who will live there and what problem it solves for them, describe the experience and features you would build, and explain how you would judge whether it succeeds.
```hint Settle who it is for
"For Google" can be read more than one way: housing for the company's own people, or a Google-built home product for the public. Decide that first, then ask which residents have a problem that ordinary apartments solve badly.
```
### Clarifying Questions
- Is the complex meant for Google employees, for the general public as a Google-branded residential product, or for both?
- What is the goal: an employee benefit that helps recruiting and retention, relief from housing costs near a campus, a showcase for Google's home devices, or a profitable real-estate business?
- Where would it be built, and is it tied to a particular office campus?
- Are there constraints on size, budget, or how long residents stay (nights, months or years)?
### What a Strong Answer Covers
- Resolving the ambiguity in the prompt and committing to a goal and a resident type.
- A segmentation of possible residents (for example interns, visiting employees, relocating new hires, long-term employees, families) with a reasoned choice of whom to serve first.
- Specific pain points for that segment and features that address them, including where Google's own products genuinely help rather than serve as decoration.
- Risks particular to this product, such as the employer acting as landlord, privacy of in-home devices, and the effect on the surrounding community.
- Success metrics, including a cost comparison with today's alternative, and guardrails.
### Follow-up Questions
- A resident leaves the company. What should happen to their housing, and why does that decision matter for the product?
- How would you use the building to test Google's home devices without making residents feel watched?
- Occupancy is high in summer and low the rest of the year. How would you adjust the design or the resident mix?
Overview: A product design prompt asking a PM to design a residential apartment complex for Google, treating the building as a product. It tests resolving an ambiguous brief, choosing a resident segment, mapping their pain points to features, and weighing risks such as an employer acting as landlord and in-home device privacy.