Google Slides Metrics: What to Track and How to Pick Three KPIs

You are the data scientist for Google Slides, the presentation editor in which people create decks, edit them together in real time, comment on and share them, and present them to an audience. The interviewer asks two things: which metrics you would track and why, and, if you had to choose three of those metrics as KPIs, how you would choose them. The report does not say which team or goal the metrics serve. Treat the whole product as the scope unless the interviewer narrows it, and say so. ### Clarifying Questions - Is the scope the whole product, or one area such as collaboration or presenting? - Which users matter most: individuals, students and teachers, or organizations using Slides as part of a paid productivity suite? - Who will use the KPIs: leadership reviewing product health each quarter, or a product team setting goals that experiments should move? - Do the mobile apps count, or only the web editor? ### Part 1 — Metrics to track List the metrics you would track for Slides, define each one precisely, and explain why each belongs. ```hint Follow one deck Trace a single deck from its creation to the people who finally see it, and ask what can be measured at each step. ``` ```hint Usage comes in bursts People often open a presentation tool around a meeting or a deadline rather than every day. Ask what that means for the activity window you choose. ``` #### What This Part Should Cover - A product goal stated first, with the metrics derived from it - Coverage of a deck's life: creation, editing, collaboration, sharing and presenting, and return use, plus reliability - Precise definitions: what counts as active, the time window, and whether the unit is a user or a deck ### Part 2 — Choose three KPIs If you had to pick three of these metrics as the product's KPIs, how would you choose them? Give your selection criteria, the three you would pick and why, and what you would monitor alongside them. ```hint Avoid three views of one thing If two candidates rise and fall together, ask what the second one adds. ``` ```hint Try to game it For each candidate, think of a cheap way a team could raise it without making users better off. ``` #### What This Part Should Cover - Explicit selection criteria tied to user value, sensitivity to product changes and resistance to gaming - Three complementary KPIs with precise definitions and the reason for each - Guardrail metrics, and the popular metrics deliberately left out, with the reason ### What a Strong Answer Covers - A product goal that anchors every metric - Precise metric definitions, including the meaning of active and the time window - Awareness that presentation work is bursty, and that the product's value includes collaborators and audiences, not only the person editing - KPI selection that balances breadth of use, delivered value and retention, with guardrails - Segmentation by user type and platform, and an honest account of each KPI's blind spots ### Follow-up Questions - Weekly active editors drop sharply one week while deck views stay flat. How would you investigate? - How would you check that your three KPIs actually predict long-term retention? - How would the KPIs change for a team that owns only real-time collaboration? - Time spent editing rises after a redesign. Is that good news, and how would you tell?