Google's Role in Easing the Early-2020 PPE Shortage: A Product Strategy Case
Company: Google
Role: Product Manager
Category: Product Design & Strategy
Difficulty: medium
Interview Round: Other
It is March 2020. COVID-19 is spreading quickly, and personal protective equipment (PPE) such as masks, gloves and gowns is in short supply for the people who need it. As a product manager at Google, what could Google have done at that moment to help with the PPE problem? Decide where Google could make the biggest difference, propose what it should build or do, prioritize, and explain how you would measure whether it helped.
```hint Split the shortage into parts
"The PPE problem" covers several different failures, from too little production to supplies sitting in the wrong places and buyers being scammed. Decide which of them Google could actually move within weeks, given what it already runs.
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### Clarifying Questions
- Is the goal to help healthcare workers get equipment, to help the general public protect itself, or both?
- Should the answer stay within Google's products (Search, Maps, YouTube, Ads, Cloud), or may it also use Google's money, purchasing power and supplier relationships?
- Is the scope the United States, where Google is headquartered, or a global response?
- What counts as success here: actions that ship within days or weeks, or longer-term changes to how protective equipment is supplied?
### What a Strong Answer Covers
- Breaking "the PPE issue" into distinct problems (supply, allocation and matching, fraud and price gouging, public guidance) and choosing where to focus.
- Mapping those problems to assets Google actually has, and arguing why Google is a useful actor next to governments and manufacturers.
- Concrete, prioritized initiatives that fit the urgency of the early pandemic, with the partners each one needs.
- Success metrics tied to equipment reaching frontline workers, with guardrails.
- Risks such as counterfeit gear, changing health guidance, sensitive data and Google's role relative to public health authorities.
### Follow-up Questions
- If official guidance on whether the public should wear masks changed within weeks, how would Google's information surfaces handle it without losing trust?
- If you could launch only one initiative in the first two weeks, which would it be and why?
- How would you keep a donation or supply-matching tool from being exploited by scammers and resellers?
Overview: A product strategy question asking what Google could have done in March 2020 to help with the shortage of personal protective equipment during the early COVID-19 surge. It tests breaking a crisis into parts, matching them to Google's assets, prioritizing fast initiatives and choosing outcome metrics.