Grocery delivery app: design a trial offer that overcomes distrust of fresh produce
Company: Shopify
Role: Product Manager
Category: Product Design & Strategy
Difficulty: medium
Interview Round: Other
An online grocery delivery app has spotted a pattern: customers regularly buy from its other categories but skip fresh fruits and vegetables, because they believe the produce it sells is of poor quality. To change that perception, the company plans to launch a feature called "Try & Buy" for the fruits and vegetables category. As the product manager, how would you design it?
```hint Locate the risk
Shoppers cannot touch or smell produce before it arrives. Pin down the moment in the order when the customer should get to try it, and what they would be risking at that moment.
```
### Clarifying Questions
- What should "try" mean here: a free sample added to an order, a small paid trial pack, or the chance to inspect produce at the door and refuse it at no cost?
- Is the quality concern backed by evidence, such as high complaint or refund rates on produce, or is it mainly a perception that actual quality does not justify?
- Which customers is the feature for: shoppers who have never bought produce in the app, or those who bought once and stopped?
- How much free product or refund cost is the business willing to absorb for each customer it wins over?
### What a Strong Answer Covers
- A goal tied to the scenario: turning existing customers of other categories into repeat produce buyers.
- Pain points rooted in buying produce sight unseen, and a design that removes the customer's risk at a specific point in the journey.
- Concrete mechanics: who is eligible, what they receive, and the path from trying to buying.
- Operational and cost realities: representative sample quality, fulfillment, abuse limits and unit economics.
- Success metrics with guardrails, and a test that shows the feature changes buying behavior rather than just giving away product.
### Follow-up Questions
- Customers rate their samples highly, but few go on to buy produce. What would you investigate?
- How would you stop one household from collecting trials through several accounts?
- If inspections show the produce really is worse than at local stores, what would you do with the launch?
Overview: Design a Try & Buy feature for the fruits and vegetables category of an online grocery delivery app whose customers buy other categories but avoid produce because they doubt its quality. It tests user segmentation, trial mechanics, operations and unit economics, and success metrics.
