Growing OpenTable's adoption: choosing growth levers and how to evaluate them

You are a product manager at OpenTable, the online restaurant reservation service, and you are asked how you would grow its user base. Explain whose growth you would focus on, which levers you would pull and in what order, and which metrics and evaluation approach you would use to judge whether the effort is working. ```hint Map who depends on whom Before choosing levers, sketch the groups that use OpenTable and what each one gets from the others; then decide where one more unit of growth creates the most value for everyone else. ``` ### Clarifying Questions - Does "user base" mean the restaurants that use OpenTable, the diners who book through it, or both? - Which markets are in scope: cities where OpenTable already lists many restaurants, or places where its coverage is thin? - Does growth mean sign-ups, or users who keep booking or seating guests month after month? - Can restaurant pricing change, or should the growth come from product and distribution alone? ### What a Strong Answer Covers - A stated choice of which users to grow, justified by how restaurants and diners depend on each other - A diagnosis of where growth stalls for that group, from first awareness through retention - Levers compared on impact, effort and risk, ending in a sequenced plan - A precisely defined primary metric, supporting funnel metrics, and guardrails that protect the other side of the service - An evaluation method suited to each lever, with a decision rule set in advance ### Follow-up Questions - A rival reservation platform cuts its fees for restaurants in one of your target cities. How do you respond? - How would you tell whether a surge in new diner accounts is creating value for restaurants? - If your first lever shows no movement after a quarter, how do you decide whether to persist or stop?