Lead Netflix's Strategic Direction for the Coming Decade
Company: Netflix
Role: Product Manager
Category: Product Design & Strategy
Difficulty: medium
Interview Round: Other
You have just become the chief executive of Netflix. Set out the strategy you would pursue for the company over the next ten years: what Netflix should aim to become, the major bets you would make to get there, and the order in which you would make them.
```hint Look outward before choosing bets
Before proposing anything, work out how Netflix's market is likely to change over ten years (who owns the content, where people's viewing time is going, how video gets made and paid for), so that each bet answers a specific threat or opening.
```
### Clarifying Questions
- What should the strategy be judged on: revenue and profit growth, global reach, share of viewing time or long-term defensibility, or should I propose the objective myself?
- Are moves beyond subscription streaming, such as games, live events, consumer products or acquisitions, within scope?
- Should the plan treat Netflix as one global business, or address markets at different stages of streaming adoption separately?
- Is today's level of content spending a constraint, or can the strategy call for spending more or less?
### What a Strong Answer Covers
- An objective and ambition for the decade, and why it fits Netflix's mission and economics
- An honest read of Netflix's position: strengths to build on, weaknesses, and who it competes with for viewers' time
- The industry shifts expected over ten years and what each implies for Netflix
- A few strategic bets compared on explicit criteria and sequenced across the decade, including what Netflix would stop or decline to do
- Milestones and metrics that show the strategy is on track, and the risks that would trigger a change of course
### Follow-up Questions
- If generative video tools let almost anyone make polished films cheaply, what happens to Netflix's advantage, and how does your strategy respond?
- Which of your bets would you cut first if margins came under pressure in the next two years, and why that one?
- What would you expect to see by year three to know the strategy is working?
Overview: A product strategy interview question that puts the candidate in the chief executive's seat at Netflix and asks for a ten-year plan. It tests reading the streaming market and the wider competition for viewing time, choosing and sequencing a few strategic bets, and defining how progress would be measured.