Next-gen vending kiosk for Bay Area World Cup 2026 stadiums and how many to deploy

The Bay Area will be one of the host regions for the 2026 soccer World Cup. You are the product manager asked to design a futuristic vending machine that will be installed inside the host stadiums for the tournament. While presenting the design, you also need to estimate how many of these machines one stadium would need. ### Clarifying Questions - Who deploys and owns the machines (the stadium's concessions operator, the tournament organizer or a vending partner), and is success judged on revenue, fan experience or both? - What may the machine sell: packaged drinks and snacks only, or also hot food, alcohol and tournament merchandise, and do sponsorship deals limit which brands can appear? - Are the machines temporary for the tournament, or will they stay for the stadium's regular events afterward? - What seating capacity and number of matches per stadium should the sizing assume? ### Part 1 — Design the machine Decide which fans and which match-day problems the machine is for, then describe the machine and the experience around it, from ordering to pickup to restocking. Make clear what is futuristic about it and why that matters to a fan in a packed stadium rather than being a gimmick. ```hint Think about the clock A stadium crowd does not buy evenly through the event, and a World Cup crowd is unusually mixed. Ask what a fan gives up while queuing and which fans would struggle with an ordinary machine. ``` #### What This Part Should Cover - A chosen user focus within a World Cup crowd and the match-day pain points that justify the machine. - A concrete, prioritized feature set covering ordering, payment, language, accessibility and restocking. - Operating realities of a full venue, such as network load, peak demand and safety. ### Part 2 — How many per stadium Estimate how many machines one host stadium needs. State each assumption, show the arithmetic and explain which part of a match day drives the number. ```hint Average or peak Decide whether the count should come from average demand across the event or from its busiest window, and work out how many purchases one machine can complete in that time. ``` #### What This Part Should Cover - An equation that links attendance, buying rate, timing of demand and per-machine throughput. - Labeled round-number assumptions and correct arithmetic. - A sanity check plus an allowance for downtime, restocking and placement. ### What a Strong Answer Covers - A clear link between design and sizing: features such as ordering ahead change how fast one machine serves fans, and therefore how many are needed. - Success metrics with guardrails, such as wait time, stock-outs, failed payments and lost sales at staffed stands. - Risks specific to a short, global tournament: congested networks, sponsor rules and what happens to the machines afterward. - An explicit split between what ships for the tournament and what comes later. ### Follow-up Questions - The stadium's mobile network is congested during a sold-out match. How does your machine still take payments and release pre-ordered items? - The concessions operator fears the machines will take sales from its staffed stands. How would you measure whether they add revenue? - If twice as many fans as you assumed order ahead, how does your machine count change?