Pick a goal and a user segment for Yelp, then design and measure an improvement
Company: Yelp
Role: Product Manager
Category: Product Design & Strategy
Difficulty: medium
Interview Round: Other
You are a product manager at Yelp, the platform people use to find, compare and review local businesses such as restaurants, salons and home-repair services. You have been asked to propose one meaningful improvement to the product.
Explain which goal you would pursue, which users you would build for, what you would build first and how you would measure whether it worked.
```hint Find the job Yelp does poorly
People open Yelp for very different jobs, from picking dinner tonight to hiring a plumber. Look for a group whose job Yelp only half supports today, where closing the gap would also move the goal you chose.
```
### Clarifying Questions
- Should the improvement serve consumers looking for businesses, or business owners who manage listings, reply to reviews and buy ads?
- Is there a goal leadership cares about most right now: consumer engagement, more reviews and photos contributed, more actions such as reservations and quote requests, or advertising revenue?
- Is the ask prompted by a known problem, such as falling engagement or stale reviews, or is it open-ended?
- Should I focus on the mobile app or the website, and on one market first?
### What a Strong Answer Covers
- The value Yelp delivers on each side of its marketplace, and a chosen goal with a reason it fits a mature product.
- Consumer segments defined by the job they use Yelp for, compared on size, frequency and how well Yelp serves them today, with a justified focus.
- Pain points of the chosen segment and solutions tied to them, prioritized into a first version that builds on businesses and content Yelp already has.
- A primary metric tied to the goal, with guardrails for review integrity, the experience of businesses and advertising revenue.
### Follow-up Questions
- Your feature raises sessions per user, but the share of searches that end in a call, reservation or directions request falls. Do you ship it?
- How would businesses take part in your first version, and could the change affect what they are willing to pay for ads?
- How would you stop businesses or fake accounts from gaming the new feature?
Overview: A product improvement question about Yelp, the local business discovery and review platform. Candidates choose a goal, segment consumers by the jobs they use Yelp for, pick an underserved group, and design a prioritized first version with success metrics and guardrails.