Pick a transformative bet for the restaurant industry and plan its rollout as CEO
Company: Google
Role: Product Manager
Category: Product Design & Strategy
Difficulty: medium
Interview Round: Other
You are the CEO of a company whose ambition is to transform the restaurant industry, not merely to compete in it. What would you do?
Explain where in the industry you would aim, which bet you would make and why, and how you would turn that bet into a business.
```hint Look for the shared constraint
Restaurants run into a handful of structural limits on how much they earn and how far they can grow. Find the limit whose removal would change the business for the most restaurants or diners, then ask whether your company could realistically remove it.
```
### Clarifying Questions
- What should "revolutionize" mean here: a new business model, technology that changes how restaurants operate, or a radically different experience for diners?
- Is the company starting from nothing, or does it bring assets such as capital, technology or an existing customer base?
- Is a particular part of the industry in scope, such as independent restaurants, chains, fine dining, quick service or delivery?
- What time horizon and appetite for risk should the plan assume?
### What a Strong Answer Covers
- A working definition of "revolutionize" and a chosen segment of the industry, with the reason for the choice
- A diagnosis of the industry's structural problems from both the operator's and the diner's side
- Several distinct strategic bets, compared on explicit criteria such as size of the prize, feasibility, defensibility and time to impact
- A recommended bet with a concrete entry point, business model and phased roadmap
- How progress would be measured and the main risks to the bet
### Follow-up Questions
- Large restaurant software and delivery companies could copy your entry product within a year. What keeps your company ahead?
- Your first customers run on thin margins and have little time for new tools. How do you get them to adopt the product and pay for it?
- The interviewer says your plan sounds incremental. How would you make it bolder without making it unrealistic?
Overview: A product strategy prompt that asks the candidate, as CEO, how a company could fundamentally transform the restaurant industry. It tests defining an ambitious goal, diagnosing structural problems for restaurants and diners, comparing strategic bets on explicit criteria, and turning the chosen bet into an entry product, roadmap and metrics.