Product Design Exercise: A Writing Pen Built Around Kids' Needs
Company: Google
Role: Product Manager
Category: Product Design & Strategy
Difficulty: medium
Interview Round: Other
Design a pen made for children to use.
```hint Separate user from buyer
The child holds the pen, but adults buy it and decide where it is allowed. Decide whose problem you are solving first before listing features.
```
### Clarifying Questions
- What age range should I design for: children just learning to write, or older children moving from pencil to pen at school?
- Is this a conventional ink pen, or is a connected or digital pen also in scope?
- Is the main use schoolwork, drawing and creative play, or both?
- Is there a target market or price point I should design for?
### What a Strong Answer Covers
- The difference between the users (children) and the buyers and gatekeepers (parents, teachers, schools), and a chosen segment
- Pain points grounded in how that age group actually writes: grip, mistakes, smudging, running out of ink, losing parts
- Concrete design solutions, with child safety and durability treated as requirements rather than features
- A prioritized first version that weighs impact on the child against manufacturing cost and price
- Success measures for children, parents and teachers, plus risks and a plan to test the design with children
### Follow-up Questions
- How would you test the design with children before committing to manufacturing?
- What would change if a school district, rather than parents, were the main buyer?
- Would you add electronics to the pen, and what would justify the higher price?
Overview: A classic product design question: design a pen for children. It tests separating child users from the parents and teachers who buy and approve the pen, finding real pain points in how kids write, treating safety as a requirement, prioritizing a first version against cost, and defining how success is measured.