Product Design for Airline Cabins: A Google Entertainment Platform for Passengers and Carriers

Google wants to offer an in-flight entertainment system for airline passengers under its own brand. Design it. ```hint Two customers, one cabin The airline buys the system and the passenger uses it, and they judge it differently. Decide whose problem you lead with, and what the aircraft makes hard, before choosing features. ``` ### Clarifying Questions - Is the buyer the airline, with passengers as users, or would Google sell to passengers directly? - Does the system include seatback screens and onboard hardware, software that streams to passengers' own devices, or both? - Which flights matter most: long-haul routes with seatback screens, or short flights where passengers rely on their own devices? - How should it make money: airline licensing, a share of in-flight purchases, ads or subscriptions? ### What a Strong Answer Covers - The ecosystem of airline, passengers, crew and content owners, and a reasoned choice of the primary customer and passenger segment - Pain points specific to watching, working or passing time on a plane - A concrete product that uses Google's assets in ways a generic vendor could not, prioritized against the airline's constraints - Aviation realities: limited connectivity, certification, safety announcements, shared screens and long hardware cycles - Metrics for passengers and for the airline, plus the risks to the Google brand ### Follow-up Questions - How would you handle personal accounts on a screen that a different passenger uses on the next flight? - What would you change for a budget airline that has no seatback screens? - How would you convince an airline to replace a system it installed only a few years ago?