Product Design: Helping People in India Communicate Across Languages

Design a product that helps people in India communicate across language barriers. ```hint Find where the barrier bites The barrier is not one problem: it looks different for a worker who moves to another state, a patient talking to a doctor, and a first-time internet user facing English-only services. Choose one situation, then ask whether those users mainly read, type or speak. ``` ### Clarifying Questions - Which situation should the product target: people who move between states, citizens using English-only services such as banking and government, or businesses serving customers who speak other languages? - Is the barrier mainly spoken conversation, written text, or both, and how much can we assume about users' literacy? - Should this be a consumer app, a feature in existing Microsoft products, or a service that businesses and government offices deploy? - What devices and connectivity should we design for? ### What a Strong Answer Covers - Grounding in how language diversity works in India, including many official languages, mixed-language speech and uneven literacy - A chosen user group and situation, with pain points specific to it - A solution that works with low literacy, low-cost phones and patchy connectivity, prioritized into a first version - How the product handles translation errors where the stakes are high, such as health or money - Success metrics, guardrails, and why the product fits Microsoft's strengths ### Follow-up Questions - Translation quality is strong for the most widely spoken languages and poor for smaller languages and dialects. How would you decide where to invest, and how would you improve quality there? - How would the product earn money, or justify its cost to Microsoft, if the people who need it most cannot pay? - A user relies on the product during a medical consultation and the translation is wrong. What should the design have done to prevent harm?