Product sense: plan a school-specific map app, from users to success metrics

You are a product manager asked to design a map app for a school, with no further detail from the interviewer. Decide what kind of school and which users you are designing for, identify the problems the app should solve for them, propose and prioritize features, and define how you would measure success. ```hint Let the school decide the user A primary school, a high school and a large university need very different things from a map. Settle the type of school and the person who opens the app, then walk through a specific moment in their day when they cannot find something. ``` ### Clarifying Questions - What kind of school is it: a primary or secondary school, or a university with many buildings spread over a large campus? - Does "mapping" mean getting around the grounds (buildings, entrances, rooms), or also finding things and people on them, such as services, events or friends? - Is this for one school or a product many schools would adopt, and who pays for it: the school or its users? - Who is the primary user: students, faculty and staff, or visitors such as parents and prospective students? ### What a Strong Answer Covers - A chosen school type and meaning of "mapping", and how that choice shapes the users and constraints - User groups compared, with one primary user chosen and justified - Pain points drawn from concrete moments in that user's time at the school, ranked by frequency and severity - Features prioritized with explicit criteria, including where the map and room data come from and how they stay current - Success metrics with guardrails, plus the main risks and how to mitigate them ### Follow-up Questions - How would your design change if the school sat at the other end of the range, a primary school instead of a large university or the reverse? - Phone location is often unreliable indoors. How would you guide someone to a room inside a large building, and what happens when positioning fails? - How would you take the product from one school to thousands, and who would keep each school's map up to date?