Restaurant Post-Meal Product for Diners, and Why No Such Product Exists Yet

Design a product that improves the restaurant experience for diners in the stretch after they have finished eating. After you present your design, the interviewer asks a second question: why doesn't a product like this already exist? ### Clarifying Questions - Where does "after the meal" end: at the table until the diners leave (waiting for the check, paying, splitting, taking leftovers), or does it include what happens after they leave, such as feedback and coming back? - Which restaurants are in scope: full-service sit-down restaurants, where diners wait for the check, or also counter-service places where people pay before eating? - Can the product require changes on the restaurant's side, such as connecting to its point-of-sale system, or must it work for diners alone? - Is this a new feature for a large company with existing maps, payments or social products, or a standalone startup? ### Part 1 — Design the post-meal product Choose the diners and the post-meal moment you will improve, then lay out their pain points, your solution, a first version and how you would measure success. ```hint Last bite to the door List each step between finishing the food and walking out, and for each one note who is waiting on whom. ``` #### What This Part Should Cover - A clear post-meal scope and a reasoned choice of diner segment - Pain points in that window, ranked by how often they occur and how much they hurt - A prioritized first version, including what the restaurant and its staff must do - Success metrics for diners and for restaurants ### Part 2 — Why it does not exist yet Explain why a product like yours is not already in common use. Then describe a general approach you would use whenever an interviewer asks why some product does not exist. ```hint Test the premise first Before listing barriers, ask whether some version of this already exists somewhere. If it does, the real question is why it has not spread. ``` #### What This Part Should Cover - A check on whether partial versions exist and why they have not spread - Barriers on each side: diner demand, restaurant and staff incentives, integration and economics - What has changed, or would need to change, for the product to work now, and how that shapes the design - A reusable structure for any "why doesn't this exist?" question ### What a Strong Answer Covers - A design and a market explanation that are consistent with each other: the barriers named in Part 2 are addressed or knowingly accepted in Part 1 - The restaurant and its servers treated as stakeholders who must adopt the product, not as a backdrop - A clear recommendation on whether to build it, with the evidence that would confirm or change it ### Follow-up Questions - Faster payment frees tables sooner, but servers may fear smaller tips. How would you win over restaurant staff? - How would tipping customs and the usual way of paying in a given country change the design for a launch there? - Restaurants already pay card processing fees. Who should pay for your product, and how would that choice affect adoption?