Taking Digital Scent to Market: First Customers, Business Model and Launch Plan
Company: Google
Role: Product Manager
Category: Product Design & Strategy
Difficulty: medium
Interview Round: Other
Your company has developed technology that can digitize smell, and you are asked how you would launch it as a new service. You may treat the company as a new digital startup or as a cloud-based service that hosts scents for others. Walk through the full go-to-market strategy and the issues you would need to think about along the way.
```hint Look at both ends of the wire
A digital scent is only useful if someone has equipment to capture it and someone has equipment to release it. Ask who would pay for that equipment first, and why.
```
### Clarifying Questions
- What exactly can the technology do: record a smell, store it as a file, recreate it on demand, or all three? What hardware does each step need?
- Should I pick between building our own product as a startup and hosting scents for other companies as a cloud service, or plan for both?
- How close is a recreated smell to the original, and has it been tested for safety?
- Is the first goal adoption, revenue or proving the technology to partners, and over what time frame?
### What a Strong Answer Covers
- A clear picture of what the technology enables and the constraints it brings, such as hardware at both ends, accuracy and safety.
- A structured scan of consumer and business uses, with a reasoned choice of first market and of business model.
- The core go-to-market plan for that choice: target customer, value proposition, pricing, sales channels and launch sequence.
- Considerations beyond marketing: safety and regulation, ownership and protection of scent files, misuse, privacy and the supply of consumables.
- Success metrics for each phase and a path from the first market to wider adoption.
### Follow-up Questions
- Early customers say a recreated scent is close but not quite right. How do you decide whether to launch?
- What would need to be true before you sell to consumers, and what would the first consumer product be?
- How would you price a hosted scent library: per device, per scent played or by subscription?
Overview: A product strategy interview prompt about launching a technology that digitizes smell, run either as a new startup or as a cloud service that hosts scents. It tests use-case discovery, choosing a first market and business model, full go-to-market planning, and risks such as safety, hardware adoption and scent intellectual property.