Two-Week Plan for a CEO Review of Microsoft Shifts Performance and Next Bets
Company: Microsoft
Role: Product Manager
Category: Product Design & Strategy
Difficulty: medium
Interview Round: Other
The CEO wants a presentation on how Microsoft Shifts is performing today and how it could be improved, and you have two weeks to get it ready. How would you prepare it?
```hint Plan backward from the decision
A CEO review usually feeds a decision about where to invest. Figure out what the CEO should be able to decide after your presentation, then work out which evidence about Shifts you can realistically gather and check in two weeks.
```
### Clarifying Questions
- What prompted the request: a specific concern such as slow adoption among frontline customers or competitive pressure, an upcoming investment decision, or a routine portfolio review?
- How long is the slot, and does the CEO expect a pre-read document or a live deck?
- Am I the PM who owns Shifts, with direct access to its usage, licensing and support data, or am I coming to it fresh?
- Should "performance" include business results such as the effect on frontline license sales and renewals, or focus on usage and customer satisfaction?
### What a Strong Answer Covers
- Clarifying the purpose and audience, then building the story answer-first around the decision the CEO needs to make.
- A realistic two-week plan: data to pull, people to talk to, quick research that fits the time, and stakeholder reviews before the meeting.
- A definition of Shifts' performance that covers both the managers who build schedules and the frontline workers who use them, tied to business value and compared against goals or alternatives.
- Improvement options that follow from a diagnosis, prioritized by impact, confidence and cost, with a clear ask.
- Honest handling of weak results, data gaps and likely CEO questions.
### Follow-up Questions
- With one week left, you find that two teams define an "active Shifts user" differently and their numbers disagree. What do you do?
- License counts look strong, but few frontline workers open Shifts in a typical week. How do you present that?
- The CEO stops you on the second slide and asks whether Microsoft should keep investing in Shifts at all. How do you answer?
Overview: A Microsoft product strategy question: with two weeks to prepare, plan a presentation for the CEO on how Microsoft Shifts is performing and where it could improve. It tests framing the decision behind the request, choosing the right performance metrics, gathering evidence quickly, and turning a diagnosis into clear recommendations.