What's your favorite product and why?

Whats your favorite product? Why?

My favorite product is tandem partner. I came to know about this product when I was learning German language and one of my German teachers suggested me to join this group where like minded people share thoughts and learn languages. This works in such a way that two people learn languages by exchangin the language skills of what each knows e.g. If one person know German and other person is fluent in Hindi, then they exchange learning by helping each other master different langauges each fluent in one particular langauge.

How do you go about improving the product?

GOAL: to improve the Tandem partner langauge learning tool and to improve user adoption and user engagement.

User Segments:

Young adults- Young adults form the greatest segment of users as they are are fastest learners and engage themselves actively in socializing and learning languages by such tools. adults-Adults 9-6 office goers do not have enough time to learn a language expecially through tandem partner community and this is the weak segment of users for us. senior citizens-retirees and secnior citizens form second largets segments of users. Language learning is not age restraint and senior citizens also play largest segment of user in learning languages through different means known to them.

Prioritization:

Painpoints:

Word of mouth: Tandem partner is known to few people like me as a word of mouth but many doesn't know the product usage and benefits. Fake users: Fake users trying to impersonate genuine language learners leading to spam and phishing. Flirts: Users instead of engaging in genuine language learning they try to flirt with young ladies and waste time. Illegitimate Social Contacts: Users try to make social contact by trying to meet in person which damages the healthy social contact and trying to become too personal and leading to lifetime scams.

Prioritization: I would like to prioritize the Word of mouth pain point which is responsible for user adoption and engagment.

SOlutions:

Banners and marketting in social networking sites: Social networking sites such as facebook and instagram could have banners and feeds that show the usage of tander partner and its benefits in a postive way.

Security: Genuine users can be flagged with a green tick mark that allows legitimate users trust and continue the health conversation.

Meets up and Greets : When the discussion become too personal, users could lay down boundaries for healthier conversation and have the meetups and greets only for language exchangin purposes.

Prioritization: Banners and marketting in social networking platforms will enable the platform to be reached out to more yound adults and senior citizens and therby improve user adoption and user enagement.

Tradeoffs:

There are chances of getting side tracked with illegitimate people which the platform could improve security features and testing of legitimate users.

Metrics: Number of Apps downloaded and registered, DAU, WAU, MAU

Interviewer: What's your favorite product?

Clarify

MV: Are you referring to a specific type of product, like software, hardware, or consumer goods, or is any product acceptable?

Interviewer: Any product.

MV: Could you clarify if you want my favorite product from a general consumer’s perspective or a product management analysis?

Interviewer: Let's go with general consumer perspective.

Confirm

MV: Hmm [Pause]
I would love to tell you why the Philips Sonicare electric toothbrush is one of my favorite products, if that's OK. Can I have a minute to gather my thoughts?

Interviewer: Sure.

[1 minute later]

State Approach

MV:

1. First, I’ll give a brief overview of the product.
2. Then, I’ll explain why it’s my favorite by highlighting the main issues it solved for me and its impact on my daily life.
3. Finally, I’ll suggest some potential improvements.

Interviewer: OK.

MV: My favorite product is the Philips Sonicare electric toothbrush. It uses sonic technology for superior cleaning and features multiple modes, a timer, and smart sensors for real-time feedback. I started with a basic model and later upgraded to one with additional features like a UV sanitizer. Me and my husband have been using it daily. We have one toothbrush and two brush heads, which we attach when needed and then place into the sanitizer after use.

This toothbrush is my favorite because it has significantly improved my oral care and seamlessly fits into my daily routine. As a child with many dental problems, I took oral hygiene seriously as an adult and tried various electric toothbrushes. However, all of them had similar issues:

• Battery problems: They lost charge quickly and the batteries often died.
• Fragility: Many were difficult to repair or replace, making it cheaper to replace the entire toothbrush.
• Moderate Cleaning Quality: They didn’t offer a significant improvement over manual brushing.

The Philips Sonicare, on the other hand, solves these biggest pain points for me:

• Battery life: It features a 14-day battery life with a low battery indicator, and it stays charged on its station. So I don't have to remember to charge it.
• Durability: It comes with a two-year warranty, and the only issue we had was after four years of daily use.
• Superior Cleaning Quality: The cleaning is excellent.
• Hygiene: The UV sanitizer helps keep the brush heads clean.
• Organization: I don't like clutter, so I really enjoy having a brush, two heads, a charging station, and a sanitizer all in one organized spot.
• Timer: The built-in timer ensures I brush for the recommended two minutes, making my brushing routine consistent and thorough. One of my main problems using manual brushes was that I wouldn't brush long enough. But with this brush I don't have to worry: I turn it on, brush a different area when I feel the distinct vibration signal, and when 2min are up, it stops! It's really addictive.

As someone who prioritizes oral health and enjoys integrating technology into my routine, the Philips Sonicare has become essential to my dental care. My dentist frequently praises my oral health, attributing it to the effectiveness of this toothbrush.

Do you have any questions so far?

Interviewer: Yes, how would you change the product?

MV: Sure. Here are a few suggestions:

• Enhanced App Integration: Enable multiple user profiles in the app for shared toothbrushes.
• Brush Head Design: Add a tongue cleaning feature to the brush head for improved oral hygiene.
• Sustainability Improvements: Use recyclable materials for brush heads and packaging, and consider a recycling program.

My favorite product is Google Assistant. The Google Assistant is a virtual assistant software application, which is primarily available on mobile and home automation devices.

Users

• Google Assistant is one of the most used virtual assistants across android users.
• There's a variety of users from the older, less tech-savvy user, to the millennial super user.
• For me, I'm a power user who understands the ins-and-outs of the product and utilizes it to the best of its ability. This includes reading web pages read aloud, get advice on where to drink, eat, travel, book movie tickets, and many more.

Pain points

• Users in hurry sometimes forget to switch of lights, TV or other home appliances
• Users are too busy and cannot manage their time wisely without assistants.
• Driving and attending important call/messages can place human’s life at risk
• Restaurant search, google search is difficult for non-native English speakers

Competitors

• Before Google Assistant, users used Siri as voice assistant, but Siri was locked to the Apple ecosystem and lacked relevance in preforming tasks.
• Siri lacks third party-integration to support wide range of services. Additionally, the knowledge base of Siri relies on Wikipedia and apple maps, which fails to provide accurate information.
• For instance, when I asked the assistants to read the news, Google Assistant immediately started playing a recent NPR podcast, while Siri Googled several news sources. I noticed throughout many different tasks that Siri rarely responded aloud, while Google Assistant nearly always did.

Problem addressing

• Google Assistant came into market and focused on both Android and iOS users.
• When it comes to identifying context, Google Assistant uses advanced NLP algorithms providing more accurate and nuanced voice recognition. Furthermore, the google assistant excels in providing accurate and comprehensive information by leveraging its powerful search engine.
• With google maps integration, google assistant offers special features like street view and public transportation.

Improvements

• I think Google Assistant is awesome, but if I were to improve it, I'd look to capture new market segment and make this app compatible for visually impaired users.
• With the smart stick design for blind integrated with google assistant app, visually impaired people can travel at any place without any assistance. Specially, it will guide visually impaired people to track and overcome any obstacles on their way from source to destination by themselves will be a huge help for them.

Summarize

• To sum up, I would say my favorite product is Google Assistant - Google's virtual assistant.
• Before Google Assistant, virtual assistant was only available for Apple ecosystem, but Google Assistant was able to capture both android and iOS users with third party-integration, that enhances the web user experience.
• If I were to improve it, I'd capture new market segment and make this app compatible for visual impaired people.

Clarifying Questions (optional):

• Would you like a hardware or software product?

Overview (What it is, why you like it, and why is it valuable) My favorite product is Duolingo. Duolingo is a language-learning app that makes learning and exploring new languages accessible and entertaining. My New Year's resolution was to learn a new language, and it has allowed me to learn anywhere, anytime. Its also does a great job gamifying and making the learning process social, which has helped keep my interest.

Questions:

1. software or hardware?
2. Assuming you’re asking about a product that I love?

My response: I am passionate about doing research on the internet, to help me learn about all sorts of things from fitness, to data ecosystem, to coding. I use session buddy a chrome extension to organize my browser tabs as I’m researching. Users: It’s mostly for users who are curious and open a lot of tabs. For me, I utilize for multiple purposes to save tabs for different projects I am working on. Likes: makes it simple to find the tab I was looking for when I need it. I like to group my tabs by subject. Syncs between devices so I can keep on going. Pain points:

• many open tabs, difficult to stay organized.
• emotionally a user gets overwhelmed.
• Risk: Chrome crashes and lose all the work.

Competitors:

• browser’s native bookmark feature - this is useful for sites that you visit regularly, like gmail and news, but would be come overwhelmed with saving many tabs for one-time use.
• Pocket: saving pdf’s of sites and making them available online and offline, this is helpful but still need videos and functionality on the webpages themselves. No way to organize content.

Address Pinpoint better than competitors: Session buddy does this through deep user empathy understanding of user flow. My Session buddy pre-populates the tabs you have open, all you have to do is select which to save, have the ability to save into different groupings based on subject. To make it better:

1. LLM feature to summarize the pages and answer questions based on the pages that are in the application.
2. Recommendations that could look at similarities in the pages, maybe look at backlinking and suggest commonly referenced webpages to visit.
3. Turn pages to audio and have them read to you like a podcast. For consumption on the go.

Thinking about effort vs impact - the first 3 high effort and unclear impact. Let’s start with lower effort and see if we can get a quick win on turning pages into audio. Summary: My favorite product is my session buddy a browser extension for saving links. Before this users left many chrome windows open on their laptop, ultimately crashing it and losing their research. If I were to improve it I would experiment with adding a feature to make pages into audio so users can listen on the go.

My Favorite Product is Audible

Intro: Audible is part of the amazon ecosystem which is the most customer centric company in the world with a mission to b ethe place where customers can discover and buy almost anything. With that mission statement in perspective, audible is aimed at providing books and podcast available to customers with a mission to unleash the power of spoken language.

Competition: There are Mutiple players in the market when it comes to audio books like spotify, audiobooks, scribd, audio books , chirpbooks, apple books, audio books. However Audible has the largest collection of books available for free listening and purchase with a subscription cost which is not offered by most compete. With amazon purchasing audible in 2008, amazon ecommerce site customers get access to the audible database at an additional cost while competitors like scribd only offer a limited library which can only be rented for a month max.

Why did I choose Audible?

1. Audible is part of the amazon ecosystem which reduces the overhead of managing multiple accounts.
2. Audible does not have any limit on the number of devices actively listening to audible which works great as a family, each listener can independently listen to their own individual content while retaining the last page read location. Manage all books for the family under a single app.
3. Convenience -
   1. I personally prefer audible for its convenience, it was very hard to sit down and read book, - cost of purchasing books and managing them in bookshelf's is a huge overhead. Also being able to allocate even 20 minute of undistracted reading time was challenging. I could use audible while attending to mundane tasks - driving, workouts, cooking or even while putting kids to bed with air pods on. that is the biggest value add for me.
   2. Fast track mode and ad free
4. Lastly, audible has a vast collection of free books, books available to purchase which we can read over a period of time without any time constraints. Audible books are a way for authors to get brand recognition, which ensures that almost all bestsellers and top-rated books are available on a vast range of categories including fiction, kids, personal development etc.

How would you improve audible? In order to understand the areas to improve upon, lets first look at the personas audible caters to , understand what KPI to focus on based on which we can prioritize the persona and their pain-points. Subsequently determine the roadmap based on biggest value for the long term.

• Personas
  • Reader/ Listeners
    • Goals:
      • Maximize access to bestselling books, podcasts where I can continue reading and learning at my own pace. Let's focus on audio books listeners only.
      • Track my reading progress, books I have read, pace of reading.
      • get relevant recommendations.
  • Publishers/ Author:
    • Goals: maximize reach of their books to more audience, leveraging amazon ecosystem, add new revenue streams
    • get feedback/ star ratings
  • Amazon Business (not needed but adding for completeness here for KPI setting)
    • increase number of publishers and subscribed listeners on platform.
    • publish high quality books with high audio quality.
• Prioritized personas
  • As audible has been in business for a while, it has already established a steady stream of publishers. Also acquisition is not of relevance for audible with a strong user base already established. Audible also has a very good solid monetization strategy in place. I would prioritize improvements of the apps focused on driving delight/ CSAT for its listeners and making the product more engaging and easier to use. Hence Listeners Listeners person will be the focus for the rest of the discussion.

Top metric:

• number of books completed on platform
• number of books read by users in a month
• number of books purchased/ pinned/ favorited/ added to library in a month

User Journey: Login in, discover/browse books, read books, pause, resue, complete books

Listeners Pain points

1. Discovery:
   1. Single profile for all users in the family makes it harder to discover books without the need to browse quiet a bit, better categorization / organization of pinned books is not user friendly, - fiction, non fiction , kids, or user created categories or additio of profiles in the same account. Higher CSAT, ease of discovery may reduce user frustration, and motivate to discover books easily, in turn increasing the overall books users are reading on the platform
   2. More personalized book recommendations
   3. Price not listed during search results, adding friction/ additional step to filyter the books I can to purchase based on preferred price.

Prioritize a - as that can direclty link to easy discovery of books favoroted by users which can in turn drive up the number of books completed by users on the platform

Solutions:

1. Allow user to classify book into categories
2. allow multiple profiles to be shared under an account with opportunity to monetize after >10 users are added to an account.
   1. good from privacy and retention of last read page per user
3. Enable display book price on search results

Prioritize number 2 as will reduce the friction that currently exists with book discovery across shared account and therby improve number of books completed.

To structure my answer first I'll introduce my favorite app, the motivation and company mission, the users of the app, why I like it and if there's time we can discuss opportunities I see.

My favorite product is an app that I recently discovered through a friend. It's called Too Good To Go which is a food app that helps restaurants sell surplus food at steep discounts to customers. I love the app because it's a social good app that is targeting food waste and in parallel tackling affordability. At the end of the day restaurants can sell leftovers and make money rather than throwing away food. To use Too Good To Go, you simply open up the app and browse through to see which restaurants have surplus food to sell - the food or goods are sold at a lump sum cost and you buy a "surprise bag". "Surprise bag" is anything that the restaurant has left over at the end of the day.

If you look at the app from a holistic perspective, there's 3 sides to the ecosystem.

• Users: A user's motivation can be two fold. They're helping save the environment but at the same time can purchase food at a discounted price. On the app, there are a tons of great new restaurants that could be out of the users budget so it's a great way to still experience food. And, on the other hand if you were hoping to try out a new restaurant but weren't sure of the quality, Too Good To Go could be an opportunity to do so.
• Business: Business are motivated to use the platform to make money off of food that they would have thrown out and at the same time help save the planet.
• Company: The company's mission is to tackle the problem of food waste - which they're facilitating through the platform. The more businesses on the platform, the more money the company makes but also the more the company helps the planet.

I love the app because it's a social good app and had a sustainable business model for each part of the ecosystem. More importantly, I feel good when I use the app because not only am I benefitting but I'm helping the planet. Whenever I buy a surprise bag, the app tells me the impact I'm making. It shows a breakdown of the CO2e. It's amazing. The app is also easy to use, I can filter by my location, dietary needs and easily look at ratings. The app doesn't have review associated with restaurants which helps me save time on picking a restaurant, I don't have to read through lengthy reviews. However, the only downside is that I have to pick up my surprise bag at odd hours of the day because it's when businesses are closing. So sometimes it can be inconvenient when a pick up is at 8PM at night and I've already eaten dinner. However, I could always use the food for a meal prep.

Improvements:

1. pick up times - random, big pain point
   1. Solution: partner with delivery service, restaurants can do a better job at anticipating waste and have earlier pick up times
2. surprise back is a surprise - you don't know what you're getting and that might suck. Personal experience - I got a ham scone from a bakery once and I ended up giving it away because I don't eat ham
   1. Users leave pictures of their surprise bags
   2. users add reviews

Clarify

"What do you mean by favorite product? Are you thinking specifically hardware, software, or a feature within those, or something non-electronic? Dealer's Choice.

"Are you asking why I love this product, or to explain why this product is a market leader independent of how i feel about it? Talk about why YOU love this product.

Rephrase Question

With all that in mind, i want to rephrase the question. "What is your favorite software product and what features in this product do you use that make it your favorite?

Approach

1. I want to take a moment to think about a product that fits that description, then:
2. Introduce you to the product, and give a high-level overview of its functionality
3. Show you some of the features that solve my biggest pain points
4. Give a few examples of how this product has measurably improved my life
5. Finish with some suggestions on features I'd like to see added to the product in the future.

1 <take 60 seconds to gather thoughts>

2 Favorite Product

One of my favorite products that I use almost daily is JEFit. JEFit is a workout tracker on both mobile and desktop that allows users to create, track, and record weightlifting and cardio exercise sessions. JEFit also has a social component. As part of their profile, users can track body measurements, share progress photos, and share the workouts they created.

3 Top features in Product

• The "in-workout" experience is really smooth and allows me to focus on safely doing my exercises.
  • Remembers my reps and weights from the last time I did the exercise to determine what weights/reps i need to do in the present
  • Has a countdown timer between sets of exercises so I'm not taking too long of a break
  • Allows me to do "super-sets" i.e.: complete multiple exercises as a single set.
• Having a desktop experience allows for more screen estate to do more complex activities
  • Create and research workouts
  • update measurements

Any questions so far?

4 Measurable ways it's improved my life

• More efficiency while working out. Because of the countdown timer (And count-up timer for the entire workout), I'm able to stay on top of the work-out and decrease the amount of time I have to be in the gym. It also tracks the overall time of my workout.
• I can prove how much grown in the past few months.
  • I know for a fact that I can do more reps at a higher weight for specific exercises
  • I know for a fact that my weight has done down, and my body measurements are trending in the right direction

5 Improvements to JEFit

• Live tracking of outdoor cardio activities. I want to use GPS to track my runs and bike rides. I want better integration to track my swimming laps
• More exercises
  • New machines/apparatuses to record
  • Logic for increased variance in existing exercises
• Adding wearable companion apps to track reps so the user doesn't have to input them manually.

Favorite Product My favorite product is the Splitwise mobile App. It is my favorite product because it allows me to split bills with family and friends. I use this App almost every other day because I usually pay my bills in groups like rent, groceries with my roommates, uber fare, restaurant bills with my friends & colleagues and travel trips with family and friends. The App organizes all the shared expenses at one place.

Users

• Students sharing apartment rent, groceries and utility bills
• Friends hanging out for trips and vacations.
• Work colleagues sharing uber rides and lunches.
• Family members

Pain Points that Splitwise addresses

• Remembering and splitting everyone’s share in the group.
• Managing owing and receiving money from different people in the same group.
• Not able to keep track of monthly expenditure for self.
• Forgetting to ask for the money from family and friends that they owe you.

Pain Points that Splitwise could address in improved version

• In App payment functionality.
• Hassle to update payment status on the Splitwise App after paying through the banking App.
• Different features in iOS & Android (I use Android but have heard some features are different in iOS).
• Use it like a digital wallet like Venmo, PayPal, etc.
• Feature to offer interest free loans to your friends and family and setting a date of return reminder for the borrower.
• Bill upload feature that directly lists all the individual item prices (I use freemium model and got to know that this is available in paid version).
• Currency conversion – I face it all the time when travelling between US and India and splitting the amount with my friends.
• Expense search option

Some clarification at the beginning: That's a great question. A few clarifications before I answer:

1. Do you want me to focus on a software or a hardware product? [Response: Anything is fine]
2. Also, I am assuming that you are asking me about a product that I like the most. I hope that's fine [Response: Yes. Go ahead]

My response: So, firstly, I am passionate about reading. I think it is one of the best ways of using one’s time and I have completed reading 3 books so far this year. I am reading my fourth book now.

And I love reading them on Kindle.

Here are a few reasons why I love Kindle:

1. Kindle makes it really easy to get access to books in two ways:
   1. I can simply send a book to my Kindle email id and start reading the book. It's that simple. In fact, this is the reason why I have moved from Apple Books!
   2. It is easy to discover/purchase new books - on Kindle itself and the Amazon book-ecosystem ensures that I find almost any book I want to read.
2. As a PM I like to keep things simple and the simplistic 'Home button as the current book' design is both cool and helps keep focus to get on to reading without any distractions.
3. I love the progress shown while reading - because I like to read 30-40 pages a day and the progress displayed at the bottom in terms of number of pages and total completion % is super helpful!
4. And finally the sync between Kindle App and Kindle devices makes it seamless for me. I switch reading between the App and the device depending on my situation - night reading vs day reading, while travelling etc. So, this sync helps me always start where I stopped.

Overall - it solves the core issues for me:

• Access to books,
• focus on reading,
• progress made

However, I would like some improvements in the App based on a few problems that I have faced personally.

Improvements:

1. Unable to take notes inside the App itself. Whenever I find something interesting, I come out of Kindle and I write that in a separate notepad. And I do it quite often. After I complete a book, I would typically have one or two page notes which also becomes the book summary for me which I could refer to later.
   1. So, I would really like if Kindle can add a simple note maker inside the App itself - I can simply copy some text and 'Add to notes'
   2. Later I could export the 'Notes document' as a PDF or Doc.
2. I want to read 6-8 books a year but fall short by 2-3 books. So, something around goal setting + tracking would help
   1. Kindle Goal Setter: Set a goal for the year -> track where you are -> gamify to make more progress -> achieve the goal
   2. A functionality where I could set goals every 2 months and track them:
      1. Enter 'Books you want to read in the next 2 months'
      2. Gamify the reading experience
         1. Show progress made
         2. Depending on how much progress is made, send reminders at different time intervals:
            1. After 2 weeks
            2. After 1 month
            3. After 6 weeks
            4. Before the last week
            5. NOTE: If a good progress is made then we send an appreciation notification instead of a reminder
         3. Increase the intent to read by showing how they are doing with respect to other Kindle readers who also have set targets
         4. Create badges I could earn:
            1. Streak badge: based on the number of weeks continuously read
            2. Number of books completed
            3. Longest streak etc

These are good to have features for me - which could help me be more productive in terms of reading and retaining what I read.

Outline of my Answer My favorite product is OpenTable, an online restaurant reservation service. I'll begin by describing what OpenTable is and its primary business objectives. Then, I'll focus on the specific user problems it solves for people like myself who enjoy dining out. Lastly, I'll discuss how OpenTable effectively addresses these issues, distinguishing itself from competitors.

Explaining the Product OpenTable allows users to search for restaurants based on various criteria like location, cuisine, price, ratings, availability, and make real-time reservations. Restaurants use OpenTable to manage their reservations, optimize their seating, and enhance their service offerings.

Defining the Business Objective OpenTable's primary objective is to make dining out globally accessible and enriching. It accomplishes this by offering a reliable, efficient reservation system that simplifies restaurant discovery for diners. In parallel, it provides technology solutions to enhance operational efficiency for partner restaurants. By fostering a symbiotic ecosystem, OpenTable aims to increase user engagement, solidify restaurant partnerships, and drive transaction volume, all contributing to sustainable growth in the competitive online reservation industry.

User Problems As a user who enjoys dining out and exploring different cuisines, I'll focus on OpenTable from the diner's perspective. OpenTable addresses several key problems:

1. Difficulty in finding a restaurant that matches your specific criteria, like location, type of cuisine, or availability.
2. The inconvenience of having to call multiple restaurants to check for availability, especially for last-minute plans or larger parties.
3. A lack of incentives or rewards for frequent diners.

Solutions

How the Product Solves the User Problem Better Than Competitors

• Search and Discovery: OpenTable's robust search functionality allows you to easily find restaurants based on your preferences and availability. This is more comprehensive and user-friendly compared to other platforms or direct web searches/calling.
• Real-Time Availability: OpenTable shows real-time reservation availability, making it quick and easy to book a table without having to call the restaurant. This is often more efficient than alternatives that require back-and-forth communication.
• Rewards Program: OpenTable offers a points system that can be redeemed for dining credits or even Amazon gift cards, providing an added incentive to use the platform.

Potential Improvements: One potential improvement OpenTable could consider is the implementation of a predictive analytics feature for restaurants. This feature could forecast slow business days based on historical data and market trends. When a slow day is predicted, the platform could enable restaurants to offer last-minute deals or special promotions, which would be visible to OpenTable users within the app. Not only would this help restaurants fill vacancies and optimize revenue, but it would also increase user engagement on the OpenTable app as diners could find exclusive deals. In this way, OpenTable could further solidify its role as a valuable partner for restaurants while enhancing the user experience, thereby creating a win-win scenario that aligns with its overarching business objectives. Summary In summary, OpenTable is my preferred product for restaurant reservations due to its user-friendly interface, real-time availability checks, and Search/discovery features. It simplifies what can often be a time-consuming process, making dining out more enjoyable and accessible.

My favorite product is ChatGPT. Me as a person, I love to brainstorm solutions, think about things that I may not taken into account and hear someone else's feedback and perspective. I also love GPTs story about the role out for general public - the model excited a long time right, but only after making the UX enhancements, the public started embracing it. The UX was designed to be intuitive, with a simple text input and output format, making it easy for users to interact with the AI. Also users can see the AI's responses in real-time, allowing for a conversational and dynamic experience. Other than that, OpenAI needed the publics feedback to better train the model, and they added a feedback mechanism - which was a win win - the user can see his feedback refined right away (FE) the the model was refined on the BE.

1. Pain Points that ChatGPT Addresses:

   1. Information Overload: ChatGPT helps to quickly synthesize and summarize vast amounts of information.
   2. Language Barriers: It assists in translation and understanding complex texts in different languages.
   3. Accessibility of Knowledge: Provides instant access to a wide range of information and educational content.
   4. Creative Block: Aids in idea generation and creative writing.
   5. Efficiency in Professional Tasks: Streamlines routine tasks like email drafting, coding, and data analysis.
   6. Educational Support: Offers explanations, tutoring, and educational material in various subjects.

2. Pain Points that ChatGPT Could Address in an Improved Version:

   1. Enhanced Context Understanding: Better handling of long-term context in conversations for more coherent and relevant responses.
   2. Real-Time Information: Ability to provide real-time updates and information (e.g., news, stock prices).
   3. More Personalized Responses: Tailoring responses more specifically to individual user preferences and histories.
   4. Improved Accuracy: Further reduction in providing incorrect or misleading information.
   5. Enhanced Emotional Intelligence: Better recognition and appropriate responses to the emotional tone of user queries.
   6. Broader Domain Expertise: Expanding knowledge in specialized fields (like advanced scientific topics or niche industries).
   7. Multi-Modal Interactions: Integration of other forms of input and output, like images, voice, and interactive tools.

Clarifying question: Are you looking for a software or a hardware product?

Passion Myntra is a shopping app that is mainly into clothing, make up accessory, home decor items. I love shopping and now a days I am too occupied to go to a physical store hence I needed a platform that understands my needs and help me choose from the best.

Perspective Myntra just does that. Myntra's search functionality works in an amazing way, no matter how vague my search is, it lands me to correct products most of the time. It has awesome filters and variety of them to narrow your search. It has a studio feature that helps you identify the current trends. Also it has a try and buy option and you can choose how the outfit would look on you. In compare to Amazon, the filters are useful when someone buys their outfits.

Personality From a product manager's point of you they have focused on user centric designs and at times they have created the app in such a way that it hooks you and even though at times you do not need it, you end up buying things.

My favorite product is Groww.

Give a brief overview of the product, what it does, Mission of the product

Groww is an easy to use, fast & Transparent investment application whose mission is to make financial services accessible to millions of Indians responsibly. Groww has a total of 4 crore Customers with a Average Google Play Store Rating of around 4.5 Star Groww has 6 broad products:

1. Stocks
2. IPOs
3. F/Os - Futures & Options
4. Mutual Funds
5. Bill Payments
6. Lending/Credit

• User can invest in multiple MF Categories be it Equity, Debt, Tax Saver, Gold etc
• User can invest in Stocks, IPOs, F/Os
• User can not only invest on the platform but can also track investments made via different platforms on Groww
• Users can now make bill payments via Groww

Compare Groww with Competitors

Even though there are multiple applications out there, what Groww does better than its competitors is that :

1. Groww has an intuitive interface making it easier for both new & experienced investor to invest & navigate
2. The Daily Newsletter sent by Groww is very knowledgeable:
   1. Daily graph of the Stock Indices
   2. Top 5 Gainers , Top 5 Losers
   3. 3-4 Current financial news
   4. 5 Stocks in News
   5. IPOs
      1. Up for Subscription
      2. Listed
   6. 1 day Change in Other Indices
      1. Gold
      2. Silver
      3. USD-INR
      4. NASDAQ
   7. Financial Word of the Day
   8. Short Week long courses
   9. 1 Featured Qsn (No Advice)
   10. Typeform based feedback linked in the Newsletter
3. Groww has total active investors of around 6.65 million, making it the No.1 brokerage firm by active investors, surpassing Zerodha to achieve the same in Oct 2023
4. Groww started as a platform that focussed on attracting customers new to investing, by focussing on long term investment products like Mutual Funds & then moved on to direct equity investments & Stock Trading
5. It’s entire customer acquisition and marketing strategy was based upon this premise
6. It doesn’t provide complicated graphs like Candle Sticks, prefers comparatively simpler interpretations for amateur & intermediate Users
7. With this, Groww has helped the achieve the recent trend of financial inclusion in India, democratsing Investment.
8. It’s key messaging in the ads -> Ye market sab ka hain Boss strengthens the same view

Now Tell how it has improved my Life

1. When I first began my investment journey, I was a semi-knowledgeable investor with a basic understanding of the importance of investing in direct mutual funds
2. So, I went to multiple fund houses websites & started investing in each separately
3. Being an exuberant investor in the beginning, loved tracking my portfolio’s investment atleast once a month, on an excel sheet by manually tracking the NAV from Google and the Units from the separate Mutual Fund’s Home Websites
4. And, in the process I discovered Groww.
5. I didn’t used Groww for investment initially when I discover it but for tracking my already invested funds.
6. It changed the way I managed my investments by providing a user friendly interface with a consolidated view of all my investments, simplifying the entire tracking experience for me
7. When the next financial year arrived, I had to explore new investment needs, looking to invest in new Mutual Funds
8. But, then I realized I no longer have to go through the hassle of visiting multiple mutual fund house websites. Groww had become my trusted 1 stop solution
9. Some of the features I like is tracking of my Mutual Funds which I had bought outside of Groww
10. This feature had been there for a long time but tracking used to happen via Email
11. A Consolidated Account Statement (CAS) used to get generated when tracking was triggered, which was to be forwarded to mf@groww.in
12. This used to take comparatively much larger time & many a time, used to display partially updated data
13. Now with OTP triggered from MF central, within 15 mins the dashboard gets updated

How would you improve Groww

1. Do you want me to improve any specific metric
   1. Acquisition
   2. Activation
   3. Engagement/Retention
   4. Monetization/Revenue

Or Am I free to choose

I want to focus on improving Engagement metrics as it will improve the User Experience leading to more satisfied, engaged and loyal users which will indirectly impact monetization as well as lead to improvements in acquisition metrics.

2.Do you want me to focus on improving the App Experience or the Web Experience

I want to focus on improving the Mobile App Experience as most of the users prefer managing their investments via Mobile Apps due to convenience & accessibility it provides and with majority of the Groww app users being on Mobile App, will allocate tech and design resources on the app

3.Do you want me to focus upon specific products i.e. Stocks, Mutual Funds, Payments etc or I am free to choose

I would like to not only improve some of the existing products like Mutual Funds, Stocks but will also like to innovate & look for few new complementary products for higher engagement

Narrow the Scope down : I want to improve Engagement on Mobile App for Groww’s existing Users Pain Points:

1. User’s have to move out of the app for managing their other investments like
   1. PPF, EPF
   2. PDs
   3. Bank Accounts (Savings)
2. A lot of Users who are tracking their Investments via Groww, are also managing multiple Credit card bills, which is a hassle for them, logging into multiple Banks websites, setting reminders to make payments on time
3. Similarly, a lot of Users have multiple loans ongoing like Home Loans, Education Loans, Car loans etc & they suffer a pain of going through multiple bank accounts to track it, making the entire process highly inefficient
4. Users have multiple financial aspirations like buying a home, saving for children’s education, retirement planning etc for which they have been making investments.
   1. However, without a structured plan of setting & tracking financial goals, User may find it difficult to know how much to invest, how long to invest and may not have the discipline to invest.
5. Currently, Users are only able to see a basic portfolio analysis for their investments. With the basic analysis, Users are unable to assess the underlying risks of their portfolio when allocation changes. Also, they are unable to get a true evaluation of their portfolio’s performance

P0 Features :

1. Near real time tracking for User’s EPF, PFF and bank accounts
2. Users are able to check their Credit cards due across different banks & pay the same
3. Tracking for different loans, bet it, Home Loan, Education Loan, Car Loan, provide options to check their Loan Accounts, EMI’s, Tenure Remaining while also enabling to make payments
4. Give Users an option to track their Income & Expenses along with their Investments & Liabilities, thus giving an option to check their Net Worth
5. Goal based investing and Life Goals tracking
6. Advanced Portfolio analysis for existing portfolio

P1 features :

1. All Users may not have the Risk appetite to invest in Stocks and Mutual Funds. For less Risk Appetite Users, provide investment in FDs
2. For Users who don’t have high starting amount to invest in, for them, start Small Amount savings product wherein the Customer can start investing with as low as Rs. 50 per day

Headspace is a mobile app designed to promote mental well-being through mindfulness and meditation. It offers a variety of features including guided meditations, sleepcasts, music, and other audio experiences to help manage feelings and thoughts, create better sleep conditions, train the body and mind, and boost focus. It also provides articles and resources on meditation, mindfulness, sleep, stress, and other related topics.

For me, mental well-being is incredibly important, and I often find it challenging to manage stress and anxiety, especially in today's fast-paced world. Headspace addresses this pain point by providing a wide range of resources to help manage these feelings and create a sense of calm. The guided meditations and mindfulness exercises help me stay grounded and focused, the sleepcasts and music help me create better sleep conditions, and the articles and resources provide valuable information on managing stress and anxiety. I have tried several other mindfulness and meditation apps, but Headspace stands out for a few reasons. First, the variety of resources available is unparalleled. From guided meditations and mindfulness exercises to sleepcasts, music, and articles, there is something for every mood and goal. Second, the user interface is clean and intuitive, making it easy to navigate and find what I need. Finally, the community aspect of Headspace is a big plus. The app shares real-life stories from users who have benefited from the app, which I find incredibly inspiring and motivating.

Why I Love It:

• Variety of Resources: The app offers an unparalleled range of resources, from guided meditations and mindfulness exercises to sleepcasts, music, and articles. There is something for every mood and goal, whether I am looking to de-stress, improve my focus, or get a better night's sleep.
• User-Friendly Interface: The clean and intuitive user interface makes it easy to navigate and find what I need, increasing the likelihood that I will use it regularly.
• Quality of Content: The content is of the highest quality. The guided meditations are led by experienced instructors, and the sleepcasts, music, and articles are well-researched and thoughtfully curated.
• Community Aspect: The community aspect of Headspace is a significant plus. The app shares real-life stories from users who have benefited from the app, which I find incredibly inspiring and motivating.

While I am a big fan of Headspace, there are several areas where I believe it could be improved:

• Personalized Recommendations: The app could do a better job of personalizing recommendations for users. If it used data on my past activity, current mood, and preferences to suggest specific meditations, sleepcasts, or articles, it would make the app even more beneficial.
• Interactive Features: I would love to see more interactive features, such as quizzes or assessments, to help me better understand my mental health and track my progress over time.
• Social Features: While mindfulness and meditation are often solitary activities, adding social features could help users stay motivated and engaged. For example, I would enjoy the option to share my progress with friends, join group challenges, or participate in community discussions.
• More Diverse Content: Expanding the range of content to include more diverse voices and perspectives would make the app more inclusive and relatable to a broader audience.
• Accessibility Features: Improving accessibility features, such as voice commands, larger text, or screen reader compatibility, would make the app more user-friendly for individuals with disabilities.
• Offline Access: Expanding offline access to include more content would make the app more accessible to users with limited internet access or data plans.
• Integration with Other Wellness Apps: I often use multiple apps for my wellness journey, such as fitness apps, nutrition trackers, or mental health apps. If Headspace integrated with these other apps, it could provide a more holistic wellness experience.
• Language Availability: Expanding the range of languages available in the app could make it more accessible to a global audience.

Alignment with Business Objectives: Headspace's business objectives likely include increasing user engagement and retention, expanding its user base, and ultimately, promoting mental well-being on a global scale. My suggested improvements align with these objectives by making the app more user-friendly and accessible to a broader audience. By integrating with other apps and devices, Headspace can increase user engagement by providing a more personalized experience. Additionally, expanding the range of languages available in the app can help attract new users from around the world.

In conclusion, I believe Headspace is a fantastic app that has greatly contributed to my mental well-being. However, by implementing these suggestions, it could provide a more personalized, interactive, and inclusive experience for its users, ultimately contributing to its mission of promoting mental well-being globally.

My favorite product is Amazon Kindle Paperwhite because it gives the ultimate reading experience. It’s an e-reader designed and marketed by Amazon. I love this product because it has solved a lot of user problems for me.

a. I am an avid reader, but I move a lot. In the past 3 years, I have moved countries and changed 2-3 houses. Moving with so many heavy books can be challenging. Using Kindle, I can have all my books at one place and Kindle is very light weight so it’s easy to carry and because of its 6 inches size, occupies a very small space.

b. Buying kindle involves only a one-time cost and once you buy it, you can read the kindle version of books at a low cost compared to paperbacks/hardcopy. Almost 98% of the books have cheaper cost compared to their paperback version. Amazon offers you Kindle unlimited for free for the first 3 months when you purchase the kindle.

c. It feels like a book when you hold the kindle in your arms. You can adjust the font-size. When reading in the dark, the light from the kindle doesn’t strain your eyes.

d. The best thing about the kindle however is the fact that it is meant solely for reading purpose. You will not get distracted by constant notifications from Facebook or Twitter while reading on your kindle.

e. It comes integrated with Goodreads. You can connect to your Goodreads account and see what your friends are reading. You can read book reviews and book recommendations.

f. It tracks where you left and informs you of your last read location when you go back to reading an ebook. You can read offline.

I am also interested in the future of e-reading. E-reading can actually replace the physical libraries. You can get the comfort of an online library from your kindle, on which you can browse the library of your books. You can sort it according to recent, book title and author. Kindle also allows you to rent books. There are many more interesting things that Amazon can add to users’ kindle accounts such as chatrooms/online bookclubs/community for book lovers where people discuss about their fav books and recommend books to each other. Amazon kindle has also made publishing easier for authors. Authors can self-publish their books on kindle, get more royalty than traditional publishing. Readers in return have more book options to read.

I have a lot of favorites but on top of that list is YouTube.

To explain why, I would like to share:

1. one - users benefiting from YouTube
2. two - problems solved by YouTube
3. three - favorite features of YouTube

YouTube is a two-sided market that allows content creators to upload content and reach target viewers and allows viewers to gain access to a diverse list of topics.

Viewers of YouTube can be divided into:

4. a viewer looking to be entertained
5. a viewer looking for educational content
6. a viewer looking to keep up with the world
7. and many more other purposes to view content in YouTube

Content Creators of YouTube include:

8. Brands looking to build a strong relationship with target viewers
9. Businesses looking to grow revenue through selling products and services
10. Influencers sharing what they love - travel, beauty, etc.
11. Content creators wanting to share their skills and knowledge
12. Professionals looking to share their expertise (doctors, nurses, etc.)

Being a viewer myself, I'd like to focus on discussing problems that YouTube has successfully solved for viewers. These are the pain points that YouTube has helped resolved for millions:

13. Some people have no mentor in their immediate circle. Using Youtube they can find people they think can guide them navigate life.
14. Some people cannot afford to pay for education. Using Youtube they can find free high-quality educational content to fulfill their educational needs
15. Some people have no means to leave their local town. Using YouTube they can know the cultures and perspectives of different people in different parts of the world.

My favorite features of YouTube that enabled it to make the platform an enjoyable place for viewers are the following:

16. Easy to search for relevant content. I just type a few words and YouTube has an effective algorithm that serves me content that I most likely am looking for.
17. Personalized Recommendation: YouTube serves me videos that I might like based on my previous viewed videos.
18. Comment Section: I think comment section is a mini-community of like-minded individuals engaging with one another. It's fun to read what people are thinking about a certain content and it's also filled with humor. Just be careful with some trolls but if you've been in YouTube for awhile you can easily not be bothered by negative comments.
19. Easy to Set a Create A Channel: YouTube has enabled anybody with a camera and internet to upload content making it easy for viewers to find content about anything they are interested in.

So far we discussed, the two-sided markets of YouTUbe, different types users, pain points of viewers and features that helped viewers enjoy the platform. These are the reasons why I love YouTube.

My favorite product is WhatsApp.

Users

There are many types of WhatsApp users who use it to communicate with each other on a day-to-day basis. Specifically,

1. communicate with friends, family, and colleagues
2. customers communication
3. community communications

Past Products

Most of these communications used to happen via SMS or scattered among other internet applications. Examples:

1. communication with friends & family - calls or native messaging
2. Customers communications - Email/website/chatbots
3. Community communications - Notice boards, physical mail, FB groups

Pain Points solved by Product

I would like to go deeper into communication with friends & family which is the most popular use case also and understand what pain points were solved by WhatsApp. Before WhatsApp, calls or native messaging were the most popular medium to communicate with friends & family, there were many problems with the same

1. Cost - Every call or native message was charged either per unit or as a package especially international calls were very expensive. WhatsApp gave it for free.
2. Media Limitation - Text or speech was the only way to communicate. A few providers had multi-media services but the experience was broken. Whatsapp introduced photos, videos, voice messages, and document sharing with a much better experience.
3. Communication Acknowledgement - Native messages had no acknowledgment of being sent or read by the receiver. Sometimes, it was not even known whether the receiver's number is active or not. WhatsApp introduced the same for every communication making the communications more reliable for the sender.

Personal Usage

I personally use WhatsApp mostly for international calls with my family and never had to pay for international minutes to telecom. WhatsApp is also the easiest note-taker app for me using chat with myself.

Recent Updates WhatsApp has released communities very recently and I am already part of a few. I haven't created a new community yet but might use it to transfer my neighborhood communications on the Facebook group to WhatsApp to stay updated.

Scope of Improvement A few problems which I think WhatsApp should solve next for users like me:

1. Fact verification on WhatsApp forwards. Even though they tried with the "Forwarded" label but didn't solve the real problem, IMO.
2. Transitioning from one phone number to another is not smooth - I use my WhatsApp for many acquaintances or business communications and updating numbers immediately can impact receiving those communications. Hence, I had to use two parallel WhatsApp numbers for some time which can never be merged later on.
3. Data transfer from Android to iOS is a problem.
4. I don't want my data to be exposed to third parties or internal Facebook also for any other use case. Consent for data sharing between Whatsapp and Facebook is hidden.

I will pick the first problem statement on priority as a PM given that it can impact the mass audience and bring net positivity in the world with less propaganda while increasing engagement on WhatsApp.

Summary To summarise, my favorite product is WhatsApp. It has overtaken native messages and calls mostly by making them free, offering media sharing with better experience and features like communication acknowledgment. I believe WhatsApp should solve for fake information to keep engagement high in the long run.

My favourite product is Too Good To Go. It's an app where restaurants, grocery stores, or other food companies sell unsold food at discount prices, and as an end user, we have the option to buy that unsold food from a variety of restaurants during a particular time slot. They operate on a marketplace model. The meals are called "surprise bags", which essentially can contain anything from the store that is left unsold at the end of the day. They are focused on minimizing food waste by providing these exceptional services to the restaurants and the users. I believe it's an amazing effort by these individuals as it's helping society as a whole. Their mission is to end food waste worldwide. They have two main types of users:

1. Food Establishments (Restaurants/Supermarkets/Bakeries): They can list with the app and can put the number of surprise bags on sale. It's typically the food that they believe will go unsold, and instead of wasting and losing money over it, they list it on the app for users to buy.
2. End Users/Buyers: These are the users who can go through different restaurants/establishments on the app selling surprise bags and choose from their choice of food or restaurant at a good discount. The food is available only during a certain period of time during the day, and users have to book it in advance. They can then go to the establishment and pick up their food.

In terms of business objectives, Too Good To Go earns by charging a fixed fee on orders from these food establishments and is most likely interested in having a higher number of total daily orders on the platform, which ultimately also helps in their mission of ending food waste.

I use this app from the buyer's perspective, so below are a few problems I face as a user and how Too Good To Go solves them. I am a grad student, and most of the customers of the Too Good To Go app are either students or people early in their careers, having busy schedules, less money, and lots of work/social activities to do. Focusing on this user persona, Too Good To Go solved my problems below:

1. Often, people in colleges or office settings don't get time to cook food very often because of the busy schedule, either due to work/classes/assignments/exams or social activities, etc. But we still need food, and buying food daily from outside is an expensive affair.

Too Good To Go helps this directly by letting users buy food packages almost at 1/3 of the original price of the restaurant. I can easily go through the app, look out for a nearby restaurant selling a surprise bag, and have a good meal for $5-6, which is pretty good for a person like me. I don't have to cook daily and can eat a couple of times from restaurants of my choice. I also get discounted groceries from the app, which helps me in budgeting my expenses and saving some extra bucks.

1. Living in a city like New York, you see diversity everywhere in terms of people and in terms of food. As a user, I want to try different cuisines or try some specific restaurants but can't due to money constraints.

Too Good To Go helps me here as well, as they have some amazing restaurants, like high-end restaurants, giving surprise bags at very discounted prices. This allows me to stay on budget while trying different cuisine food very often. Another great part about Too Good To Go is that for every meal I buy, it shows me how much money I have saved and at the same time how much my efforts are helping the environment, in terms of saving food waste and CO2 emission, which is pretty cool. Potential Areas of Improvement:

1. No Delivery Service Available: Every time I have to go pick up my order which limits my delivery to only the location which is nearby to me or easy to travel, hampering their orders as sometimes restaurants don't have meals available in my area but they are available a little farther away. Too Good To Go can partner with delivery services to provide the delivery option at a fee, and I believe given the value from this service, users might be willing to pay an extra fee for delivery.
2. Dietary Restrictions Communication: The randomness of the surprise bag can pose problems for individuals with specific dietary restrictions, leading to situations where the food may go to waste if it doesn't align with the dietary needs of the buyer. This contradicts the app's core mission of reducing food waste. To address this: a. Tagging System: The company could introduce a tagging system where sellers mention the type of food they are selling using tags (veg/halal/beef/kosher, etc) in the specific surprise bag. b. Message Feature: There could be an option to send a message to the restaurant about my restriction and they can accept/reject my meal request as per the availability.

My favorite product is Google Photos. It keeps my pictures since 2001 and it allows me to search, organize, access, and share my memories with friends and family. It is available on any device and has easy ways to import not only pictures but also gifts and videos.

Google Photos was created and evolved since the mobile photos were born. Today 90% of the photos are taken from mobile devices. A research company, Mylio, estimated that 7 Trillion photos are stored in the world, and according to Google, there are 4 Trillion photos in Google Photos, this is a 54% market share.

Compared to competitors like Apple Photos, Facebook, Instagram, and Amazon. Google Photos provide the best in market search and organization tools aligned to Google's mission of organizing the world information. However, it lacks features like edition, cool filters, and an engaging sharing interface but does a good job at keeping my memories accessible in one place.

This is my favorite product based on three values: Easy to use, Accessible and Innovation-driven.

1- It is easy to use, it imports my pictures from my phone camera roll directly, it has a great search interface where I can search by location, people, time, and even by color and objects in the picture. For instance, I searched "pink and white pajamas" and found that picture that is 5 years old.

2- Accessible, I have all my pictures at the tip of my finger in my phone whenever I am, but I can also search on my computer or in my table and even in my Chromecast device in my living room. I can also share media with my parents that live in another country and with friends.

3- Innovation-driven: I love cool features and Google Photos has evolved over the last years by using Machine Learning to improve the search feature and now can connect with all the smart devices in my house that can have dynamic portraits with the best photos of my family.

There are different types of personas using the product, parents like me storing memories of my kids, grandparents also storing media or accessing the shared media, Android users that use the system as a backup. It is not targeted to professional companies or to media companies, although it could be an adjacent market.

With the share of the market that Google Photos has, it could be a much better product with some personas like teenagers that are used to have cool filters and special effects as well as sharing capabilities. This is a feature that they can improve as well as photo edition taking example of applications like Instagram or snap.

Google Photos recently changed the storage policy, this generated many users complaining in the app store for the new policy and rating the application with one star. My take is that they might be trying to increase the conversion to premium by asking users to pay for storage, but they have not taken into account a counter-metric that is the user rating. A way they could have done it better is to keep offering a freemium account with tools to reduce duplicated photos and clutter and reducing the photo quality based on the remaining quota and creating a Pro version with more features and available storage for the premium users.

In summary, I cannot live without Google Photos, all my memories are stored there. I have pictures from 2001 to today. It gives me search and organization features plus my memories are accessible everywhere and as a premium user, I still have enough space to keep uploading media.

Question for the community, in Google PM interview how much do we need to talk about our personal experience versus the persona and user in this question?

Favorite Product: Spotify Thanks for the question! I'd love to think about this and offer my perspective on a product I am hoping you also know and use, but just to clarify:

1. You want me to talk about a product I love and use often, correct? Yes!
2. Any preferences on software, hardware or non-technical products? No preference. I have a few favorites, so I am going to take a moment to think through my answer, if that's OK.

I have decided that my favorite product I want to talk about is Spotify. <What is it?> Spotify is a streaming service and provider of music and other audio content (e.g. podcasts) from a range of artists and record labels. It is available via mobile, web and desktop apps and for me, and is a one stop shop for consuming audio content.

<Why I like it> Spotify has become my go-to for discovering and listening to music and podcasts while I am working, doing chores or even driving/biking around. Funnily enough, I am not your typical audiophile - I would rarely be up to date on the hottest new artist or track and even fumbled through classics, sometimes leaving me embarrassed with friends and colleagues. That was before I started using Spotify 4 years ago - when discovering new music was so easy by following playlists which my friends and others created and recommendations were handed to me by the software. Moreover, given my listening needs, I love the seamless integration across devices including my alexa smart speakers, my phone, watch and desktop. Finally, I think with the introduction of a family plan based pricing model it was a no-brainer for me to become a paying subscriber at ~$3 to listen to my favorite music and podcasts without ads.

<Why is it better than others?> The coverage and selection of audio content, the unique pricing model and intentionally designed UI focused on discovery and recommendations for every user - is why I think Spotify has managed to become the largest music streaming service (with >300M MAU and more than half of them being paying subscribers!). While some of its competitors like YouTube Music, Pandora and Soundcloud are also well known, Spotify has an edge over all of them. For example,

YouTube Music has a huge selection of official music, but no podcasts and after just one month free it then costs $9.99 making it a premium service from the get go. Instead, Spotify allows anyone free access with ads and then a premium service for a nominal charge (especially with a family plan - which furthers its goals around customer acquisition and engagement). Soundcloud is focused on audio-distribution and new and upcoming artists being able to easily get on the platform - which is a noble mission but doesn't serve the common user. Pandora - while the oldest of the lot, has done little to evolve with the changing needs of the millennial listener in spite of having a promising recommendation service, and continues to offer radio-like channels. Spotify too has recommendations and custom-playlists for the user but allows for toggling between those and singles or podcasts easily.

<How could it be improved?> Having said all this, like every product there's always room for improvements. In case of Spotify I would improve and add some social features. Currently, it merely offers a pane to view friends currently listening to music and shared playlists. However, I think there is room to do so much more with listening rooms, Instagram integrations, etc. Would you like me to go into one or more of these features?

<Assume the interviewer says: Sure, pick one and tell me at a high level why and how it would improve Spotify>

Is that a fair assumption/direction to pursue? <Interviewer: Sure>

<Solutions/Features> A couple of features which come to mind… 1) Spotify Social - Profiles exist but pretty table stakes and has not managed to create a culture of followers and sharing. We want to give users the ability to express themselves through music…

1. Profiles with more personalized info people can share - including what recess they are looking for or artists they like; beyond playlists.
2. Make it Interactive - with a feed
3. Enable users to post things about stuff users listened to in that feed
4. Enable users to tag friends or other profiles
5. Further Integration with Instagram - ability to share songs via stories already exists, so could think about how this would work beyond that
6. Collab with influencers or musicians to promote - e.g. celebrity profiles and their playlists (there are celebrity bookclubs and lists which have become so popular) - e.g. morning ritual playlists, yoga playlists, etc.

2) Listening Rooms or Sessions - Net new feature: Ability to listen to music together with friends or team mates or family while traveling or working or apart

<Prioritization and why> I would prioritize #1 because it is lightweight with existing infra and integrations and gives us a chance to learn quickly if it’s working by measuring engagement through tracking metrics like number of sessions, time per sessions, profiles completed, etc. Within this, I would start with improving profiles, and then working on a feed where users can post things, while our marketing team reaches out to creators and social media influencers to generate hype.

What is your favourite product and why? My favourite product is Grammarly which is a spelling and grammar checking tool. It highlights the errors and suggests corrections as the user types. The errors are highlighted using colours, and the suggestions are shown when the user hovers over the highlighted text.

There are many reasons I love this product.

• Firstly it is easy and efficient to use. Making corrections using Grammarly is very easy. I have to single click on the suggestion that replaces the incorrect word with the new one. Also, rephrasing the whole sentence is quite efficient.
• Secondly, It is useful and works cross-platform - Grammarly saves time by providing accurate suggestions. It suggests how to write grammatically correct sentences. It also helps adapt different styles or tones as per the writing context. It enhances vocabulary by recommending more accurate and precise words that I can use in my writing.
• Lastly, it is pretty Innovative and insightful - Grammarly uses the latest machine learning algorithm and predictive technologies to detect the wrong words and suggest the best word to replace. Grammarly Insights are innovating and engaging, such as
  • Weekly Writing Updates
  • You used more unique words than X% of users!
  • Total words checked with GRAMMARLY over time
  • Top and frequent mistakes
  • Writing tips etc

Problems Grammarly solves -

• Generally, people spend too much time editing and proofreading their content.
• Everyone wants to express their thoughts in writing as well as possible, but many fail to write crisp, easy-to-understand content.
• Vocalabury and different contexts like business, causal, and affirmative writing are some challenges.
• Grammarly is capitalizing on the weakness of the bulk of the world population. People do not have the time or the energy to attain these skills. So everyone is looking to find an easy way out.

How will you improve it? The mission of Grammarly is to “Improve lives by improving communication”. A digital writing assistant helps users write more clearly and effectively by providing feedback on correctness to improve clarity, engagement, and delivery.

Thus, I feel user engagement aligns very closely with this mission of Grammarly. So, I will focus on improving user engagement.

My approach - Now we have defined the goals for this problem, I will list down the user segments for this product, followed by the pain points these users are facing, prioritizing them, and coming up with a prioritized list of solutions and metrics that we will track to identify its success.

User segments -

• Students: Mostly used by graduate, post-grad, PhD students in universities for corrections in project documents, research papers, articles, emails, etc.
• Working Professionals: Mostly used by working professionals like Consultants, Lawyers, Marketers, Bloggers, Journalists, etc., for their day-to-day activities. (emails, articles, documents, etc.)
• Business bodies, institutes or organisations: Grammarly for Business is also used by different enterprises and universities to improve the communication and efficiency of their internal teams.

For the scope of this question, I plan to go ahead with the Student segment, as this segment of users is substantial in the number who are looking for ways to improve their written communication. If we can solve the pain points of these users and help them engage more, that would increase the user engagement, which in turn can lead to an increase in retention and possibly revenue.

Pain-Points of Student segment,

• Students become very much dependable on Grammarly. They are not able to track their mistakes and improve their language skills.
• Students can’t use Grammarly for other languages apart from English.
• Grammarly premium subscription services (like contextual alternate word suggestions, formatting, tone corrections, plagiarism detection) can increase engagement are expensive for students or individuals.
• Students with poor vision or reading difficulties are unable to use Grammarly effectively.

Solution: Learn with Grammarly - A learning module that will help users

• Track - It can track the usual errors that a user makes in spelling/grammar/writing _tone from their day to day typing process.
• Learn - Based on the repetitive errors made by the user, students will get personalized grammar lessons, spelling tests, typing tests, synonyms learning options whenever the user is interested in practising. Students can also go through exhaustive grammar lessons and update their language skills.
• Practice - Post learning, users can start practising the lessons by giving short quizzes and attempting practice sets.
• Motivate- To motivate users to learn and engage more, we can gamify the learning process by introducing rewards, badges, levels, and weekly progress reports.

Using this feature, users will learn and improve their language skills. This will increase the open rate of the application avg user time spent on the platform and can also help in increasing the revenue by offering premium models and sessions.

Problem 2 - Students can’t use Grammarly for other languages. Solution - Grammarly in Multiple Languages: Grammarly will now work on multiple native languages apart from English (like Chinese, Spanish, Hindi etc. ). This will build a competitive advantage for Grammarly and bring in more new users onto the platform, which will boost engagement.

Problem 3 - Expensive Grammarly premium subscription services - Solution - Corporate tie-up with large bodies. Grammarly has not established partnerships with large companies, universities, or education institutions until now. They can tie up with large bodies and offer premium services at a lower cost.

Metrics for measuring performance Learn with Grammarly -

• # of lessons viewed on a WoW and MoM basis.
• # of test/quiz attempted on a WoW and MoM basis.
• # of corrections suggested on a daily and weekly basis.

Other metrics -

• DAU/MAU (stickiness) of Grammarly.
• Average session time per user.

Favorite product: Uber rider app

About the product:

Uber is an asset-light firm where it facilitates riders in booking cabs. The rider sends the request for a cab and is accepted by the available driver in the nearby premises.

I will use four design principles to describe why I like the product

Usefulness

· Reduces the pain where the rider doesn’t need to go out in street and look for cabs. The new Uber pick points at the airport where the rider just needs to show his One-time password to the cabs which are stationed in the queue

· Hailing - Eliminates the need for calling the cabs

· Price Uncertainty - Reduces the price uncertainty for Riders which is a major problem particularly in India for the riders using private cabs

· Various payment modes and cabs of different sizes available for the rider

· Safety – A emergency assistance button and sharing the trip feature with our trusted contacts, ensuring the safety of the passengers

Ease of Use

Easy onboarding into the app. Only a mobile number, one-time code for verification, Email-id, password, and name details are needed.

· Only three clicks involved in booking the cab.

Destination > Cab > Confirm

· Three clicks involved in canceling the cab

Cancel > Reason > Submit

· A single account for both personal and business purposes. Just a tap is needed to switch from either of the purposes

· The help feature has a set of frequent complaints that are faced by the Rider. If the Rider faces any issue, he can select the issue without the need to describing the whole complaint again

· If the driver cancels the ride, the app automatically books again without the need for booking again by the Rider

· No need to wait for paying the fare after the completion of the trip for the modes other than cash

· The five-star rating system where the rider can easily rate the user.

· Ease in selecting the reasons once rider rates low for the driver.

Innovative

· The Rider can see his real-time journey in the map and also the app informs the rider about the waiting time for pick up and estimated time of arrival thus reducing the curiosity

· The selection of the shortest path to the destination which reduces the fare and journey time for the rider

· The split-fare feature eliminates the hassle involved in splitting the fare for the rider with their companions.

· In-app free call feature helps in the cases when the Rider doesn’t have the balance to call the driver

· The instant call from the customer support if the driver changes the prescribed route ensuring the safety of the passenger

· The two-way rating system where the rider and driver both rate themselves after completion of the trip

Honesty

· The Rider can compare the prices of the different cabs and choose according to his need and affordability

· If there is any change in fare, a notification pops up mentioning about the change in fare before the Rider requests for a cab

· The rating of the driver is shown which acts as a kind of social proofing

Product Improvement

· The Uber can have a notification feature which tells whether the rider wore a seat belt or not once he boarded the cab

· The current Uber app doesn’t mention about the luggage size and weight the car can accommodate even though the car brand is mentioned since the rider doesn’t know the car’s luggage capacity

· The current Uber app does not provide the timer for charging the cancellation fee once the cab is booked. A timer would let the rider keep informed the time within which he can cancel the ride

· A speed monitor in the app which cautions the driver if he crosses the speed limits

Youtube Users: Content creators who upload videos and Content consumers who consume content Pain points : Content creators need a platform where they can monetize their knowledge/ interests Content consumers want an interactive method to gain knowledge / explore their interests Past solutions: Content creators had to create their own website where they could try to monetize their knowledge/ interests (it would be difficult to find them and would cost the content creators money to build it) Content consumers had to sift through the web to find what they were looking for

How does this product address these pain points differently and better: There is a centralized repository where consumers can search for relevant content They also get other relevant videos targeted towards them through ML algorithms so that they get tailored content as per their interests They can even view short form videos tailored to their interests- Youtube shorts

eg: I can virtually go on a luxury vacation tour to Dubai or listen to the latest thinking on product management

Content creators can easily monetize their knowledge/ interests

How I can improve it even further: – Enable users to add friends to their network of friends so that if one watches a video interesting, it appears on a person’s video home page – Email a list of videos popular among friends to the user

Summary: Youtube is a great platform where content creators can monetize their knowledge/ interests and content consumers have an interactive method to gain knowledge / explore their interests and have targeted videos delivered to them in their area of interest. If given the chance to be on the product team I will improve it even further by:

1. Enabling users to add friends to their network of friends so that if one watches a video interesting, it appears on a person’s video home page and
2. Emailing a list of videos popular among friends to the user

• Choose a product and briefly explain what it is

Spotify is a music streaming service that allows users to listen to a wide range of songs, albums, and playlists on demand. The platform offers a vast library of music from various artists and genres, and allows users to create and share their own playlists. Spotify also offers personalized recommendations based on users' listening habits, and allows users to connect with friends and other users to discover new music. The service is available on a variety of devices, including smartphones, tablets, and computers, and is accessible through a subscription-based model.

• Who are the users ?

Spotify is a music streaming service that is aimed at a broad range of users who are interested in listening to music on demand. The platform offers a wide range of content that is suitable for people of all ages and musical tastes, and is particularly popular among younger users who are looking for an affordable and convenient way to access a wide range of music. Spotify's user-friendly interface and personalized recommendations may also make it appealing to users who are looking for a more personalized listening experience. Overall, Spotify's target users are anyone who is interested in listening to music on demand, regardless of their age or musical preferences.

• What are their pain points?

1. Limited access to music: Many users may have limited access to the music that they want to listen to, either because it is not available for purchase or because they do not have the means to buy it. Spotify offers a vast library of music that users can access on demand, which can help to solve this pain point.
2. Inconvenient listening experiences: Listening to music on traditional platforms, such as CDs or vinyl records, can be inconvenient and time-consuming. Spotify offers a convenient and easy-to-use platform that allows users to access their music quickly and easily, which can help to solve this pain point.
3. Limited personalization: Many music listening experiences do not offer personalized recommendations based on users' listening habits, which can make it difficult for users to discover new music that they will enjoy. Spotify's algorithms provide personalized recommendations that are tailored to each user's unique listening habits, which can help to solve this pain point.
4. Lack of social connectivity: Many music listening experiences are solitary and do not offer opportunities for users to connect with others who share their musical interests. Spotify allows users to connect with friends and other users to discover new music and share their listening habits, which can help to solve this pain point.

Overall, Spotify aims to solve a range of pain points that users may experience when it comes to listening to music, by offering a convenient, personalized, and social platform for music discovery and listening.

• How did competitors solve it in the past? How does this product address these pain points differently and better?

The music streaming services that were available prior to Spotify, such as Pandora, iTunes, and Rdio, were different from Spotify in several key ways in terms of how they solved their users' pain points. Some of the key differences between these services and Spotify include:

1. The range of content available: Spotify offers a much wider range of content than many of the music streaming services that were available before it, including a vast library of songs, albums, and playlists. This makes it easier for users to access the music that they want to listen to, and helps to solve the pain point of limited access to music.
2. The user experience: Spotify has a more modern and user-friendly interface than many of the music streaming services that were available before it, which may make it more appealing to users who are looking for a convenient and easy-to-use platform. This can help to solve the pain point of inconvenient listening experiences.
3. The level of personalization: Spotify's algorithms provide more personalized recommendations based on users' listening habits than many of the music streaming services that were available before it. This can help to solve the pain point of limited personalization, and make it easier for users to discover new music that they will enjoy.
4. The social features: Spotify offers more robust social features than many of the music streaming services that were available before it, including the ability for users to connect with friends and share their listening habits. This can help to solve the pain point of lack of social connectivity, and make it easier for users to discover new music through their social networks.

Overall, Spotify differs from many of the music streaming services that were available before it in terms of the range of content, user experience, level of personalization, and social features that it offers. These differences may make Spotify more appealing to users who are looking for a comprehensive and personalized music listening experience.

• How would you improve it/make it better ?

1. Offer a wider range of content: Spotify could consider expanding its library of songs, albums, and playlists in order to provide users with even more options to choose from. This could help to solve the pain point of limited access to music and make the platform more appealing to users who are looking for a wide range of content.
2. Improve the user experience: Spotify could consider redesigning its user interface to make it more intuitive and user-friendly. This could help to solve the pain point of inconvenient listening experiences and make the platform more appealing to users who are looking for a convenient and easy-to-use platform.
3. Increase the level of personalization: Spotify could consider implementing more advanced algorithms or other technologies to provide even more personalized recommendations based on users' listening habits. This could help to solve the pain point of limited personalization and make the platform more appealing to users who are looking for a more personalized listening experience.
4. Enhance the social features: Spotify could consider implementing new social features that allow users to connect with each other and share their music more easily. This could help to solve the pain point of lack of social connectivity and make the platform more appealing to users who are interested in connecting with others through their music.
5. Offer more affordable pricing: Spotify could consider offering more affordable pricing options, such as a lower-cost subscription tier or more flexible payment options. This could help to solve the pain point of affordability and make the platform more appealing to users who are looking for

• Summary

I discussed the key pain points that Spotify aims to solve, the ways that music streaming services that were available before Spotify sought to solve these pain points, and the ways in which Spotify differs from these services in terms of how it addresses these pain points. I also provided some potential ways that a music streaming service like Spotify could be improved, such as by offering a wider range of content, improving the user experience, increasing the level of personalization, enhancing the social features, and offering more affordable pricing. Overall, my previous answers provide information about the ways that Spotify and other music streaming services address the needs and pain points of users, and offer some potential ideas for improving these services.

Product: Canva Introduction: Canva is a graphic design platform that allows users to create social media graphics, presentations, posters, flyers, and other visual content. It is easy to use and offers a variety of templates and elements that users can customize to create their own designs. Canva is available on mobile and desktop platforms. Target Audience: Canva is used by individuals and businesses of all sizes. It is a popular choice for students, professionals, entrepreneurs, and creatives. User Pain Points: Canva solves a number of user pain points, including:

• Lack of design skills: Canva is easy to use, even for users with no prior design experience.
• Cost of design services: Canva is a free or low-cost option for creating professional-looking designs.
• Time-consuming design process: Canva templates and elements save users time and effort when creating designs.

How Canva Solves These Pain Points: Canva solves these pain points by providing users with a number of features, including:

• Drag-and-drop interface: Canva's drag-and-drop interface makes it easy for users to create designs, even if they have no prior design experience.
• Library of templates and elements: Canva offers a library of templates and elements that users can customize to create their own designs.
• Affordable pricing: Canva offers a free plan with limited features, as well as paid plans that are affordable for individuals and businesses of all sizes.

Competitors: Canva's competitors include Adobe Creative Cloud, Visme, and Piktochart. However, Canva stands out from these competitors by its ease of use, its library of templates and elements, and its affordable pricing. Drawbacks: One of the drawbacks of Canva is that it can be difficult to create truly unique designs with the free plan. However, the paid plans offer more features and templates, which gives users more flexibility to create their own designs.

Here are some things that can improve in Canva:

• Use more of the advanced features. Canva has a lot of powerful features that many users don't know about or don't use. For example, the text editor has a number of advanced features that can help you create more polished and professional-looking designs.
• Experiment with different design elements. Canva offers a wide variety of design elements, including fonts, colors, shapes, and images. Don't be afraid to experiment with different elements to create unique and eye-catching designs.
• Use grids and alignment tools. Grids and alignment tools can help you create more balanced and visually appealing designs. Canva offers a number of different grids and alignment tools that you can use.

Conclusion: Canva is my favorite product because it is a powerful and versatile graphic design platform that is easy to use and affordable. It is a great tool for anyone who needs to create visual content, regardless of their design skills or budget.

Overall, Canva is a powerful and versatile graphic design platform that can help you to create professional-looking designs, even if you have no prior design experience. I highly recommend it to anyone who needs to create visual content for personal or professional use.

My favorite product is WhatsApp. I use it every single day in form of text, voice, or video communication with friends, family, and even current and Ex-co-workers.

Why?

WhatsApp is a communication tool that

1. Understandable and Easy to use

2. A useful product that completely serves its mission to connect ppl

3. It is innovative: Examples of its innovation

a. Enable group chat and group call

b. Enable voice and video sharing

c. Enable reply to specific messages in individual or group chats; even it enables private reply to specific message in a group chat

4. It is simple, neat, and yet does the job done

5. The tool offers an environmentally friendly way to communicate with others

6. Even though it has little design, but it has all the necessary details.

Like any other product, it has room for improvements, but it covers all the basics as a good product.

This is a great question, and I'm struggling to come up with just one answer! There are so many great product experiences out there. Would it be OK if I mention two of my favorite products--one physical and the other an app?

[It's OK to mention two, but ty to keep it brief]

Great, thanks! The first product I'd like to mention is the Fellow Stagg EKG electric kettle. I love my coffee routine every morning, and this kettle has elevated the experience in multiple ways. First, it is stunningly beautiful. Clean lines, beautiful materials, simple and elegant all the way. It feels like a piece of art on my kitchen counter, not just a simple appliance. Second, it offers pinpoint temperature control for my water. I've discovered that 204 degrees is perfect for my brew method, and that perfect temp consistently delivers more flavor in my cup. Third, it heats the water fast and then holds that temp for me. Previously, I had a stovetop kettle, and it took longer to get to boiling, the water was a higher temperature that wasn't ideal for brewing, and sometimes I'd even forget and leave the the pot on the stove long enough that a significant portion of the water had boiled away. None of that happens with my Fellow. One thing I'd change is to make the integrated timer available while the heating element is off; right now, I either have to use a separate timer (on my Apple Watch) or have the kettle continue heating the water while I wait for my coffee to finish brewing.

The second product I absolutely love is an app called Readwise. I love to read, and I especially love to read non-fiction. Readwise is an amazing product that allows me to save highlights from my reading, and then actively encourages me to review those highlights later through the app. I can make highlights on my Kindle, and they are automatically synced to Readwise, but I can also do this with print books through snapping a picture and the highlight is captured through there with a dead simple interface. Every day, the app resurfaces five of my previous highlights for me to review, which solidifies my key takeaways and aids in long-term retention of the ideas. It also gives me a bonus highlight from a book I've never read, based on an analysis of the kinds of books and topics represented in my account. I've found multiple good books to read through these supplemental highlights! Readwise also integrates with Notion, so I have an easily searchable database of my reading history and key takeaways. The infrastructure for all their integrations is technically complex, but the consumer experience if pretty simple (through browser extensions). The app also uses notifications and gamification effectively--I currently have a 552 day streak of reviewing highlights, and a 30 week streak of adding new highlights from my reading. It keeps me reading, helps me retain what I've learned, and alerts me to new books I might not have found otherwise. They have found a lifelong customer in me.

Recently, my favorite product is Notion. It's an all in one workplace app to organize your notes, tasks, wikis, and databases. I like Notion because of its great features, and the fact that it solved my problem nicely.

1. Clean interface, easy to use and fun to use; It works like a wiki, where you can focus on content, and also more than a wiki, where you can easily format the content, by simply drag and drop. You're able to create a nice/neat article without knowing HTML/CSS

2. Data Visualization. Content can be presented in many format; Video, Image, Weblinks, etc. List can be visualized in different view, such as Board, Calendar, etc. I was able to do meal planning in a list, to manage the recipe & grocery, and also visualize the weekly plan in a calendar view.

3. All in one workplace. for the meal planning, I have youtube video or other video embedded in the recipe. And it plays inside the tool, without opening a Youtube webpage in browser. It saves my time to switch back and forth between windows. It may sounds like a small thing, but it's a life changer for me, and I replaced Evernote with Notion.

4. Strong Notion Community. Many enthusiastic users help the product spread the world, and reinforce the community with building more and more useful and intuitive templates.

It has its own weaknesses, and think it can be improved:

1. Lack of Integration; Since the company mission is to do a single tool that could do practically everything people needed to work together, there still has room to improve. Mostly integrate with design tools (Figma, InVision, etc.), and content editing tools (Image, Audio, Videos, etc. ).

2. Lack of offline mode in mobile devices. You've to go online to load the page, then you'll be able to access it while offline.

My favorite product is Shazam.

1. It is a great app to discover new music.
2. It solves a specific problem "What is this song?"
3. It is super intuitive to use.
4. It has many cool features, such as Geo music discovering, where users can get to see what other music users are discovering based on their geo-location.
5. What I really like about it is how the solution/product evolved over time, regardless of the technology. From a time where you would call a number and have it listen to the song and a few seconds later you would receive an SMS with the name of the song, to a time where (The latest update) users don't need to press any button, just open the app while the song is playing and it spits back the name of the song.

My favorite product is DuoLingo- not only because of the product quality but also because of the values of the company.

Product: It is a great app to learn a new language, they have a large selection of languages offered, have nailed gamification which in turn, helps users coming back for more and thereby builds a habit, and all of this for free. Ofcourse, the "free" price tag comes with a few costs like getting disrupted in learning with ads, no access to advanced learning material, and a few others, but all in all- DuoLingo has done a great job of living up to it's vision of providing free access to learning a language globally.

This opens up a plethora of opportunities for people in developing countries who want to learn English, but don't have the resources/time/access to do so.

Company Values: DuoLingo went public recently, and with that, comes the responsibility of making money for the shareholders. DuoLingo was innovative and stuck to it's vision of providing free access to learning a language, but introduced a Plus members which makes the experience of using the app better (ad free, comprehensive lists of mistakes and ability to practice those, unlimited hearts/points to keep opening harder content, test out of easier levels, etc). I was super impressed with this solution. Another way of monetization for DuoLingo was to open English test centers and get those accredited with Universities (as competition to TOEFL) and doing so at a much lower price point.

Competition: There are a few language learning apps that exist, but DuoLingo seems to be the market leader. The actual competition is actually language learning institutes, schools, colleges, etc which are alternate ways of learning a language and DuoLingo can look to partner with to increase mindshare and revenue.

Based on all of the above, DuoLingo has targeted individual users who want to learn a different language. But I think there are multiple things that DuoLingo can do to improve the product.

Improve can mean multiple things-

1. Need realization: How can DuoLingo make people realize the benefits of learning a new language, and realize that need?
2. Increase acquisition: Once a user realizes the need, how can DuoLingo increase market share?
3. Improve learning experience on the app
4. Increase referral traffic to the app
5. Improve social features on the app
6. Increase the monetization opportunity within the app
7. Expand to a whole new target audience outside of individuals, eg: Language learning institutes, translation services, Embassies, Schools/Colleges, etc

The list is endless, and for the purpose of the interview, I'd like to focus on enhancing the learning experience, with the success metric of increasing engagement.The operational metrics to measure engagement will be to measure time spent on the app, logins/day.

Reason to prioritize: Improving the learning experience can have downstream impact on social component/virality of the app, and eventually also be used to expand into newer markets/segments. Individual users is by far the largest segment in terms of size, and lowest barrier to entry in terms of the platform capability/partnerships/support, etc.

Use cases/pain points of users:

• No way to improve prunounciation- hard to build fluency and confidence in speaking the language
• No way to learn the local culture, slangs, experience the place and language. It stops at learning nouns, verbs, grammar.
• No way to continuously practice the language if not moving there, or learning with a friend, or know someone who knows the language, easy to forget

Solutions:

• VR to allow users to go to the location, order food, take local transport, converse with localites/avatars,- Live A day in the life of a local. Maybe gamify this, building on the gamification that DuoLingo does so well- make a friend today, order food today, visit a museum today, take a walking tour today, etc
• Create a game as above, but not in VR.
• Connect with native language speakers in the location (eg. connect people in India with English speakers in India/Britain, US) as per their choice and have them talk about their culture, why they are learning the language, etc. Gamify this and pay the native speaker to give feedback. Give new avenues to practice speaking. This can also be a great monetization opportunity for DuoLingo- charge users for this.
• Connect with other people learning the same language and encourage dialogue, talking with each other. May not get crisp feedback if they are both learning, but great for practice speaking.

What should we build?

• It's easiest to build 3, but its also lowest impact. VR is hard to build, but with access to these devices, and the industry projections on the widespread use cases, might make sense to start investing in this technology asap. In the meanwhile, build the games in non VR, give access to them behind a paywall, and integrate them to VR when the tech is ready and adoption of these devices is high.

Question: What is your favorite product, and why? Me: (I'll engage the interviewer by asking clarifying questions).** **Can it be a software or hardware product? Does it need to be globally available, or can it be limited to a particular country? Does it need to be paid, or can it be a free product? Interviewer: your call Me: Can I take 1 minute to think of the product that'd fit the description? Interviewer: Sure Me: My favorite product is google photos because it saves high-quality images readily available at my fingertips and saves me tons of time during the search. Before I jump into details, can I walk you through the structure of my response so that we are on the same page? Interviewer: Sure Me:

1. Most people are already aware of google photos, and I'll explain what google photos mean to me. I'll also dive into high-level features and how I use these features regularly.
2. I'll dive into how google photos solve my pain points and provide gain points.
3. Since I've tried a few other photo apps such as android galleries, Microsoft's galleries, etc., I'd like to discuss my experience with other products. And what would it take for competitors to sway my loyalty?
4. If we've any time left after, I could perhaps talk about enhancing my experience with google photos.

How does this sound? (This exercise gave me enough time to structure my thoughts and will help me not forget critical points)

Interviewer: Sounds good. Please continue.

Me: Google photos is a photo repository that enables users to organize, search, share pictures, and many other functions. For me, google photos is a way to quickly search for photos of people, pets, and documents. I take many photos(especially since I got married), and I'm asked to share the snaps fairly regularly - by my wife, her family, and my family - all located in different parts of the world. Google photos let me search by face, location, date and share pictures quickly with frequent contacts. Since I share photos via WhatsApp family/friends group, creating a shareable album on the go comes in handy; it helps me avoid sending duplicate images.

I like to go down memory lane and enjoy viewing where I was last year or ten years ago this day; google photo memories serve that well.

• How google solves my key pain point? I always enjoyed sharing photos with my friends and family. Earlier, I sent photos via email but later moved to Picasso, later turned to google photos. Sharing pictures via access controllable links is my favorite part. I can select individual or multiple images and share via email, WhatsApp, SMS, or other apps. Also, I can view which friends and family have access to which photos, allowing me to revoke/grant access if I change my mind later.
• The ability to create a unique link on the go is the key. Google photos use the face-detection method and automatically recommend sharing with people in the pictures. That makes things more accessible as well.
• I also enjoy auto collage which appears to be an ML-driven feature. I'm not a big fan of this feature, but sometimes it creates funny animations that I share with my friends and family.
• My photos are automatically uploaded from my android phone that it automatically frees up my android memory.

Why haven't other apps made the cut? I've tried android galleries. It does have more editing features than google photos, but I'm not a heavy editor. My editing involves cropping 70% of the time, light/tone change 20%, and trashing 10% of the time. Sharing from the android gallery requires several clicks, and it takes multiple clicks to find albums shared with users. I could have been using editing features during my teens, but since I need to efficiently complete the cycle of photos (from taking to sharing images), I believe google photos allows a quick way.

Microsoft photo upload seems to integrate with my phone's gallery reasonably seamlessly, but last time I checked, Microsoft photos appear more like part of another file/document folder. It felt scorched and uncreative experience.

How could google photos' experience be enhanced? Google photos could help me suggest the next photo op opportunity. Since Google already has my interest and profile, google photos could tell me the next place to travel and show pictures of others who( within the age group, interest, marital status, photo shooting pattern) recently visited such locations. It'll help me feel part of the community.

My favourite app is BluSmart available in few Indian cities. its a Taxi app but unlike Uber/Lyft/Ola it offers taxi on prescheduled basis and not on demand. Its my favorite app and this has replaced Uber as it ensures the concept of taxi availability for my office travel and whenever I am travelling with hassle free with zero cancellations, no surge fare , no cash payment required. Nor, we have to be said No for AC turn on request. I can use their rental service for longer duration and if my destination is not fixed. [In some countries this may not be a problem but in India it is a very big problem]

This is achieved by rather than having taxi partners BluSmart owns the fleet of taxis and drivers are employees of BluSmart.

I have never missed a flight but with Uber my Taxi was delayed and had some cancellation experience as well.

Though they offer same benefits as Uber/Ola of convenience of booking via App, but ensure no cancellation and no surge pricing

From improvement perspective, the app could work on following aspects

1. Coverage area- they currently provide limited pickup area in city due to the reason of EV charging station being far. This should improve
2. Intercity Travel - Again, this is something not supported as EVCabs do not have mileage to support intercity distance in one charge. By introducing replaceable batteries or in car generators , they could cover such longer intercity travel
3. Though everything is prepaid but they do not support cards like Amex, this should be supported

One of my favorite products is this new social media app called BeReal. The premise of the app is that once a day, the app will send you to “Post Your BeReal” at which point, when you open the app, it will take a photo with both the front and outward facing camera. It will post this image as one and allow the user to give it a caption. All of these daily updates are added to a calendar on the app where you can see your Bereal’s from everyday. It’s essentially a way of giving and receiving daily updates from your friends. Although that was a high level description, let me dive into some specifics to explain why this stands out to me rather than other social media platforms.

Why I’m passionate about this No Doom Scrolling Your feed will refresh once a day with all of your friends BeReals so it’s nice to see new content everyday from your friends but also not get sucked down into endless scrolling since your feed will end once you’ve seen all your friends BeReals. This is why I favor this app over Instagram since:

• I could scroll for literally hours on Instagram and be stuck in a constant state of Doom Scrolling
• It’s a more personalized feed that shows ONLY my friends and no influencers, ads, or suggest posts

Although BeReal has a “Discover” tab, it’s not as engaging as the Instagram “Discover” tab which prevents the endless scrolling. However, this could be an opportunity for BeReal to improve on.

Customizability BeReal combined the fun parts of Instagram and Snapchat to allow for customized responses. One option is to comment on a friend's BeReal which is a functionality that every other social media platform has. But you can also interact with a friend’s BeReal by sending a RealMoji. A RealMoji is an emoji (think of like a happy face, sad face, shocked face etc) but it’s your face. You can set these up when you download the app by taking selfies (completely optional) and use these to respond. Additionally, there’s a “current RealMoji” where you can just take a picture of your current face and use that. If you use a RealMoji on a friend's BeReal, it’s visible to all their friends as well. I think this is a really unique way of interacting with someone's post as opposed to just commenting as you would on Facebook or Instagram.

Does that make sense or do you have any questions? If all of that makes sense, I can move on to some ways on how I would improve BeReal. (Assume interviewer say go for it).

Business Objective Before talking about solutions, I think it’s important to understand BeReal’s business objective. The app has been around for 2ish years and I think a smart “next step” for them would be to increase engagement. With social media apps, the more a user engages with the app, the more likely they are to recommend it to their friends and grow the app. As we push for increasing engagement, we can increase their user acquisition as well which will be two birds one stone.

I chose not to go with monetization because as Mark Zuckerberg said in the “Social Network” movie, “We have to be cool first, ads aren’t cool”.

Does that make sense? If it does, I can move into brainstorming some solutions that can help BeReal acquire more users.

Improvements

1. Video BeReal
   1. Currently, BeReals are just images but I think you could increase engagement by allowing users to post a video with your back and/or front camera.
   2. For example you’re with a puppy and want to post you playing with it or at a lake and want to show the entire scenery, I think there’s a lot of benefits to this and makes the user’s calendar more memorable.
   3. Additionally, a video will likely have more people reacting/commenting to ones post, and we can have that as a success metric later if this is chosen.
   4. Risk: Impact on storage since videos take up more space than images.
2. Discover Near Me
   1. Currently, the BeReal Discover tab shows people from random places. For example, I got some people from United Kingdom, Spain, and the United States. Nowhere near close to me.
   2. What if the Discover tab showed other BeReal users near your location (If you have it shared). That way, say you’re at school and look through your Discover tab, you could see your classmates and it’d be an easy way to add them or see what they’re up to if they posted a BeReal.
   3. Risk: Privacy could be an issue but I think if we don’t share exact location and it shows a radius it should be okay.
3. Share your Calendar
   1. Currently your calendar is something that’s only visible to you. I think it could be a good way to spread the word about the app if you’re able to share your calendar on other social media platforms like IG/ Text/ Snap.
   2. This shows the benefit of the app → Having a collection of daily memories and could entice users to join the app.

I believe Video BeReals are a low effort high impact since it can easily increase engagement (measured by RealMojis and comments sent). However, it could be a tough selling point for someone to switch from Snapchat, which has the same benefits.

Discover Near Me I think is also a low effort high impact because it can really drive up friend requests and grow user’s circle. This could be a good way to only get more engagement (more friends, more likes/comments) but also add more users as everyone’s circle becomes larger.

Share your calendar is a low effort low impact. The main hypothesis here is that others will like the value proposition of having a calendar of memories but if not, the whole idea fails.

Overall, I think the Discover Near Me feature would be the best course of action. If we had more time I could talk about how to roll it out, success metrics etc.

What is your Fav product?

Software or any? Software Products that I use or product that's popular in the market?

Software Product that I use and is fav.

What is the product? Why its my fav?

• Easy to use - simple
  • Find what I want.
  • Social - interaction with like-minded ppl
  • It has everything you need to keep yourself fit
    • Diet
    • Coach
    • Events
    • Challenges
    • Support
    • Show and tell
    • Live classes
• Valuable to me and how it changed my life
  • Receipies too
  • I don't like to work out, now it help me learn the values of working out and proved to me that it's possible.
  • reasonable pricing
• Delightful features
  • I can calculate my weight program, if am self-motivated, just need to app

Innovative - Product is developed with customers in mind and not for profit. That's the innovative part, its not new, but the model works coz it genuinely cares for customers. Customer obsession presented in a different way.

• Growth
  • IT just grows by word of mouth.
  • got 1m downloads in 2016 - 2021 - 5 yrs
  • revenue - 8.5m

Measurable outcome I have changed - from being not interested in exercising to cannot think of not exercising better eating habits lost 10 pounds

Cons - ? Its regional .. coaches are working only in India time Real- time interaction is difficult diets are regional - indian based receipies

How it can be improved? / expanded? Global Market Fitness for Kids - start early - from age 13 - 18

• Eating habits
• Exercise routines
• Time management
• Teen coaches not only for better health for better mind also.

My favorite product is slack.

why i like it: ease of use, mobile friendly, easier way to express feelings

what user actions i would perform:

• sending messages,
• sending certain messages of certain format,
• attaching files,
• war rooms during outages,
• tech integrations for messages,
• sending emojis,
• chatting with people from different organizations

the major painpoints i faced with hipchat and microsoft skype and were filled by slack are:

• no way to respond to a single message separately
  • in slack each message can be responded to separately
• no way to send bots messages to rooms about any technical failures
  • in slack automated outage messages can be sent to rooms that users signup to
• emojis were very rigid
  • slack has tons of customized emoji options that increases collaboration
• formatting of the messages that i sent , like SQL queries, or json files
  • slack has formatting options
• chat with people from different organizations
• chatrooms for knowledge purposes
• public, private chatrooms that we can organize
• the whole flexibility of how the chat is , the playfulness and the casualness that slack brings into the organizational chat is something amazing
• muting the chat after work hours
• marking on a video call

how it can be improved slack has already addressed whats required with chat. its all about delighting the user now for slack. basic chat has been addressed by a lot of companies, but slack went beyond that. so adding features to delight is what can slack do now to improve its product.

• like adding "instagram like stories" that are happening org wise. say something is launched, tpm or a pm can put a story, and a blog link in story that people can check. it takes collaboration to a different level across the blog
• something like a igtv or something like that, where you can record the knowledge and put it in slack with hashtags or topic names. so users across company can check it.
• schedule meetings from within slack instead of calendar in microsoft email or google calendar, and take down notes in slack itself. as slack is integrated with atlassian, the meeting notes get recorded directly in atlassian or slack.

Most of the answers were primarily an App. So I decided to take a crack at a different one. Pls, provide feedback on the structure, approach, and clarity through your comments. Thank you in advance! p.s: I took 35 mins to write this.

Me: Sure. Is there a preference between a digital product such as apps vs a physical product? Interviewer: Your choice

Me: Before I dive in, could I take a couple of minutes in defining a structure for this? Interviewer: Yes.

Me: This would be my approach to share my favorite product

1. Introduce the product, and provide an overview of its functionalities and the users/personas
2. Share 3 things that WoW in the product and what problem it solved for me
3. Talk about user journey/business model that is unique to this product (Not applicable to this answer)
4. I shall also share what are the alternatives/competition and why those are not preferred
5. Improvements that I want on the product
6. How to measure / metrics the improvements

My favorite product is Instant Pot. Instant Pot is an electric pressure cooker. It also acts as a pan supporting different styles of cooking with pre-set modes. When it was launched the target segment was households that are working, but want to carry healthy lunch to work. Currently, it is used across almost all kitchens spanning users across the age from 20 to 80s for regular day-day use.

Three things that WoW in the product

1. Reduced Cook time compared to traditional alternatives
2. An ecosystem/community that is vibrant sharing recipes, tips, etc.
3. Lesser energy consumption

In particular, things that made me fall in love are

1. Ability to set a timer for when the cooking needs to start.- Before I got Instant pot I used to either cook my lunch for work either the previous day and keep it in the refrigerator or get up early in the morning and cook. Both of them were not great, since it was not fresh and took away my precious sleep time :-)
2. Single pan / Cooker to support different styles of cooking- It is a single thing in the kitchen with which I could cook pasta, soup, and even Indian sweets. So less clutter.
3. Just to add to it, coming from the southern part of India, Yogurt or curd is my staple diet. I like to make my own Yogurt at home. Before Instant Pot, a perfect Yogurt was often a hit or miss based on ambient temperature, etc. The built-in Yogurt mode in Instant Pot guarantees success.

You can see why I love Instant Pot or is a perfect Salesperson for it. Any questions you have? Interviewer: Good, could you talk about the competition

Me: This is a perfect segway to talk about alternatives and competition. The alternatives to Instant Pot can be grouped into three buckets

• Traditional pressure cooker
• Old style electric Rice cookers
• Instant Pot competitors
• Traditional Pressure cooker: This requires attention, your presence, and more time to cook
• Old style electric rice cookers: They are good just for rice, but fail to cook grains and does not provide options for multiple styles of cooking
• New competitors to InstantPot: Recently for the past couple of years, they are new competitors that have similar technology to InstantPot. Most often those choices are very expensive- almost double when compared to InstantPot and have very little differentiation. Also, it does not have a community like Instant Pot where I could go learn recipes and tips from real people

Hence Instant Pot for me continues to be the #1 thing in my kitchen. Hope that addresses your question Interviewer: Yes

With that said, I also have few improvements that would make InstantPot even better.

1. Currently, it is bulky. It is difficult and heavy if you have to move it from the shelf to the counter to cook. For instance, my mom at times needs help in moving it up to the counter. So it would be good if it is lightweight.
2. Related to bulky- Due to my dietary restrictions, I often have to cook at places where I travel. I have tried carrying Instant Pot, and it is no easy and is exposed to breakage. It would be ideal if it can be disassembled into smaller parts and easy to carry. Another potential business model that can be explored is to sell InstantPot to long-stay apartments, hotels and this could be marketed as a differentiator by the hotel chains.
3. Cleaning- Although the lid and insert are detachable and can be cleaned, it is often difficult to clean the corners where you could drop food. Making areas easily accessible will help for a clean and safe cooking
4. Finally aesthetics- The silver black is kind of becoming old, they could provide alternatives to it. For example, they could be bold and provide the iMac kind of look and feel allowing us to see the internals of how the food is getting cooked.

Others include voice enablement (or linking to Alexa, google home), app-based controls (i believe it is available now)

I will also quickly touch on a couple of metrics on measuring these improvements. I believe I may be a small user segment for a few of those suggestions, but nevertheless

• Launch in a particular location, a new set of designs like floral, see-through, etc. and measure success on the number of sales against the traditional model
• Work with few boutique hotels to see how often guest uses instant pot before expanding it to larger hotel chains

Is there anything more that you would want me to address.

Favorite product:What's App My Favorite product is What'sApp.It helps me to connect to the world.What's App made offline communication easy. People can send messages on their convieience and other persons can respondat their convienentt time. In Today's world What's become the number one messaging platfom The voice calls of the whats app really made easy to interact with the persons in abroad. Earlier, people had to shell out lot of money to interact with the family members stay in abroad. In summary, What's App has become part and parcel of Human's life.

Mission: Whats App is from Facebook. FaceBook's Mission is give the people power to build community and bring the world closer together.

What's App features are,

• Simple, Reliable messaging
• Group chat- keep Groups in touch
• Share the status of your recent activity/celebration instantly
• Vioce /Video call to connect with family
• What's App really convienent for working people to access messages from laptop/computer
• Files sharing is easy
• End to End encryption of messages

Major competitors:

• Telegram :

  -> Telegram provides unlimited storage. This means all your text messages, images media files & documents will be saved on their cloud. -> The Telegram uses Client-Server encryption which means the company has access to your messages sent via its platform. The -To-End Encryption is available in Telegram only for ‘Secret Chats’. ->Telegram group can afford a maximum of 200,000 members.

• Snapchat - Very popular between the age group of 16- 25

• skype -Microsoft anounced End of life in 2021.

Pain points:

• What's App maximum group members is 256.
• search in user/group chat
• Tag/mark important messages

The solution can be extended if interviewer asks to improve the Whats App Improvements:

• search in user/group chat
• Tag important messages
• Groups basedon interest (no upper limit)

Favorite Product My favorite product is the Splitwise mobile App. It is my favorite product because it allows me to split bills with family and friends. I use this App almost every other day because I usually pay my bills in groups like rent, groceries with my roommates, uber fare, restaurant bills with my friends & colleagues and travel trips with family and friends. The App organizes all the shared expenses at one place. Users

• Students sharing apartment rent, groceries and utility bills
• Friends hanging out for trips and vacations.
• Work colleagues sharing uber rides and lunches.
• Family members Pain Points that Splitwise addresses
• Remembering and splitting everyone’s share in the group.
• Managing owing and receiving money from different people in the same group.
• Not able to keep track of monthly expenditure for self.
• Forgetting to ask for the money from family and friends that they owe you. Pain Points that Splitwise could address in improved version
• In App payment functionality.
• Hassle to update payment status on the Splitwise App after paying through the banking App.
• Different features in iOS & Android (I use Android but have heard some features are different in iOS).
• Use it like a digital wallet like Venmo, PayPal, etc.
• Feature to offer interest free loans to your friends and family and setting a date of return reminder for the borrower.
• Bill upload feature that directly lists all the individual item prices (I use freemium model and got to know that this is available in paid version).
• Currency conversion – I face it all the time when travelling between US and India and splitting the amount with my friends.
• Expense search option

Hi fellow PMs,

I would appreciate some feedback and pointers on my practice below:

Clarifying questions

• When you say product, do you mean a software or hardware product? Let us talk about a hardware product for now
• Now when you say favorite, do you mean what do I like and dislike about it and why do I use it? Yes, talk about why do you use it frequently and what you like about it

So, just to rephrase, you would like me to pick my favorite hardware product and talk about what I like about it and why I always use it.

Approach

1. I will take a moment to choose the product
2. I will then explain what it is and what it does
3. I will identify the users of the product
4. I will highlight the key pain points for these users
5. I will talk about competition and how it solved these pain points in the past
6. I will then explain how this product solve these pain points in a different and better way
7. I will also highlight some key improvement that I personally feel they should exist
8. Finally, I will summarize everything

Let’s start!

1. Choosing a product
   • my favorite hardware product is, Fender Mustang Micro

• What does it do?
  • Fender Mustang Micro is a pocket guitar amplifier with modeling amplifiers and guitar effects.It is compact enough to fit into a pocket. It features a 6.3mm jack to plug into an electric or bass guitar, a volume knob, multi effects and modeling amps switches, BT connection to connect to external devices to play along, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and a 4 hours rechargeable internal battery via USB-C. You can simply plug into your guitar, plug in your headphones, and start playing without disturbing anyone around you.
• Who are the users for this product?
  • Because of its versatility and compactness, there are a variety of users.
  • For the sake of simplicity, I am going to segment the users into two segments:
    1. Professional musicians - on the road/touring
    2. Hobbyist - individuals looking to practice at home or on the go when they have time
    3. For me personally, I fit into the second segment and I have been using it for over 6 months now on both, my electric guitar and bass, without needing to purchase an amplifier and an effect pedal. I love it!
• What are the key pain points of these users?
  • Electric guitar and bass players are looking for a reliable, versatile, and compact amp that does not take up too much space, is easy to use, does not break the bank, and great for practice.
• How did competitors solve this problem in the past?
  • Before such products, amplifier manufacturers like Marshall, Fender (themselves), Vox, and other giants, came up with cell-battery powered mini amps (still exist) to cater for such use cases. Although these products were acceptable, however, battery ran out. In fact, they are loud and that can be a problem because of disturbance to others, and they aren’t portable enough. The users we’ve mentioned earlier, were looking for something a lot more compact and versatile that gives the experience they are looking for.
• How does this product solve these pain points?
  • The Fender Mustang Micro came into the market back in 2019 and it started a revolution at that time because it urged all the other players in the market to rethink their offerings and come out with something similar.
  • The first plus point is, its size. It is small enough to fit into a pocket. So, one can bring anywhere easily.
  • Secondly, it has more than 12 guitar effects and modeling amps. It is extremely versatile and caters to all sorts of musicians without excluding anyone, from pop, jazz, and all the way to metal.
  • Most importantly, it allows the user to plug in their headphones, and just play without disturbing anyone around you or receiving complaints from the neighbors about the noise. To me, this is what many hobbyists like myself want.
  • Additionally, it allows the user to connect to a playback device (e.g. mobile phone, music player) via BT to jam with any song they want. This is great for improving one's guitar playing skills.
• What are some improvements I would suggest?
  • No product is perfect of course. While this product checks all the boxes for me, if I were to improve it, I would look at allowing users to reprogram the effects available on board from a library of effects - via USB-C cable and an interface. That will allow users to load different sets of effects to their liking and not be restricted to what is available out-of-the-box, making it even more versatile and personalized.
• Summary
  • My favorite hardware product is, Fender Mustang Micro. Before the Mustang Micro, cell-battery powered low wattage amps were the only available compact solution for professionals on the go and hobbyists looking to practice at home. Fender was able to provide those users with a better experience, that is compact and versatile without breaking the bank. If I would to improve it, I would allow customizing the effects on board to make it more personalized.

My favorite product is Google search. Anything on the internet is given in less than second. Google search faster than our brains. Enormous amount of data is produced. Searching in petabytes of data and sending results matching our request with page ranking, nearest meaning at blazing speed. In today's world people use the word Google for internet! The amount of engineering efforts, infrastructure put to work and roi on it amazing.

I am a user of Hinge, a dating app. Are you familiar with that app?

Hinge is a dating app and just like other dating apps is designed to provide free service to seekng members but follows a "freemium" business model.

The way I think of this is usually what the product’s intent is. But since most products are intended for specific type of users I also tend to think about that and their problems. This has me gain a perspective and not criticze it. Can I take a similar approach?

Business Objective:

While there are monetization aspects to the app, considering the app is small and there are many competitors, Hinge's main focus would be to keep customers engaged (and not loose to competition) to retain them. If that happens, they can get word of mouth marketing and attain more customers. So let's go with Engagement.

User Type:

For dating apps there are many ways to think about user types such as age or by intention. Let's consider it for serious relationship intention and ago by age. By age I think there are 4 groups:

1. upto 26

2)26-32

3)33-42

4)43+.

The age group is subjective and different depending on gender but for our purposes let's keep it simple. From my experience, under 26 mostly don't use dating apps, 26-32 is usually are also not serious about committed relationships. Since, Hinge is more targeted to helping find that committed relationship (their mission statement states "app meant to be deleted") I would like to focus on users from 33-42 age.

Pain Points:

From personal experience and having talked to multiple singles with a serious purpose and this age group, their key concerns are:

1. Being able to find someone they can genuinely connect with and be physically attracted to.

2. Feeling safe and secure (especially for women). Per my research about 70% of women feel insecure.

3. Not knowing intentions of singles on the app (I did some user interviews around this)

Considering limited time, let's focus on 2 : Finding someone I could possibly connect with, and feeling safe and secure.

Why I like the app:

For #1:

1. Unlike other apps, Hinge doesn't have a standard profile style where you fill out 'Tell me about you' and 'What you like' type of sections. Instead it has multitude of question bank such as "weirdest thing about you" "what people notice in you the most", etc. and you pick whatever 4 topics you want to and it has a scroll down the style with pictures and answers to these questions. This enables personality to be shown off more easily and keeps singles coming back because there is some other profile potentially more exciting to explore.

2. Hinge also has section, which requires paying, where in it enlists profiles similar to your personality based on the ones you have chosen in the past.

3. Hinge also has section of profiles that have liked you and responded to specific comments or picture of yours.

For #2:

1. Hinge offers phone dialing and FT feature withing the app. This enables users to still be able to chat over phone without having to share phone number.

2. It also has Report user feature.

If I haven't killed enough time:

I do have suggestions to improve but considering time at a high level:

1. Incorporate concept of event based dating where people can easily schedule a date at a specific event (this would ensure user engagement).
2. Incorporate matching by personality type (Meyers Briggs or something), AI to track what (facial features) are usually swiped left or right, % probably of similarity, etc.
3. From safety and security standpoint: Integration with law enforcement authorities just in case a quick call needs to be made for help (not an MVP), alerting chosen friends/family with a simple click and sharing your location, tracking every step from the moment you click a single click (could be useful for investigation), etc.

Trade-offs:

1. Privacy concerns

2. Invalid press of alerts could result in shame and what's the cost of authorities being called?

3. Invalid personality rankings based on someone invalidly reporting a user.

There are plenty more improvements that come to mind but we are running out of time. But I am happy to talk through it all and how I would roadmap this if I were a PM.

Q: Tell us about one product you use and how you would improve it.

I use Netflix. Three things that I love about Netflix.

1. Netflix original series/movies are most interesting and highly rated, and that too with zero advertisements.
2. Having the option of watching content on the device of my choice like TV, desktop website, mobile, and the experience is very smooth and subtle on the different platforms. The UI is so simple, and it takes huge effort to make something that easy for customers.
3. Having to watch a movie or series at a particular time on cable is changed with watching at my convenience. That is a big shift.

Q: How would I improve Netflix?

Netflix has disrupted the entertainment industry. We used to rely heavily on the cables and disks to watch movies and serials. Now with Netflix and other streaming platforms, the cables are almost struggling for existence like CDs/DVDs went down with pen drives and portable hard disks adoption.

To improve Netflix, I will select the goal of increasing user engagement. User engagement and retention are the leading indicators of revenue.

Goal: Increase User Engagement

User Segment · 18-40 years old person working in the corporate world who is aware of the latest releases and talk about trending show/movie with peers. · Want to watch the most interesting and popular content due to busy life and do not have a lot of time. · Watching generally on the weekend/holiday and with family/friends/colleagues

Pain points · Needs new content regularly, the dilemma of what to watch on Netflix. · Using multiple platform subscriptions, i.e., Amazon Prime, Disney+ Hotstar, to keep access to the latest releases. · FOMO - if uses only Netflix and when peers talk about other platforms movies/shows

Features

1. A paid add-on for renting from other streaming platforms within Netflix platform/app
2. New shows will be added to Netflix based on the users’ votes
3. Live sports telecast

Prioritization Value vs Cost Kano Model RICE

Feature Selected Based on low cost and high value, and RICE score, I will go with the Voting feature. 2) New shows will be added to Netflix based on the users’ votes

Metrics: Increase in the view of the ‘new shows added with a selection from user voting’ by 15% Guardrail Metrics: Overall views of Netflix and other content do not decrease by more than 5%

User Story example As a Netflix Subscriber I want to be able to play movie/show trailer during the voting attempt on the mobile app So that I can know more about the content to make my choice

Summary: To summarize, per the user engagement goal and the user persona that is most relevant, seeing the user journey and finding the pain points or friction points where we can improve, I have come up with three features: Paid add-on, User Voting, and Live Sports. Using the prioritization and current resources, I have selected the Voting feature. I have further designed the low fidelity prototype to visualize it.

I will love to get your feedback on this.

MacroFactor app (https://macrofactorapp.com/)

There are plenty of nutrition tracking apps, most notably MyFitnessPal. But where MacroFactor shines ahead of them is in the heavily-researched calorie expenditure algorithm it uses (which is self-adjusting), the non-judgmental goal tracking and adherence system, the customizability of foods and recipes, and the robust community behind it.

MacroFactor was created by a veritable fitness nerd named Greg Nuckols – a person who's never been anything less than helpful to people online, in everything I've seen from his blog at Stronger By Science, in the MacroFactor Facebook group, or in the subreddit. Those are the communities where you can directly ask him and the devs questions and even influence the direction of the app.

I've lost 5 lbs with the help of MacroFactor without any emotional stress, self-judgment, or self-criticism – on a sustainable time period. I really like using the app too because of its elegant UI.

My favorite product/app is Flo. In addition to keeping track of my physical health, it provides information on my sleep cycles and predicts health concerns I might or might not face in future. It has helped me:

• Keep track of menstrual cycles
• Improve sleep cycle by suggesting ways to relax
• Predict future trends in my personal health and well being and access to medical experts who can recommend detailed plan based on health history
• Peace of mind: It has improved quality of my life by keeping track of useful details that help me be more productive and manage stress

Ways to Improve the App:

• There have been concerns among users about data privacy. One way to address the growing concern among current and potential new users is by hiring a security team. Tighten data privacy by use of tokens, improved user authentication
• Using better encryption techniques

How does the interviewer typically respond to someone choosing popular products like whatsapp, youtube or chrome as their favorite product ? Is it considered meh ? Plus how is this favorite product question evaluated for senior product manager roles ?

Follow up question for the interviewer. "Is this a hardware or a software product". Assumption: Does not matter. Another follow up, "Is this a product or could this be a service that includes multiple products". Assumption: Does not matter

Keeping that in mind I would take few moments to think about:

1. What is my favorite product
2. Why is it my favorite product and pain points it solves
3. What the features that I like most in this service.

My favorite product is Waze. As a frequent traveler by road this is a product that I use on a day to day basis. Waze is GPS navigation software app that users could download on their smart phones and can use to find the direction between starting point to their destination. Best features about this app in my opinion are:

1. This product actually solves a problem at a very large scale and make day to day lives of users quite easy
2. It is easy to use and navigate and all users have to do is enter starting and destination address and then waze provides turn by turn directions
3. One of the best things about Waze is that user could actually alert fellow users of situations like traffic accidents with one click of a button.
4. In case of accidents or heavy traffic concentrations it provides alternate route to the users.

How is Waze better than some of the similar Apps like google maps

1. Waze lets users share the information about their route in real time
2. Personally I have found turn by turn direction inputs in Waze to be must more fast than google maps

How would I improve Waze

1. One of biggest things I would like in Waze is for it to be more intelligent and provide predictions on build up of traffic in my route. For example if I travel from work to home daily then it would be great to get note from Waze about potential built up of traffic along my daily route
2. Another thing that I would like to see is for Waze to give me notifications on things like restaurants or other point of interest along my route based on my predefined inputs

A product I’ve been using recently that I love is Duo Lingo! It’s a community oriented, gamified language learning app that is a novel twist to traditional language learning. It uses common game mechanics like leaderboards, daily rewards, progress indicators, in game currency, customized learning plans, and habit formation to make learning interesting, fun, and motivating.

Best of all it’s free as opposed to other language learning apps that are paid like Rosetta Stone and Babbel.

Duolingo is currently the number 1 language learning app in the Apple Store and Google play, and I believe it’s due to the gamification of the app, it being free, and the active community it has fosters through features like leaderboards, social challenges, in app communication, and integrations with social media applications. This is the key difference and competitive advantage of Duo Lingo as opposed to more traditional language learning apps like Rosetta Stone and Babbel.

I would improve the product by adding peer to peer live speaking opportunities to further build community amongst members. Perhaps adding in challenges in a gameshow like format where users can answer quiz questions for points, badges, and other rewards. This would mesh with the current gamification and community interaction model of the app while also allowing students to practice speaking in a fun and novel way. It would also align with Duolingos mission to develop the best education in the world and make it universally accessible.

My favourite product is the GIGL audiobook platform because it offers over 1+ million audiobooks in 7 different languages in a very concise manner only around 30 mins listings with book summaries and an offline download option in it and provides a hassle-free experience without ads on the app and website. It also understands the price-sensitive market of India offering Rs 365/per year. It has a great library for free audiences offering various genres of audiobooks  free for all I would also like to improve in some aspects -

1. Improve the books recommendation page, every user has a different area of interest I think the app lags on it. Adding a button like the OTTs platform is useful for users to explore the library of their choice.

matrics targeted - user retention, average time spent on the platform

2. Adding weekly top charts, by adding top charters of the week or month increases user interest and developed peer pressure on the individual user.

matrics target-user retention, average time spent on the platform

3. Adding more content libraries to it. I am a premium user of the platform many times I didn't find the desired audiobook of my choice the app has the feature of book recommendations to developers to add the book but it lags to catering the audience and it is slow to respond in my case I barely getting any reply or update on it.

matrics target-user retention, average time spent on the platform

4. Adapting the Freemium business model, Adding ads to the premium content on the increased revenue of the platform and free users to explore the premium content increases the user conversion rates

matrics targeted-Revenue, user conversion rate

5. Establishing Author's clubs among the users, Every popular author has a fan following among readers creating reading and listing clubs increases user interaction and engagement on the platform

Periodization Impact Complexity

1. High Low
2. Medium Low
3. High High
4. Medium Medium
5. Medium  Medium

To summarize My favourite product is the GIGL audiobook platform it has a lot more to offer some aspects to improve

My fav product is Whatsapp. I admire whatsapp for the user loyalty, user engagement and the user interface.

We are already aware of what whatsapp does. Its a messaging app for text and media. So let me run through the

1. Paintpoints whatsapp solves for different user segments
2. How I use whatsapp
3. And finally some suggestions on feature enhancements for whatsapp

Painpoints

1. First most important painpoint is onboarding experience.
   1. Before whatsapp we still had options to share photos via Gmail or Hangouts mobile app.
   2. But the user community in whatsapp is not as strong as hangouts.
   3. My assumption is the onboarding requirement for the customer. For hangouts a user needs an email id to signup and get started with the app.
   4. When you conisder user segments beyond 50 years of age or non-professional user segments, they will not have an email id as they dont have the necessity to own it.
   5. But whatsapp uses mobile number as the user id. Users of all user segments own a mobile number, though the primary usecase for the number is different, reusing the existing id is the major advantage of whatsapp.
   6. When a user has the id ready, the app is for free, he is just a click away from getting started with the whatsapp community of sharing media with his friekds and family.
   7. I have seen people migrating from basic phones to android phones just beause they want to start with whatsapp.
2. No extra cost incurred
   1. Before whatsapp, most of the text conersations happens via the native messaging app of our mobile phones. But the major painpoint is sharing media content like photos, videos and docs.
   2. Users have to pay for sending MMS messaging
   3. The UI interaction for sending the MMS and downloading to view the MMS files was not sleek enough.
   4. Whatsapp came as a free app for media sharing which made us share photos, videos without a second thought.
   5. We dont share photos as frequently as we share today with whatsapp before 2009.
3. Strong user community
   1. The number of users available in the whatsapp community covers almost 90% of the people around you from friends, family and colleagues.
   2. The user return rate is so high due to the user engagement of the product. The message sent to another user will be read in another 10 to 15mins.
   3. The user can also confirm if the receiver has read the message using read reciepts.

Shall I move on to how I use the product ? Any questions so far?

Moving on to how I use the product.

1. One of my favourite feature would be the whatsapp for web. I have my whatsapp opened in my lap. When I want to scan a image or a doc and then work on it in my lap, I will do the scanning with my mobile and then send it via whatsapp. I will open the sent message in my whastapp for web to download the image to my lap.
2. The other thing which I m fond of whatsapp is the sleek user experience and the UI. It becomes so handy when you want to make notes on the go. For example you would want to make a note of a phone number or an otp while on a call, you need that information just for a couple of hours after that its not required. I will just open my whatsapp, goto my husband's chat send it as a message. I will refer to it later after the call. I do have the notes app but still whatsapp's UI is so easy to handle. This user addiction to the product makes me admire this product.

Improvements

1. As I mentioned above, instead of pushing to my husband's chat if I had a chat thread for the current user, it can be used as a scrappad to make notes for himself.
2. Read reciepts for Profile photo - There are many who update profile photos frequently and would like to know who and how many users saw the profile photo.
3. Blacklisting unwanted contacts - Though its available as a group feature, its not as prominent. Instead we can remove contacts automatically using some AI logic like contacts under business accounts which the current user has never messaged.
4. Messaging a number wihtout having the necessity to save it.

My favorite "digital" product is Google Photos. If we take a step back from Google photos and think for a moment about the utility of any photo, it serves three key needs:

1. Cherish memories
2. Story telling
3. Sharing joy or general events of one’s life.

With the advent and advancement of digital cameras the number of clicks went up drastically and managing photos across multiple storage devices and sharing became very tedious. Advancement of smartphone cameras only aggravated that problem as the number of clicks went up exponentially. With this being the situation comes Google Photos and addresses the need at its very core.

1. By allowing seamless cloud backup, storage was no longer an issue.
2. Sharing was made super easy through multiple mediums.

The above two features address the basic need of storage and sharing but the real user delight was served by introducing:

1. In app, highly flexible and easy to use editing features. I have no good knowledge of photography but my editing capabilities have made me popular amongst my friends.
2. Machine learning based search functionality is an absolute game changer. I often search for cakes to revisit all the birthday parties we celebrated as my kids were growing up.
3. Drag style multiple image selection feature. Especially useful when I have to move a bunch of pictures into an album or perform any similar action on bulk of pictures.
4. Photo book printing services. I have gifted photobooks to my friends and they absolutely loved it.
5. Album sharing features with family and friends.

In summary, Google photos has very effectively addressed the needs of storage, story telling and sharing photos and that’s why it’s my favorite product.

As a PM for Google photos, I will want to enhance it to make the product more engaging through the introduction of the following two features:

1. Introduce 3D photographs so that friends and family can have a more immersive experience. This would require both hardware and software changes but overall it would offer a much more richer and memorable experience
2. Leverage machine learning to get stories and details about various locations and even enable visual search and integrate with Google shopping to extend the capabilities of Google photos.

Thank you, that's very interesting question. I would like to understand type product you are interested in hardware or software or any particular industry ? /* Lets assume interviewer says, you could choose anything then I would answer as following */ My Favorite Product is Linkdin. I can give you three reason why I like Linkdin so much.

• Todays Digital world it very important to stay relevant to market, In the old time people used work in a companies for their life and never changed organization

  In the Digital world working professionals didn't have any go to place and stay relevant. Linkdin solved this pain point and built Amazing community of professional.

• They really understood why people come on this platform, To add to this they have easy to understand UI which makes it pleasant to use.

• Another good thing I like about Linkdin is you Its endorsement- this really validates people profile and Linkdin event, which good for both creator and user.

I also think there are ways that Linkdin could improve.

1. Job search and reliable job posting is very big pain points for customer
2. New Feed is more and more becoming like Facebook
3. Bring more Value to Premier customer give them priority access to jobs

I will take a pause here if you want to know more about this, Based on what interviewer says I can focus on solution to pain points, metrics etc.

Clarifying Questions:

• Is there any constraint on my choice of the product?

The Product that I like a lot is Notion. Are you aware of this product? I'll do a quick recap anyway- Notion is a productivity tool that is really versatile and lets you organize your notes, to-dos using a sleek minimalist UI. While working as an engineer I could get through my work using simple text notes since I worked in linear fashion. But as soon as I became a product manager - text notes were just not cutting it, There was a lot more information that I had to process and keep track of- customer notes, product ideas, story drafts, prioritized to-dos. I came across Notion while looking up for better tools and I tried it out and I was delighted:

1. Notion starts like a blank canvas wherein you can then add templates you want as separate pages

   1. Prioritized To-dos
   2. Product ideas and user story drafts
   3. Customer Meeting notes

2. Beyond this it lets you search and link pages across different spaces- for eg you could have your product idea reference customer interview notes that helped you formulate the idea or your to-do item can reference the sales meeting notes you need to tweak the GTM strategy- This was really helpful to me because it lets me organize all my information in mind-mapped kind of format and that really boosted my productivity.

3. Within a month of using Notion, I could see I was way better prepared for my meetings, user stories and my colleagues would comment on my "amazing memory" which was simply because I had all my info organized using Notion

Notion's Drawbacks While Notion is amazing I do feel that they could improve on the following:

• Build better integrations with work calendars - Outlook especially given that Notion is now targeting Enterprise customers. This can let me convert emails into to-dos and prioritize them immediately
• Notion allows users to build custom templates - They should make it easier to search these custom templates since it will help build a community and leverage common solutions using their platform to meet all productivity needs
• Make importing existing notes easier - This would really accelerate adoption because a lot of ppl stick to their old inefficient way because they don't want to manually move everything to a different app

When ever I look at the product as a user or customer I look at few things

1. is it solving my pain point or purpose?
2. Is it possible to use it with ease ?
3. And will it improve in future so that it makes my life easy ?

While I tried to use the tryexponent, I can see it help me to get more understanding about how to win a PM interview. With lot of different approaches and information, it is truly an excellent platform for product managers. I can use it without much of complexcity as it is hosted on web and I can log in without any issue. Also I can see the content is improving and also encourage all to provide contents. Therefore I like tryexponent a lot. However there are oppertunities of improvment, having an app with make it more accessible from any where and also if possible to have an video recording for the answer to ”fev product” will really help where I can see how I am performing.

I would have to say that YouTube is my favorite product. Whenever, I try to evaluate whether I like a product or not, usually use following criteria:

1. Is it solving key user problems in space/area?

2. How well is the product solving the problem?

3. Does it have a long term vision /strategy?

In this aspect, I feel YT is a good product because it has over 1B+ MAU with more than 5B content watched every day. This gives a broad & deep range of content on YT to view.

But , at the same time, it's really easy to find the content on YT. You want to watch Turkish drama with English subtitles, key in the search bar and several relevant YT videos pop up!

It also has a great ML based recommendation model that allows you to watch more of the content you like.

But the biggest edge that YT has is that you can watch a 30 min video easily without any latency/buffering irrespective of bandwidth and connectivity.

Finally, I think YT is well positioned to ‘remain’ the key shared video viewing platform with customized content for viewers. Yes, there are FaceBook videos and TikTok as competitors, but with premium video streaming, integration with Stadia for more interactive gaming experience and YT live TV, I think YT has a good long term trajectory.

My favorite product is Headspace. In next couple of minutes, I will talk about

1. What is Headspace,
2. How does it make itself useful
3. Things that I like about it over competitors and
4. Where do i see it heading in future.

Headspace is an app for guided meditation. Users can download the app, create an account and get access to all the content. It has various courses/playlists focussing on specific type of meditation or training audios. I found it while I was dealing with episodes of anxiety caused by my chronic allergy. It helped me remain calm during such episodes and that's what made me use it daily.

It is useful for following users

5. Beginner trying to find value in meditation and looking for guidance
6. People suffering from mental stress/anxiety/sleep-disorders.
7. People looking for mental wellness product/service.

A few things that I like about the app :

8. Design : The design language is very calming overall with extensive usage of whitespace and neutral palette. Use of abstract motion graphics grabs your attention in a very soothing way.
9. Usefulness : It has dedicated headings/themes that people could chose (eg. anxiety/stress/beginner/pro) based on their interest. Headspace also allows group meditation for people who are social and want to break the monotony of guided meditation.
10. Innovative : Allows for sessions from 3min to 20 min (as opposed to competitors). As you progress, trainer dialogs decrease giving more independence to user. The focus graphics is amazing, Timer graphics is great.

I clearly see headspace a great candidate for developing into a full blown mental wellness app.

Notion

I love this question because it allows me to nerd out a bit. I am constantly looking at new apps, and evaluating them against how I currently do things to see if there’s a way to optimize what I already do. To be honest, not many do, but Notion did that for me. What is it: If you’re not familiar, Notion is a wiki-like product that allows it’s users to create really powerful page layouts and databases to manage whatever they need to, without needing to know how to code. Notion has an individual model and a business model - and for this answer I want to just focus on the personal use if that’s ok.

Three problems it solves: When I think about products, I first always like to think about what problem is it solving. Notion solves a problem that has plagued me for a while now, which was “I have tools to manage my work life, but I always struggle in managing my personal life”. This is probably a much larger issue than a product can fix, but Notion has given me the canvas to design my own way of managing life, with it’s document creation and database management. To drill even a little deeper, with Notions sharing and collaboration abilities it’s allowed me to create spaces for others in my life to see what i’m planning, how I’m thinking about a project or idea, managing our fantasy hockey league, or even for my partner and I to share grocery lists and have a digital cookbook of our favorite recipes! And thirdly, It’s become my way of tracking progress in my personal and professional goals. By using a single location to manage the artifacts I create throughout life - I am able to reflect, plan, and optimize the way I make decisions moving forward. This has drastically improved my productivity, but also my ability to feel more confident about how to prioritize things in my personal life.

What it does better than competitors: There are a lot of no-code products on the market, but Notion is uniquely positioned in the market. I think the direct competition would be Coda.io, Confluence, Google Docs, and I would even say Sharepoint Sites. From an indirect competition, I would look more towards Evernote, Notejoy, and the iOS Notes app. I know there’s a lot more but I think for this purpose thats a good list. Notion has two main competitive advantages:

• First it combines document creation, file storage, and embedded web content into a single platform down to the page level, that allows you to organize things how you think, instead of having different locations for your files, tasks, document creation, etc.
• Notion also has excellent collaboration tools, so even a personal account can share and get feedback or work on documents and databases together. Although many competitors have varying degrees of collaboration, they are typically in a specific document or group of documents, where Notion allows for it all in one location with very granular permissions.

What could be improved: The product doesn’t come without its areas for opportunity though. With Notion’s promise to become the centralized location to manage your digital life, it lacks a lot of integrations with other frequently used tools. As an example, I would like to see an integration with Otter.ai. The other improvement I would say for personal use would be the mobile app. There are a few things on the mobile app I’d like to see around the common use cases that people are using notion for on their phone. For instance, I would like to replace my phone’s notes app with Notion, but it’s difficult to navigate on the mobile site to just get a new note and put it where I want. I would like some kind of mobile home screen that I could customize to quickly add certain things.

Choose a product and briefly explain what it is Assuming the universe of software products, my favorite product is Duolingo. Duolingo is a language learning app that is fun to use and an effective learning tool for both novice learners (like me) and for those who are trying to learn a foreign language for higher education or other use cases. Duolingo's mission of making language and learning accessible to everyone in the world also appeals to me

Who are the users? Duolingo has a wide userbase with over 500m learners. It caters to learners across ages, backgrounds and proficiencies. The app is particularly popular among students and young professionals

What are their pain points? Cost: Duolingo with its free service and low-priced premium versions offers a cost-effective way to learn a language, you only need a phone with an internet plan to get started

Access: Duolingo lets a user access any language anywhere and anytime. This is a large change from the traditional model of learning of finding a class that exists, adding it to a schedule and learning with a group. While some of these - especially availability barriers are overcome with online education, Duolingo with its app-based approach is optimized for a handheld device.

Time investment: Duolingo breaks its lessons into bites sized lessons from as little as 5 minutes to as long as you have 'lives' available. This allows people to return to their learning at any time, for example on a ride home, or when waiting for your food delivery

How did competitors solve it in the past? Traditional classroom learning Self-study from books Spending time in a foreign country Non-interactive video lessons

How would you improve it/make it better? One feature I would love to see on Duolingo is the ability to create personalized lessons from their repository. This might help solve use cases such as studying for language tests or competitive exams.

I would love to discuss my favorite product. If you are comfortable with it, I would like to discuss a product that combines both software and hardware. Before we jump in, here is a high-level structure of my answer

1. I will give you an overview of the product, talk about how it is used and some key features of the product
2. Provide the criteria that I use in evaluating products
3. Explain how this product fits these criteria
4. Bring it together, and maybe we discuss some of the opportunities ahead for this product.

Overview of the product:

My favorite product is Amazon Echo plus; it belongs to the smart home or smart speaker category and one of the early entrants to this category. A quick description of Echo Plus is a cylindrical speaker capable of handling complex voice commands. It can run voice commands and play music and has an inbuilt Zigbee hub that controls other smart devices in the household. A quick note on Zigbee it is a communication protocol that works on short-range and low-frequency communication. That was a short description of the product's hardware side and the software side, which is a combination of Alexa app and Alexa assistance AI. The app allows you to control settings for the Echo Plus, set up profiles, and set routines for controlling other smart devices in the household.

Criteria:

When I evaluate any product, I look at three things

1. How useful is the product?
2. Is the product innovative? What I am looking for is how the product sets itself apart from the competition
3. Ease of use of the product

With the criteria defined, let's jump into looking at how this product fits each of the criteria.

To me, the usefulness of the product becomes clear when not just the line between technology and UX/CX blurs but rather disappears. For example, whenever we try to look for some information, we say "just google it," not go use a search engine (technology) to find the information. In this case, Google as a product or technology has made the line between technology and experience disappear. Amazon's Echo Plus has done something similar, and it has embedded itself in our life - a simple task for pre-covid of getting groceries has become complicated. We wanted to reduce our visits to the store and limit our exposure to the virus. Using Echo plus voice commands, we have started creating a grocery list on the device, and every time we remember something, we add it to the list without picking up a phone or pen/paper. With us being prime members, now we don't even have to go to the store. Once our list is complete, we just order it via the echo plus. With both my partner and me working, Echo plus has also become our nanny - we use Echo plus to tell our kids stories and even give them quizzes, making it integral part of our life, and to an extent similar to Google, it has made the line between technology and experience disappear.

Moving on to innovation, great products either win by differentiating themselves via features or are cost leaders in their space. I think we can say both for Echo plus, it is not only one of the cheapest smart speaker out there, but it differentiates itself from its competitors on multiple features and capabilities. The most significant advantage that Echo plus has its ease of access to Amazon's massive echo system, some of these I discussed in the product section's usefulness. Having tons of integration with third-party applications also helps in differentiating itself from other smart speakers. Where Echo plus truly shines is by having Zigbee or having a smart-hub that allows me as customer to automate things in my house. If I have smart-bulbs, smart-locks, and cameras, I can control them using Echo Plus and using the app. I can set routines that help save electricity and make it look like somebody is at home while we are on vacation. An added benefit to the customer is that the device help saves time; Automating different routines saves the customer from manually doing those things or worrying about them.

Moving onto our last but not least criteria, easy of use. An often overlooked aspect of a product is how easy it is to use. Software products such as apps or even hardware products like a smart speaker can quickly lose their value proposition in the customer's eyes if they fail on the first impression, i.e., the on-boarding phase. Echo plus does a great job on ease of use; nothing can beat voice commands. Right of the bat, Echo plus gives the user a simple and self-guided experience - once you take it out of the box, all you have to do is plug it in, and it will guide you through the setup. I can claim that it has successfully passed a six years old test. I have two of these devices, and for the second one, I gave it to my six-year-old to set up, who has just started reading and did set up the device without any hiccups. To me, on-boarding the most critical step and any product that fails the customer at this step will never be able to deliver the value prop that the customer expects from the product.

Opportunities:

There are some areas of improvement or opportunities for this product. Especially around privacy and security

1. Zigbee is not a secure protocol, and there have been incidents where someone hacked into the device and got control of other smart devices in the household. Maybe move to a more secure protocol.
2. Echo plus does provide convenience, but it should not feel like invading the user's privacy, and maybe having the capability to purge all our voice commands or recordings would help. Having a unique command to stop listening for a short period would also help if the family or customer is having a sensitive conversation with someone.
3. This one is a bit personal, and I learned it the hard way. The device should not allow kids to order or subscribe to various services offered on the device. I finally figured out how to solve this, but it is a "smart" device and should recognize the voice of a minor and prevent them from ordering or at least require confirmation via the app or email before finalizing the purchase.

My favorite product is Google photos. Long before google photos I always wondered we take a lot of photos to stash away for our memories but never get the opportunity to sit and see them. I love the product as it solves this problem where we can look back and enjoy the moments without the hassle of going through physical photos that require more time to sort through. It also has great features where we can collaborate with friends and family, share albums with photos and videos securely. The facial recognition features helps in cataloging each persons photos over the years within seconds. It has redefined the way we can relive our moments.

Some features that can be improved would be better photo editing tools within the product, ability to customize collages so that we don't need to use other apps to do the same and creating electronic photo books instead of just physical ones to share.

My favorite product is Ring Doorbell (gen 2). It is a smart doorbell with built-in camera and two way voice communication technologies, letting the user to use smart phone app to view live/recordings and interact with visitors.

There are a few things that I like this product:

1. Innovative - camera, motion sensor, speaker, mic and doorbell all into one small package is great idea, and the software keeps getting better. As a user, I recently updated the software and was able to activate the Person Only mode.

2. Easy of use - all features are available your smart phone app. When receiving alerts, it is easy to tap on the app and see what is happening.

3. Well positioned - the concept of smart doorbell is a great value proposition. This bring a piece of mind to the people who are far away from home to immediately manage the unexpected people or events. And this is a very modular tool, it provides visibility and a way of communication. There is a security element but it is not built for replacing the entire home security system. This way it is useful to people in both apartments and independent homes, with or without existing security systems.

4. The price is very affordable - Ring doorbell is less than $200 and the basic cloud storage subscription is $3 per month. You can also get the doorbell and one year subscription for $120 at Costco. There are a few similar products recently launched by Arlo and Nest, the offerings and prices are similar but Ring was the first company to bring modernization to doorbell.

This technology is relatively new and not matured, if I were the PM I could see the following areas of improvement:

Short Term: Reduce false positive detection

Solution1: invest more in computer vision and deep learning to increase large objects (human, vehicle and animal) detection accuracy and filter out bug flying etc. So only the meaningful events are being triggered. The tradeoff is more engineering time and more power chipset inside the camera, this increase the cost of the solution.

Solution2: the fundamental limitation of mono camera is lacking the depth information. There is no way to differentiate between small object or far object. If we add another camera or integrated a laser sensor (same laser ToF camera integrated on iPhone 11) then we can enabled depth based region selection and detection, this will dramatically improve the detection and classification accuracy at all lighting conditions. The tradeoff is larger package, higher cost of the hardware and more power usage.

Long Term Vision: Personal Home Access Controller

The smart doorbell is part of a final solution towards your personalized home access controller. By integrating with a smart lock, the user will be able to grant access to friends, relatives and 3rd party service providers. To have groceries delivered to your home, even to the fridge, and have cleaners coming to clean the home, or babysitters to come spend time with your kids.

Trade-offs - when enabling 3rd party service providers to enter the home, we need to make sure the protocol has security and privacy consideration in place. Also the home with large pets - dogs or cats may complicate this situation. We may need the home owners to take actions to isolate the pets to lower the risk of potential problems.

Product: Turo Value Prop: Airbnb for cars Why its fav: Usability is great for acquisition

I then went into improving the product. The framework I used for that was:

1. Discuss w/ interviewer what areas I thought the product lacked in
2. Talked about the ecosystem of users
3. Talked about their painpoints with prios
4. Talked about solution space with prios
5. Metrics
6. Summary

Clarification: Do you want me to choose from a particular category of products like hardware/software or am I free to choose the product that I like? Interviewer: A product you like

Answer: I really like the medium app. For someone who wants to write articles/posts, it is like owning a blog with zero overhead maintenance. I often put down my thoughts on the medium. Here is the link: https://medium.com/@sbrsawant

User Groups: I see two main groups of users a)Readers: A lot of people from students to professionals like to read articles, and posts related to different topics and may resort to apps as a medium.

Features for readers: -Fun topics ranging from short articles to long informational pieces -I see personalization where the app sometimes suggests articles you may like through its recommendation algorithm -Medium allows searching for topics a reader is interested in and also allows subscribing to his/her favorite writer

b)Writer: A lot of people like to pen down notes, information, and thoughts that may help them to reach the masses. I personally like to pen down thoughts, strategies, articles, and information from my day-to-day job/work that I can reference back in the future.

Features for writers: -Ease of use: Anyone can sign-up and start writing -Sharing your articles on different platforms is enabled within the medium app

Overall the platform is easy to use, and innovative and the recommendation algorithm works perfectly to suggest articles you may be interested in.

What is the product?

• My favorite product is Notion. It started as a note taking app, now encompassing lots of features and it could be called a general productivity tool. The features include database, which could it purposed as a file storage system or a project management system. It has also added some AI features into the product such as autocomplete, summary of a page etc.

What are its competitors?

• Microsoft Word, Evernote, Apple Notes for the note taking part.
• Database has not direct competitor just by itself. But it could be purposed into a project management tool or a daily planner. The project management purpose could directly compete with Asana and other project management tools, although Notion’s database isn’t as purpose built for project management as those tools and thus it’s more for users with light PM demand. As for its planner feature, Notion could compete with other planner apps such as Todoist.

Why do I like it?

• Great product design
  • The design is use case driven in the sense that it does not allow for infinite customizability but rather is built with use case in mind. For example it doesn’t allow for many types of fonts but rather keep it to a minimal and focuses on building out features that people find useful.
  • It merges many apps into one, allowing for synergy between different forms of data. For example, you can create a database that has dates as a property, and that would allow the database to have a calendar view in which you may view the data through the dates.
• Great visual design
  • Notion is aesthetically pleasing. It follows a minimalistic design principle and nothing overwhelms the users.

How would I improve it?

• Notion could expand further in people’s productivity flow. For example, one’s productivity usually starts with goals, which eventually dilutes into daily todos. Right now you can do goal setting by writing them down on Notion and then apply dates to them. But there’s not yet a way to transform those into daily todos. One way to do that is to create a calendar view that goes beyond days but into hours and minutes, and configuring further connections between existing projects and new tasks. It could go even further to integrate with desktop application to allow for monitoring and thus allowing for people to review their own focus effort.

My favorite product over last year is Microsoft teams - I am amazed by how it evolved so fast in line with the needs of user segments they targeted (though it was aided by pandemic). Main goal of 'Teams' is to help people collaborate. Targeted user segments:

1. Business/Official collaboration
2. Family & Friends catchups
3. Student community for online classes & discussions

'Teams' aims to house all the collaboration tools at one place (Chat, Calls, Scheduling). Across the segments they identified the common usage patterns (groups, channels, scheduling the meetings, recording options) and also added specific tasks for each group. For example in the student segment, there are specific controls included with the teacher to control the discussion, reports generating the attendance. It solved many pain points and listing it segment wise: 1 - Tracking and scheduling for business teams, no need to maintain different tools/trackers and one place for all the conversations. Once you are in teams, you don't need to look outside of it for any collaboration aspects. 2 - Most effective for schools and student communities. It followed the neat pattern of school time table and embedded the calendaring, collaboration into it - huge help for schools to go online during this pandemic. 3 - Ease of sharing, catchup with friends with one tap. Switching between personal and official accounts is very easy. Organizing the calendar is inbuilt into the app, which is an advantage over competition.

Overall it improved the productivity of these user segments by multiple folds, while we are forced to stay remote. For business teams, I estimate this tool has saved at least 30 min - 1 hr in a day, which amounts to 12-15% of the productivity.

Positives/Features which I like most:

Competitive advantage over other rivals like Zoom, Slack etc is the integration with wide spread microsoft Office and Sharepoint. Microsoft has neatly integrated these productivity apps into the pricing bundle.

For official collaboration, multiple features facilitating close to in-person discussions: live reactions, taking polls, white board collaboration, meeting lobby to control who can join the meetings, tracking/MoM for the scheduled meetings feature helps a lot.

Pricing and Licensing is affordable too. Bundling with existing Windows OS is one of the options, but this provides an entry barrier for mass adoption. So the Teams pricing providing options for Chat & Collaboration, Meetings and Calling and Productivity services providing web versions, avoided entry barriers especially for schools to roll out the product at much faster rate.

Having talked about positive or useful features of teams, there is a still long way to go in-terms of catch up:

1. Integration with Microsoft's own enterprise tools like Sharepoint or Onedrive isn't complete yet. Sharing and reviewing of documents need to be done in isolation. I would like to see the sharing options to the channel and the review comments/ new addition of the documents to be posted to channels once the team members puts in the details. Sharing of links to other channels need to be seamless.
2. Allowing integration to other productivity tools or 3rd party apps is needed, to stream line communication: for example, for IT companies, code review tools can be exposed to teams channel. For CRM teams, its good to integrate the teams with tools they use.
3. Search option isn't still great (it becomes cumbersome to go through the messages in the channel to find the right context or history)
4. Architecture improvement is needed, even the latest Intel/Ryzen processors hang up with hardware offload.

My favorite product is Gmail.

Gmail came out of the gates storming, with the greatest April Fool's day joke that wasn't; parlaying Google's data advantage into free email for all, with an ungodly amount of storage. This surely incentivized people like myself to get onto the platform.

Over the years, even as competition for communication market share came from noisier, more short form platforms (first Facebook, then Instagram), Google retained a focus on simplicity and text-based communication, nailing a simple user experience while eliminated frictions toward sending and receiving email - for example, autocomplete and suggested replies. As someone whose goal is to communicate and connect with my friends and family in meaningful ways, Gmail makes that easy.

Google also smart targeted small businesses with Gmail and eventually G-Suite more broadly, and as those businesses grew up into Enterprises, was able to gain a foothold into companies that formerly would have used Outlook and Office.

In terms of an opportunity to improve Gmail, I believe we have a chance to reduce spam/unwanted messages seen by readers. While Google surely is already working on this, and Gmail does have a number of reactive filtering options in place, I still receive a high number of unwanted emails. The primary value proposition of Gmail over non-email competitors is streamlining signal and reducing noise; the volume of unwanted emails works against that. While over time our data and ML investments will reduce unwanted spam, an approach we could borrow from some of our younger competitors is the idea of a "close friends" inbox, where you could control which emails come to this smaller sub-inbox. You could be assured of a 100% spam free experience, as long as you don't include your grandpa and his viral chains! The tradeoff, of course, is drawing users to this sub-inbox means pulling them away from their main inbox, which increases likelihood of missing wanted emails. Say that dream job offer from Google that you didn't know you were getting comes - you might miss that if you're only in your smaller space. If we were to move forward with this as an MVP, we'd want to measure that people are adopting this sub-inbox approach (it could be a button within the UI between Compose and Labels) and that they are reading and exchanging emails frequently with the participants. We want to watch for what percentage of emails in the main inbox are going unopened, and watch for some signals that they were meant to be opened (late openings, late replies, restores from trash, etc.) As we expand this product, we could offer the opportunity for users to create multiple sub-inboxes, based on different criteria; we'll also be amassing data as we go, and can start to leverage some of our learnings to more proactively filter in the mail inbox, as well! We just want to watch to ensure that any additional data collection and storage required to do this is done with care and with the utmost concern for our reputation in the privacy space.

When I think about products I think about who the product sovles the problem for, what problem it solves and how it solves it.

My favorite product is Loom.com a video recording service. Loom is available via a desktop app, IoS app and chrome extensive. It allows users to create create videos that share the users screen and record their face at the same time. Once you have recorded your video you can quickly share it using a URL.

The problem it solves is asynchronous communication. Given the world is currently remote right now, it's often difficult that teams can always get on a phone call with each other at the same time (timezones, meetings etc). Therefore Loom provides a way for teams to communicate with videos that are more personal that a simple Slack message. My favorite way to use Loom videos is to hand off new features to developers who I am working with, that way they have all the contextual information they need and are able to start the task even if we can't communicate. The video is available instantly.

Looms secret sauce over their competitors, is that they have developed a way to move the way they process the meta data of the videos, that way you don't actually need to wait for the video to download it is available within 10 seconds, compared to their competitors which is 10 minutes. This removes a lot of friction around communication for teams.

As teams are using the product a lot. Especially technology teams where there is sensitive data. I would look to change the default permissions of all videos created to only members that hold the same email address as the company, that way this would reduce the friction of sharing content. As there might be some cases where users are unsure if they should share content within a video.

Overall I love Loom because if helps me do a better job as a product manager!

My favorite "physical" product is Samsung Q9 4K Smart TV. It's a Smart TV with very superior picture quality. Some notable features of this TV are:

• Direct Full Array LED Backlit which delivers unbelievable colour, contrast and brightness
• Anti Reflection Screen makes the viewing from any place of the room equally good.
• Vast app catalog ensures there is no streaming service that can't be used.

It solves many of my needs that I want from a modern TV. This TV provides:

• High quality entertainment at home. Especially during these times, when we don’t have an option to go out to theater. It provides crisp pictures, cinematic viewing experience and hardware has a very pleasing design such that it doesn't interfere while using the product. Superior video quality is a big factor my family is into watching wildlife documentaries as well as sports.
• Samsung smart TV has vast app store and it supports most of the media streams which is very important because most users (including us) consume content from 10s of different providers.
• It is Compatible with Android chromecast as well as Apple Play which makes it super useful to watch the family photos together.
• This is an expensive piece of hardware and I expect it to serve me long enough to provide good ROI. In that context, I am happy that it provides 10 years guarantee from screen burn damage.
• Compatible with most of the home theater systems (even less known, eg: Nakamichi)

In future versions, I would love to see inbuilt hardware integration of Google Home or Amazon alexa. This would help reduce the clutter, overall a good move towards eco-friendly product and better value for money.

Long term vision with the product would be seamless integration of TV with other appliances in Samsung's catalog. Eg: My samsung fridge finds I am running short on milk, communicates that to Samsung TV and I am being presented with advertise or documentary on plant based milk and deals available nearby.

To recap It certainly meets and exceeds my expectations on multiple counts of aesthetics, utility and excitement that I look for in any product.

The app that I love most right now is Notion!

Notion is a notepad on steroids. You can use for simply taking notes but imagine that you can also transform each "note" in a full workspace integrating different templates and tools to manage workflows, tasks, calendar and other cool integrations. It is easy to use, multi-platform and gives you the freedom to customize each note according to the tools you need to be more productive.

I see they provide value for 3 types of users:

1. People that wants to use it as a personal notebook, but adding more features. That is my case, in which I can, for example, have a note with a Kan ban for all my tasks or even use it more creatively. I.E. I created a note with a gallery to write about the dreams I have, adding dates and subjects. And I can even export to a private web link to share with my therapist so we discuss it during our sessions
2. People that are using it professionally, creating whole workspaces and transforming each note, in a page to manage a different subject/area. for example, to have a note for projects and subpages for each project with all related tasks in a kanban.
3. Companies that can create professional accounts setting up the workspace to be shared among the whole team assigning tasks for each member or even creating a page to be an information center with collaborative posts about different company subjects.

Product Improvement:

I would like to focus on the 1st type of user, that means, for a personal use for people that wants the power to customize it to be more productive. This kind of user, usually have a "do it yourself" DNA, is very busy and usually has a fine line between work-life balance. So, the pain points I can identify are:

1. They are creatives and misses the old note book to draw/write thoughts in a more freely way.
2. They are usually multi-tasking, like running at the same time that they are reflecting on new ideas, but they don't want to fully stop an activity just to take notes.
3. They care about privacy, so they would like to have more options to authenticate access in different notes

I would select the pain no. 2 to focus on and suggest we could create a Notion AI assistant that could have features like "Notion, create an [IDEA]/[DREAM]/[NOTE]" so we can multitask and not lose valuable insights.

My Favorite product is definitely Notion as it has made my life easier and more manageable with its set of features and a very user-friendly UI which makes the experience more unique. To sum it up in one line it is a productivity tool where you can do tasks, knowledge & project management. There are a lot of reasons why I love it, but pointing it down the major use cases for me would definitely be:

1. Journaling
2. Make notes — I make a lot of notes, I read blogs, watch YT videos and make notes out of it
3. Save things from the internet — using the chrome extension
4. Do some sort of Tracking be it Interviews/feedback or some stocks that I have been following up on regular basis etc
5. Create a TODO list — not a big fan of it — but it helps to write down things you want to do in a certain time period ( ps: it kind of gives your life meaning — existential crisis creeps in 😖 )

As to why I love it, there are a number of reasons starting off with the way it is designed and the frictionless user experience it offers. A couple more reasons would be:

1. Immersive, flexible & user-friendly UI with no clutter & friction
2. Used black & white as its primary colour — which gives it a simple yet bold branding
3. Easy to navigate & use features
4. Emojis — Great fan — it makes work look like fun
5. Collaborative — I can share it with folks with no hassle
6. Pinning from the web — I can easily save links/blogs from the web using an elaborate chrome extension, which triggers a popup that allows you to pick pages to save content

Coming to the user groups/personas which will be the perfect target audience, I'd segment them in the following manner: — Students — Working Professionals — Authors, writers — People with very weak internet, etc

To narrow down the scope of the solution — let’s focus on the Working Professionals for now because they comprise almost 70% of the total user base of notion A user-story around our target persona (Feel free to review & add your comments 🙂) — X is 28 years working professional, who works at a startup as a PM — he is leading the products for a gaming platform, and for that, he needs to communicate & clarify regularly with the Design, Ad, Marketing, Sales, Tech & Product teams on regular basis — he needs to communicate clearly and orchestrate the product vision & strategy to these teams on regular basis. And to do so: he mostly uses PPT, NOTION, etc and sometimes he gets on one-on-one calls with his teammates BUT he always relies on NOTION for creating a good document with nice images and helpful plugins so that he can clearly & succinctly provide context to his teammates He is well aware of NOTION features but sometimes he feels like there are a lot of NOTION plugins & features he doesn’t use. H spends more than 1 hour to NOTION daily for his personal & professional work. But he has some pain points where he thinks NOTION could improve and provide a better experience.

Pain-points:

1. He finds it very hard to take a quick note on mobile NOTION
2. Sometimes he feels like he is not using the NOTION at its full potential — he may not know some of the features that it provides

For the user pain points mentioned above, I'd like to propose a number of features which will help resolve the pain-points of the users efficiently:

1. Improve the short note-taking experience on Notion on both platform mobile & web — because this is the major use-case for working professionals, where they take short notes from the meetings or create a short TODO list for them but they do it in notes rather than actually using the TODO feature
2. Taking notes via voice — audio transcribe feature — Build an audio-transcribe product
3. Nurture users — Categorize users based on their feature usage behaviour and then send training cards, videos, and quick tips to encourage or train users to be more productive by using certain useful features

Prioritization Initiatives impact effort improve short note-taking experience H M audio-transcribe feature H H nurture users with training cards, videos M M

Any risks to keep in mind

• Keep a check on user behaviour on the intrusiveness of some of our proposed features — Notion is a very simple & DIY sort of platform, where users figure things out either by themselves or notion groups & communities across all social media platforms eg. FB, Reddit, YT, etc
• The audio transcribe feature can be a tough call because it’s a niche in the market and we haven’t seen much adoption across different industries

My Favorite product is LinkedIn. It empowers and help me to be at the top in my professional life. It has solved many problems for me:

1- Networking: It allows me to connect with people from anywhere and makes it easier to share knowledge and expertise about the different topics. Networking with people is more about the social element and giving opportunity to learn, unlearn from different groups of people.

2- Sharing thoughts: It helps me to present my thoughts in different forms of media text, video, image allowing the people to feel more confidence, open in sharing their accomplishment, view points on any subject.

3- Job: It has solved for both users looking for job and for hiring manager. The customized experience on improvement in skills, show badges to recruiter, improve on different parameters is helping to be more aligned for the type of role and carrier growth users looking for.

4- Create Community and Group: This allows users to be part of the community with like minded professionals to grow in that particular domain and be the thought leaders on the same.

There are still lot of things on improvement part personalization of type of content users are reading, job recommendation based on the experience, review about the employers and HR manager, proper verification of Job posting by third party. LinkedIn learning still needs to be updated with enhancement on course structure and relevant industry based assignments.

My favorite app is the digital music streaming service, Spotify. Music is an integral part of my life and it's something that I am committed to and spend quite a lot of time on. Spotify feels very intuitive to use for me. It is really my one-stop shop for all audio content including podcasts and books. Spotify has a few competitors in India and I’ll focus on Amazon prime music and Gaana to do a quick comparison to see why I like spotify the most.

User interface.

• Spotify

Sleek. Consistent and intuitive.

• Amazon Music

Has improved over the years but not as good as spotify. The landing page has a huge scroll option where a lot of content is thrown at you.

• Gaana

UI not as pleasing and I have to more or less go searching for content on the tabs. Recommendations not great.

Content availability

• Spotify

75 millions songs. Best international music collection.

• Amazon Music

Only 2m songs for prime music in India.

• Gaana

Indian music collection is great with 21 languages supported. But falls behind Spotify in international music, for example 80ies pop.

Recommendations

• Spotify

Best in class recommendations with daily mix and discovery weekly and AI based playlist creation which analyses playlist name and auto suggests tracks (eg cardio workout, romance etc). Collaborative filtering used to find people with similar interests and share those songs with you. Great social features - Can discover news by following what friends are currently listening to

• Amazon Music

Recommendations are weaker compared to spotify. Social features non existent

• Gaana

Recommendations are not great. Couldn't find social features. Maybe poor discoverability or poor adoption.

How would you improve spotify?

Before we dive any deeper, I would like to clarify a few things

• Geography : Since I know Spotify India the most, I am assuming that we are improving spotify India
• Platform : For this exercise I am gonna assume that we are improving Spotify mobile.
• Constraints : I am assuming that we have no constraints in terms of money or resources.
• Motivation : Assuming that we want to improve engagement within the Spotify app.

Let's start by looking at Spotify's vision. Spotify Vision : A platform where creators have the freedom to break free from constraints of traditional media and listeners get an immersive experience, empathize with each other and to feel part of a greater whole. User segments

1. Content creators

• Musicians
• Podcasters
• Audiobook readers

Goal : Promote their content and engage more with fans.

1. Content consumers

• GenZ 13 - 20 low spending power - low attention span - instagram generation
• Millennials - Working professionals 22-38 age - social media enthusiasts
• GenX and boomers - No great with technology and averse to trying new content.
• Music learners: People who listen with the intent of learning and reproducing music. - Needs include identifying song notes, chords, music theory learning etc.

I would like to pick the Millenials user segment. I think they use Spotify the most and have more interesting unsolved pain points which I think I can tackle today. Pain points

• Social interaction is very limited in Spotify
• No mechanism to perform song identification - Shazam for Spotify

I am picking the first one as I believe solutions to this pain point have the potential to have a maximum improvement in engagement. It also aligns well with Spotify's vision of people feeling like they are part of a bigger whole!

Solutions

1 Clubhouse for Spotify - Live rooms where people connect with each other over audio.

Innovation M Impact M Effort H

2 Spotify stories - Share favorite music with friends and followers

Innovation H Impact H Effort M

3 Find events and book tickets Innovation M Impact M Effort H

4 Discover musical neighbors( Find people with similar musical interests) Innovation H Impact L Effort L

I am picking Spotify stories which is a mechanism similar to Instagram stories where users can post their favorite track(s) which can be shared and get replies on. Has a high impact on engagement and is relatively straightforward to implement for Spotify. Metrics

• % activation: # of users posting at least one story
• Click through rate per story
• DAU
• MAU
• % increase in time spent per user per day
• # of users disabling stories
• % change in installs and uninstalls of Spotify
• % change in support tickets
• Replies for stories received per user
• Replies for stories sent per user
• % completion of listening to stories
• # of stories viewed per person per day

Trade-off

• Concerns that Spotify is turning into yet another social media - Less intrusive UX without compromising the normal listening experience should address this concern.
• Privacy concerns - Mitigated with relative ease by clearly calling out options to make stories private

Would love to hear feedback!

I would like to start by asking a few clarifying questions.

How to define favorite

• Usage - do I use it a lot?

• Engagement - when I do use it, do I like it? Do I keep coming back to it?

• Usefulness - does it serve a particular purpose?

• Cost - how expensive is it? What’s the cost/benefit analysis?

• Retention - do I feel the need to go and explore a competitor, would I leave if there was a similar player in the market?

• Would I recommend it to others? Would I swear by it? Am I proud of it?

• Based on the criteria above, I can think of an app that -

  • I use every day (multiple times).

  • I absolutely love spending time on it and actively engage with it.

  • It teaches me new things every day, makes me laugh, and offers a rewarding experience every time I use it.

  • It’s free to use, in terms of $. Time - I spend about 30 mins every day but it’s a half hour well spent. I would even say - it helps me identify opportunities where $ can be made.

  • I’ve been a user for about 5 years (since I started working) and although I’ve tried competitors, I think this product really ‘gets me’.

• The product is the subreddit - Wallstreetbets (could have said Reddit but 75% of my Reddit time is on WSB)

Intro the product

• Wallstreetbets is a subreddit and the best way to describe it is - it’s as if 4chan found a Bloomberg terminal.

• For the uninitiated, it’s a reddit forum where users can discuss the stock market and which stocks they’re investing in with a clear goal of making money quick. Discussions regarding low cost, low risk, long term investing is a strict no.

User pain points addressed

• Before I start discussing some user pain points, I’d like to talk about a feature that’s universal to Reddit but is of utmost importance on WSB and that’s ‘flairs’.

• It’s a vibrant community of about 6M users and about 500K DAUs, so a lot of content is posted here daily. When a user creates a post - they can add a flair from a list of predefined flairs (on community guidelines) and these flairs are what we use to sift through content fast.

• If I’m looking for due diligence on a stock - I use DD

• If I’m looking to get community insights on a stock - I use Discussion

• If I’m looking for general news on the stock market - I use News

• If I’m looking for memes and funny posts - I use Meme

• For me, WSB is a one stop shop for news, memes, educational content. Not only have I learnt about how markets work, how to interpret company financials, and build a portfolio that makes me $. The most important thing that WSB gives me is a feeling of community. And this is where imo WSB beats out all other competition.

• It’s available on most devices, on most platforms, available in almost all countries and has practically no barrier of entry

Who are the competitors and how does my favorite product rank amongst them?

• WSB has a LOT of competition (across many verticals)

• There’s social media like YT, Facebook, IG, Snapchat, Twitter and all of these have channels/groups/accounts focused on investing/stock market

• There are streaming giants who provide investment news and educational content - spotify, apple podcasts

• There are several news outlets who also have dedicated products (including websites, apps, TV channels) related to stock market investing - Seeking Alpha, Motley Fool, Bloomberg, CNBC, Yahoo finance

• There are a few social trading apps like public.com and a twitter like app focused on the stock market - stocktwits, I think recently even clubhouse launched a few channels for discussing investments

How WSB beats competition imo:

Without specifically referring to recent news about WSB, I would talk about -

• First movers advantage - WSB was one of the first online forums dedicated to stock market investing

• Focus is on improving experience of existing users, instead of focusing on attracting new users - moderators enforce strict posting guidelines, banning users for not following community guidelines

• Downvote - the biggest differentiator between Reddit and any other platform is the ability to downvote content that you dislike (I think YT has this but not others), this really helps in keeping bad information at bay - it doesn’t completely eliminate the chance of bad info spreading but there are tools provided to users themselves to combat bad info

• Anonymity - while this can be looked at as a negative as well (cyber-bullying), I think it’s a great feature where you can be anonymous and choose who you want to be online (different from who you are in real life). Somewhat true for other sites as well but this is a core tenet of reddit and WSB

• Community feeling - this is probably true just for me and other WSB users only but this is why WSB beats any other competition for us. Could add a few more points here if asked.

How can we make WSB better?

• During recent times, there has been a surge of bot attacks on the sub. Adding a 'probation period' between new users subscribing to the sub and creating new posts could help control this. Bot attacks are a problem with social media in general, so there may be more sophisticated ways of curbing this that we can do some research on.

• Integrations with popular brokers, so that I don’t have to post screenshots of my portfolio and can rather 'share portfolio'.

How to measure these suggested improvements?

• Upon adding the 'probation period' does it negatively impact our # of posts from first time subscribers?
• # of connections with brokers
• # of times 'share portfolio' feature was used****

By far, one hundred percent, without a doubt my AirPods.

I once read a description of the first recorded experience with portable audio. The inventor was a hi-fi nut and home tinkerer in the late seventies. He hacked together a battery-powered stereo with a 35MM headphone jack in his garage. He and his girlfriend went out into the woods behind his house and took turns (they only had one unit) for the next forty-five minutes until the battery died. He said those forty five minutes were "a period of pure bliss, like I was in a dream."

My AirPods come the closest of any product I've used to that state of technology-as-dream. I use them without pressing a button, scrolling through a user interface, or even looking at them — I just put them in and I hear music.

But of course that dreamlike quality had to be engineered. I love that they're truly wireless, unlike some "performance" headphones or the Google pixel buds. They pair seamlessly with my phone, never skip on bluetooth connectivity, and remember the noise cancellation state I had them in last time. That noise cancellation, which is of paramount importance to me as a listener, is excellent, definitely among the best of any headphones I've used, including large active noise cancelling over-ear cans.

But finally, and I hope I don't sound like too much of an Apple fanboy for saying this, each listening session with AirPods feels like an expression of my values. I'm very much a "music person" and as such I want headphones that stay out of my way and accommodate my listening experience, as minimally but effectively as possible. The model of unobtrusive in-ear buds with active noise cancellation, great sound quality, and an incredibly intuitive user interface checks every box it needs to for me not as a technology user, but as someone who loves music.

What is your favorite product and why? Currently, my favorite product is Nike Training Club. I am a sports enthusiast and have always been playing some sport or the other to keep myself fit. Since the pandemic, it had become difficult to get out of the house, and working out indoors was the only way to get any kind of physical activity. I never thought of myself as a gymming person perse so the idea of working out never appealed to me that much. That’s when I got introduced to the Nike Training Club app. It is a fitness app that provides a holistic training guide to its users so basically you don't have to go anywhere else for guided workouts to figure out what you want to eat to stay healthy or even get that push of motivation to keep going. So basically, all fitness enthusiasts aiming for fitness in or out of the gym are its users. From a business standpoint, Nike earlier followed a premium subscription-based model but decided to serve its users for free since the pandemic. Rather than monetize through subscription revenue, Nike is making the app free in hopes that it will help drive merchandise purchases. Why do you like NTC in particular over its competitors? Highly personalized and ease of use: As a beginner, I wasn’t sure of what workout to start with. All the fitness apps have tons of suggestions but I rather felt very overwhelmed. In the case of NTC, it started out by taking a basic quiz that asks your fitness level and how many days you typically work out in a week and if you want any equipment involved in your workouts. From there, it recommends a few options of multi-week programs to follow. These guided multiweek plans are highly flexible that other apps don't offer. It was a game-changer for me, having progressively more challenging and different workouts kept me engaged and allowed me to gauge my progress as I performed better. ​​Even If I miss a few days, the app will prompt me to adjust or update my plan according to my progress and schedule. All in one place fitness tracker: You can keep track of everything you've done here. This goes beyond the workouts you do in the app. There's a section here to add other activities, like a hiking trip or a pick-up soccer game. Not only does this section track workouts, it also gives you milestones to work towards, including total numbers of minutes spent working out. The app also complements your fitness routine with advice on nutrition, recovery, mindset, and sleep. So you don’t have to go google the kind of diet you should be maintaining. Intuitive and a very seamless user experience : The user experience of navigating the app is very simple and clean. It doesn't feel like too many things going on and gets the user overwhelmed. Although the app has over 450+ different types of workouts, it is very intuitive when it comes to filtering what you need. It has a very detailed filtering capability to choose workouts from different intensity, equipment required, how much time it takes, to different formats such as whiteboard workouts, trainer guided, etc. Even before starting any new workout, you can view the exercises and reps you need to perform for how long. The workouts are very minutely detailed so you have a clear idea of what you are getting in for and have a high-quality UI. App incentives you: The app also incentivizes you to keep up with your workouts, whether you follow a training plan or not—the programs go in stages, so it’s satisfying to check off each step you complete, and you get “badges” for streaks and trying new workouts. Nike’s app also offers to push notification reminders (which you can turn off) to prompt you when it’s time to do a workout. To summarise, I absolutely love this app! As a user navigating the app and selecting the type of exercise is very clear and easy. Easily customizable plan and guide for different levels of complexity and user-friendly. Would recommend this app to anybody who's wanting to start getting in shape but doesn't know where to start. How would you improve it?

• Lack of social aspect: just adding friends but nothing more to it. If they introduce a competitive leaderboard feature to keep you motivated and going.
• A little more detailed workout tracking: this would be helpful who work out regularly to know much time and weight they have lifted in a week. NTC shows monthly progress.

Great! Before I answer, I just want to clarify - is there a specific kind of product that you'd like to focus on? Hardware/software/consumer/etc.? Software

To tackle this I want to go over the following:

• My favorite software product, what it is, what is the company mission
• How does the product accomplish that mission + what are its greatest features
• What are alternative products that accomplish similar goals, why my product wins
• How I would improve the product to better accomplish the mission

My favorite software product is Reddit. Reddit's mission is to bring community and belonging to the world. This is a fun way to connect with others and learn about niche subjects. Reddit users can join 'subreddits' -- forums focused on specific topics and post, comment, upvote, and reward each other. In essence, the product is simple, but certain key features truly helps bring community and belong to users.

How does Reddit accomplish its mission?

• Reddit allows users to learn from others, connect over hobbies or interests, and learn new perspectives from others around them. As users learn and discuss, they feel more connected to online users they wouldn't know otherwise.
• Subreddits can be extremely broad or freakishly niche - ranging from subjects like investing to r/IdentifyThisFont. By allowing users to create their own forums, users can connect over any subject they want.
• Unique feature that I thing makes Reddit a real winner -- On Reddit, users can upvote each others posts or comments, a fun feature to help highlight interesting or widely-felt sentiments. But beyond this, Reddit creates a unique environment of gamification for its users by rewarding Karma. Karma is received when a user is upvoted in any space, and allows users to post more regularly or start a new subreddit. This Karma is a great way to encourage better users behavior and maintain user engagement. This online reward generates reputation on the site, and users feel incentivized to post and comment to achieve greater status.
• One step further - Reddit recently introduced awards. When a post is really special, users will give awards that will highlight the comment or post within a subreddit. These awards can even give special perks (like ad-free browsing or exclusive access to subreddits). There is hunger to post funny or insightful comments on Reddit to win an award. It's an amazing way of capturing a users need to connect and prove themselves to further increase engagement.
• Any questions about these unique features and why they make Reddit a favorite?

Alternatives

• Not social media - Reddit is not the only place to learn, connect, or belong. Most social media is less focused on interests and more about personal life - posting selfies with friends or videos of your cousin's wedding. This is valuable for connecting people that know each other, but Reddit is more focused on connecting strangers around common interests, not personal details.
• Authentic - There's a unique sense of authenticity on Reddit because of the focus on interests -- we like weird things! Let's chat about them! Alternatives that are based on interests (like Discord) feel less like a forum with equal speaking opportunity for members, and alternatives like Quora lack a sense of community and belonging to unique groups, just disconnected Q&A's.

Improve When I'm thinking of what I would improve, should I focus on what would be best for users or best for me? Users Reddit is completely anonymous, which is OK. But we share quirky interests with others we know - there's an even strong sense of community and belonging as we connect with others that we know personally. I would love to allow users to see real connections (FB friends, Contacts, etc.) on a subreddit if they share interests. Ex. Johnny and Sally are FB friends and both members of the r/videogames community. They can see each other's posts with their real names and bond over interactions there. You could also see engagement of friends with others' posts, disable your posts from showing your real name, or even follow friends.

To do this, it would be important to prototype and then beta test the change as it may significantly alter the way users engage with spaces with people they know. Testing the change would allow us to see if users feel more or less connected in a space with people they know. We could also track if users gravitate towards or avoid connecting with IRL connections (do they follow each other, private message, engage with posts of IRL connections?)

To answer this question, I will use the following approach:

1. Explain my favorite product
2. Explain product features and what are some of my favorite features
3. Explain how this product has helped drive innovation and solve user needs
4. Explain what can be improved in this product.

Explain my favorite product - My favorite product is Youtube. Youtube is a product that allows users to upload videos, content and music to be shared with friends, family and followers. There are 3 main user segments for Youtube - Youtubers (or people uploading videos), Viewers and Marketers (User marketing other products). Business model: Youtube generate revenue though the ads.

Explain product features and what are some of my favorite features - Youtube has the following main features - Create channels, search video, Upload video, view/share/like video, subscribe to channels, etc. My favorite features include - 1. Recommended videos (based on my watch history) and 2. Ability to subscribe and het notification on content uploads.

Explain how this product has helped drive innovation and solve user needs - Before Youtube existed people did not have a common platform to share their skills and talent globally that was easy to use and access. Youtube has opened up opportunity for people across the globe to share as well as learn new skills, it has opened new revenue opportunities for many talented users who did not have a platform to showcase their skills and entertain other.

Explain what can be improved in this product- User Pain points - User are not able to view what their friends are watching or what videos are liked/ recommended by their friend. Users using Youtube for entertainment often struggle what to watch next and want to see a variety outside their typical zone. Solution - Youtube can add the following social media features

1. Ability to view what friends are seeing
2. Improve video recommendations based on what friends see/ view

I look for the following in my favorite product: is it innovative, is it understandable and honest, and whether it has the vision to change the future. Swiggy (Indian food ordering and delivery application) the food delivery application checks all the boxes. Swiggy lets me order food anywhere with the minimum delivery charge, with a variety of options backed with real-time customer ratings, and is changing the future of restaurants operations. I am a big foodie and I order on an average 5 times a week from Swiggy.

1. Swiggy, provided the options to order from local vendors. The local vendors and restaurants listings have ratings and bestseller items. It takes only 2 mins for placing the order.

2. Delivery of sweets & cakes on special occasions had become convenient from any place. I could surprise my friends from anywhere in the country on a special occasion.

3. It provides freshly cooked food at the doorstep in just 3 clicks on the busy workday. (of course, adding the delivery time).

4. I can ask my friend to cook a meal and I can deliver the same to my parents with swiggy genie. In case, when they are not able to cook at home or house help is on occasional leave.

It is a convenient and personalized food delivery application. The footfall dependency of local vendors and restaurants is reduced significantly, because of this online ordering system. Also, with cloud kitchen, Swiggy will effectively reduce the food delivery time.

One thing which it can introduce is having home-cooked food service for people who order regularly and cannot cook at home or do not like to cook at home. Especially, for the young employed folks and occasionally for elderly people. The age group of this segment can be between 21 – 32. In order to achieve this Swiggy can integrate its platform with traditional tiffin service providers in the country with their tech platform.

Favorite product, why? and How to improve it.

1. Clarification: I am going to answer this question by first defining what favorite means to me. It does not mean the product I use the most, and it does not mean the product that is more popular out there, but a product that covers 3 main aspects for me
   1. A product that brings me joy: while using the product I don't see the time pass
   2. A product that addresses my needs very well
   3. A product that does not invade my privacy
2. Favorite product: The favorite product I am talking about is Pinterest.
3. Product Definition: Pinterest is an image sharing and social media platform designed to enable saving and discovery of information on the internet using images, animated GIFs and videos, in the form of pinboards. So Pinterest has 3 main features:
   1. Search through content that might be interesting to you at the moment. Ex. building a house, look for architecture inspiration
   2. Create different boards where you can PIN/save different content for inspiration. Ex. House architecture, Watercolor paintings, ..
   3. Sharen boards with friends and family
4. Reason why its my favorite:
   1. Bring joy: So I am a really creative person, outside of work I have my atelier where I do paintings, I work on the pottery wheel, I do macrames and so on and besides that I am building a house with my fiance so you can imagine the amount of different things that I search for inspiration in a week. When I decide to paint something I search for maybe acrylic painting ideas, see a bunch of them and pin them to my acrylic painting board. Later I might be interested in knowing how to build my kitchen so I look for kitchen ideas and pin it to my house architecture board. So part of my hobby is to go through many ideas and enjoy it so much that I want to try it out, so I pin it to my boards.
   2. Addresses my needs: So what I as a user need is a good DB with a lot of content to search through in the easiest and most visible way possible, a way to store different content into different categories, a way to share content with friends and family that share the same interest. These are exactly the needs Pinterest addresses PLUS it does this in a very intuitive and user friendly way.
   3. No privacy invasion: I do not get any annoying newsletter messages, or advertisements over email or of any kind about the things that I searched for in the platform. The platform really respects the user.
   4. Besides the 3 main reasons I just mentioned, the platform also includes many additional features that really puts the user experience to a whole other level e.g. through clicking into posts helps you funnel down your search into specific things. The app suggests you similar searches to help you find content
5. Competitors: There is currently no other app out there that addresses these exact needs.
   1. If you check some competitors like Instagram: you can search for some hashtag and you can find accounts that share content on watercolor paint, but when you save you can't divide content into multiple boards.
   2. Another example would be also google search, you can look for anything but you can not store pieces of content nor divide it up into different categories.
6. Identify user segments:
   1. Content creators
   2. Content consumers
   3. Advertisers
7. Select customer segment and why: Based on our selection of customers I want to continue this analysis for the creators since I think that we can generate more traffic on the platform and consequently more content that will attract more content consumers.
8. Pain points:
   1. Drag and drop videos, gifs or images to create a pin
   2. It is very hard to make money with the platform, businesses use for reach not revenue
   3. Very hard to keep up with the trends to post the right content that get reach
9. Select a pain point and why: I would pick the first problem to work on because it has the potential to grow the creators customer segment of the platform by a lot improving the user experience.
   1. The money point if improved does not necessarily indicates that more users will create content, since many users do not create for the revenue, but for reach on their platforms.
   2. The last aspect is difficult to address, Pinterest already provides creators chat spaces to exchange knowledge but also improving this wont necessarily influence customer growth
10. Solutions suggestion:
    1. Provide an option to pin someone’s instagram story, tiktok videos and facebooks stories to your pinterest board
    2. Provide an option to clip portion of an youtube video as a gif into a interest board
    3. Browser plugin that can directly take some content of the browser you like and pin it to your pinterest board.
11. Decision: All solutions improve so much the user experience of creating content and helps users capture small things that you might pass your eyes on while doing something else.
    1. I will however decide to go with the first approach, social media integration, because it is the only option that involves adoption of users of different platforms. The potential when initiating a cooperation of the two platforms is huge, also for future feature ideas.

Intro / Clarification

As a parent, I really love the Verizon Gizmo. It's a smartwatch for kids, which comes with a companion app for parents.

Is it ok if I talk about this product or would you prefer a pure digital product? [It's ok.]

Structure

There are three things that I look for in a product:

1. Does it meet a major need or solve a major problem?
2. Is it designed in a way that is user-friendly and invites repeat usage?
3. Is it priced right? In other words, does it offer a good value for money?

Does that make sense? Is there another factor you'd like for me to consider? [It makes sense.]

Product Analysis

Great! Let's look at Verizon Gizmo from this perspective.

In terms of the problem and need - As my kids walked to the school bus stop or walked/biked to their friends' homes, sometimes I didn't know where they were and whether they were safe. Also, since they didn't yet have mobile phones, it was not possible for me to contact them or them to contact me. The Gizmo solves these problems very effectively. I can track their real-time location on the mobile app and we can both contact each other via call or text or voice message.

The design of the product serves both user personas very well. The watch itself has fun features like games and emojis and even a step counter that are have the fun and gamification aspects influencing kids to remember to wear the watch. The app allows parents to set up a number of safety parameters - such as the list of contacts kids can talk or text and the geographic area that they should not be going outside. Being able to track kids' location definitely increases engagement.

Finally, at $75 per watch and $10 a month, these watches are definitely priced right. The peace of mind that parents get from the Gizmo is definitely a good value at that price. Right?

Improvements

That said, there are ways in which the Gizmo can be made better. The physical design of the watch can be a bit sleeker, which will help it gain more acceptance among older kids with more of a design sensibility. Being able to play music would be a great addition as well. Also, the app navigation has some quirks which can be streamlined.

Competitors

Unfortunately, there are no directly competing products if you use Verizon's mobile network. The alternatives would be to give your kids an Apple or a Samsung watch or a full smartphone. But they provide a lot of features that I as parent don't believe are appropriate for kids at this point. Also, all of these alternatives are significantly more expensive.

While answering the follow-up question on "how do you improve your favourite product," Is there any underlying assumption on what is the goal of such improvement?

1. To improve my favourite product with respect to business goals like new user acquisition, revenue growth of the company?
2. To improve my favourite product addressing my personal pain points. (Considering I belong to a very small user segment and addressing my personal points does not solve any business goals) ?
3. Do we need to ask the interviewer whether the goal is to address my personal pain points or address business goals?

Thanks.

My favorite product is 1Password App:

What is 1Password?

1Password is a password manager product. It is the easiest way to store and retrieve passwords in just 1 click for a faster login experience. You can use the product as a native app on your iOS or Android devices and also on a browser on your computer. In addition to passwords, it also stores banking and credit card information for faster checkout experience.

What problem does it solve? For me, it solves a major burden of remembering passwords for so many other products. I have subscriptions to YouTube TV, Hulu, Netflix, Gmail, my office emails, my office intranet, etc. In order to protect all these accounts, I tend to use different passwords for these products. Having 1Password helps me remember just a master password and a secret key. Once a user has bought a subscription to 1Password, they’re given a secret key and a way to set the master password. Moving forward the user has to remember only one master password in order to unlock other passwords or store new passwords

Why do I like it?

• Ease of Use: In just 1 click, I can easily store a password or retrieve and autofill a password. Even though the product is technically complex, that complexity is not surfaced on their UI and makes it easy to use for almost any customer segment, technical or non-technical.

• Secure: the secret key is stored in a flat file rather than being on cloud, programmatically generated and given to you. Very less chance of intrusion or being hacked as the secret key is not stored in the cloud. It also supports multi factor authentication for a lot of different apps and websites

• Syncs across devices. A password stored using mobile phone is available for use on desktop right away

• Password Generator: Instantly generates passwords with 3 different options - smart passwords, random passwords and memorable passwords. You can also adjust the length of the password to fulfill the requirements of the website.

  • Passwords generate history. Lets you go back and view passwords that were generated in the last year

Competitor Comparison

LastPass

• Security is my main concern: LastPass requires just a master password to unlock your password vaults. 1Password requires a master password and secret key that is generated only for you programmatically. Less prone to hacks

• User Experience: Updating the password is much simpler on 1Password. As soon as you enter a new password that is different from the one stored in the vault, 1Password shows you an option to update the password. LastPass will let you update the password by clicking on the Edit button I believe.

Pain Points

• FaceID doesn’t always work on phones. FaceID feature is used to either open the app or fill a password. Even though faceID is enabled on my iPhone, I rarely get prompted for a faceID and would have to enter the master password. This defeats the main use case of a user wanting to fill a password without entering the password manually

• On iOS, I’m not prompted by 1Password to autofill the passwords for many websites.

• Setting up the chrome extension is clunky. There’s no option of which vault you’d like to set as default. My wife always needs to call customer care in order to set it up correctly.

• Moving a password from one vault to another is very cumbersome. You can almost not find a way to do it without having to read help articles. You’d expect these options to be under the ellipsis menu or under “more” options but you can never find it.

How will I improve it?

• Deeper integration with iOS Password Manager: iOS lets you select a default password manager and once set you can use 1Password to autofill the passwords. I’d develop a way so that the password manager is recognized on all the websites and apps that are accessed via an iOS device.

• Biometrics on desktop computers: 1Password currently unlocks using a master password on a computer. However, on mobile phones, you can either use touch ID or faceID to unlock the app. I’d develop a way for users to unlock the tool on computers using biometrics such as facial recognition or eye recognition or at least the native touchID on apple computer for faster unlocking and using of passwords.

• Prettiness was prioritized over UX: Fairly often used features like password generator and account settings are very difficult to find. Password generator is hidden under a button called “add” where it gives the user the impression of adding something to a vault rather than generating a password.

• Auto Change passwords: Some websites make it mandatory to change passwords every 90 days. I’d provide a way for users to set a time when they need the passwords to be auto generated and stored in vault

Concerns

• Losing your master password or forgetting the master password will lock you out completely from 1Password. The 1Password team doesn’t have access to your vault and will not be able to recover passwords for you.

My favorite product is youtube:

Its really democractic , its ubiquitous, its best in terms of what its provide, its easy to use, its really useful for a wide purposes and with quality, that include comforting, informing, engaging, suprising and purely utilitarian as well. Its fairly simple to use.

If you break up the experience, think of video consumers and creators (individuals and smb and corporates)

themes, and needs information - what, , where, who? actions or chores - how to do this? entertainment or comfort - music, meditation, sounds, videos, fun and movies or comedy or any kind of entertainment maslows needs - physiologica/utilitarian l as well in a sense, cognitive , aesthetic, self development

UX:

Discovery via homepage or feed : channels : search : playing videos experience and options and form factors and features: engagement commenting and social discussions on the video or sharing with others and engaging socially ; saving for later

1. Discovery via homepage or feed : prioritized and personalized, and in session peronalization, recently viewed, history, search within history, trending, thematic trending (news then latest news, sports then latest from sports, music then latest from music)
2. channels : subscribe and see updates on feed, easy to unsubscribe retain democratic aspect
3. search : super strong and really understands you. especially when it comes to text search, very contextual and allows for natural language search
4. playing videos experience and options and form factors and features: simple to play, pause . fwd or back, play fast or slow, continue from where you left across devices with your account, zoom or stream on a tv and so on,
5. engagement commenting and social discussions on the video or sharing with others and engaging socially ; always look at the content involved, the comments are fun, and like to engage in those and always share
6. saving for later;

mobile aspects like playing in backround and zooming out snips into a small version of the form factor so you can keep watching. and has just a ytmusic version too.

to improve: users and pain points

1. Users
   1. Younger
   2. Core users
   3. Power users
2. creators
   1. corporates
   2. individuals

• tiktok etc. want to continue this to be a platform of the future. keep the appeal for younger users

3 x 4 x 4 / 3 = 16

• improve social engagement as well , and connect with not just video, but people on the video, the cause and so on, can I interact with the video more

5 x 5 x 1 / 5 = 5

• make it easier for individual creators

4 x 4 x 4 / 4 = 16

Prioritize:

Reach x Impact x Confidence / Effort

Build a feature to make it easier for youtube individual creators to quickly create fun videos. Can start with short videos.

Youtube app: button that says record (create->record) then you can turn on it immediately starts showing you, but recording hasnt started yet, you can see yourself you can apply filter see options to improve lighting and suggestions the best possible filters start appearing then you push begin and record your content then you post, it "very quickly" creates your video for you you can review the video you can just say "post" and it immediately a. creates a channel for you b. posts your video c. you have the option to share via a shareable link that just starts playing.

Someone can see it, like it , and they can also subscribe to you as the video plays.

then your next video subscribers start seeing it.

moonshot: if it lets you add your friend to the video, social also lets you make your video in tandem with a VR component or transport yourself to a differnt background or see yourself singing in a band within a video you paid for and purchased as a background, embedding yourself in it immersive video experiences.

imagine you are talking to your long distance gf or bf, you take a video of a place you are visiting, and start a live video, and the moment she join, you can see both of you in that place, with both front and back video camera . Immersive video creation as a tool at the hands of simple individuals could transform video as an experience and a social connective experience rather than just utilitarian.

My favorite product which I use daily is the Starbucks app.

What does the product do?.

It helps to order my coffee or any menu items on-the-go and pick them, pay for their purchases, buy gift cards let the user know about the offers, Delight the users with gamification to earn rewards for their purchases.

Personas for the app :

Busy office goers, Travelers, and Coffee Connessiurs

As a regular user of the app, it helps me order the coffee on-the-go and have a frictionless payment experience and earn rewards for the items I have ordered. It offers music engagement with an instore playlist with Spotify that at least attempts to broaden my experience with the brand. It helps to inform me in advance of when the rewards are expiring so that I could redeem my rewards

Since the product I chose is a mobile application, not the coffee product itself I would like to evaluate based on the below design principles.

• It’s useful: The app use case helps customers order beverages on the go and pick-up in store.
• It's understandable: The app is simple and understandable a typical user could navigate to order the menu items and pay for them.
• It’s innovative: This was the first coffee-store app that offered order ahead and pick-in store which created a satisfying mobile experience. It offered AI-based gamification to suit games based on the user drinking preferences and occasionally surprise them with different game challenges.
• It’s honest. It provides AI based gamification based on customers' order history allowing the customer to participate and achieve maximum rewards. It could add different challenges to help customers buy different products form what they order in order to monetize.

There are other competitors apps like Peets and Dunkin.

Their rewards expire for 90 days in Dunkin and 30 days for Peet's coffee,

They have no options to broaden the brand experience like integration with Spotify and limited collaboration with other food delivery apps to provide end-end order to delivery experience and accumulate the rewards with the brand.

I think there are a couple of things that Starbucks could solve customer pain points related to ordering ahead.

• If a customer orders coffee online and gets delayed, then the coffee is cold when (s)he gets there. Food is best fresh, and online ordering impedes on freshness.

Solutions: Use the beacon technology which Starbucks already leverages and based on these alerts start preparing the drinks.

• People order online during the busiest times and allowed to jump to the front lines, compounding wait times for everyone.

Solution: Give the option of prioritizing the mobile order in the nearest store by surge pricing or using rewards during peak times.

To summarize I like Starbucks App as it is useful, understandable, innovative, honest delights the customer in order heading, accumulating rewards with ai-based game challenges and giving feedback on when the rewards expire.

Similar to Ridhi. My favorite product is Amazon Kindle Paperwhite. I love reading books and it has made it very easy for me to carry around 100s of books.

I evaluate a product basis the following criteria:

1. Useful - It has to solve a major pain point of the user.
2. Intuitive - User should not have to read manuals to use the product.
3. Unobtrusive - It just exists without attracting attention and without distracting you from the core thing for which you are using the product.

Kindle Paperwhite ticks all of the boxes.

4. Easy to carry books - Has helped me carry books. Earlier I had more than 100s of books and I had to donate all of them because I can't possibly carry all those with me every time I move around.
5. Easy to read in dark - I read in the same room where my wife and kid sleeps. It helps me read in the dark and I now regularly read before sleeping. In fact, it has helped me sleep better.
6. Look and feel of paper - The look and feel of e-ink is very similar to paper and it doesn't put restrain on eyes.
7. Easy to remember content - Most people forget 99% of what they read. I can highlight the aspect I want retained. I have connected an app readwise which randomly sends me these highlights on my email.
8. No Distractions - Most importantly, It doesn't distract you unlike mobile or tablet which has so many distractions.

I still feel there are a few aspects of Kindle which can be improved further.

9. Not easy to read PDF and documents - Most of the PDF or Word documents are not easy to read. The display is small. One cannot increase the PDF font size and it becomes really cumbersome to read PDFs on Kindle.
10. Very little time between notifications and discharge - I get a notification when the battery is at 10% capacity and it gets discharged within 30 minutes. Unlike for mobile, you generally don't keep carrying charger for Kindle.
11. It has still not replaced laptop or mobile as my preferred reading device - I wish I could easily transfer every article I want to read on my device. It is again tied ot point 1. I wish Amazon could improve the non e-book reading aspect of the Kindle experience.
12. I regularly come across words I am not able to pronounce properly. The dictionary should have the pronunciation feature.

Ask clarifying questions: Is it just a general favorite product of mine based on my personal experience using it? Is there a specific term/aspect of the product would you like me to focus more on when choosing my favorite?

My favorite product is Splitwise. It allows users to seamlessly split costs between a group of people, regardless of how each cost should be split between groups (evenly, between specific members of the group, etc.). I find it most useful when I travel with a group of friends because all we have to do if to download the app, register an account using emails, and record expenses ourselves whenever we pay for something for the group, or some members of the group. The app will do the math for us and return exactly how much each person owes / should receive from the group.

Enhancements to the product:

• It would be better if the app integrates with Venmo or other third parties so that users can settle payments directly in it.
• Sometimes new users are hesitant to register to apps they know they would use once or twice. Therefore, it would be nice to allow using app without an account. Another option can be allowing the group admin to fill in a "dummy username" so that it meets group's real headcount.

Clarifications :

1. Can the product be hardware focused or should it be software based? -> assume they say "anything"
2. Can I assume that by favorite product, it is something I like using? Or should we focus on a product that is currently doing really well in the market and analyze the factors? -> assume they say "product that I use"

Answer :

A product that I have come to love using everyday is my Apple watch. I think it is a very well designed and well executed product when it comes to addressing user needs delightfully. The set up and sync with phone is seamless, the UX is coherent and understandable, health and fitness habit-formation is central to the experience.

You'll want to engage with the watch multiple times a day and every time, the experience delivers on the expectations. So my golden 3: seamless onboarding, coherent UX, positive habit-formation, are all done really well.

My goals were to develop a daily habit to manage my fitness. The AW enables me to do that by offering reminders, notifications to breath and exercise to hit my goals for the day. And gradually I formed a positive association with looking at my watch. This is also in great part due to the reliability of the hardware and software. I can go for a swim and not worry about the device not performing. The quality of the AW is great.

I know that the price is steep for a watch, but I look at it this way :

A holistic fitness solution that enables you to connect with many other apps that track your overall fitness. And that makes the apple watch worth the price for the value being delivered.

• Question : What is your favorite product and why?

• Clarifying Question: What do you mean by favorite product? Does it need to be a web application, a desktop app, a mobile app or a device?

  • Response: Your choice

• My favorite product is the app Strong which tracks strength training workouts. There are several popular fitness tracking apps such as Strava, MapMyRun, etc that are primarily targeted at cardio activities such as running and biking. Strong is one of the few that apps dedicated to tracking strength training and I believe with that focus they do a great job at addressing this niche of strength training and weightlifting enthusiasts

• I am an avid powerlifter and I use Strong to track my workouts.

• Here are the features of Strong that I like

  • When I first use the application, it helps set up a workout plan based on "splits" i.e. how many times a week do I want to work out and what parts of the body do I want to target. It provides preselected plans (2-day, 3-day, 4-day splits, etc) while also providing the option to customize it.

  • It has a comprehensive library of exercises for each body part as well as instruction videos for each exercise so one follows the correct form. For each split I can substitute exercises based on the available equipment - dumbbells, barbells, etc.

  • At the start of each workout, it tells me what weight I did previously for that particular exercise so I can correctly choose what weight I can use for that day. Additionally, countdown and rest timers make sure I am not moving too slowly or quickly.

  • It tracks all of the data in the cloud so I have access my workout history from multiple devices that I can download in a csv and track my progress.

• Here are some features I believe will make Strong an even better product.

  • Social features that allow me to share my workouts with friends so we can motivate each other. Additionally I should be able to share with my coach who can provide feedback and instruction via the app. These advanced features could even be monetized.

  • Rest and Nutrition is a very important component of fitness. For strength training it is especially important to track macronutrient consumption - especially protein - and I use a different app (MyfitnessPal) to track nutrition. Strong should plug into health and nutrition apps such as MyFitnessPal to incorporate nutrition related guidance

CLARIFY What kind of products? Are we talking about software or hardware or do I define that? Ans: Define that

Then, I would be answering the question: Which software product do I like best and why do I like it?

ANSWER OUTLINE I order to answer this question,

• I would first mention my favorite software product and describe it briefly.
• Then, I would define what category of user of this product I fall into, and the specific user problems.
• I would explain how the product solves these problems (better than its competitors)
• And finally, I would discuss a few tradeoffs

EXPLAIN THE PRODUCT My favorite software product is Spotify. Spotify is an audio streaming service that makes it easier to find millions of songs and podcasts on one's phone or computer. It provides a large collection of audio to listen to, and, among other things, has an option to connect with friends and create and share playlists on the platform.

USERS

1. Family
2. Students
3. Businesses
4. All other individuals

I fall into the category of student users of Spotify, and to answer this question, I would concentrate on this user category.

Is it okay if I follow on this track or is there something you would want to add? (Assume interviewer says: "Sure, let's follow that path")

USER PROBLEM

• Aesthetically pleasing interface and ease of access
• It can be difficult to find personalized but varied song content all in one place
• Students who, for some reason, do not have the money for a paid subscription, but would still love to listen to music.

SOLUTIONS Now I would go ahead to explain how Spotify solves the listed problems, and in some cases, how it does it better than competitors.

• Spotify mostly emphasizes on discovery; having categories of songs based on genre, location, charts (like top songs in the world, top songs per country) and moods(playlist for study, workout etc.), makes it easier for a user to find music or podcasts they want.
• Spotify provides an option for users to create playlists. This together with the discovery concept of Spotify gives users the tools necessary to create a personalized song content while also providing a large pool of valid suggestions for the sake of variety.
• Spotify's desktop app is aesthetically pleasing to the eye; its sleek design and theme appeals to most users -especially millennials, who make up a large population of Spotify users-, and this just draws them in, right from their first use.
• Unlike some of its competitors, Spotify provides a free option that still includes a large range of music and podcast to listen to. College students, who have run out of funds for a subscription, are not denied the pleasure of listening to their favorite artists and podcasts.

TRADE-OFFS One significant trade-off with the product is its free version. Spotify provides its free version to users, in exchange for ads. Interruption from ads may ruin user experience, but on the other hand, Spotify provides rather affordable subscription starting from 4.99EUR.

SUMMARY In summary, I have described Spotify software, explained how I identify as a user, the problems my user categories face, and the ways Spotify solves these problems better than its competitors. The artistic design of the app, its library of recommendations and songs or podcasts on discovery and affordable offerings, increase my user experience and overall makes Spotify appealing to me.

PS: Constructive criticism accommodated

My favorite Product No 1 is "Uber"

Why Uber Solves a simple real world problem using technology and contributes in many ways to the middle class and the society in general (under appreciated for that)

What was the problem Metered taxis charged you more. (Expensive )

1. you were in dark about the cost.(Threat of being duped)
2. you couldn't complain about a poor service.( No one to complain)
3. Safety was always ignored and One had to take the risk(No one watching)
4. you had no choice but to use these taxis. (no real competition) may be their was in some cases

What did Uber do

Created a App which solves the problems

1. Costs are already known and are much reasonable.
2. You feel safe with knowing the driver before hand.
3. You know that some one is watching and you can send a feed back about your ride.
4. you can book it whenever , communicate with driver, see when the driver is arriving, see how many drivers are available while planning your trip.

Uber simply Transferred the Power to its Users.

Solution wise its ground breaking because it does not have a huge huge investments as far as Car goes, so its costs are much less. It simply brings two kind of users ( drivers and riders) to solve a simple problem using a tech and support team. Uber can do that in every country( much wider audience around the world with first mover advantage)

Personally the aspect i like about uber.

Uber gives "Employment to very ordinary middle class people" ..I have met a retired old guy driving uber in his ford flex to keep himself busy and get some pocket money. I have met a Physio Therapist who does second shift to support her family. I have seen single moms driving uber doing double shifts to make ends meet. I have also heard retiring guys saying .."you know i would drive a uber after retirement" ( adding income to their may be low pensions)

Driving is a very basic skill in US and many developed countries and Uber with its app helps making ends meet for middle class people. The fact that people can rely on uber to make ends meet or make their lives better makes it my no 1 favorite app.

Clarification: Do you mean what features make a product my favorite? Let me assume: You are asking for a technology product that I use and provide reasons why it is my favorite?

Structure {moment to brainstorm} Introduce a product Features I like Metrics Trade-offs/Improvements Summary/Closing

Introduction: "Heart in Tune" app which helps empty my mind, relax and learn to meditate on customized terms. An absolute tool which is helping raise my ability to perform by balancing the vitals naturally.

Features I like: Set my own time and duration to practice meditation Set goals and track stats Attend live sessions by professionals Meditate with human trainer on demand 24/7/365

Metrics: #Sessions/week #longest in duration #comparision of actual vs planned

Trade-offs:

can't use mobile during the practice

I would miss notifications and calls during meditation

Improvements:

ability to accept voice messages from calls received during meditation practice

integrate with other mindfulness/health apps to leverage the features and help them without need to install this app

Summary: Overall great app with 0 cost for self development and attaining balance in life. There are other minor features (which could be major for others) like tracking our observations in a Journal in the app. Apart from metrics I can see great improvement in clarity and most importantly "need to pause'' in many situations so that I can "respond" in place of "react".

My favorite product is MyFitnessPal - It is a fitness app that focuses on holistically looking at fitness including the toughest part tracking calories consumed.

The reasons I like this product are the following:

1. It tackles a problem that is pretty widespread and has a pretty large impact on a lot of people.Eating the right foot is an equally important part of fitness as say excercise ( there are a lot of apps for exercise).
2. It focuses on the users - Many apps try to solve this problem by providing canned recipes and trying to have people eat 'standard' American food. My fitness pal has a pretty large database or foods that are curated by the app to ensure that you could almost be eating any cuisine and it will find and suggest the calories. For instance I can search for something exotic like Indian - 'dal bhat' and it will find matches.
3. It is innovative - Apart from the fact that it tracks food and nutrition better than almost every app out there it also focuses on collecting all other data from apple health or android health to correlating it all back to the outcome - weight management. It also then sends notifications to help guide you to your goal.

How I would improve it:

4. While weight management is the most common fitness goal. I think there are a few other goals it can focus on such as - health vitals ( blood pressure, pulse etc). Cholesterol ( through apple health). BM/muscle %I - for people trying to build muscle. Doing these I believe will truly make this indispensable.
5. Focus on prescriptive analytics - prescribing potential option instead of just reporting on data after the fact. This can help tailor meals within the repertoire that the user typically eats.
6. Correlation analysis - Especially as we start moving towards vitals it can be interesting to start tracking things like sodium intake, sleep and stress to higher blood pressure.

By doing these additional things I believe Myfitnesspal can take its game to the next level.

Favorite product: Snapchat

Why I love Snapchat I’ve been using snapchat every single day since 2019

• Snapchat allowed me to grow authentic and intimate friendships and maintain them over time
  • Snaps really encouraged me to live in the moment and be myself, without worrying about being popular, pretty or perfect
  • The daily streak features encouraged me and my friends to be there for each other, no better rain or shine
• The design language for Bitmoji and snap map are cute and hilarious

What are Snapchat’s competitors

Messaging

• WhatsApp
• Messenger
• Text

Why snapchat is better: Private by default + shorter latency to send over the picture

Social media (formal)

• Instagram
• Facebook
• TikTok
• LinkedIn

Why snapchat is better: Spontaneous vs Needing to be popular, pretty, funny or well-liked

Social media (informal)

• Yo
• BeReal

Why snapchat is better: More immersive/spontaneous vs fixed format

How can I improve Snapchat?

Challenges:

• DAU is flat-lining in most profitable markets (e.g. US)
• Meta’s ARPU: $7.53; Snapchat’s ARPU for Q3 2021: $3.11

Jobs to be done:

• Need to expand beyond the US teenage market to young adults
• Need to come up with innovative ways to grow ARPU

1. Expand beyond teenage market

• Currently, based on FoF recommendation. Vulnerable to life events: moving to college, graduating from college, moving to a new city, etc.
• Life event detection ⇒Moving from 1 location to another Moving from 1 institution to another Mentally moving from “friendship” to “dating”
• Encourage people to get to know each other in a safe, intimate way Orientation week: make new friendseveryone submit their streak to the college/dorm group for users who opt in, auto-send DMs to everyone highlight open door parties/student body events on Snapmap, and encourage people to meet IRL
• Valentine’s week: find SOsimilar to above, but with a Valentine’s theme

2. Innovative ways to grow ARPU

If we do (1) right, ARPU will grow organically, b/c CPM for 18+ are so much higher than minors. Privacy by default makes traditional ads business very difficult. Ultimate, the holy grail of ads is purchase, whether it is in-store on on-line.

• In-store: For specific verticals like food, beverage and entertainment (movies), in-store is the holy grail, and it might be an especially great vertical for Snap to dominate. Snap is about growing fun, intimate friendships. And friends spent a lot of time hanging out together. And the most frequent use cases are eating out, and leisure activities together. We can turn Snapmap into a friend outing planner, come up with recommendations for (time, location, budget) for friends to vote on.
• Online: AR/VR social shopping.

I would prioritize 1, 2(a) then 2(b), sorted by (impact, LOE)

My favorite product is Swiggy.

What is Swiggy and what do they do? Swiggy started a decade ago as an Indian food delivery app which acts as a marketplace and logistics platform connecting nearby restaurants selling food to the customers wanting to order food online. Although food delivery is still the core of the Swiggy's business, a few years back they ventured into quick commerce business by launching Swiggy Instamart. Through Instamart, customers can buy groceries, stationery, electronics and other home needs delivered to the customers in few minutes, sourced directly from their dark stores.

Why is it my favorite product? I have 3 reasons that made me consider Swiggy as my favorite product - 2 reasons as a power user and 1 reason as a Product Manager:

Bundled services under one subscription As a single male living with friends, I order food online 3/4 times per week and groceries 2/3 times per week. As these are high repeat orders and being a price sensitive customer, I don't want to pay a delivery fee for every order. Swiggy solved this problem by bringing food delivery and quick commerce under one umbrella with their Swiggy One subscription offering free delivery for all orders above a certain minimum order value. There is no other player in the market offering such a bundled subscription so it's a no brainer solution for me as a customer.

Exemplary order placement experience Most of the orders I place for food/grocery delivery are impulsive purchases and I want to place the order as soon as possible from the moment I thought/felt about it. On Swiggy, right from opening the app to placing the order, entire process feels frictionless. This can be attributed to their carefully curated recommendations, easy cart additions, seamless payment process with most frequent payment mode pre-selected and the ability to place an order and pay later if there are any issues with the payments. Overall, I always felt I used minimal mental energy to place a right order on Swiggy and there is nothing like it.

Focus on long term customer experience When I look at Swiggy from outside as a Product Manager, I could infer that they operate with the goal of improving long term customer experience. One particular example I have observed is the feature to cancel an order till 1 minute post placing the order. There would be many cases where customer places an order impulsively and would want to cancel it immediately due to a variety of reasons. Generally in such cases, customers need to go to customer support, wait for the agent, spend time in explaining the reasons and then order might be cancelled. This is such a huge pain point. Although adding friction to cancel an order will be good for business in the short term, it comes at a cost of customer experience. Swiggy chose to optimise for long term customer experience and that makes it one of the best customer centric products out there.

Here's how I would answer this question. (Note: This is the first time I am answering this question, so chose a popular product for review. If someone could please review and let me know if my thought process is correct, would be great).

Assumption: Before answering the question, I have asked clarifying questions to the interviewer and they have clarified that I can choose a Hardware or Software product of my choice.

So here it goes:

A product that I like the most is Instagram. Instagram is an app which allows a user to upload photos and several different kinds of videos to their profile and share it with their followers. In addition to this, one can follow others, view their content and also comment on the content others have shared. Influencers or brands can create their professional account and share content publicly, do brand collaborations and sell products online.

Whenever I look at a product, I look at these three things - Is it innovative?, Is it useful? Is it understandable or intuitive?

As for innovation, IG was the first app to give users the option to add filters to pictures. It gives options to add several different kinds of videos which can be reels (15 mins long), regular videos and videos with special effects like Boomerang. The concept of stories was introduced by IG using which user can share content with their network for a limited duration only. Users can also create a business account and sell their products on IG. Marketing teams can seek customer feedback through polling on stories and also interact with them through Live sessions or QnA sessions.

Usefulness: As a user who like to capture every special moment in form of videos or photos, IG is a great app to safely preserve those moments. It also provides a great platform to those users who want to build their brand through content sharing and selling products on IG.

Understandable: The UI design for the app is simple and user friendly. Design is consistent across pages. Icons are easy to understand.

What I'd like to see improved in the product is:

1. Preserve the original quality of uploaded pictures in stories when other effects like audio, gifs, stickers are added.
2. Curated content for audience: IG often shows repeated content to users, even if you have liked some post way back in the past and are no longer interested in that topic, IG continues to show you pictures and videos related to that topic. In addition to this, content from pages which are not followed is also shown on user's profile page which does not give great user experience. In my opinion, IG needs to get rid of this algorithm and show only the content which users are actually interested to see and actually follow.

To summarize: IG is a great platform for anyone who a user like me who likes to share their precious moments with close ones and also for brands and public figures to increase fame. It has it's fair share of shortcomings which can be improved but the ease of use, innovation and usefulness overshadow those and make it my favorite product.

What's your favorite product and why? Voyager investing app - Crypto brokerage that allows users to input money, buy cryptocurrencies, stocks (in the future), and earn rewards.

Why do I like it:

1. I enjoy trying to find the bottom and buying an asset at a discount. I also love watching the price go to the moon (asset appreciation)
2. Seeing the notifications of when money drops into your account from interest is the best feeling
3. Having the ability to invest in the future of money which is digital currencies / decentralized finance / web3.

Top Features:

1. Realtime market indicators to show price adjustments, market cap, 24hr / 1-month / 1-year price trends
2. Portfolio with asset allocation, average purchase price, and total gain/loss
3. Cryptocurrency asset pages with price trends for 1h/1week/1month/1year
   1. Your total return (gain/loss)
   2. Average cost
   3. Interest and requirement to hold
   4. Lows / Highs

Competitor landscape:

1. Coinbase / Celsius / Crypto.com

Competitor advantages:

1. Extremely simple for crypto beginners
   1. Easy staking process
   2. Few trading options to simplify buying process
   3. Simple starting process to add money / transfer coins
2. Competitive rewards

Pain Points:

1. Security options - no cold wallet or hardware storage solution for maximum safety
   1. Trade-off -millions have been lost with people who can find BTC on their hardware flash drives
2. Platform downtime due to trading spikes
3. Long process to verify new users
   1. User verification process (government id, photo, social #)
   2. Verify location is eligible
   3. Request for documents / confirmation
4. Unable to access customer service in real-time

Solutions:

1. Add a progress tracker to show customer progression and describe the current step in the process (within the app)
2. Notifications/emails/ability to set reminders to check on progress or missing information
   1. Trade-off - want to make sure user isn't overwhelmed with constant messages

Metrics:

1. Reduced overall signup time - Client vs Voyager staff delays and response time
2. the goal is to reduce the time for client responses and feedback.
   1. Why: Voyager can always increase staff but client lack of feedback will lead to bad reviews / less platform engagement/move to another competitor
3. Number of people who had delays in signup finished creating an account, funding account and made at least 1 transaction
   1. Why: Voyager is a brokerage and makes more money on the number of transactions. The model is a funnel approach and the more transactions = more revenue growth

Favorite Product

The NYT Wordle is one of my favorite products

Why ?

1. It’s a simple, easy and intuitive word game
2. It offers a few minutes of stimulated distraction
3. Provides statistics that show my performance

Features

1. It is a web only product
2. The user has to guess a 5 letter English word of the day, in 6 attempts
3. With every guess, the game provides hints to the users by marking the letters as :
   1. Gray - the letter doesn’t exist in the word of the day
   2. Yellow - the letter exists but is not in the right position
   3. Green - The letter exists and is in the right position

📷📷

Competitors

Online Competitors

Word Guess

• Hello Wordl (web only)
• SpellTower (free app)
• Online Lingo (web only easier version of the Wordle)
• Quordle (web only guess 4 words in 9 attempts)

Number Guess

• Nerdle

Country Guess

• Worldle (Clever play on the name of the original game)

Offline Competitor

Word Guess

• Pictionary

How do you improve the Product ?

Personas/Users

By age

1. Adults - Age 22+
2. School and College Kids - Age 13-22
3. Young Kids (learning english) age 8-13

By country:

1. English speaking - US, UK, Canada, Australia, NZ etc
2. Non English Speaking - India, China, Russia, France, Spain etc

By stickiness:

1. Occasional Players (once in a month)
2. Intermediate Players (2 or 3 times a week)
3. Crazy Fans (like me) (who wait for midnight to play the game)

Areas of Improvement :

Acquisition

1. User acquisition is not the biggest of the problems for Wordle. In the beginning of 2022 it had 300,000 users . By May 2022, the user base has grown to 2 Million users. The user gets sucked into the game through external triggers such as a facebook post, twitter feed or even word of mouth. But cycling through successive hooks, the user starts associating the game with the need to feel rewarded.

Engagement

The engagement levels are good. However a number of problems that can think of -

• Difficulty Level - Currently the game has no difficulty levels. Considering that the game is played by people of different ages and countries, their English proficiency can vary. Thus, preset reset difficulty levels such as - Beginner, Intermediate, Proficient, and Prodigy can be introduced. The game can automatically upgrade the user after a certain level of accuracy.The key to creating habit forming products is to give the user a sense of validation and achievement. The levels can be made progressively more difficult to scale. The objective should be to make sure that
  • There are few drop offs at Beginner level
  • Majority of users move from Beginner to Intermediate (say 75%)

Also we should be measuring usage stats such % of people progressing to subsequent levels especially from Beginner to Intermediate. For e.g - If we see high drop offs, the difficulty level or the condition to upgrade can be calibrated.

• Multiple Languages - Currently the game involves English words only. Supporting other languages can greatly increase the adoption by non-English speakers
• App Play - Currently the game is web only. This doesn’t allow the game to capture user preferences and patterns. By having an app, the user can log in and they can:
  • Play against other players competitively
  • Earn badges as they solve and level up
• Learning Mode - Kids can play the game to improve their vocabulary.
  • This version is not restricted to 1 word per day
  • As kids type in words in every step, they might get spellings wrong and get demotivated. They can spell ADIEU as ADEIU. Here the game could throw suggestions to correct the word and also explain the meaning.
  • It can also teach them quick reminders such as I before E except after C
  • Alternatively as they start typing in a word say STA..the game can throw a number of options such as STAND or STALE.
  • The learning mode can be configured to send an automated weekly/monthly report to a parent
  • This can be a separate offering and can be easily monetized

Retention

Not a problem right now. High engagement levels will help with retention organically

Monetization

Not a problem right now. Can be conceived after an app is built. Learning Mode can be monetized.

Prioritization of Solution

By Reach, Impact, Congruence, Effort, Total Score

1. Difficulty Levels 4 5 5 3 4.66
2. Multiple Languages. 5 5 5 4 3.75
3. App Play 5 5 5 4 3.75
4. Learning Mode 4 4 5 3 4.33

Total Score = (Reach + Impact + Congruence)/ Effort

I would pick features, 1,2, and 4 to begin with.

Metrics

1. DAU/MAU
2. % of Paying users (for Learning Mode)
3. CLTV

The way I would like to start this process after the clarification process I will like to give a brief detail of what my favorite product . would be which would be my choice!

I Have chosen the discord software app

So what is discord Discord is a app of multiple chat room/voice-chatroom that are accessible by invitation links. Why is discord my favorite app my reason for this is

1. The ability to build a community of like-minded indivual or members of curiosity that would love to join a chat room
2. The ability to have a specific group chat that focus on a subject for example finance,books,games
3. Interact and socials with people with similar interest and work together or enjoy each other company
4. Having sub-chats in your community to focus on certain categories in your community
5. Voice chat and video chat are beneficial add on as well

The things I would like to improve with discord

1. A better way to verify new members due to age restriction bots language fouls.
2. Integrating discord to other platforms

My favorite product is Google Photos because I solves many pain points I had: 1- I had a hard time finding pics of my daughter and my brother together. 2- finding a picture of my daughter at a specific time. 3- finding my credit card number. 4- finding pics of family birthdays. 5- finding pics of my Dog that I want to print and frame. 6- I don't want to think about backing up my picture and synchronizing them.

Google solved these pain points and others by making a product that is: 1- Smart:

• It harnesses powerful AI algorithms in computer vision to recognize faces, animals and objects.
• It has advanced algorithms to match faces of the same person at different ages ( years apart )
• It is context aware by identifying things such as birthdays, weddings, graduation, etc...
• It can recognize credit cards, ID cards, etc..

Intuitive:

• It has a very simple user interface that makes it usable by GenZ, Millennia and Boomers alike.
• Makes backup and synching photos and videos hassle free.

Innovative :

• Provides features that make it standout from competition such as their: "they grow up so fast", "Your day X years ago"
• Great filters selection embedded in the App.

Ways of improvement : Even though Google Photos allows you to share pics with friends, it lacks the social graph aspect. I think, Google can harness the power of Google Photos and create a social product on top of it.

I'm a big fan of WhatsApp, which acts as a medium to communicate between family, colleagues, friends, and people who are in your contact list.

What I love about the product is that you get to interact with your contacts so efficiently by sharing media files ranging from documents to videos and photos, and as well as you can have a group of your own to interact with your gang. This even allows us to share our daily updates as stories that stay for 24 hours and allow our circle to react to the same. You could also do a voice call, video call people around the world just using your internet, and nothing more is required.

Though many competitors give all these options like Fb's Messenger, IG's DM, and so on. The one reason it overpowers all of them is because of its huge consumer base and easiness in UI which makes switching easy for everyone. The major reason for it to be the leader is because of its early entry and being available in all mediums like Android, iOS, Desktop, and Mac.

Thus, the fact that Whatsapp acting as a one-stop solution for connecting anyone around the world makes it my favorite app.

Clarify

Are you asking about a hardware product or software product? [Only software product]

Before answering the question i want to mention my approach

1. I will be explaining about my favorite product and give a high level overview about it
2. Why I like the product
3. Why is it better than other competitors
4. What features can be added or improved

Favorite product

My favorite product is apple music despite being a core android user .Apple music offers the largest library of music around the world ranging from my own state to the whole country in different regional languages.It also offers music from different countries.It also features to share music with family and friends and provides family subscription plan which can be taken up to 6 members

Why I like the product

Innovative

Though it didn't start out as a separate app, the service started in the ITunes store where users can download the music directly to their phones and can listen anywhere they want.They have changed the pricing to per song compared to others when they were offering for an album.

It has the best search functionality compared to other apps where we can even search by lyrics.Its user interface is centered around its attractive thumbnails which is very eye-catching and engaging to use.It provides sharing subscription plan without a need to view all shared members music in my own library.Having my own library isolated with a low cost,gives a sense of privacy. Its lyrics reading is very beautiful with attractive transparent background based on song thumbnail and seamless integration with audio.This makes user to use this feature.

Usage

It provides popular songs with curated playlists in many regional languages in my country and updated weekly playlists from around many countries.It also offers the latest albums ranging from pop starts to indie albums.As a person who likes to explore new music,apple music is very useful.I am a person who doesn't like recommendations and notifications and with respect to that ,apple music is cleaner and doesn't bug you with notifications.It has the high quality music than other apps and provides optimized storage feature where we can set the maximum downloadable music.

it also has large number of radio stations of different categories which gives lot of scope of listening to continuous music with interesting commentary in between.

Ease of use

In terms of easy of use, the apple music is much cleaner and less cluttered with a focus on display rather than text.It has less buttons to add music,edit own playlists and sharing with friends.It also has recommendations in a different page rather than in the same page,which gives user control of what to see rather than nudging users with repeated recommendations. The edit option to change our library to see only latest downloaded music,albums or artists is very useful in providing preferences of how to listen to a music easily.

Features which make it better than competitors

1. Attractive design with beautiful thumbnails
2. Much cleaner interface which makes more engaging to use.
3. Easy user interface to add songs which are automatically downloaded and easy way to edit playlists with providing automatic attractive thumbnails to own playlists
4. Search functionality where we can even search by lyrics
5. Curated playlists from different regional languages to songs from all around the world ranging from pop stars to indie albums

Features which can make it better

1. Collaborative playlists feature present in spotify
2. More podcasts and radio stations of my own country
3. Equalizer features where i can change the way of listening
4. Better recommendations where I can see songs tagged to specific moods and genres listened by me

Outline

• Fav product and what it does

• My user perspective and user journey

• Key features that make it my favorite

• Potential improvements

--

--

Product

My favorite product is the Apple Car Play platform. What the product does is to overlay the Apple iPhone interface over that of the vehicle. Features such as

• Calling / Text / WhatsApp
• Maps and navigation
• Music

become accessible on the vehicles screen via a familiar IOS UI

--

--

User perspective

• I rent cars a lot for business and personal travel

• Without Cap Play, every time I rent a car I have to familiarize my self with the vehicles UI for

  • Navigation

  • Music

  • Voice settings etc

• With Car Play that process is much simpler and much more efficient

--

--

Key Features

1 - Familiar interface

2 - Navigation is seamless with google & apple maps

3 - Music transfer is seamless with multiple phone apps - Spotify, Amazon Music etc.

4 - Introduction of Bluetooth connectivity

5 - Ever expanding list of vehicles that work with Car Play

The above features improve the

• Efficiency of the rental onboarding / learning process
• Safety in the car since i'm not working with a new interface
• Makes access to entertainment (music) much more convenient

--

--

Potential improvements

1 - Allow for more than 1 phone to connect e.g. 1 for directions and another for text / talk

2 - Allow for use of FaceTime (potential safety concern)

3 - Allow multiple phones to connect and combine music playlists

"Whenever I look at a product, I look for three things: does it solve a problem, is it designed for the user, and whether it has a vision to change the future." - Thanks to one of the exponent users in the forum for mentioning this. I always use this in my interview answers.

Based on those factors, My favorite product is Headspace.

Product Description: Headspace is a mindfulness application helping users meditate and manage stress levels that could be used wherever and whenever you want to lower your stress levels.

Why is it my favorite? (Mention the pain points Headspace is solving for me):

• I personally believe that I'd achieve most of my goals be it personal, professional or academic if my health is in my check and I'm free of anxiety and stress. And thus, meditation is a very important part of my routine.
• I'm a graduate student and my schedule is often packed with classes, meetings and events. It is very hard for me to physically visit a wellness/meditation center to manage my stress. A mobile application on the go is an easier way for me to meditate. And, in most of the cases, I don't meditate more than 10 mins and hence, doing it in my room or a calm space I can find on campus suits my schedule. Bonus points to Headspace for offering a student discount.
• Headspace has a very easy-use-to interface with simple language and colors. I don't have to click 10 times to start my meditation. Open the app - Click on the sounds you want to list - Meditate - Close. This approach helps me save time and effort which I believe are my biggest constraints.
• I believe more people are health conscious right now than ever. However, people are busy and the old-fashioned meditation centers while still being great aren't practical for the majority. Headspace has been coming with short visual meditation techniques like guided imagery which I feel is going to set the tone for the future.

How could they improve?

• I like consistency but need a sense of achievement for being consistent which I believe is true in case of most users. Headspace doesn't offer any features where-in I can track my daily/weekly progress. Streaks or points for minutes meditated would be a great way for me to feel satisfied every time I use the application. Additionally, they could add a social component to the application, say adding competitions based on the time users meditated. Could be started location-wise with scope to expand further.
• More often than not, people aren't expressive about their feelings which might be the core reason for their anxiety. To address this problem, anonymous forums to express would be a good way for them provide an option for users who lean towards social experiences rather than just meditating alone.

To start with my answer, I would first ask Interviewer if I can choose any product which is familiar from the geographical location I belong to or anything which everyone is familiar with. I assume the answer was anything is fine. So I would like to start with BigBasket. I will follow the structure below so that I can present a good visualisation to my interviewer about what this product do , why I like it and What are the things they can do better to retain my likings.

What Big-basket does? - They are the bigger online grocery shop in India. They allow buyers ti browse and buy products.

Why I like it? I am a working mother much before than Pandemic juggling between work and household chores were my key challenges. All I want an easy home delivery options where I would get an experience of a marketplace and selecting the fresh stocks with commitment of timely delivery.

So their top features which I like are :

1. 99% on time delivery. Nevertheless 1% is always a risk due to weather or other situations.
2. 100% Quality items
3. Responsive Customer Services
4. Easy Refund

All the above features are retaining me with BB for the past 6 years now. However still as an ardent user I would like to see some improvements to make life easier for persona's like me.

Features to Add:

1. Visibility of Deals
2. Organised Product Structures having similar Discounts
3. A personalised favourite section for easy purchase

Objective to add above features:

1. Visibility of Deals- As a new/existing buyer we all love deals. Deals build stickiness. So if products having similar a deal can be clubbed under a dedicated section named Deals or by putting visual indication on the browse categories , I can make a quick decision and avail some best deals.
2. Organised Product Structures having similar Discounts- We all love to see X$ discounts on our favourite products. Imagine a flow where all various products bundled under same discount offer are presented in a single view. I can increase % of purchases by 2X .
3. A personalised favourite section for easy purchase - A dedicated section to remind user about their regular purchases increases the chances of buying. This can be improved by displaying the products based on purchase ranking. Thats is lets show the milk which I regularly buy at Rank 1 by clubbing F1 and F2.

With that I can summarise that I as a buyer will be retaining with BB for another 6 years and a New User will also remain on the platform.

A product that I am quite fond of is Duolingo! When I look at products some important questions to answer for me are: Is it useful? Is it novel? And is it easy to use? I’ve used Duolingo for a couple of years now for learning and honing my skills in a few different languages.

While I do not think Duolingo in of itself is sufficient to comprehensively learning a language, it provides a great starting point. The app’s user interface is very clean and so intuitive for first-time users.

The mobile application is definitely useful in that it helps with providing a launchpad for new learners to a language in regard to learning the grammatical structure of a language and basic vocabulary for a language.

It is quite innovative how Duolingo has so many different languages on their platform with so many different people on it. Their leaderboard rank system, as well as the daily goals add a sense of accountability to the user making the experience all the more worthwhile with gamification.

Google.

Assumption: Favorite product refers to the product I most often use and feel is the best compared to its competition.

YouTube:

YouTube, to me, is a product which is frankly unparalleled in the market place. The offerings across different user bases makes it's on demand library the broadest and most expansive - ensuring that I am able to quickly find content related to my interests. I regularly use YouTube to research products I am interested in purchasing, learn new skills, or stay up to date on news.

Across those three use cases the alternative services are not as compelling.

• Product Research: YouTube's foundation of prioritizing videos and content creators based on subscribers, content relevance, and views allows the most credible reviews of products to rise to the top. Most creators rely heavily on their community of subscribers - therefore they are careful to be honest & thorough in their reviews. Not to mention, many started as amateurs, reviewing things they were passionate and excited about. Because of this, they are able to place themselves in the position of the consumer.
• Learning: LinkedIn has recently invested heavily here, but their content is heavily structured, and sometimes unwieldy to use. If I need to quickly understand a concept or coding string, I can quickly key word search and find a quick video on YouTube for a specific topic. Other services do not offer such ease in navigating and parsing through content.
• More than 25% of adults use YT as their primary source of news. More importantly, news is democratized on YouTube. You are able to view verified content from MSM networks but at the same time browse reactions or opinions from other individuals. I feel that this helps ensure a well-rounded perspective on current news.

In the end, I love YouTube - it's something that I use daily. It epitomizes Google's vision of universal access and allowing for the world to share it's information. The on demand library is second to none.

Let me start with mentioning the favorite product to get the cat out of bag. That is Insight Timer iOS app.

Now let me go into details.

I find products as tools that I recruit to get a job done. One of the daily jobs that I need be done is doing different kinds of physical and mental exercises that are timed differently. I do meditation every day, which is 21 minutes in duration and consists of several steps, each of which last for a certain duration. The app lets me create such sequential timer pre-sets for whatever exercise routine I design and optionally lets me add a music track too.

I have created 10 such presets already and I end up using 2-3 of those every day, to mix and match my exercises depending on the mood I have on a given day.

Since this app does this job on a daily basis for me, I find it incredibly useful. The app does have several other features like live meditation, stories, mental health checkin, which I am sure would be of relevance to other users, but the features I use suffice for my need.

Could some other product meet this requirement of mine? Might be. But need is the mother of invention. If this app is doing the job and is free, I do not need to look elsewhere. I do know that several physical training apps like Strava, Nike Run Club or even the native iOS clock app also give various kind of timing solutions. But I have not found any that makes the task of creating and re-using presets so easy.

What more the app could do for me? It presently has a small library of music. It would be great if it lets me pick my own music too. If I do play my own music independently on spotify, the often interval bells are not heard in that music. It would be nice if it could integrate to my spotify and just like training apps, it would lower the volume of music and the time of interval so that I could hear the bell.

I do like a lot of software and hardware products, for this discussion would you like me to focus on any specific kind? Your choice.

Great! So let's focus on my fav hardware product. I am a big fan of Fitbit. It is a fitness tracker which keeps track of your step count, stairs climbed, heartbeat, sleep hours, food and water intake etc.

Fitbit does have varied userbase:

Someone who is new to fitness tracking

Someone who has been using the product for long but cannot dedicate hours for health such as a busy professional, a mom etc

Someone who is very dedicated to workout such as a marathon runner, a hiker etc

I fall in persona 2.

When it comes to liking a product, I always see if the product is innovative, useful and intuitive. For Fitbit I do feel it is

Innovative: Before Fitbit health tracking was a burden, I do remember once I took part in a walking challenge and to count my steps I had to use a pedometer, which I would forget at home most of the days. Similarly for measuring heartbeat I had to go to doctor. Fitbit brought all this to me and repurposed my daily used product 'watch' to track all this. I never had to rewire my brain to bring Fitbit to my life, since wearing a watch was my daily habit. Secondly they created a dashboard on my phone where I was able to track and make progress. Fitbit did not stop there, they created communities for motivation and upliftment. I can create my own walking buddy or a walking challenge with friends. Their recent update is expansion to fitness videos a step in right direction, one can see meditation videos, quick workouts etc on the app.

Useful: I do find the product to be super useful. Of course I have been walking since childhood but I never tracked it. Though now I am not as active as a kid and I do spend lot of time in front of a laptop. In today's lifestyle Fitbit is a savior for me, it helps me focus on my health everyday. I have a daily target of 10K steps. I have set a reminder to walk 250 steps every hour from 9 to 5. My Fitbit vibrates every hour to ensure I do get up for a walk. On completion of my 10K steps it does cheer me up everyday. These small motivations ensures that I complete my health tasks everyday. Also being competitive I always try to beat my goal which in turn is great for my health.

Intuitive: The device is pretty simple, since it repurposed the watch, everyone knows how to wear it. For turning it on it is standard design of pressing a button. Charging the device is simple too. As far as the app goes, they do provide a default targets like 7K steps in a day etc. these defaults are science backed so if you are not making any changes to the default, still you are doing great. If you spend little more time on the device you can easily find the way to customize the defaults.

Talking about the competition of Fitbit, fitness tracking is a competitive market today to name a few we have Garmin, Apple watch, Samsung watch etc.

For me Fitbit is favorable for 2 reasons:

Firstly the cost: For a persona like me, who need a simple fitness tracking app Fitbit does the job perfectly at a great price. Fitbit has multiple version with a simplest one costing less than $100. On the other side we have tracker like Garmin which does have lot of features but they start at $250 or more. I have to think twice before investing. Moreover I love changing my accessories in couple of years, since new modal comes with new features etc. I might not invest in Garmin, if I would have to change it every 2 years. We should note though Fitbit does have higher version which have more features and might be 1:1 comparison for Garmin from cost perspective too, but then it gets into persona 3 where people are more dedicate to fitness and have higher budget for it.

Secondly no distractions: Again I want my fitness tracker to only focus on fitness and do not keep sending me notifications every 5 mins. When I compare Fitbit with Apple watch or Samsung watch, I definitely have less features in Fitbit e.g. I cannot make phone call from Fitbit, lot of apps notifications does not come to Fitbit and I love it. If I get a lot of noise (notifications), I am pretty sure I will miss the signal i.e. the actual reminder to walk. I can definitely turn off the notifications on my apple watch, but then why should I pay more if I have to use it like fitbit?

Few things which I would love Fitbit to work on would be

Reminder: currently the reminders are not customizable, so I can get a reminder to walk 250 steps but if I am focusing on drinking more water I cannot customize the reminder for that.

Emails: When it comes to fitness, my experience is once you are into the fitness cycle you have a momentum and you keep on going, but once you are out it is difficult to get back to that momentum. I think Fitbit can use email channel better to help people cross that hurdle. They do have my track records, if they see I am not active for a long time they can send me an email like 'last year this month you walked 100K steps, your friends are waiting for same' and softly push me towards fitness. Most of their email are promotional, they can definitely use the email channel for better user engagement.

Weights tracking: Fitbit is great for tracking cardio, they can do better on weights tracking space. I have not seen a place to keep a record of that.

Predictive analysis: Fitbit have a lot of user data, they can use that data to do predictive analysis and can help people reach their goals, also they can recommend based on what other people with same goals and similar health status have done in past to be successful. They do need to be careful with regard to member preference since prediction based on health data is highly regulated under FDA.

Overall, I love my Fitbit, I wear it everyday and would love to see more features coming to it.

Great! Before I answer, I just want to clarify - is there a specific kind of product that you'd like to focus on? Hardware/software/consumer/etc.? Software To tackle this I want to go over the following:

• My favorite software product
  • My favourite product is Whatsapp. Whatsapp is an instant messaging or voice/video over IP app. It is owned by Meta and whatsapp
  • Whatsapp has two type of users:
    • Business- Whatsapp provides them a functionality to send a message/media to customer on Whatsapp
    • Consumers- A customer sends a message to another customer and another customer receives
• Top features in the product and comparison with competition
  • Text messaging
    • It is extremely ubiquitous and for sure get a response from recipient of message. It was able to achieve this scale due to following reasons I feel:
      • Whatsapp extremely innovative in using mobile number as customer identifier. Compared to Skype, where skype ID was required. Whatsapp just needed mobile number. This made it extremely common
      • Due to conversations between customers in phone book, very high chance that people in whatsapp are closely knit
      • No other IM product (Facebook IM., Telegram , Signal ) is this common
  • End to end security
    • All the message on Whatsapp are secure. Chats with business are not secure.
    • Comparison with Telegram is that telegram is only secure if secret chat option is selected
  • As a business user,
    • I use Whatsapp for reaching out to customers on Whatsapp and none of the other channels are half as effective in terms of open rate
    • Also each message content control is also extremely great

Google Maps has a main product, which is transit from place A to B. They have improved upon Maps to take on many transit use cases:

• Local Many route options, beating the traffic with pre-estimated to timing, warning in case of road closures Public commute timings- for buses, trains, metros, e-scooters you get clear picture of how exactly your trip is gonna look like. You take bus from Electronic City to Bengaluru Central, take a green metro to Indranagar, take an auto to Domlur. The timings and optimizations makes it easier for public to plan their trip Find new places- pubs, restaurants, parks to visit in the city In built feature to book Uber, Ola from within the apps making it easier for public to check for themselves

• Intercity commute use-case including variables like shortest time, minimal toll, auto re-routing facility. You can rent a car and go on a trip to a destination, it will suggest you the route based on your requirement. It will also tell you timings based on your arrival time and departure time. It is not limited to just routes. It will not show any route if the road is not usable and is closed. eg: Bengaluru to Coorg (it will not show the forest route at night, as it is closed) Train, airplane, bus recommendation for travel based on publicly available data from respective sources

• Tours Getting stay recommendation in the app itself from different aggregators, to make booking a place hassle free It recommends tourist places to see with public reviews about them. Not just that it also recommends based on your tastes and give a recommendation score You can add places to see in a list, and then priorities and plan your tour Adding multiple stops in route makes your trip fully managed, without having to take care of where to go, rather just focusing on enjoying your trip is all

• Emergency It also aids in major emergency use cases like- Covid map, Disaster safety measures

They have touched upon these use-cases and what surprises me most the attention to detail. The app is truly a one go to place to solve for all the major requirements from going from point A to B, which also includes finding point B in many cases.

Revenue

The value back are from two forms- data and money. The app is powered by real time aggregation of public information using GPS to use data to back up estimate regarding route timings, places recommendations, public commute behavior. The business model is driven by this data from consumers to serve the same consumers, which is cyclic in nature. The consumers benefit from precise information, while Maps benefit from colossal information from multiple users.

The revenue is generated through advertising and sorting recommendations when a user searches for a place. like businesses can pay a fee to show their logo on Maps instead of default logo for better search. It also generate heavy revenues by selling their API endpoints for locations, routes, places which are used by cab aggregators, food delivery partners to be used in their product

Structure: I am a technology lover and use many products so picking one out of the many is difficult. If I have to pick up one product as my absolute favourite, I will pick up Grammerly.

I believe a great product has to possess the following three aspects - A good design, consistency and a good product strategy. In the process I will try to touch upon the following.

Product and what is it (including Pricing)?

Grammarly is a cross platform tool that enables a user to immediately check the grammar, correct spellings, get suggestions among many others. So the overall goal of the product is to enable it’s users to write better English faster.

Grammarly comes as a standalone web based app, browser extensions, editor plugins (MS-word, powerpoint) and even as native keyboard for Android and iOS.

It comes as both free and paid version with free version consisting of basic functionalities such as spelling, grammar and punctuation correction.

What is the goal of the product and pain points it is trying to solve?

The beauty of Grammarly lies in the fact that it solves for both known as well as unknown pain points for the users.

• When it comes to known pain points, users wants to know grammatical errors and spelling mistakes as they create the content. The user would also like to learn right part of speech when the mistake is made.
• For unknown pain points, as a user when I write a content, I mostly feel satisfied and think that everyone will understand it the way I have understood it. But that is not always correct. Moreover, I as a user might not be able to figure out when the content’s interest level became boring.

How does Grammarly solve for user pain points?

Grammarly has a very easy to understand interface which is consistent across devices. Practically speaking, all a user has to do is to type and the issues and feedback will automatically pop up.

Grammarly scores big on design and this enables a very steep learning curve for the users. The users could extract the best from Grammarly in no time. Moreover, the implementation is non-intrusive and doesn’t hamper the user flow.

One click implementation of recommendations enables the users to write faster and correct all the spellings at one go. Useful for people who write a lot - content writers, authors, newspaper reporters etc.

A product is not a good product if it is not consistent. For example, a forecasting engine that predicts accurately for 1 out of 100 times might not be called as good.

Grammarly excels here. The consistency of recommendations, identification of correct tone which is understandable by everyone is backed by a solid NLP engine that not only recommends words and spelling mistakes, but can completely rewrite the sentences for a user. It also recommends the overall tone of the document to the user which makes it very easy for him / her to identify when the tonality changes and make necessary corrections.

It helps a user in understanding problems with the context which otherwise would have been very difficult. This is what I called out as unknown pain points where the user would not have created the best quality content and would never be sure why did that happen.

Lastly a product is good if it has a great strategy.

Grammarly is very clear that it is not an all purpose english correction company. It could have gone wider to provide its NLP solutions, voice based text correction etc. However, the value proposition is simple and straightforward. Instead of going wider and trying to test new waters, they went deeper in one area - written English and excelled there.

Also, Grammarly ensured that the product is habit forming and this could not have happened if it was not present at maximum possible user touchpoints. Grammarly ensured that it maximizes the presence at various points of content creation - browser plugins to support Google Docs, Wordpress posts, medium blogs, document plugins to support Word and Powerpoint and a tightly integrated keyboard for mobile based ecosystems. For everything else they have the stand alone app.

How does Grammarly solve the pain points for me?

I have a hobby of writing blogs and maintaining websites. I write my own content and get the same written by agencies for my other affiliate / adsense driven websites. One of the main challenge for me when I write 2000+ words blogs (to appear higher on search results) is keeping the user engaged and pursue him to click on my links. Grammarly has helped me big time in solving the problem for me - all I need to do is to set the tone in the tool and it recommends changes based on the same.

I am a premium user of Grammarly and hence get many more features. One of the key problems for me working with my content writers is plagiarism. I have seen instances when they copy content from multiple sources without changing the words. This can severely penalize me in Google SEO and can act counter productive. This is where Grammarly plagiarism service comes handy to me. All I need to do is upload the document and in one click, Grammarly tells me the % similarity and even the sources of the content.

5 of my pages are ranking on 1 for certain keywords on Google and driving good traffic to my websites. Thanks to Grammarly for the same.

How does it excel over competitors?

When I was looking for grammar correction products I came across two alternatives which are close to what Grammarly does -

1. Quillbot
2. Beetext

The width of devices and platforms that are suported by Grammarly far exceeds both the tools. While Beetext does have a browser extension, Quillbot is a standalone tool with only web presence. Beetext comes close to Grammarly in terms of functionalities - grammar check and tone prediction, it comes with a price. Unlike Grammarly which can be used for free for life, Beetext is free only for 2 months. This gives Grammarly a true edge over Beetext and the user can get addicted to the tool. When competing with Quillbot, Grammarly excels in practically everything. Quillbot is a text paraphrasing tool which rewrites a piece of text and makes it shorter or longer and changes the tone of the same. However, it lacks the basic grammar correction and recommendation features. I have a pro account of Quillbot as well.

So at a broad level, Grammarly targeted a niche market which was earlier driven by text correction tools embedded in the editor (MS Word etc.) and has created a good solid product that is way agead of it’s competitors.

Potential Improvements

No product is perfect and so is Grammarly. The biggest pain point that Grammarly introduces while solving for others is free ride problem. Users do not want to understand the recommendations and just accept all of them at once. So the learning aspect of language is reducing heavily. Because everything happens in one click, the users can become too much reliant on Grammarly and the initial quality of the document can go down.

A potential solution to solve this, Grammarly can have a gamified approach to show the errors to the users - may be average number of errors per 100 words and how the errors have reduced over time. This needs to be coupled with detailed explanation about the errors and having a dedicated grammar channel can help. It can drive it’s own organic revenue on Youtube and in parallel help users to reduce their number of defects.

It can also be supported by tests & quizzes which can add more engagement to Grammarly and also expose the app to newer audience who are not so much into writing.

Clarify

Assumptions:

• By favorite product, I'm assuming I have the freedom to select a non technical or technical product, ranging from hardware to software and everything in between.
• By favorite product, I am assuming this is something I use in my every day life.

I will answer this question in the following structure:

1. Give a high level overview of key functionalities and features
2. Describe key audience/ user personas
3. Shed light on the problem this product solves
4. Delve into how the product solves this problem
5. Compare this product to alternatives and why I selected it
6. How I think this product could change the world, product strategy/ vision/ mission
7. What opportunities/ feature suggestions I have as an active user
8. Summary

High level overview of the product:

My favorite product is YouVersion, also known as the Bible App. The Bible app offers a free Bible experience for over 500 million users across the globe, available on smartphones, tablets, and online at Bible.com.

Key features:

• A digital version of the Bible in 1,808 languages and 2,705 versions available online or to be downloaded for offline use
• Tools that allow users to highlight text in various colors, make notes, bookmark, or turn a verse into art that is easily sharable with friends on the app, or on other third-party platforms such as social media
• Videos of different bible teachers around the globe giving their interpretation of every verse
• Built-in social media: users have the ability to add friends, participate in study plans together, send prayer requests, keep up with each others activity on a news feed, and engage in discussion
• Verse of the day - users get notified about different verse each day
• Plans - access studies tailored to give users biblical insight on thousands of topics - available to complete privately or publicly, alone or with friends, and at our own pace
• Prayers - send out prayer requests to all your friends, and see theirs
• Ability to find in-person events near you
• YouVersion Rest - guided meditations designed for bedtime
• A search engine that allows users to filter by emotion or use key words to discover scripture or content
• Access to podcasts
• Habit tracking - track how many days you have studied, how far along you are on your plans, receive "badges" for completing certain activities (e.g. highlighted 100 verses badge)
• Personalized suggestions based on app activity
• Reminders, alerts, notifications for habit-formation

Key Audience/ User Personas

• Users who would would like digitally accessible bible either in addition to, or as an alternative for a physical Bible
• Users who are looking for supplementary content to their bible reading
• Users who are looking to engage in community either online or in person
• Users who are looking to grow in their biblical knowledge
• Users who are looking to develop daily habits and incorporate the bible into their every day lives

Shed light on the problem this product solves:

The Bible is one of the oldest, most complex texts known today. For readers, it can be incredibly intimidating to approach studying it/ interpreting it alone, with no community or resources to help explain what the text means today.

How the product solves the problem:

The Bible app takes this text and translates it to something digital natives are familiar with, removing the "intimidation" barrier that exists.

It does this by using familiar tools: a mobile app, social media to build community, personalized recommendations to ease the burden of where to start, reminders and notifications for habit-formation, user-generated content to engage in discussion authentically, habit tracking, and short-form content.

The tools and supplementary content helps users bring the text into modern day and explore how it applies to their lives, living in 2022.

Compare product to alternatives:

Two competitors would be the physical bible, and another similar app called the Blue Letter Bible.

• Physical Bible: most YouVersion users I know also have a physical bible. Nothing can replace this- as it is often a family heirloom for many, and preserves the integrity of the original design - a physical book. However, this becomes a competitor for people with no sentimental value to a physical copy. The advantages are accessibility - it is in your pocket everywhere, many church communities use it as a tool to engage with each other so it becomes a social tool, access to the additional tools
• Blue letter bible: has Greek and Hebrew interpretations which YouVersion does not - but does not have any of the social/ community tools. This was the tradeoff for me who places higher importance on the latter.

How I think this product could change the world, product strategy/ vision/ mission

Until YouVersion, understanding the Bible was intimidating and confusing enough to keep countless people from even attempting to do so. YouVersion bridges the gap between ancient wisdom and modern day, helping users experience this text through a lens that makes sense to them. In a world where many are confused about how the Christian faith applies to modern day, YouVersion is taking on the feat of getting more people to read and truly understand the heart of the text.

What opportunities/ feature suggestions I have as an active user

In the spirit of leaning into bridging the gap between modern times/ tools and ancient wisdom, I would continue to explore ways to marry these two forces.

1. YouVersion rest: with mental health issues at a sky-high rate, and wellness tools such as Headspace and Calm on the rise, I would like users to see that the Bible has talked about mindfulness from the beginning of time. I would incorporate meditation techniques from these age-old tried and true methods using the tools available today.

2. Personalization: Many people step into their faith when they are dealing with a particular issue. I would like to expand the personalization features of this app to not only recommend content, but to recommend scripture, local events, and a plan of attack on the issue at a high/ holistic level.

3. Summary:

YouVersion is my favorite product because it bridges the gap between age old wisdom and the tools available to the modern day. It makes the bible more accessible than ever, and easier to understand through a modern lens. It also provides guidance for study and interpretation through community in a way that the world has never before seen, all by leveraging modern technology.

I'll use Google as an example

"What specific set of products that you mean? Or just any product from you company?" "OK my favorite product that you have is Flutter the open-source UI for the Dart Programming language. It differs from other libraries and frameworks like Angular and React in that Flutter is declarative, only calling what you need. Having built a few apps with Flutter and seeing how straight forward it quickly grew to the top of my tech stack use. What the really beautiful thing about Flutter is the overall approach to app development it takes than others in that Flutter can be use in tandem with almost any native operating system. Allowing you to call directly to the OS itself, or enhance only a portion of a already existing app. " "This design feature, as described in the engineering document, is a beautiful way to approach software development in that it allows for the expression of the developer code, not being bogged down to a few principles and allows for the creation of a beautiful interface that can run on nearly any and all operating systems."

Certainly! My favorite product is Libby.

**Context and Motivation:**Libby is an online reading application that allows users to read digital books and listen to audiobooks, combining features from both Kindle and audiobook platforms. I predominantly use the audiobook function. As someone who loves reading but has time constraints, Libby has rekindled my reading habit. I can now listen to audiobooks while doing chores, all without any cost.

**Competitors:**Libby's competitors include Audible for audiobooks and Kindle for digital book reading. What sets Libby apart is its partnership model. By collaborating with local libraries, Libby makes specific titles available to library patrons, utilizing a unique monetization model and borrowing system.

**Current Market Dynamics & Technology & Ecosystem Shift:**In a mobile-first world, people are increasingly using mobile devices to access digital content. Busy schedules have led to a rise in consumable digital book formats.

**Users and User Journey:**Libby's users are avid readers who either prefer digital books or lack the time to sit down and read. They can log in using their library credentials, search for books, place holds, and, once available, start reading or listening. The process includes options to renew and return borrowed books.

**Pain Points:**Inconvenience, such as commuting to a physical library, and the need for multiple apps like Kindle and Audible, which can be costly.

What I Like about Libby:

• Convenience: Free access from anywhere without the need to travel to a physical library.
• Intuitive UX: Upon login, the app's design aligns with users' mental models of a physical library, making it easy to use.
• Feature Rich: Offers various features for listening to books, sampling content, tagging books, and creating lists similar to Goodreads.
• Free: I've enjoyed many books without spending a penny.

Things I Don't Like:

• Discovery of App: Lack of awareness due to minimal advertising.
• No Discovery of Books: Absence of personalized recommendations or book reviews.
• Inefficiency: Delays in obtaining books due to multiple holds.

Improvements Suggestions:

• Discovery: Enhance discoverability through library websites and in-app recommendations based on user profiles.
• Efficiency Improvements: Explore simultaneous book checkouts, intelligent tracking of users' reading progress, and alternative pricing models introducing subscription services with unique features.
• Pricing Model: Consider differentiated subscription services beyond the current library partnership model, offering additional features like personalized recommendations and exclusive events with authors.

My recent fav app is the planning feature of ikea planner.

1. it is useful, very smooth, from ideation, to plan to purchase
2. easy to use, i can choose the product of ikea and drag them in, the planner will get the dimension of the product and put it in the design area
3. it is innovative in business model, Wayfair does not have that, 3D interior design software need to pay to use, and manually input the dimensions, also

how to improve?

Goal:

4. Customer engagement

5. Business

   1. Sales

   2. Reduce the return

User segment: size, usage, impact

6. Owner

   1. Single

   2. Family

      1. Light cosmetic projects

      2. Medium projects: contractor related tech-savvy tight on budget, small space every 3-year level

      3. Permit: city

7. Renter

   3. Students

   4. Young professional

Problems(pain point) severe, impact

8. Functional index

9. Look and feel

10. Putting existing furniture in

11. Drag and drop

Help user to build a functional remodel room in an easy and engaging way

12. Easy: time spend on planning, completeness of the planning

13. Engaging: activities of a week

Solutions: impact, cost, risk

14. Template-based remodeling based on current demo room

15. Upload current layout and IKEA give suggestions about replacement

16. Confidence index of matches of different furniture

Measure success

17. User: # of completed planning per user 3+ furniture

18. Company: GMV,order value per user, retention

19. Counter metric:

20. guidance：DAU of existing and new user

My favorite product is Flo- Period Tracker and Calendar and there are multiple reasons I really like this product. This product tracks the entire period cycle of the user. It asks us to log in our monthly period dates, calculates and does analysis of how our body will be reacting and potential measures that could be taken to improve mood and body behavior. It also notifies what symptoms could be expected in the next few hours/days and how to be ready to tackle that. It also works as a fitness tracker while measuring the steps/miles taken each day.

Top 4 features of the product I have to "no more" remember my last period date to be ready for periods next time. It allows me to focus on my daily schedule without needing to worry about periods.

• Records my period dates every month and calculates the statistics/analyzes potential period dates for the next few months
• Shows symptoms and mood swings to be expected during menstrual cycle
• Provides potential suggestions to tackle those symptoms and feel better
• Also works as a fitness tracker while measuring daily steps/miles

The ways it has improved my life

• I don't have to worry about forgetting my last period date and can plan things in an effective way while knowing the upcoming period cycle before hand
• I don't have to get a fitness tracker device or product installed to track my daily steps
• Overall, it helps be better prepared to tackle my mood swings, body changes and suggests me to try out new and effective ways to be productive and healthy during my period cycle

Future Improvements

• This product can start tracking all the essentials/products which a women needs during her periods. It should also allow to order those products directly from the flow app and should automatically order the products the next time when user runs out of them.
• Flo can also start suggesting better meal options which would help women beat period cramps and can help them be energized during periods

Overall, this is one of the products which is my favorite and I use it all the time to track the number of miles I have walked each day, what symptoms to expect each day and obviously, it helps remind me of my periods.

My favorite product is Whatsapp. These are the reasons I love whatsapp

1. Its to the point and built to last. It implements only a certain features but the features implemented are to the point and rock solid. Its like the BMW of messaging software.
2. It was launched when plenty of others messaging softwares already existed but they all concentrated on doing too many things, it did only few things but it did them well.
3. Whatsapp took security , scalability etc. very seriously early one when it was built thereby the engineers who built it didnot shy way from using Erlang as a starting language to build it which is way more harded then traditional languages like java etc.
4. Its highly scalable , i have rarely seen a whatsapp outage.
5. I love the video calling feature which works flawlessly , voice quality is good and video quality is good and helps me connect with my connections at whatever time i choose to connect.

One feature i feel that it lacks in is payments and api. API should be made available to developers to extend whatsapp further and payment feature if allowed would help people transfer money to their connections via whatsapp.

my favorite product is Reddit's mobile app.It's a combination of the latest news and dumbest memes. The feature I love the most is the "trending today". It lists about 6 topics that's most discussed today and under each topic, there are multiple different post that talks about the topic or related to the topic. This saves me massive of time since I don't want to read the news everyday and I just want to know what's the latest memes, hilarious stories or even just a cat patting a frog. The reddit popular also ranks the post by popularity so it's pretty spot on on what I will want to read. If you don't like it you can setup your own feed as well or you can filter out everything keep only news even. Also its own subculture is so fascinating that sometime you're just proud to be a redditor. Thanos did nothing wrong. When I'm using reddit app, I feel like it can add some features to make it better. Currently in the US there are not a lot of competitors but in my country we have another version of Reddit, which is BBS site that's focus on text and image only. Even though in recent year they allow developers to create mobile app to access the BBS and create its own features(ex. multiple images and text in the same post. Image alignment so you know which was the paragraph is talking about. ASCII code so you can add animation on the text.) I certainly think reddit is a strong tool to help people in different country to link together and it's actually a great tool for a foreigner like me to understand more about the NA culture.

My favorite product is my Green Guru Convertible Backpack Pannier.

When I moved to the Bay Area about four years ago, I moved to Oakland with only a bike - no car. My apartment, while in a fairly walkable neighborhood, was pretty far away from a good grocery store and a 25 minute walk from my favorite farmers market. I needed a bag that could fit my groceries, that could be used to go to the office, and that I could take off and on my bike when it wasn’t parked. I also needed to be able to pack a days worth of stuff when I biked to the office - my laptop, lunch, and climbing gear.

After trying out a backpack (not roomy enough, heavy on my back, tons of back sweat) and a regular pannier (clunky to carry around when not on the bike), I settled on a backpack/pannier combo. The bag was an instant game changer.

• It was super roomy, so I could fit my climbing gear plus a couple days groceries in it.
• The backpack was comfortable and easy to get off and on the bike, and it was easy to convert from pannier to backpack and vice versea. It was secure on the rack, and I was never worried about the bag falling off.
• The bag was made out of recycled tires, so it was weather proof!

There are only a small few things I’d switch about the bag:

• There aren’t any smaller pockets to hold keys - there have been times where my keys or phone have been at the bottom of my bag and I had to take everything else out to find them.
• This might because I use it pretty heavily, but the hooks that keep the bag on the rack are starting to come off, which make it pretty hard to use now :(. But I’ve had it for 4 years so I’m planning on buying another one!

Now, even though I left the Bay Area and now have a car, I still use the pannier to bike around town and carry things. It makes it way easier to bike, something I love doing!

I’m personally passionate about products that leverage data and ML to supercharge humans, so Apple Fitness is one product that is on top of my list of products for several reasons.

In order to explain why, I want to first start with the key job the product is designed to solve - which is to improve the users mental and physical fitness levels in order to be healthier. When we think about the variety of personas that have need to solve that job, there exists a wide spectrum ranging from the most sophisticated athletes (10 → 100) that are training for professional competitions to users that have no background in fitness and are just getting started (0→ 1). The product is very focused on the segment of 1 -> 10 users - those who want to track and improve their fitness and has a combination of brilliant features that enable them to build the fitness habit. And the product does this in a number of ways :

1. Gamification of fitness to create a habit loop :
   1. they've symbolized goal attainment with rings - it gives everyone a target that appeals to their primitive instincts vs making another app that reminds users to workout
   2. Smart Triggers send you nudges that remind you to you to stand up, to breath, to close your rings throughout the day
   3. they utilize the user's tendency to be loss averse by building ring streaks - as you close rings each day, you accrue a streak that you don't want to break
2. Positive reinforcement features such as :
   1. Badges and milestones
   2. Social feedback loops: Leaderboards and tracking with friends

Together this combination of nudges, triggers and positive reinforcement eventually build strong habit loops and help users achieve their fitness goals. What I find amazing is that the app works so well that a not tech savvy user such as my mom now talks about closing her rings. My friends are addicts - they want to track every hike we take, every badminton game we play so that they can see their rings close. What’s amazing about this app is that its a gateway to Apple’s other products and services, so in terms of strategy, it enables Apple to land and expand the usage of its ecosystem:

1. Once you start using it on your phone, you want to track every physical activity you do. I’ve considered buying the Apple watch just for this feature.
2. You increase the user’s appetite to consume fitness products so apple can nudge users to join the Fitness + subscription that’s seamlessly integrated into the fitness app

Personally, what I love the most as a builder of the ML powered products is that the product and experience is focused on the user not on the technology. At the heart of the app is an activity detection engine that allows the product to count steps, flights, runs, strokes etc. But the focus is not on the data or the predictions, it’s on you and your fitness goals

Clarification Question - Talking about an hardware / software.

In case software -

Favorite Product - Grammarly. Grammarly is a website, now also available as an integration with Microsoft Suit, and an App, which helps user correct their English content, be it an essay, a letter, a report etc.

Problems user face -

1. Employee struggle in writing grammatically correct emails to clients / managers and are thus unable to effectively communicate their thoughts.
2. While writing a report, grammatical errors put the whole effort, that has been put in making the report, under question.
3. Students submitted their assignments need to make sure that the assignment is grammatically correct and plagiarism free, else they need to part away with some marks.
4. Now with communication shifting from Computer / Laptop to mobile, individuals need to put extra effort in making sure that the grammar is correct.
5. An individual might have to write to different types of audiences which might have high tech acumen / no tech knowledge / from sales background / marketing background etc. It is difficult for an individual to address these audience.

How the Grammarly Helps -

1. Grammarly is available as website, where users can write / paste the content. Grammarly evaluates the content and gives a score and shows the improvements, which the users may accept.
2. A seamless integration with Microsoft Suite make sure that people writing on Word / ppt are given suggestions on content improvement.
3. Grammarly evaluates the content on the basis of the tone, formality, clarity, vocabulary, and plagiarism, audience type.
4. Based on the parameters chosen, Grammarly recommends the changes in the content. The changes recommended are based on the type of audience, expected tone etc.
5. To gamify the experience, Grammarly sends weekly report to users on how well they did in grammar and vocabulary, as compared to other Grammarly users.

Improvements -

1. The Grammarly keyboard is as user friendly as the default iOS and Android keyboards are. Instead of improving the keyboard, Grammarly can integrate with the default keyboards. That way, Grammarly won't hamper the user experience.
2. Grammarly is suited for generic audience. It does not solve the problems of highly technical writers such as PhD etc. Grammarly can foray into that domain.

<CLARIFY>: Any preferences of any kind? h/w product? s/w product?

--> No, pick any

Ok, let me talk about Breville Big Squeeze Juicer I recently got & how it became my favourite.

<CONTEXT: >Recently I've been considering getting a juicer to start a healthy habit of fresh juice everyday. I did my research & concluded on Breville due to the brandname, features, design & value for money.

<DEFINE CHOSEN PRODUCT:> Big squeeze is the model name for Breville's slow juicer lineup. This juicer has a central rotating drum that moves at 80 rpm & produces fresh juice from most produce that you out in it.

FEATURES: With Big Squeeze, you can drop in big chunks/ whole produce for juicing to produce refreshing flat (not frothy) juice. It's has a sleek & compact design, which was important for me due to lack of counter space in the kitchen. It has only 5 easy to assemble parts making it really quick, convenient & easy to start juicing & cleanup after. Its price point is higher compared to competition but it's build quality & performance is built to last based on my usage in the past 4 months. In this particular juicers case, less is definitely more.

Any questions so far?

IMPACT: I helps me lead a very healthy lifestyle by consuming fresh juice everyday. The simplicity of design & short assembly/cleanup time facilitated me to integrate it into my routine & stick to it.

Clearly all of these great features & the impact it has on me, makes Big squeeze my favorite product.

COMPETITION: There are a lot of alternates in the market, I even tried one out of them. It was a more versatile model that also offered ice-cream & smoothie making as well as nut-milk making capabilities.

However when it came to the core function of juicing, the alternate model wasn't at par with Big squeeze in terms of quality, speed & design. I quickly learnt that to really keep the customers happy & own the category, it is important to perform exceptionally well in the main function of the product.

IMPROVEMENTS: Though the Big squeeze seems like a perfect product, I am sure there can be further improvements to make the fibers pass through more efficiently to reduce the % of clogging experienced. There can also be a slight increase in the size of the jar to collect juice for more than 2 glasses for a small family of 4 so that all extraction for 4 glasses can be done in one go.

=================================================================

CLARIFY: Any preferences of any kind? h/w product? s/w product?

--> Sure, let's try software/app of your choice?

CONTEXT: OK, I'm using LinkedIn quite frequently these days for job search & that's helped me familiarize with with quite well. Let me talk about LinkedIn web-app.

<DEFINE CHOSEN PRODUCT:> LinkedIn is a professional networking platform offered as a SaaS & has a web app as well as a Mobile app for iOS & Android. Its vision & mission are centered around creating economic opportunities & connecting professionals to make them more productive & successful. I think they are being successful in realizing these goals.

FEATURES: LinkedIns request a connect flow is very easy & simple to understand. You can create entirely new connections with people you don't know (with mutual acceptance of course) Or simply endorse your existing connections with people you already know online.

Privacy settings allow you full control of who can see what about your professional status & profile.

Though the main feature is networking for LinkedIn which it is immensely successful, it does provide many additional features that facilitate professional tasks such as professional news, recruiting, job search, social expressions, insights, learning & so on.

There are many personas that can be talked about:

Active Job seekers, passive job seekers, recruiters, influencers, company pages.

All of the above have very specific needs & linkedin has features that address their needs pretty well.

For example, the Jobs feature provides options to filter based on title, location, company & multiple others to increase the relevance of published open positions.

There are multiple features & flows that make using LinkedIn a very engaging experience & provides a lot of value.

Would you like me to go into the details of any specific persona/ feature/workflows?

IMPACT: I think having linkedIn has allowed me to expand my professional network & create a rich profile that works as a great support for my resume. The activities on LinkedIn such as publishing articles, sharing/social gesturing, endorsements etc. helps me fully express who I am that cannot be easily done via a short resume.

COMPETITION: As far as competitive products are concerned, I don't think there is a direct competition to LinkedIn. There are social networking sites like fb, & there are job searching sites like monster & dice. But because LinkedIn is unique in the sense it's nether a purely social networking site nor a job portal, it ends up competing in both of those segments & more.

<IMPROVEMENTS> From a professional networking perspective (which is LinkedIns strong hold) I'd explore the possibilities of allowing people to make their profiles even more rich. For example allowing creating more milestones on linkedIn to reflect real world milestone achievements - not just title changes. If a presentation was great, if there was an impact created because of a meeting, maybe there can be means of recording them as they happen on the profile with adequate privacy settings - but these help professionals record their achievements as they happen.

thank you!

My favorite product is Amazon Prime video. Amazon has its own ecosystem of products, however, prime video stands out to me as it is a repository of one of the best movies there can be on planet earth. The algorithm is great and recommends great movies once you start watching on the platform. Net-Net, there is not match to prime video.

My marble chess set:

• It is timeless - chess has been enjoyed for over 500 years - it represents humanities greatest competitive spirit
• It is modern and adaptable - technology connects players all over the globe
• But most importantly - It is sentimental - MY chess set is unique and elegant and one of a kind - just like my wife - who hand picked it for me because she knew I would cherish it - because I like to consider myself as having similar traits.

My favorite product is the GoPro Hero camera.

Gopro Hero is a compact action camera (a category the company created) that lets you capture your adventures in the moment. It’s tiny, rugged and packed with features to let you capture videos, photos in a variety of ways and then view and share it via the GoPro app on your phone. It is mostly used by adventurers and enthusiasts who like outdoor activities. The camera provides a unique first person and large field of view perspective to videos and photos.

personally, I love the product:

(1) transition to videography: most equipment for videography is expensive and tedious to carry around. GoPro helped me transition from a photographer to a videographer with minimal changes to gear and no steep learning curves. I’ve used GoPros on scenic drives, snorkeling and even indoor parties and events.

(2) Easy to use app: GoPro’s Quik app delivers a lot of value by letting users instantly enjoy their favorite captures. Syncing, editing and sharing captures in beautiful ways instantly is a breeze. while one cannot ignore that GoPro is a hardware product, there is immense software at work behind the scenes to lower barriers to entry and provide a delightful experience.

(3) experience freedom: if cameras experienced true freedom, they would be a GoPro. You can bring it along on your wildest adventure (it’s rugged), to capture shots in the moment (zero skills) and share instantly (free app). It’s quite the creativity unlock.

(4) it’s packed!: As a product manager I can only imagine the number of trade-offs one has to work through for a product such as GoPro. Battery life, BOM cost and pressures of an annual September release make this an exciting product to bring to market.

However, things have not been all great for this product. When GoPro created this product category, they were the market darlings and valued as a media business. But soon, copy-cats emerged taking away market share and a failed drone product led to some bad days for the company.

But I believe with the original founder as CEO, this company still has a bright future. As a PM, I would develop new strategies to take the company to the next-level.

(1) grow the product: GoPro has been unable to grow market share beyond the outdoor enthusiasts and film makers. However, there’s potential. By designing new features, we can create value proposition for new parents with kids and pets and solo content creators.

(2) ride the generative AI wave: generative AI based features have the power to substantially lower the barriers to entry and help create compelling content with the unique perspective of GoPro cameras.

(3) delve into new content types such as AR/VR: provide news way to capture and enjoy content both in the real world and the meta verse.

The goal at GoPro is to increase camera unit sales. (1) offers the most impact to this goal by onboarding a whole new segment of users. I’ll further dive into this.

For instance, for new parents there are a number of unsolved pain points.

1. phone is not always handy to capture those rare moments
2. getting a clean still photo is not easy with kids moving around all the time
3. framing the photo/video, getting the lighting right is always a challenge
4. too many kids photos, hard to easily search and sort

however, new parents do want to create memories. Great videos and photos that they can easily search, view and share.

there are three possible solution areas:

1. create a whole new camera for this segment
2. use existing cameras with newly designed accessories for this use case
3. design software features for this persona

(3) is a software solution, while (1) and (2) involve creating new hardware. We can make a decision on a certain path based on timelines, budgets etc.

One of the most popular products in recent years is the smartphone. A smartphone is a mobile device that can perform various tasks, such as phone calls, text messaging, web browsing, social media, and other applications. Smartphones have become an essential tool for communication, entertainment, and productivity for people all around the world. The users of smartphones are diverse, ranging from teenagers to seniors, business professionals, and casual users. Anyone who needs to stay connected and get things done while on-the-go can benefit from a smartphone.

One of the primary pain points for smartphone users in the past was battery life. The early smartphones had a relatively short battery life, which made it challenging to use the device for an extended period without needing to recharge it. Another pain point was the limited storage capacity of smartphones, which made it difficult to store large files or media.

Competitors in the past solved the battery life issue by developing larger batteries and optimizing the software to use less power. As for storage capacity, companies increased the amount of internal storage and offered expandable storage options such as MicroSD cards. Modern smartphones have addressed these pain points differently and better. With the advancement in battery technology and software optimization, the battery life of modern smartphones has improved significantly. Some smartphones can last up to two days on a single charge. Additionally, modern smartphones have more storage capacity, with some devices offering up to one terabyte of storage.

However, one area where smartphones could improve is in their durability. While some smartphones are built to withstand accidental drops or water exposure, many smartphones are still fragile and prone to damage. Improving the durability of smartphones would help users to have a more reliable and long-lasting device.

Smartphones have become a favorite product for many people worldwide due to their convenience, versatility, and functionality. While competitors in the past have addressed pain points such as battery life and storage capacity, modern smartphones have improved upon these solutions by offering better battery life and more storage. However, improving the durability of smartphones would be an area of potential improvement for future smartphone technology.

Fav product. The way I approach this is is:

1. How useful is the product?
2. How engaging is it and how often do I return to it?
3. For what I pay for it, do I see value?
4. Is it fun & easy?

From this perspective, my fav product is YouTube.

On 1: I use it for a variety of things including entertainment, education , social sharing , exercise etc. From this perspective, its very useful/ 2.Its also engaging as it makes great personalized recommendations and I use it everyday. 3.For the premium product, I get full value based on no ads based content that I use.4.I also create content on it that I share socially , so its fun and easy.

My favorite product is Google Maps. Why?

• It helps me navigate through traffic, saving me time
• I can use the Around me feature to discover new places such as restaurants.
• The app can get me directions, find reviews order rides and food.

Google Maps is a super-app for POIs.

Favorite Product My favorite product is the Splitwise mobile App. It is my favorite product because it allows me to split bills with family and friends. I use this App almost every other day because I usually pay my bills in groups like rent, groceries with my roommates, uber fare, restaurant bills with my friends & colleagues and travel trips with family and friends. The App organizes all the shared expenses at one place. Users

• Students sharing apartment rent, groceries and utility bills
• Friends hanging out for trips and vacations.
• Work colleagues sharing uber rides and lunches.
• Family members Pain Points that Splitwise addresses
• Remembering and splitting everyone’s share in the group.
• Managing owing and receiving money from different people in the same group.
• Not able to keep track of monthly expenditure for self.
• Forgetting to ask for the money from family and friends that they owe you. Pain Points that Splitwise could address in improved version
• In App payment functionality.
• Hassle to update payment status on the Splitwise App after paying through the banking App.
• Different features in iOS & Android (I use Android but have heard some features are different in iOS).
• Use it like a digital wallet like Venmo, PayPal, etc.
• Feature to offer interest free loans to your friends and family and setting a date of return reminder for the borrower.
• Bill upload feature that directly lists all the individual item prices (I use freemium model and got to know that this is available in paid version).
• Currency conversion – I face it all the time when travelling between US and India and splitting the amount with my friends.
• Expense search option

My Favorite product is WhatsApp. I am able to stay in touch with my family/friends in a better way now.

1. Key product insights
2. What pain points it is solving for users?
3. What value it is bringing for users like me
4. What can be improved in this product?

1. Key product highlights WhatsApp is a chat app that allows users to communicated with friends, family irrespective of their location (Except some countries where it is blocked)

• via a) text b) voice calls c) video calls.
• Users can can communicate in 1:1 or 1:many fashion (note: Text - all group members, limited members in voice and video calls)
• User posts can be limited to a group or can be sent to multiple groups.
• Supports privacy about the group and user information as the message that get's forwarded from one group to another doesn't carry the group/user information.
• Supports multiple languages for chat communication
• Any age group can easily signup for WhatsApp as long as they have a mobile number
• Supported on Mobile and Desktop

2. Pain points addressed by WhatsApp

• Device agnostic - Anyone with a smart phone (Apple, Android etc) can download this app
• Carrier agnostic - supports users in many countries
• Carrier voice minutes (expensive) are untouched - Doesn't use Carrier voice plan for the voice or video calls
• Allows for ease of use during travel - Can be used on WiFi or w/ Carrier data
• Calls are maintained moving from WiFi to Carrier and vice versa
• No need shop for carrier plans to stay in touch with family/friends

3. Value it brings to users

• Without worrying about too much cost, users can freely talk to family/friends living in different countries/geographic locations
• Allows for sharing photos, videos, links,

4. Potential improvements

• Allow for creating instant meeting (like Zoom) for group members to get on a call (for > 10 users)
• Allow for saving select photos, videos on whatsApp/FB storage instead of on device or on iCloud/Google - it can be free or with a fee
• WhatsApp to Mobile calling
• Ability to create an album from WhatsApp so that album link can be shared with other members

Q: What’s your favorite product and why? CQ: Any product. Product - Fabulous is a self care, coaching app that uses behavioral science to create long lasting habits and help people accomplish their goals and is available to all mobile users in the app or play store. There are several things I enjoy about using this application and it’s impacted my life tremendously. First, I’ll discuss the users and jot down a few pain points that this app may or may have not solved yet. Users- People who…

1. Need mental health support
2. Need help accomplishing goals
3. Want to coach and support others like them

Now that I’ve thought about the users, I’ll talk through some pain points

1. Need mental health support
   1. Can’t afford other therapy services
   2. Limited knowledge of possible solutions
   3. No one readily available to talk to in time of panic or stress
2. Need help accomplishing goals
   1. Lacks or struggles accountability/Unstructured
   2. Lack of knowledge on process and tips
   3. Need help staying motivated and/or inspired
   4. Needs to measure and track progress
   5. Needs easy access
3. Want to coach and support others like them
   1. May not be a therapist but wants to share experiences
   2. Connecting with people beyond local areas
   3. Quickly sharing helpful information to the masses

Next, I'll think of some Solutions The Fabulous app does a great job of addressing the pain points above, but can use some improvement with Measuring and Tracking Progress, Easy Access and Community Engagement. Other apps on the market like Productive and Goals Wizard are pros at measuring progress. Goals Wizard allows users can see all of their activity since downloading the app, regardless of how their habits or goals change. They can also export data and collaborate on goals and activities with others not on the app. Productive is the next closest app and has many of the same features as Fabulous, but still lacks the collaboration on goals and activities. Goals provides easy access with a phone, ipad/tablet and desktop version. Neither of these apps are ahead with community engagement. When I think of how I would improve it based of what we've already discussed, I would

1. Provide a desktop version with real time integration
2. Track all activity progress since sign up and allow exports and collaboration; even allow users to create goals together.
3. Reduce manual input by automatically capturing the activity that I’m doing based on device or app engagement.
4. Increase community engagement to ensure the coaches and support user group is engaging

To summarize, Fabulous is a self care, coaching app that helps people accomplish their goals using behavioral science backed techniques and an accountable community. It does a great job of addressing the need for people who need mental health support, help accomplishing goals and or want to support and coach others like them. I can see Fabulous improving their app by making it easier to access, automate tracking activity over time and increase community engagement.

My favorite product is Youtube. It has primarily two users: - 1—Content Creators 2. Content Consumers (Viewers) Before YouTube, it took a lot of work for content creators to showcase their skills and creativity to more audiences. Youtube has become a source of income for many homemakers who can showcase their culinary and artistic skills, young entrepreneurs, artists, teachers, etc. For Viewers, Youtube has a plethora of content, be it cooking shows, learning any new language, coding skills, music, dance, movies, you name it; Youtube has everything for everybody, that too free of cost or some time with a very minimal subscription amount. Before Youtube, viewers or content consumers must search and refer to many resources. The intelligent algorithm of Youtube gives recommendations or suggestions for videos based on users' past preferences. Being a viewer and from their viewpoints, I feel Youtube can improve in certain aspects: - 1. There could be a system wherein a few of my friends can add as close friends to my Youtube. All the parties are ready to let Youtube track the kind of videos they are watching, which can be shown as a notification to me that your friend has just watched this video; just letting you know if you are also interested can watch this. This kind of sharing can make learning on the Youtube platform a more enriching and fun experience. 2. Youtube can open a small university that can provide official certifications for all the courses, where candidates can graduate from there by making their content for its users. 3. Youtube can integrate a feature where rather than going to different if a user wants to share any video, it can be shared through Youtube itself, making it easier to share the content with loved ones, friends, and family. The first feature that can be implemented is 1st one, where in few of my friends are added to my account, and whatever we all are viewing on Youtube can be shared with friends. This option is chosen because it is the easiest to implement and can drive more engagement on the Youtube platform. Success Metric to be tracked: - No of times videos shared among friends North Star Metric: - Any further increase in Engagement at the Youtube platform. No harm done metric: - No User Privacy breach. No other engagement mode, such as comment, like, and video sharing, has gone down because of the implementation of this feature.

I really like google maps for multiple reasons. 1st and for most - this is my go to app when I search for places - any kind of place - Restaurants, Coffees, supermarkets, traveling and trekking, shopping (whenever I need something specific), etc. Also in any form of need - D2D, when traveling, when looking for an attraction or something to do.

The reasons that I like it so much are

1. Functionalities Offer multiple functionalities - I can save places / lists (i.e., nice cafes , so whenever I want I can just look up to without a need to spend time a search). Can operate offline when I don't have a network (hiking), can navigate, E2E plan and estimate time of doing X
2. design - Although the high dimension of functionality, the app is very intuitive and not complex (i.e., can search also in text & by common and personalized categories).
3. Full reliable data - data in most of the time is accurate and trustable - so walking or driving to a place will not result in frustration of waste of time, also in most cases I have the information that I need (phone number, address, opening hours, reviews, menus, etc.)

I would improve the app by

1. Having more personalization (don't present categories based on only geo. , but according to my common searches - i.e., if in Berlin i mostly search for cafes, groceries and supermarkets, so present those 1st). That applies also for the search bar - whenever I search, recommend me of what to search based on my previous search history.
2. Parking limitations feature (based on live location ; upon demand) - where it is allowed / not to park, in which hours, etc.
3. Real time car driving navigation updates, more alternative routes
4. enhanced offline mode features - being able to search in offline (locations and their infos (maybe selecting specific categories), , public transportation, etc.)

My favorite Software Product is the Conektto tool which saves time and makes it easy to build and design your API in minutes. Easy to understand, and implement and no environmental setup is required. So easy to connect with the database with the required credentials. The inner functionality provides you with automated test cases and generates test reports and summary reports that too visually.

My favorite product is LinkedIn Premium. It gives you an opportunity to a)connect with other people with similar interests b)You get a chance to reach out to recruiters directly for any related job openings using 30 email Credits even if they are not part of your connections with a personalized note . b)Ability to access learning courses provided by more than 16000 experts with a very good content c)Ability to get a sneek peak into trends and activities for any company that you follow d)Ability on how do you land on to your next job, with personalized assistance provided for resume building, interview preparation.

Some of its features which helps me address my major pain points are :

• Finding the right connections having similar interests- LinkedIn Premium gives the capability to make right connections based on keywords searched as part of Global search
• Resume building preparation: It gives you an ability to guide the user for appropriate content that needs to be in place highlighting the relevant areas where improvements/suggestions can be provided
• Ability to reach out to recruiters of Organizations and follow the updated newfeed of the Organizations directly thereby keeping one abreast of latest discussions

How the Product has improved my life: a)LinkedIn Premium has helped me a lot in getting right visibility to the organizations and connecting with senior leaders of the industry b)Because of the connections created, I am also able to reach out to them for mentoring and other career guidance that is needed in my areas of expertise c)Resharing of my articles by secondary connections has helped me to build a rapport with other Industry experts as well

Some suggestions on features I'd like to see added to the product in the future. 1)Ability to provide daily reminders of inmail credits which are due to expire for a Linked in premium member as one has to go to the account and check , how many points are remaining 2)The UI needs to be improved in terms of more user engagement with appropriate video/audio content for articles/videos of the relevant groups the user would be a part of 3)Ability to practice live mock interviews for every LinkedIn premium user for the topic he/she might choose to discuss with the mentor as part of Interview preparation

It's got to be YouTube. I can dive into some great educational videos when I'm feeling curious, watch some gaming videos if I'm bored, or check out what's going on in the news if I want to stay informed. Content creators get paid, and viewers get entertained. It's completely community driven, and I can't think of many other products that work as harmoniously as YouTube.

My favorite product is Discord.

There are a few reasons I like discord. Some of them are:

1. It is more than texting. It has features that let us you organize your chats, live stream, and video call.
2. It is helpful in enhancing communication between community members. It has already a dedicated set of servers for special interests one might have. For example: I am a part of the public manga community.
3. It had great moderation tools. Social Media can be really toxic these days. But Discord makes it easy to moderate thousands of messages. Thus creating a welcoming and safe space.

I prefer discord over slack chiefly because of Discord's ability to create a 'voice channel" where all the community members can join for a voice/video communication.

• Understanding: Favourite product is used in day to day life by me, and I think is it widely used, by billion around the world. Moreover, for most of the country or device, this product is pretty much the same.

• Favourite Product: WhatsApp. Before any internet messaging app, we used to use SMS to communicate with our near and dear ones. Each SMS would have contained limited text and that too cost for each one.

• Factors:

Connectivity: WhatsApp is really a super app to stay us connect with our friends and family. We can see all the conversations with the people at one thread, unlike SMS ones? Usability to every user group: It is very easy to use from any user group. My mother who had never used a smartphone before only bought one for this super app and she learn to use this app in no time. It is available in wide languages which is very useful for people in India specifically. As every other user group are present on this App, I can connect with anyone in my circle using the internet without worry if other is using this application.

Extensive Media sharing: Images are the best form of memories. This platform provided the extensive rich experience to share and receive the pics.

Video or Voice call: This feature has mitigated the distance between users. I present in another part of the world, can video call my parent or friends and talk like we are sitting next to each other.

Collaboration (Groups): This is a very unique feature that helps to stay connected to groups. It can be family, office, close friends or any fitness group.

Data Saver: It is very optimized in data consumption, which also indirectly saves internet costs. Privacy: It is an arguable topic. Where our contact or conversation data is used. Although, in privacy statements, WhatsApp has mentioned it is encrypted end to end basis, which is very good to have in full capacity.

My Favorite Apps is Tokopedia, this is a local player in terms of e-commerce platform in Indonesia. the reason i like it basically, almost became part of me when it comes about what i need in my live, like if i need something i most likely will search it in okopedia.

• Goal
  • Improve customer experience when the customer is repeat user.
• User
  • Adult
  • Young Adult
  • Elderly
• Pain Points
  • Often time repeat user just want to purchase the same product over tokopedia for quite amount of time (like once a week, electricity bill, internet bill, etc)
• Solutions
  • Dedicated widget in homepage just for repeated purchase, and customer can add which item they want to add to this list.
  • Auto Purchase, customer can set a timer when whey want to purchase item.
  • Voice Assistant to purchase the product.
• Prioritization
  • Repeat Purchase Menu
    • CSAT, 4
    • Effort/Cost, 5
    • Revenue, 5
    • Risk, 1
    • Total, 13
      • Repeat purchase menu should be the first because there might a risk with the auto purchase that the customer might automatically purchase the goods that they need on regular basis before but it was not needed anymore.
  • Auto Purchase
    • CSAT, 3
    • Effort/Cost, 5
    • Revenue, 5
    • Risk, 4
    • Total, 9
      • Repeat purchase menu should be the first because there might a risk with the auto purchase that the customer might automatically purchase the goods that they need on regular basis before but it was not needed anymore.Voice Asisstance
  • Voice Asisstance
    • CSAT, 5
    • Effort/Cost, 2
    • Revenue, 3
    • Risk, 3
    • Total, 7
      • Meanwhile voice assistance can be great product in terms of usability where the user can purchase their regular basis goods, there is a risk related with it's technology, like privacy, feasibility, and whether the user will understand about it or not.
• Sucess Metrics
  • Acquisition, how much people add item in their dedicated repeat purchase menu
  • Activation, how much people actually purchase their item through repeat purchase menu.
  • Retention, how much people going back to the repeat purchase menu and actually purchase the item through that menu after 7 days, 14 week, 1 month?
  • Referral, how much people share their experience to their peers about this menu.
  • Revenue, how much revenue generated from item purchased through repeat purchase menu.
• Go To Market
  • Email Marketing
  • Push nofitication
  • Apps Guide, once the product released, we make apps guide that tells there is a new menu called repeat purchase menu.

My favorite product is the CVS health app. I use it daily for personal product savings, managing my family prescription benefits etc. Outside of e-commerce, the product is great because it ties in product and programming beautifully to the user engaged and reaping countless benefits that keep you coming back. Optimized health expenses to make health products more affordable.

The app provides value by:

Enhancing in-store experiences Supporting cost-saving on prescriptions making it easy to redeem perks Telemed and Covid support incorporating central scheduling and management of services.

1. The app is integrated with a scanner that lets you know if your product is redeemable on any HSA/FSA spending accounts, which is a benefit that often goes un-used thus increasing user value to ensure benefits don't go unused.
2. The app includes reminders of prescriptions due, auto-fill actions and kickbacks per refill or autofill setup that are clearly visible and easy to redeem and roll over into future prescriptions.
3. Telemed visits, vaccinations, testing, ID cards are all easily maintained and managed in the app. The CVS app makes it the go-to place for all health-related items and makes the user feel that the company values their business with how the programming is integrated into the experience to always optimize for customer savings to make health more affordable ( one of their strategic objectives I believe ). This shows the creativity and strategy in growing a product beyond feature functionality which is critical to stay competitive.

Their competition is Wallgress, which has comparable features, hence my note about the importance of scaling beyond feature functionality because Wallgreens can easily improve incrementally. Wallgreens recently improved its program to be more centered around a resource for community health IE ( allergies, heat index, breakouts etc). This doesn't provide as much value to make up for their better design overall, because for local health information most would go to Google over the Wallgreens app. I believe CVS has created more value for their users although Wallgreeens might be in the midst of a strategic transformation.

Clarify: What do you mean by favourite product? Are yo thinking about hardware or software? Dealer's choice

Are you asking me why I love this product or why the product or why it is a market leader? Talk about both

Rephrase question: Pick any product of your choice, hardware or software.

Approach:

1. take 60 seconds to think about the product that fits the description
2. Introduce the product,
3. Define a user persona (yourself) and what your pain points were
4. describe the superior features that solve these problems
5. features to add to improve the product

Product: Most recently I bought the iRobot Roomba vacuum cleaner for myself.

I am full time working woman, with a 2 storey house, two dogs and a huge backyard. In the pandemic I was spending all my time at home. Work was increasingly become long hours and since I was WFH I wanted to place to be spik and span all the time. In the evening I would relax with my dogs in the backyard who would be mud slinging at each other for fun and would run in the house with their dirty feet. In the beginning i found myself cleaning the house more often than I thought I will be doing and I would spend 2 hours at a stretch sometimes during the weekdays in cleaning. I also had midl scoliosis so carrying heavy vacuum cleaners was medically not advised for me.

With that in mind, I needed a product that was: a. fully controlled just by a tap of my finger from anywhere and everywhere in the house or outside b. Product I don't have to carry around in the house c. Product that could be my virtual cleaner that would clean without my supervision

iRobot's Roomba fit my bill completely:

• Roomba is a circular shaped sleek, compact vacuum cleaner that is controlled by a mobile app
• It uses super computer vision, mapping and navigation technology to map location internally and navigate the cleaning areas
• Through computer vision it identifies the obstacles and instead of going back and forth it moves in another direction and cleans the floor further
• Roomba is fully automoted robotic system you can control through the app. So you can give the commands to start the vacuuming even while you are in the meeting. The app interfact also lets you set the schedule or timer for the cleaning purpose. Example: I can give a command for Roomba to clean every tuesday and thursday between at 10am and once set it will do the needful accordingly.
• One of the most liked feature of Roomba is that it after cleaning the product goes back to its charging station and charges itself automotically. So as a busy professional I dont have to worry about charging it all the time
• App sends you the notification everytime it starts and finishes the job
• In summary, its a perfect robotic cleaning solutions.

However, I think there are some areas that the product needs to improve on:

1. There are times when the product gets stuck on the loose carpets. The suction pump isnt strong enough to navigate through the thick loose carpets. And in that case the product will just stop working. User doesnt get any notification about where the product is and why it hasnt finished. Sometimes I forget about it and cant locate Roomba. Hence it will be helpful to have a notification sent to the user app when the product dies down intermittently, with the location specifics
2. Currently, Roomba doesnt allow a user to set the cleaning for a particular areas only. Example, I dont need the whole house to be cleaned as regularly. I only need the cleaning of kitchen and living areas where dogs stay most, to be cleaned. The app doesnt have the feature to set the house location and send cleaning commands for the set the locations in the house
3. Product's computer vision technology doesnt distinguish between the solid waste and liquid waste. I have had instances when roomba has walked over a spilled coffee, spilling it even more on the floor and making it worse.
4. Vacuuming is great. But it will be great if it combined the vacuum suction with mopping as well. Perhaps introduce a layer or mop bristles at the bottom that can be activated when computer vision identifies a liquid waste or solid waste and have it then sweep through it

Over the pandemic it was a goal of mine to become more fluent in Spanish. As a result, I become a frequent user of Duolingo.

If you are unfamiliar, Duolingo is mobile app built to help users learn various languages through different tiered lessons and checkpoints. It is monetized with in app ads and a premium plan that includes unlimited time on app along with additional exercises. Before I talk about improvements, I’d like to point out why I believe this product-led app is successful.

With an emphasize on user satisfaction and engagement, I find that they do three things well to address paint points when learning a new language: · Convenience · Multiple Ways to Learn · Fun & Interactive

With it being a web app unlike some of the earlier language learning tools, it’s easy to practice quickly for a few minutes every day while you’re on the go or lying in bed before you go to sleep.

They consider that not everyone learns in the same way and offer structured lessons to learn the basics as well as short stories and audio lessons to put words into context. The different types of lessons really allow you to read, speak, and listen in whatever format works best for you.

Over multiple updates and iterations I’ve watched the app change into a fun and gamified experience. Learning a new language definitely requires effort and you have to be consistent or else you’re not going to learn much. They chose bright, exciting colors and a supportive mascot to cheer you on along with frequent notifications to keep you on track.

Their top competitor Babbel fails to provide as much content and ways to learn within their freemium model. Additionally, I find that the service is not as lively or engaging as Duolingo.

While Duolingo does a great job attracting and engaging users, there are areas in which I believe there is room for improvement such as · Time allowed on App for Freemium Plan · Streak Continuation

Currently, in the free version you can only practice until you lose all your 5 lives and if you do fail it does not count towards a daily practice streak. This has the potential to reduces user engagement and discourage a user from continued daily practiced.

The key risk here is the lack of revenue growth into the premium plan if too many features are openly available. However, some A/B testing could be run to see if engagement improved and other paths to the premium plan could be tried such as previews at the end of lesson of the more in-depth exercises that are available behind the paywall.

My favorite product is Netflix.

Netflix is an OTT platform where we can watch a collection of movies and series of various types. The business model is based on a monthly subscription. The clarity of content is great and works on low bandwidth, which is awesome. We get the best content in Netflix as compare to its competitor.

Features:- Collections are segregated based on topics, such as comedy, love, thriller, etc. As per our watching history, Netflix will pop you with the content of your interest. Putting a hand cursor on the thumbnail will give the information and show a teaser/trailer of the movie/series. We can make our own watch list.

Improvements to Netflix:-

1. Number of views can be introduced in the information section. 2)Secured profile content inside the main profile by introducing a password feature in a sub-profile. 3)Introducing a wish list where we can ask Netflix to get the content.
2. first-day first show should be available on Netflix with additional payment. 5)Voice-based searching should be there.

Competitors:- Amazon prime is the biggest competitor. Apart from amazon prime, several other OTT platforms such as sony liv, Disney +, Hotstar, zee prime, etc. are the competitors.