Hello learners!
Welcome to the 13th day of the series 30 Days of PM Interview by Crework! Yesterday, we talked about how to approach product strategy questions in a PM interview. Now, we need to practice some of them.
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Building Product Strategy!
Your practice question for today is one of the most popular PM interview question:
Should Google go into the ridesharing market? (Asked in Google interview)
Now, before we move on to “how should we approach it” part, I want you to try it. Come on, pause here for a while, bring a notebook and pen and try this question.
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Okay, now let’s talk about how we can approach this.
Step 1: Ask Clarifying Questions
What is the goal that Google is trying to achieve through getting into this market?
What does “go into” means here? Are we going as a competitor of Uber or taking some other approach?
Do we already have a defined product, or we need to figure that out too?
Okay, so for this question, I will take the assumption that Google wants to increase its revenue over the next 2 years and wants to capture new markets. We are thinking of breaking into PM market by competing with Uber, but still haven’t defined any product.
Step 2: Approaching the problem
To answer this question, we will take this approach:
Understanding the ride sharing market
Does it align with the company mission?
What results can google achieve with this?
Would the results align with the goals?
Understanding the market
With major players like Uber and Lyft occupying around 90% of the market in US and local players along with Uber in other countries, current ridesharing business market is crowded.
Profitability has been elusive for existing players, with concerns about driver compensation and sustainability.
Regulations vary globally, potentially posing challenges for new entrants.
Company Mission Fit
Google has strong mapping and navigation technology, potentially offering a competitive edge.
Google Pay integrations could offer convenience and user trust.
Self-driving car technology could be integrated in the future, offering a long-term differentiator.
However, entering ridesharing might not directly align with Google's core mission of organizing the world's information.
Results
Google can potentially earn revenue in the first year itself if it decides to enter the market, although as the market is already crowded with big players, driver and rider acquisition would be costly and competitive.
Regulatory hurdles and competition could hinder market penetration.
Ensuring safety and security could be challenging.
Ridesharing is a low margin business with sleek chances of profitability, hence the profits might suffer even with higher revenue.
Entering a new market with different operational complexities could strain resources.
Results and Goals Fit
Although Google might be able to generate revenue and add to its overall revenue, the lack of profits from this business is concerning and doesn’t align with the long term goal.
Based on this, Google should not go into the ride sharing business if the goal is to only increase revenue of the company. There are other ways to increase revenue for Google in the ridesharing market.
Based on the analysis, I would also like to present some other recommendation:
Google can partner with existing players like Uber or Lyft to gain market share without the operational burden. This can be done by utilizing Waymo and would enable Google to monetize it too.
This was an example of how you can approach a product strategy question asked in a PM interview. There can be multiple ways of approaching the same problem, and there is no “right” answer. The interviewer wants to assess your ability to think and come up with a solution. The real answer is the process you use to come up with your solution.
I would love to see the solution you came up with. Please share it with us on twitter or reply to this mail.
Day 13 - Completed ✅
Congratulations on completing the 13th lesson of the series 30 Day of PM Interview. 🥳 Now, you know what to do. Share your learnings with the world and be accountable.
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