Product Sense / Product Design - [Product Manager Interview]

For more Product Sense mocks/exercises please see here: https://bit.ly/PSMocks

Article Highlights

• Product sense is like having a sixth sense to intuitively understand a product's design and functionality.
• The CIRCLES method is a useful tool because it provides a structured approach to solving product sense challenges.

Product sense or design is the ability to intuitively understand a product's design, functionality, and potential for improvement. It's like having a sixth sense for product development, allowing you to discern the thought process behind its creation and identify areas for enhancement.

To get your senses tingling, think about these product problems:

• Remember when someone messaged you on LinkedIn and you could see the full message in your email? Well, they disabled this in 2018. Why?
• Why did Facebook recommend that person that you met in passing even when you don’t have any mutual friends or groups?
• Why did Netflix remove it’s popular ‘5-star rating’ system and replace it with a ‘thumbs up, thumbs down’ system?
• Why did VW reinvent the steering wheel to make it flat-bottomed?

(see my answers at bottom)

If you've ever asked yourself these questions about a product, you've tapped into your product sense. In essence, having product sense means you can:

• Perceptive enough to understand a product’s user needs and business goals. You can discern the problem it solves, the target audience, market and why this makes business sense.
• Ability to see a viable market problem and how you can solve it with your resources over a period of time, not in your MVP.
• Deep empathy skills to understand it from the user’s perspective and the craftiness to solve this problem like no one else could.

Example Product Sense Questions

Here are some typical product sense questions you may be asked:

• Pick any app/product — how would you improve it?
• How would you design a fridge for blind people?
• How can LinkedIn create a dating site for their members?

Solving Product Sense Questions

First, some quick tips:

1. There is no perfect or correct answer. No one could design a good solution in ~30 minutes.
2. You’re being evaluated for how you think through a problem not the solution.
3. Don’t arrive at a solution right away. Ask a lot of clarifying questions.
4. Think out loud. The best way to show your thinking is to walk the interviewer through your thoughts as you think through the problem. It also helps to make the conversation flow and keep the interviewer engaged.

Now, a good framework to use — CIRCLES Method. CIRCLES stands for:

• Comprehend — Clarify the context
• Identify customer segment — Personas, target audience
• Report the customer needs — User needs
• Cut, through prioritization — Prioritize what needs to address
• List solutions — List potential solutions
• Evaluate trade-offs — What trade-offs will be made with each choice
• Summarize recommendations — Deliver your recommendation

While CIRCLES is a valuable framework for analyzing problem spaces, it's not the only one to consider. To fully understand a problem, you may need to incorporate additional factors like competition, go-to-market strategy, and security.

How to implement CIRCLES method in an interview

During a Product Sense / Product Design interview employing the CIRCLES method is very useful. Here’s a little more detail:

Comprehend — Clarify the context

1. Make sure you understand the prompt or problem statement
2. Evaluate the importance of the prompt to its user base
3. Relationship to the company’s mission
4. Relationship to the company’s current strategy [See Strategy article]
5. Company’s competitive advantage in addressing prompt
6. Outline Process

Identify customer segment — Personas, target audience

1. Divide the user group into two large buckets. Typically, you can start by the Supply and Demand-side. For example, an app for movie watchers would have content producers and watchers. An ecommerce app would likely have merchants on one side and buyers on the other side.
2. Since your interview is likely limited to 30–45 minutes, I recommend selecting one group to focus on rather than two user groups. (Double-check with your interviewer)
3. Next, you’ll need to focus your target audience on the key segment that is really struggling with the problem and likely to be early adopters. I would start by doing a simple demographic segmentation. E.g.

• Teens
• Millennials
• Parents
• Seniors

1. Next, you should break down your audience even further. I would try by psychographic analysis such as lifestyle, social status, political or religious affiliation or hobbies. E.g.

• Hockey Parents
• High-net-worth individuals
• Adventure Seekers
• Avid Readers
• Millennials
• Parents
• Seniors

1. After you selected a demographic and psychographic, I’d segment one more time but this time based on potential engagement with the solution. Those with high engagement are likely your early adopters and those to benefit the most. E.g.

• High Engagement — potential to use product 10 times a week
• Medium Engagement — potential to use product 3–10 times a week
• Low Engagement — potential to use product 1–2 times a week

**There are many other ways to segment beyond demographically and psychographically so feel free to use other methods. I would strongly recommend at least by engagement.

Report the user’s pain points — User needs

There are a few ways to detail the user’s pain points. This is the best place to demonstrate user empathy and place yourself in the customer’s shoes.

Stream of consciousness — listing out all the pain points

Goal-oriented — cataloging the user’s goals (instead of pain points)

User Journey — thinking of the problem and what key steps a user might take. Eg. for a buyer’s journey:

• Awareness
• Consideration
• Decision
• Loyalty

The Amazing Experience — if you’re trying to create an experience consider asking the customer: “what does an amazing experience look like.” E.g. for an app for museum-goers:

1. I want a cultural experience
2. I want to be enriched — I want to learn, discover new things, grow
3. I want to feel connected — I want to feel connected to those around me, I want to know we have shared experience
4. I have FOMO — I want to see all the limited engagements
5. I want to experience the beautiful architecture and building

Cut, through prioritization — Prioritize what needs to address

From the list of the user needs you should prioritize 1 or 2 that you’d like to address in your potential solution. More than that and you don’t have an MVP.

List solutions — List potential solutions

In this step, list out 1 or 2 solutions that could work. Here’s the recommended structure:

1. Define Product Vision or hypothesis (if applicable)
2. Present Solutions
3. Present Preferred Solution
4. Entry Point
5. Requisites

Evaluate trade-offs — What trade-offs will be made with each choice

A quick cheat sheet for considering trade-offs:

• User Impacts
• Limitations of an MVP solution
• Any business / operational considerations
• Cannibalization risks to other products

Summarize recommendations — Deliver your recommendation

1. Present your preferred solution
2. How it addresses the prompt
3. How it solves the user problem with your product vision / hypothesis
4. The business opportunity
5. How it serves the company’s mission
6. How it serves the company’s strategy
7. Metrics — Offer 2–3 but pick one — usually Engagement

Practicing the CIRCLES method

For more Product Sense mocks/exercises please see here: https://bit.ly/PSMocks

Product Sense exercise

The prompt is: You work at Facebook at Zuck sees in you the hallway and says “I heard that books are all the rage these days. Can you put together some ideas for me by next week?”

Context

First of all, let me clarify

• What region or market are we considering? US
• Is the digital product? This problem can be solved without tech
• Do you mean all of FB (including WA, IG) or just FB? — Facebook Core
• User Problem?
• Business Goal? — Retention

Problem Investigation:

• Books can be audiobooks, e-books, physical books, short stories and even other forms of writing
• Books are a crowded space — Amazon, Google, Apple, Audible, even libraries so many alternatives

Facebook Mission and Motivation

• Books and the stories told are experiences that bring people together
• This may not seem like a ‘cool’ thing to do for FB but FB isn’t something cool but rather a utility, essential for helping me in daily life
• FB Advantage — Social graph and the best tech
• Right off the bat, my initial thoughts are this really fits with:
• FB mission — Give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together
• Principles wise — Build Connection and Community, Serve Everyone, Bold, Impact and Social Value, Promote Economic Opportunity
• FB Strategy — Facebook is expanding its contents experiences on Instagram and Messenger

Identify customer segment — Personas, target audience

So thinking about this big, hairy problem I’ll narrow this down a little bit:

Supply vs. Demand Segmentation

2 types of audiences I can start thinking about:

• Readers
• Authors

I’ll choose to focus on Reader, why:

• Readers of books are exponentially larger than the bases of Authors so the opportunity to drive engagement which leads to retention which leads to adoption. Also, I don’t see this as a marketplace product.
• For the sake of Moving Fast, I’ll choose a good candidate for an early adopter who is likely to use the first version and not a late majority
• A group we can test and learn from through an MVP

Demographic Segmentation

• Young readers: 6–10 years old
• Teen readers: 10–17 years old
• Millennials — 18–40 years old
• Parents
• Seniors

Out of these the one that really jumps out of me are Millennials, here’s why:

• Impact — Millennials represent a huge segment and so there’s an opportunity to change many lives
• Engagement — Millennials also are very active on mobile and digital so this is a great opportunity to deliver a valuable product and test and learn
• They have discretionary time
• Teen Readers are interesting to me but I don’t know much about them and plus many of them can’t even use FB (under 13 rule)
• Seniors are interesting as well but might be hard to nudge into new reading experiences (they like their books and Kindles)

Psychographic Segmentation

I think it’s important to consider some genres that Millennials read:

• Self-Help — Marie Kondo, The Subtle Art of Not Giving an F
• Non-Fiction — Elon Musk, Kim Kardashian books
• Fantasy — Lord of the Rings
• Adventure
• Romance
• Contemporary
• Dystopian
• Mystery
• Horror/Thriller
• short-form stories

I like short-form stories, why:

• Becoming very popular like Twitter threads
• Self-publishers are pushing out books by pages rather than complete books
• Trend comes from music like Beyonce releasing songs instead of albums
• Lack of attention spans

Engagement Segmentation

As I want to ensure that this MVP will have good adoption I want to factor FB engagement as well to pick the right audience:

• Active on FB — More than 7 hours per week
• Active on FB and Likely to be interested in books — have visited many Book sites, book topics and even Author’s fan pages
• Active on FB and NOT Likely to be interested in books — have NOT visited many Book sites, book topics and even Author’s fan pages
• Not Active on FB
• Not Active on FB and Likely to be interested in books — have visited many book sites, book topics and even Author’s fan pages
• Not Active on FB and NOT Likely to be interested in books — have NOT visited many book sites, book topics and even Author’s fan pages

I’d like to finally segment to Active on FB and Likely to be interested in Books — have visited many book sites, book topics and even Author’s fan pages:

• Early adopters
• Easy to persuade
• High intent and likelihood to adopt
• Niche audience

So my target audience is: Millennials who read short-form stories who are Active on FB and Likely to be interested in books

Report Needs

By Journey:

1. Need — Wanting to read
2. Discovery — Finding the right book to read
3. Acquisition — Getting the right content
4. Engagement — Reading it — This is where FB can be Bold and make an impact.
5. Retention
6. Repeat

I’ll focus on Engagement:

• FB can be Bold and Impact
• All other stages in the journey are currently done very well

Problem Hypothesis:

Millennials want new, engaging reading experiences

Pain points:

• No, I don’t read books or audiobooks as they are so boring. I’d rather watch Netflix
• If I want something I can read on my phone, I’ll read IG
• No way I’m getting a Kindle, I already have an iPad and an iPhone
• I don’t even have time to read between work, school and friends
• My friends don’t even read (this is about social reinforcement)

Prioritize Needs

• No, I don’t read books or audiobooks as they are so boring. I’d rather watch Netflix
• If I want something I can read on my phone, I’ll read IG
• No way I’m getting a Kindle, I already have an iPad and an iPhone
• I don’t even have time to read between work, school and friends
• My friends don’t even read (this is about social reinforcement) — Not yet

Why:

• FB Advantage: social graph and best technology
• Competitive advantage: Hard to compete with Amazon, books and general book experiences

List Solutions

Product Vision: Build community by enabling amazing reading experiences

User Problem: No, I don’t read books or audiobooks as they are so boring. I’d rather watch Netflix AND No way I’m getting a Kindle, I already have an iPad and an iPhone

I have 2 solutions in mind

1. Safe idea: New Self-Publisher’s Platform where authors can publish like Amazon
2. Bold idea: Messenger Stories

Safe: New Self-Publisher’s Platform on FB like Mentorship Platform

1. Reuse tech and UX from Mentorship platform to enable Self-Publishers and we can drive engagement of content

BOLD: Messenger Stories

Taking inspiration from Twitter Threads and rise of short-form stories — a Story or Narrative told over threads are very popular but how can Facebook duplicate? Just like Instagram Stories it’s ephemeral and you have to watch each excerpt today and wait till tomorrow for the rest.

Imagine This:

1. You’re on Messenger and you get a text and it says: “Tara opened the door and then she sees blood on the floor.” Tap for the next part. (User taps)
2. “She gasps as she sees her husband lying face flat.” Tap for the next part. (User taps)
3. “She reaches for phone and tries to dial 911 but a black-gloved man grabs her hand.” Tap for the next part. (User taps)

Entry Point:

• In Newsfeed, notifications or interaction experience to promote new feature — special message to Millennials readers who are likely to be into books
• Tap to activate on Messenger
• User jumps to Messenger with demo

Evaluate trade-offs — What trade-offs will be made with each choice

• New way of telling stories — Overcome by great user experience or make it similar to Twitter threads
• Messenger is primarily text use case driven — Overcome by long-term plan of making Messenger a platform
• Could be addictive — Overcome with a limit of stories that can be read in a day

Summarize recommendations — Deliver your recommendation

Introducing New! Messenger Stories.

• short-form stories told over text message in Messenger
• Taking inspiration from Twitter Threads and rise of short-form stories
• Just like Instagram Stories it’s ephemeral and you have to watch each excerpt today and wait till tomorrow for the rest.

Why Users would do this:

• It’s mysterious
• It’s engaging (see next text)
• I want something interesting to read — Engaging
• I want something I can read on my phone

Need to get short form authors to post stories, here’s why they would:

• New, engaging way of storytelling
• Can write on a daily basis (agile) rather than complete a book (waterfall)
• Facebook distribution

Why it’s good for Facebook:

• Facebook Mission
• Facebook Principles — Promote Economic Opportunity, Build Connection and Community, Serve Everyone
• Values — Bold, Impact, Move Fast, Social Value
• Strategy: Content Experiences (Red Table), Messenger Platform

Roadmap:

Phase 2

• Social — you can only advance to the next chapter if you’re friends do it too
• More genres — thriller
• More engagement types — reactions, comments

Phase 3

• Instagram version told over photos
• Revenue model for Publishers
• Anyone can create a story

Phase 4

• JK Rowling/John Grisham
• Choose Your Own Adventure

Metrics:

Adoption

Engagement — Most important for early-stage product and is a strong indicator of retention. It shows people are getting immediate value

Retention — Those that are engaged will return to FB but Engagement is an important first step.

I think Engagement is the right metric:

What’s the highest value? If the user is engaged with the story.

• % of Stories Viewed (Read at least 3 texts) Daily / % Stories Activated — MOST important
• % of Tap for More / Story

Product Sense Questions

For the questions below here’s my take:

Remember when someone messaged you on LinkedIn and you could see the full message in your email? Well, they disabled this in 2018. Why?

I believe they did this to optimize for two things:

1. Increased user engagement on LinkedIn. By building a better messaging experience such as predictive text and more actions for each message, LI users would use it more often and with greater satisfaction.
2. More ad revenue and stickiness. The business benefit would be more and longer sessions which drives loyalty and of course more ads being served ($$$).

Why did Facebook recommend that person that you met in passing even when you don’t have any mutual friends or groups?

There are many theories on how FB’s recommendation algorithm works but one thing I noticed about People You May Know who are not mutual friends or from a group could be:

• The person FB-creeped me several times and thus FB thinks: “Hey, we think this person would be a good friend.”
• The person FB-creeped someone very close to me several times such as my wife and thus FB thinks: “Hey, we think this person would be a good friend.”
• I happen to be in the same place as this person many times such as work, gym, Starbucks, etc.
• A combination of all these things. So if you can imagine if it’s someone who creeped me or my wife and we’re always in proximity probably goes to an 8 out of 10 in the algo. (A 10 out of 10 would be someone with all these characteristics and many mutual friends)

Why did Netflix remove it’s popular ‘5-star rating’ system and replace it with a ‘thumbs up, thumbs down’ system?

While the company claims the rating system simplification was the sole reason for the change, it's more likely that people are simply more inclined to rate highly acclaimed films over those starring Adam Sandler. Despite their popularity on Netflix, Sandler's films often feature sophomoric humor that might lead to lower ratings and fewer recommendations. A simple thumbs-up or thumbs-down system offers a more straightforward and less judgmental way for viewers to express their opinions.

Why did VW reinvent the steering wheel to make it a flat-bottomed?

As a driver of a VW Jetta I was perplexed at first. Then I drove the car and realized why German design and engineering is so prized. The flat-bottom steering wheel is great for two reasons: when driving it makes a great resting platform for your hands and makes turning so much easier than with a circle as you easily grasp the flat part.

These are my ideas but you should consider these for yourself as an exercise.