Questionnaire is available on his website: https://www.colemercer.com/pmquestions
- How many people can travel on a Boeing 747 airplane?
Between 300 and 400. - An aspiring Amazon product manager proposes to Jeff Bezos that Amazon should sell groceries from neighborhood markets. What are the pros and cons of this idea?
PROS: potential leverage in revenue. Branding improvement for the Amazon brand in general. Chance to make strategic partnerships with existing retailers and perform cross-selling.
CONS: catalog integration challenges geenrating overhead and operational risk. Typical retail day to day mistakes could be projected in the overall Amazon brand (“Amazon is not the same anymore…”) - Design an alarm clock for the blind
A device with a sensor at the top surface. Single tap to activate voice menu. Double tap is a shortcut to set alarm clock. Triple tap turn on/off all alarms (Sunday mode). - If you were Google’s CEO, would you be concerned about Microsoft?
Yes because MS Office is still a top of mind product in the corporate world and a foot on the door to most of MS offerings in that market.
- If you were CEO of Yahoo!, what would your strategy be?
Transition the company into the Edutainment market to become a top content provider for students and family. - How many iPhones are sold in the US each year?
200 million. - How does LinkedIn make money, and what are the biggest threats?
In many ways. Subscription services, adds, data based services, corporate services (hiring) and so on. They have been diversifying their portfolio, which is much needed since the competition is a big threat right now. There are a lot of startups that have been focusing on niche markets with the promise to form the best professional communities, reducing the risk and “time-to-hire” for potential employers.
- You have a choice between selling a new oven or an oven mitt. Which one do you choose and why?
A new oven, for sure. An oven is an innovation platform. There is a lot of room for new tech to be added to ovens at various levels and product lines. COVID-19 and “stay at home” forced people to learn how to cook — including myself — so having a good oven is critical and sometimes associated with successful meals. So there’s huge potential in terms of market size, differentiation, profitability etc.
- You are the product manager for Google+. What killer feature would you build?
This must be an old question because G+ is now defunct, but I would certainly promote more integration with YouTube, specially with tools for content creators and “you tubers” so they could monetize by pulling/pushing traffic to G+.
- Google Maps is launching a new version for schools, how would you design this?
It would have to take into account different regions and cultures, as schools and their social dynamics vary a lot from country to country. In Brazil, Maps for Schools would have to take into account rush hour traffic and local market distribution and they affect not only school’s daily routine (people getting on time for classes) but also the business (new enrollments)
. - Should Amazon launch a smartphone?
No. By 2021 the company is late for that. - Estimate McDonald’s revenue.
40bi USD per year. 15bi in NA. 10bi in all Latin America. 10bi in Russia and Asia. 5bi in Europe.
I couldn’t resist and checked on Wikpedia for this. Revenue is 21bi USD (2019) - How much money do people spend on haircut every year in the US?
100 bucks. 3 haircuts per year @ 30 each. - Re-design a garage door opener.
My design for the Brazilian market: the door opener is inside the car and responds to a base device located inside the garage or house. As the car approaches the location, the in-car opener will “handshake” with base make a short beep. The driver then must respond that beep immediately by pressing the button. When the car finally approaches the garage door, the base will open it automatically for the driver. In case the driver did not respond to the beep, the base will understand it is a panic situation and won’t open the door. The driver then can use the argument the door opener is malfunctioning or batteries are almost dead. Bad actors will keep pressing the button but the opener will appear to be dead already. - Google shut down a location sharing service called Google Latitude on August 2013. How would you redesign and re-launch a location-sharing app?
I would partner with delivery/food apps and offer it as “location as a service” for them with a promise of better integration with google maps and AdWords to leverage their sales as well. - How would you design an oven for a person in a wheelchair?
This is challenging because the wheelchair user can vary a lot in terms of mobility and condition, from people who just had an ankle surgery up to fully handicap quadriplegic using a mouth-controlled joystick wheelchair. Assuming the persona is capable of using both arms to move the chair and is not dependent on another person to cook, I would design a oven integrated with the dining room. This concept would keep the wheelchair user outside the kitchen, which is usually a smaller place than a living room. The oven would be a two piece model, electric and easy to clean. - How would you improve Google Maps?
Giving better/easier access to local destinations or places of affinity. Since Google already knows that I go to skateparks with my daughter every Sunday, why not letting me know about skateparks near me whenever I open the app?
- How many basketballs are purchased every year?
25 million, must of them in North America and in Europe. - Amazon has ads on its website for products you can buy on other websites. Why do you think is the strategy here? Is it a good idea?
It’s a good idea because it makes Amazon the go-to destination for anything you want to buy regardless of the entity storing the good, which can be a small retail store or a gigantic warehouse in the middle of the desert. What really counts for the customer is finding the product, comparing different prices, comparing different shipping terms and conditions and paying in a secure way from a well known brand which won’t shut down tomorrow and keep your money. - How will you improve LinkedIn’s home page?
Do you mean the public home page or the logged user home page? Is the home page for the hiring company or for the general candidate? - Describe the strategy behind Google entering the cell phone market
Finally beating Microsoft on its own battleground, sort of. As soon as cell phones started to replace the desktop (read Windows) Google knew that the OS in those phones would be the new ubiquitous piece of software capable of hosting a whole new generation of apps, phone apps, which would be most likely paid. Google would get a cut of that payment and build a new stream of revenue with it. By the way, much more profitable than selling the OS alone in the first place. - Write an algorithm that detects meeting conflicts.
make a dictionary with all meetings start date and end date;
convert dates into seconds;
get meeting date to be checked, convert it into seconds;
function checkConflicts where date to be checked >= startDate AND =< endDate from the array;
if TRUE, add item “conflict” to the dictionary with value TRUE;
list all dictionary items with “conflict” as TRUE. - How would you design a blogging application?
I would use the “local first” principle. All blog posts would be markdown files added to a local folder on my computer. The folder would sync with the server whenever a new file is added, modified or deleted from the folder. New posts could be easily created by just copy/pasting existing posts and changing their metadata (title, tags, categories etc.). - You are the CEO of the Yellow Cab taxi service. How do you respond to Uber?
I’d work on a partnership before my Yellow Cab direct competitors do it. Yellow Cab would be just another category within the app like Uber X, Black etc. and we’d work together with Uber to define/promote this category in a way that could leverage its good qualities and resolve its historical issues. - Select a product you use everyday and discuss its weaknesses.
It’s unbelievable that my Samsung Smart TV has its own remote control as the only option for me. This TV should display a QR code to pair my Samsung universal control phone app with it. The only way I could lose the TV control would be losing my phone in the first place, which is unlikely. I have kids… so a missing remote control is almost a daily pain. - If you were responsible for Microsoft phones, what would you do?
Find Apple like product designers that could design a sexy product from the outside to inside. The hardware is key. It must feel sexy on the hand. MS Phones all looked like cheap disposable phones. I’d add a great camera to it and do something similar to Google Drive/Photos to make personal data/photos impossible to be lost forever via constant backup.
- How would you price the Kindle Fire HD?
I would prefer to check some data first. I’d check sales figures of direct competitors to Fire HD from Samsung, for example. I’d price it aligned to those competitors’ price range and, at the same time, would bundle it with Amazon’s content and entertainment services. - You’re Larry Page. The head of corporate development tells you that Quora is in play, and both Microsoft and Facebook are bidding for it. Should Google participate in the discussions? Why?
No, because Quora as a crowdsourced Q&A service tends to have the same destiny as Yahoo! Questions, now defunct. - How many people are currently online in France?
70% of the population. - If you were Amazon, would you launch the service in India? Why or why not? How would you do this?
Yes, absolutely! India has a vibrant middle class who is crazy for movies and shows. The film making industry in the country could be escalated to one of the largest in the world. There is plenty of room for content specific channels and subscription services. - How many elevators do you need for a 50-story building?
5. One for each 10 story segment. I live in a 25-story building which has 2 elevators, and they work just fine even in peak hours like early morning, late afternoon. - Imagine you were considering launching a new social network service. What would your strategy be?
I would need to be tied to an existing big brand with a big budget for big events where people could be invited by an influencer celebrity to attend it. Early adopters would gain instant differentiation from later following groups via additional features, more promotion and monetization, inducing them to stick with the new network and use it fully to their benefit. - Estimate how much it costs to run Flickr for a 20 GB user.
20GB is what one can get on AWS free-tier with minimal computing power and storage. Considering the economies of scale Flickr can get regarding infrastructure and DevOps in general, I’d say this user would cost 1/5,000 of that AWS free-tier server. - Imagine you were considering launching two services which have similar revenues and costs. How would you decide which one to pursue?
The one with the largest user base because it represents the best opportunity for leveraging revenue in the long run. - Which Google product or service don’t make sense to you? Why?
None of them as of today. I believe Google has evolved to be more pragmatic with its product portfolio. - What do you think LinkedIn can do on the iPhone that is truly groundbreaking?
Nothing different from what could be done on any Android phone around the globe. We’ve seen new products being launched as mono platform and, because of that, being immediately stigmatized by the general public. The same is happening in the browser arena between Chrome and Firefox, which is not good. - There’s a server bottleneck. How would you solve it?
How do we know it’s a server bottleneck? The stack is in the cloud and too complex for us to narrow down for sure the problem is in the server. We need to pull in all the data, the logs, and check where the bottleneck(s) is/are and explore the options to eliminate them. - Assume you are the new product manager in our Amazon Prime business and are in charge of feature development. What data would you look at to develop new features? What new features would they be?
I’d survey the customer base for direct answers using a reward, like a discount code for purchases in Amazon. I’d cross check findings from this survey with more data coming from other sources that could show me buying preferences to similar services. I’d use that data to define not only new features but a new feature roadmap for at least 12 months. - How much does the US spend on dog food each year?
18bi USD
I have checked this and it is 38bi (2020) - How long would it take to empty a hot tub using only a drinking straw?
I’d assume this open ended question allows me to use any strategy I like to ultimately empty the tub. So I’d install the straw down through the drain to benefit from the force of gravity to push water through the straw. So if the tub holds 80 liters of water and the straw can drain 10ml of water per second, the tub would take 8,000 seconds to be emptied. - The billboard industry is under monetized. How can Google create a new product or offering to address this?
It would have to be either through Google MyBusiness or Maps. Both of these services have workflows that make sense to quickly and seamlessly incorporating billboard management. Business owners could indicate they can install billboards in their property (local laws apply) and that could be reflected on Maps via a simple “pin on the map” advertising strategy. - How many queries per second does Gmail get?
That’s a rather imprecise question as a “query” within the Gmail domain could be many things depending on the use case scenario and device. - How would you design a bookcase for children?
As a carousel. - How would you improve the LinkedIn mobile app?
I’d introduce a “job seeking mode” that would prioritize everything, all features, to the job seeker. I’d employ all the AI needed to put relevant content and job ads in front of the user. - How would you improve Google’s Chrome browser?
By adding TOR support and crypto wallet capabilities like Brave did with BAT. - How would you improve LinkedIn’s signup process?
With templating taken to the next level. As a PM, I’d like LinkedIn to show me all the best pieces of CV/Resumes that I could be using to build an improved version of my resume based on typical PM job postings from within my region.
- Assuming that you are selected, what will be your strategy for next 60 days?
I’d maps and know the key stakeholders from the company and their results expectations for the next 18 months. Iād meet with my team and make sure we are all aligned about those expectations. Iād then check my PnL and think what could be done with it in the very short run to get to a quick win. Iād check with my team for immediate top of mind tactics to get to those quick wins considering our budgetary constrains. Depending on the scenario, Iād explore alternatives and manage stakeholders expectations. Finally, Iād create new projects or evaluate ongoin ones to make sure they are aligned to our objectives and are feasible. Iād define reporting in a way main stakeholders receive the information their need from my initiatives on the right time. - Amazon launched display advertisements on its web page, and it was a highly controversial decision within the company. Pick either the pro or con side of the argument and explain your position for or against including ads on the site.
Display advertising is highly motivational to the young audience who has grown to be more visually stimulated. They tend to engage better to this type of ad than to text ads, for example. If we could implement ways to build banners programatically based on campaigns AND user profile, we could be pushing this specific type of advertisement to a public that is more receptive to it. - How much tennis balls fit in a 2 bedrooms apartment?
A 2 bedrooms apartment has an average of 60 square meters and a 2,4m ceiling height. So 144 cubit meters total. I estimate a tennis ball occupies 1700 cubic centimeters. One cubit meter should fit 588 balls then. The entire apartment, around 85,000 balls. - How much does a schoolbus weigh?
Fully loaded with kids or empty? Kids with backpacks or just holding their cell phones? Small kids or adolescents? - Explain recursion.
When recursion is implemented to a software program it will execute specific commands repeatedly until a certain condition is met. - How many windows are in new york?
City or State? Quantity may vary immensely depending on each case. Iād check state construction rules for windows per floor and then query the state real estate registry for number of floors and make the approximate calculation. - Suggest a killer feature to improve LinkedIn? And what metrics would you track to determine success?
The same one I have suggested earlier in the questionnaire for the mobile app: a ājob seeker modeā which would turn the entire website into a 100% job getting focused website. āJobsā wouldnāt be just a menu item at the global navigation bar, but the main experience from login to logout. Some of the key metrics: # of user at job seeking mode; average time spent on job seek mode per day; average lifetime within job seek mode (until user reverses LinkedIn to the usual āsocial networkingā mode); confirmation feedback on good quality job suggestions; confirmation feedback on good quality connection suggestions; average time-to-hired per demographics; main features used by the shortest time-to-hire users. - How many schools are in the US?
Primary schools? Public or private? The US population is 330 million. Iād say 20% is still attending schools, so around 65 million students. Considering the 13 years comprised by the K-12 system, there would be at least 13 different rooms to be filled with students per school premise. Considering an average of 20 students per classroom, it would give us 13 x 20 students per school. Dividing 65 million students by a 260 student capacity per school would give us 250 thousand schools in the country.
I have checked the number and itās around 140 thousand. It used to be 250 thousand by the 1930s! But the number has been declining since then. - What feature would you build to improve Google+? And what metrics would you track to determine success?
Repeated question. - Tell me about a product that was designed poorly.
Repeated question. - How does Google make money, and what are the biggest threats?
Iād say the bulk of their revenue comes from advertising, as most of their high volume products in in portfolio have advertising as a component, from Waze down to YouTube, all of them generate revenue with ads. Google Cloud and Workspaces are coming strong and have a lot of potential for revenue. Their main threat comes from social networks, which is where most of todayās eye balls are into. And not only Zuckerbergās networks anymore. There is a new generation of social networks being created on the weaknesses of Facebook and Instagram to fill some gaps. All of them monetize on either ads or data processing, and Google demonstrated over the years to be unable to roll out a solid global social network/media strategy. - Choose a company that you believe provides a world-class customer experience. What do they do well?
Apple with the iPhone. Itās amazing how consistent the company operates around the world to produce the exact same product, at the same quality standards, performing the exact same way and that everybody loves and wants compulsively. - How much money does facebook make in ads every year?
Around 100 billion USD. A little less than Google overall.
I have checked it and it is 85 billion USD. - What would you do the next 2 years if you were CEO of the company?
I would try to approach China in a different way, maybe through acquisitions. There a strong market movement in China towards social networks and the company cannot miss that wave. - Assume you are the new product manager in our Amazon Prime business and are deciding pricing. The vice president would like to lower the price from $79.99 per year to $69.99 per year. What metrics will you look at to evaluate success of a product?
Sales progression over the last 18 months. Iād check my PnL from top to bottom (well, Iām constantly doing that anywayā¦) to find possible impacts after the price change, especially to the bottom line. If the core projections for the fiscal year are preserved. - How would you improve image search?
I would add features to help users with the steps after finding the image they want to use. Iād add tips on copyrights, also the chance to purchase the image and do the proper revenue distribution among creative creators, channels, affiliates and so on. - How many police officers are in the US?
Social services capacity is always calculated via ratios, because it is how services are monitored and compared, even on a global basis. So Iād say there is a ratio of 10 officers per group of 100.000 population. Considering 330 million American, there are 3,300 groups of 100,000 inhabitants, so around 33,000 officers.
I have checked the number. There are 880,000 officers. My ratio estimation was way offā¦ there are 266 officers per group of 100,000 population. - How would you reduce Gmail’s storage size?
Iād define a roadmap for that change, since it is an important one and can be seen by most users as something negative not only to Gmail but to Google in general. Gmail is used by many as a form of storage. A lot of people email themselves information and (important) files so they have access to them across devices and safely stored on the cloud. Storage size reductions should be planned in tandem with new long waited functionality that adds tremendous value to the service, so users can evaluate tradeoffs whenever a bad news comes up. In the end of the day we all want to retain the user and increase LTV. So in face of valuable features, users will give second thoughts about leaving Gmail when a new ārestrictionā is placed. I like how Apple handles this. iCloud storage is insanely cheap compared to other services, so I think users donāt even bother. Gmail should try to reach that level of user commitment in which they dont even bother to pay for more storage since the service in general is flawless and nobody wants to cancel it. - How would you improve Microsoft PowerPoint?
Iād add more voice activated features beyond voice-to-text itself. Features that would allow the user to build the presentation (layout, transitions, in-slide animations etc.) by speaking to it. Like, āMake me an org chart. Three levels. In the first level write āCEOā.ā so on and so forth. - How many pairs of eyeglasses are sold every year in the US?
500 million. Just guessing.
I have checked it. Revenue is in recovery mode after the pandemics. 2021 estimates point to 4.1 billion USD, which is the market level of year 2013. Assuming an average ticket of 20 USD per unit, it would give us around 200 million pairs sold per year. - Facebook bought Instagram for about $2B, even though Instagram was making no money. Why do you think Facebook did this?
Because young aged users were leaving (or not even joining) Fb ā they were in Instagram. So in order to get a hold of that growing online audience. Once the products are integrated as part of the same company, it would be seamless to Fb ā as a holding ā to enrich user data across the portfolio to improve advertising services and introduce new products. And, of course, a larger user base means more company value, and since Fb is a public company, value is what matter in the end of the day. - Google launched a new program: Google Trusted Stores. Why is Google Trusted Stores strategically important for the company?
I donāt know this program. - Brainstorm as many algorithms as possible for recommending Twitter followers.
Users speak the same language
Users have the same UI language set
Users have share the same timezone
Users post/comment/retweet/like on the same topics
Users have liked/retweeted each otherās posts at least once
Users have shared each otherās content outside Twitter at least once
Users have common followers - Start a new category, division, or international market for Amazon. Which one did you choose and why?
āHuge Experienceā division. US only first, then NA, EU and then the rest once demand/fitness is identified. Huge Experience is a chain of venues, theaters and open spaces, that would put the iMax cinema experience to shame in terms of content, imagery, sound, performances etc. āIf I canāt fly to Boston to see Metallica live, Iād go to an Amazon Huge Experience venue and watch the live broadcast of that same show.ā - Now tell me why display advertising is a bad decision.
Because itās deeply associated to ābannersā, which some user groups learned to dislike and complain about over the years. They annoy users and cause damage to the brand which have them on their website or mobile app. - How do you like LinkedIn’s endorse feature?
I have mixed feelings about it. I think itās a necessary feature. It adds value to the candidate and also to LinkedIn itself. But, it has the āwonderlandā effect associated. You will never see a ābrutally honestā comment about a former boss or, the other way around, a manager punching holes on his former team member CV. So we all know endorsements are just one side of the coin. - You’re part of the Google Search web spam team. How would you detect duplicate websites?
Iād make a sample of random <p> HTML tags, checksum each one of them to allow verbatim comparisons. - Explain object-oriented programming to your grandmother.
OOP is when you have a list of things that each object inside the house can do to itself and only to itself. Some tasks are shared or inherited among objects, but they are still unique to the object they belong to. The āturn-onā action of the TV is similar to the āturn-onā action of the microwave, but they have different steps. Once you purchase a new object to the house, you have to define its own set of rules and actions. This new object rules should not interfere on the other objects of the house. - How would you improve restaurant search?
Iād like to see more ratings from my friends done on specific dishes and specialties. I want to search my friend Joeās suggestions on restaurants with good wine menus, since I know he is a wine connoisseur and I have a special date tonight that deserves good wine. So I would have a pane at the top of the search with suggestions coming from my network of friends/connections. - Design a new iPad app for Google Spreadsheet.
It would be focused on read-only tasks, navigation and not much on editing, building spreadsheets from scratch. I would make the user feel that the iPad app has been optimized for quickly opening and reading data/tables/charts/dashboards on the road. - Design an elevator control system.
Installation and configuration module.
Maintenance module.
Security module
Engine control module.
Passenger/controller module.