@@PrabhathJayawardena in real life customer have multiple pain points that you need to address as a PM. Interviews are not like math formulas where if you address one vs three pain points or the other way around suddenly your answer is wrong. You have to check in with your interviewer and make it a dialogue - if they want you to explore multiple pain points then do that, if you prefer to stick with one it’s ok too - double check with your interviewer. Remember that it’s about showing that you understand how PMs think and solve user pain points like one, there is no single right answer to these kind of questions but I hope this helps!
Thank you, this interview was great and really helpful! Just want to share my experience though over different interviews with PM’s they sometime come with predefined notions of particular answers they are expecting from interviewees and they don’t like or encourage a open conversation like these! How to handle that because sometimes even if one interview goes wrong out of the 5 you have given with that organisation you get out of luck to go in !
Not only was this a great video about handling ANY interview (not just PM), but also: what a fridge! I would totally buy that thing! The whole "kids eating veggies = more points for stuff later" idea is brilliant...
Thanks Stephen and Diego for this engaging mock interview. Loved the way Diego kept laying out what was he thinking and why he made the choices that he made. Couple of feedback (if I may): - I think the first question to ask here is - Why? Why do we want to design a fridge for kids? Answer could be: - The company has done some market research and found that there is a huge potential market for such a product. - Or, a competitor has launched a kids fridge and my company wants to respond to it. - Or may be the CEO woke up one morning and asked to do this ;) Further course of the interview should be driven by this answer to this "why". - The next fundamental question I would ask - what is the immediate goal of the organisation with this product? In other words, what is my mandate as a product manager? Looking for answers like: - We want to launch this product as a low cost trial (may be to be launched in a small market without much marketing $) and then see how we go. Then based on response we’ll decide the course. So, the current objective is to design a product that will help is test the waters - Or, may be we are so confident that there is a market for this that we want to do a big bang launch. And the objective is to deliver and launch a strong product that can win the market Another thing I would do is, as Diego identified, while kids are the users, parents are the customers/buyers. And we should look at pain points (or Jobs to be done) for both. For example, for parents, it could be - they want to know what are the kids stacking in the fridge and what are the consuming. On the other hand, kids might want a low height fridge so the they can reach all the compartments (including freezer). One more thing I would do it - see if there are any “must have” features. These could be related to safety, compliance, legal etc. For example, I’ll perhaps consider ‘no topple’, better electrical safety etc. and prioritise those.
I actually think this is an example of where the typical PM interviewing framework over indexes on brute analysis over user centricity - which can actually obscure obvious insights. If we start from the mind and behavior of the user first (the child in this case) we’d likely identify very different “pain points” and solutions than the ones presented in this mock. Why do kids need their own fridge, or a child-friendly fridge? In practical terms, they don’t (kids have managed just fine with normal sized fridges for decades). Kids also don’t “need” their own ovens, but easy-bake ovens exist and are successful products because they’re toys that get children excited about baking. This tells us that we are really designing a toy fridge for entertainment and maybe even educational purposes (even the PM term “pain point” doesn’t really work in this context, semantically). Borrowing from what we know about toys that children love, our fridge should spark joy, be safe and easy to use, and get children excited about playing. Children often model adult behavior - with our fridge, just as with easy bake ovens, we can assume there’s a large segment of children that would love to pretend to stock and manage their own fridge, just as their parents do. We can also imagine component products that could be sold with the fridge or as add-ons, like toy grocery bags, Tupperware, ice cube tray molds, fun shapes milk / juice bottles, etc. Only after establishing this ground truth about the user persona is it useful to jump into more analytical frameworks like specific customer segmentation to narrow in on, success metrics, competitors, etc.
Your comment is so useful and makes so much sense. I was assuming the question is about a toy-fridge, and the interview went into the direction of a child-friendly fridge. Very confusing. Thanks for sharing!
Well a 1:56 Stephen says they are a connected appliances company... so they are not going to build toys. But that's true there's a customer analysis that is missing and nothing in here speaks to the actual work of product management. It doesn't talk about how you validate idea with customers or even prioritize based on technical complexity/effort.
I would’ve also added in a users’ journey. That would’ve helped identify pain points. Giving you the ability to discuss not having to reinvent the wheel but designing it with the kid in mind as entertainment. Most PM product sense questions I find that is usually the part that is missing. Some times they do if that is the specific framework they are basing their answers on calls for it. But other than that it is a huge glaring error In my eyes. And when I say user journey I mean current standard journey. Not the one designed for a kid with outlier specific case.
Ahh .. the potential conversations that would spawn from here ... Should it be energy efficient Would there be specific compartments etc .. Because the market for Hannibal lector is also a market ..!
The most valuable advice in this interview was at the beginning when he explained what his experience with fridges and kids was. Because it set up the entire premise of the potential pain points and solutions. Because if you're a parent with kids you know your solutions here would be very different than those presented. But everything was so we'll explained which made this interview top notch.
Anything designed for kids should have some basic principles. This include safety measures (paint, rounded corners, does not easily topple, etc) attractiveness (colors/designs, light/sound indicators), user friendliness (size, container/shelf positions), customizable look and feel (stickers, changing light colors, change music/tones)... etc.
The biggest pain point for this in my opinion is, what do you store in a fridge? Predominantly food that needs to be cooked. So besides the odd lunchable, milk, fruit and other little bits & bobs that could be a waste of energy, anything else would require the kid to combine a bunch of ingredients and get creative with the pots & pans which I don't think is really safe....?
Considering how kids pretty much outgrow the things that are bought for them at a very quick pace, one policy to incentivize the parents to go for such a product would be to implement a trade-in policy (think Apple for instance) when they seek to upgrade to a regular fridge in the future. This could make the kids' fridge to be a worthwhile investment at the present.
I have some more ideas here: 1. The fridge can have 3 chambers with different doors, one with a freezer for ice creams, etc, one for vegetables and fruits, and the third for miscellaneous and non-veg cooked items. The fridge can be customized by the parents wherein in one day the chamber with ice cream will only open once and kids can be restricted from having too much ice cream. The fruits and vegetables and cooked food chamber will accessible throughout the day. Also, with this, the fridge should be able to judge which chamber is empty and that chamber can automatically go on power saver mode. This makes the fridge more power efficient. The fridge will be shorter and broader(than the regular fridge) in size so all the chambers of the fridge is within the reachable average height of the elementary-age kid. As I identify this as another pain point since the kids are not able to reach the freezer because of its height.
Hi Anamika! Thank you for taking the time to share your ideas! It's great to see you actively participating with the mock interview, even though you are not the interviewee 😆💪
Great Interview!! Really helpful to know the thought process which goes behind answering each question. Also, great questions by Diego at the beginning to understand the problem statement better. One problem which I've observed is children leaving the Refrigerator door open most of the time. We may add a feature which notifies the parent if the Refrigerator door has been open for a longer span of time.
Diego, you rocked in all way. This proved why Microsoft is so successful company, it is because the people like you that have given so much in all the ways. I wish I get the opportunity to work in Microsoft.
Thank you @d4devotion! I’m glad that you liked the interview. PM interviews seem hard, but breaking them in steps and using a structured approach help to make it less scary
I actually think he misses the big question, which is why do children need their own fridge? What is it that we cannot get for them that they need a fridge? Give them points for picking up a healthy snack? If you don’t want them to get the ice cream then don’t put in any ice cream.
Usually kids left open the gate of the fridge after they use it. So we can think of automatic locking system that will save electricity and will helps the fridge to not loose cooling and may prevent food from spoiling
Thanks so much for this interview! I have some different perspectives/ideas to add (Exponent/Diego I’d love to know your thoughts!): Some other potential user segments: (i) kids who enjoy cooking at a young age and want to be independent (ii) kids who love science and mixing weird things together and parents don’t want those experiments to be kept in the same fridge that the family eats from Important issue to address: The most important thing that I think was missing and which prompted me to comment was that I think there was a missed opportunity here to more deeply empathize with the kids and bring up the issue of **eating disorders**. While I think the idea of gamifying the foods is interesting, I think the idea of labeling foods as “bad” or “good” can lead to really unhealthy/problematic behaviors for children. Instead, I think the kids fridge could be a great opportunity to create a fun experience for fresh produce similarly to how dry goods can be fun to dispense. For example, inside the fridge could be things like a twirly slide that dispenses foods like veggies - the slide could even light up or make noise as the food slides down, a chopper that cuts fun shapes out of things like cucumbers or cheese like a cookie cutter, and many other creative ways to make dispensing the food exciting. From this perspective, the goal of the fridge would be to make eating fresh foods as fun (if not more fun!) and accessible as dry goods. --> Follow up question: When thinking about how I’d answer this design question, one thing that I would have mentioned is my limited expertise and who I would recruit to help me gain the insight I’d need. I would have probably said something like: “There’s a lot of things to keep in mind when designing products for kids. Since I’m not an expert, to ensure the success of the product I’d want to consult with different experts such as developmental psychologists, pediatricians, dietitians, child toy/game designers and manufacturers, etc. to help me create a fun, healthy, and productive product for kids.” Since it’s an interview and I can’t go and consult with those people, I then would say something like “That’s what I’d do in real life, but for the sake of this interview, I’ll give you my thoughts…” I don’t often hear people mention other experts or point out their limited expertise in PM mock interviews, but I think that humility, self-awareness, and resourcefulness are important qualities for a product manager to have. -> What are your thoughts on how an interviewer would react to getting a more human-centered design focused answer like this? Would love to know your thoughts/reactions to these ideas. Thanks so much!
Great insights Eden ! I agree that giving the interviewer a small snippet into how you would deal with any gaps in knowledge with outside help shows humility but also illustrates how you can effectively decide when that is needed.
In the beginning, the interviewer states that they're a new company dealing with connected appliances. And the goal is to gain market share. As a candidate, I would like to know if any market research was done and what some of the findings were. Mainly, I'd like to understand what feedback was received. What are the problems that cannot be solved by the existing types of fridge. It's likely that a few issues would have been highlighted in the research and that some of them would have been identified as more important than the other. Once we know what issues remain unsolved today, we can decide which of them we can go after based on criticality and the market size. Getting these details is very important to decide the next course of action and to plan to achieve the business goals.
This was of great help especially when Diego walked us through the thinking behind answerign the various stages of the interview and the fact that he suggested not to memorize the framework especially when curveballs are thrown which don't fit into the framework boundaries . Gracias Exponent & Diego !
Great video - thank you! If you get this question in an interview, here are a few more dimensions that may be asked about: 1. What assets in the company (that you're interviewing at) could be leveraged to accelerate development of the kid fridge? 2. If we wanted to launch this in the USA, what is your estimate for the market size? How many potential buyers are there? Good luck
Such an awesome interview, one of the best ones hands down! Stephen, thanks for making such a huge impact on us in not just cracking the PM interview, but actually becoming great PMs in our career. Amazing work!
Really awesome mock product sense interview. I really loved the out of box thinking. One question I had was, in terms of coming with possible solutions, how realistic should we be. Like the scenario where recipe being prepared inside fridge at push of button.
Great initial layout plan, I would also like to add one potential risk kids of accidentally getting themselves or their pets inside the fridge inadvertently and accidentally get locked inside, as failsafe there should be a sensor built in to detect living being through temperature fluctuations
Is it better to select one pain point and suggest some solutions to it, or better to suggest solutions without necessarily selecting one pain point in advance?
Really awesome mock interview. I really loved the out of box thinking (I never thought of it). We should built this Smart Fridge. Just adding a few more inputs. 1) we can create individual's profile and fridge would learn over the time and prepare food (salad) accordingly. 2) Kids can code and gamify/customize the fridge
This was a great interview.. I am an aspiring PM.. Almost completing my pm course and going through interviews. This one was really helpful. I liked your thought process and the way you laid it out. Great work :)
Very good mock interview! I was thinking this is a small fridge specifically for kids. should ask the interviewer to clarify it's to design a new fridge for kids or redesign the fridge to be kids-friendly. If there is no resource constraint, does it mean we don't need to consider the cost to implement when evaluating solutions? thx
Hey e.w.6470! It's always good to keep cost/feasibility in mind when designing. Mentioning limitations that you foresee (and potential solutions) demonstrates your critical thinking to the interviewer. Hope this helps!
Quick question: First of all, really awesome example of what a great interview would look like. Thank you so much, Diego and Stephen! It's so refreshing to see an example that doesn't force a framework, but just uses it as a rough guide. Such a great collab! What would your advice be for candidates when they aren't familiar with the topic at hand? How would you suggest the candidate handling this? Ideally, interviewers should pick a topic that's fairly generic. Though in some cases, interviewers might select a niche subject. Thanks!
While dealing with the liquid items such as milk, juice or similar items the kids need to be careful as it may spill down. Can we add this as a pain points
In third option when diego said, refrigerator can heat the food and make food for kid... I thought like..okay.. now the solution (ideation) went from designing fridge for kids to all in one solution i.e food maker, micro oven and refrigerator ... . may be mock interview responses are way over my head. I might want to take some creative classes...
Would you recommend printing a paper which has your framework and use it as a template during the interview? Would that seem inappropriate or show that you went an extra step?
Hi! I don’t recommend printing anything. Always use a white paper and start from scratch! The interview will be about how you can tackle a problem thinking like a PM and the framework is just one of the tools... besides, you might not get to cover all of it - it will depend on the interviewer. I recommend never printing anything for an interview
For these kinds of questions, how much time do you get to answer them? In real interviews at FB, do they actually give you 15-20 mins for it? Or does it vary by company?
In my experience, you get anywhere from 15 to 45 minutes for case questions like this (including any follow-up questions asked in the process), so good to aim for 30 minutes on average.
Diego did not prioritize the pain points. I have seen in some other places, interviewee prioritize the pain points too. Is this expected to ba optional step?
Hi Exponent, Once could you please make a video on the whole interview process and what are the resources to refer to crack PM interview. Starting all the way from online coding round to telephonic interview to onsite round. Regards, Jay Rathod
Hey Jay! Sign up for tryexponent.com and we'll walk you through the whole process! We have courses on making a great resume all the way to acing the interview.
The problem with one of my kid is that he will take all healthy snack to get the points/or get the sugary snacks after x healthy snacks and will keep it on the table aside and eat all the sugary snack. I am very interested about we can ensure the ownership and accountability of task that he really eats it and not kept it aside on the table :) Real word mom problem
Thanks, Stephen and Diego for the insightful mock interview. I liked the solution provided by Diego. I have a question related to the solution part. Do we need to think about how the solutions will be implemented in the real-life while suggesting the solutions? Because at times I will have an idea but won't have clarity about the implementation.
Hi @Vandita! It will depend on your interviewer and the type of questions. Some interviewers will be interested in the technical parts of your answer so they might want to dive deeper into the “how”... others will simply continue with the case without diving deep into the details. Most likely, if you are interviewing for a technical position they will ask you the “how”, but if it’s not a technical pm interview it’s unlikely they’ll ask you those details. Hope this helps!
We need to use AI in the fridge and connected with app and in creating numerous use cases of around health and safely alerts. Also super funky doors and ui to attract kids...and welcome nite for the kids opening the door with some history
Why do they have to login? Why not just have the parent create kid account that is accessed via an onscreen icon. Using a login will probably introduce another pain point. No? Anyway, I get the point, it’s the process, not the solution.
I’m honestly baffled by the praise this idea is getting. Let’s be real-who actually wants a point system or locked compartments in a fridge? Think about it: parents already deal with enough daily tasks, and now we’re suggesting they should gamify food access for their kids? This just adds unnecessary complexity to a basic household appliance. No parent is waking up thinking, “I wish my fridge had a points-based unlock system for each compartment.” The whole point of a fridge is convenience-you open it, you grab what you need. Kids don’t need an app or a scoring system to figure out if they’re allowed to eat something. That’s a parenting issue, not a product design problem. Let’s stop trying to over-engineer simple things. Parents don’t want extra steps just to grab milk or snacks. They want functionality, not friction.
I wish Diego had presented the criteria or framework for prioritization rather than just simply prioritizing on the basis of his thoughts and experience.
This was an awesome collaboration between the two channels! I sometimes hear we need at least 3 levels of ideas (okay, better, moonshot, etc) for a pain point, but in some mock interviews the interviewee dives into 3 or more pain points and offers 1 solution each. And then go into prioritizing. Is it okay to do one or the other? Should we always consider having at least 3 solutions (including a moonshot) for each pain point?
I was trying to follow using the CIRCLE method. It seems he jumped around from this method. Edit: As soon as I commented on this he made the comment about just understanding the framework lol.
This man from Microsoft is obviously dodging from direct answers on direct questions. Maybe this is one of the key points to become good PM?.. So, here I come to idea, that on that kind of interviews you just need to speak...anything, but do not be silent!
this guy is very good but i can’t stand these management consultant case study type questions. product managers really do not deal with such all encompassing business strategy questions in their day to days. product mgr interviews are really becoming absurd. it feels as though product is becoming saturated with mba/ finance consultants who couldn’t hack it in their own profession but take their toxic culture with them into product.
Why is the interviewee giving all the ideas, I thought that the client was supposed to give the basic structure and parameters and and then ask for feasibility and/or improvements.
Love the channel and content Had this my question probable answer would be to go back and expand the idea, necessity of fridge and requirement of kids going to fridge to get food. 1st priority would be of kids safety , I would have face scanner to identify kids profile as well a additional scanner at serve area where it auto detect kids height weight parameters to get age , bmi parameters for food selection. Apart from this on this fridge there would be SOS button which would directly connect on call to parent and via their mobile device they help kid to make choice and vend the food. Coming to capabilities of the fridge I would have a microwave and heat functionality added so that a kid can request for his favourite cereal, sausages or ready to eat items prepared based on his age and served not cold. Atleast in my country food is not eaten cold so I would like to have it a choice, it would also expand food selection. At last I would have a validation of food he /she ate by rewarding kid with his fav item with the submission of bowl back and measuring his weight again. Obviously the fridge would have screen for display but I would put it behind a thick bulletproof glass so kid can only necessarily operate it and when mad can't break the screen. There shall be physical buttons with brail encoding to operate and there shall be voice assisted operation too. At last for kids small than 3 yr old I would add up token system where instead there should be plastic big size cards with food and reward item printed and system would dispense food by card recognition.
I would also add up cartoon content where kids fav cartoon character would appear on interaction screen to guide for healthy food options as well once food is served it would play video of that cartoon character eating and enjoying that food ... Kids nowadays eat with screen
One of the weakest solution in the series. I don't buy in the game system at all because firstly you need to combine an auto-sell system into family fridge; secondly you need to change people's stroage habits into the fridge (they need to separate everything) and why would people do that? The interviewer just jumps directly to elementary school students without credible explaination.
Hate to be the naysayer … but most parents I have known are trying to keep their kids out of the fridge. What are some cases in which they would frequent the fridge? Otherwise, college dorm fridge meets crayola - parents will probably load only one snack at a time. Have they not heard of the marshmallow experiment with kids? Delayed gratification ability = 0.
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subtitles would have worked more
Thank you Exponent for inviting me! I had a lot of fun doing this interview!
Our pleasure! So great to have you on!
Is it OK to address multiple pain points instead of focusing on one pain points. In general people pick one and ideate solutions.
@@PrabhathJayawardena in real life customer have multiple pain points that you need to address as a PM.
Interviews are not like math formulas where if you address one vs three pain points or the other way around suddenly your answer is wrong. You have to check in with your interviewer and make it a dialogue - if they want you to explore multiple pain points then do that, if you prefer to stick with one it’s ok too - double check with your interviewer.
Remember that it’s about showing that you understand how PMs think and solve user pain points like one, there is no single right answer to these kind of questions but I hope this helps!
@@PMDiegoGranados thank you :)
Thank you, this interview was great and really helpful!
Just want to share my experience though over different interviews with PM’s they sometime come with predefined notions of particular answers they are expecting from interviewees and they don’t like or encourage a open conversation like these! How to handle that because sometimes even if one interview goes wrong out of the 5 you have given with that organisation you get out of luck to go in !
Not only was this a great video about handling ANY interview (not just PM), but also: what a fridge! I would totally buy that thing! The whole "kids eating veggies = more points for stuff later" idea is brilliant...
Thanks Stephen and Diego for this engaging mock interview. Loved the way Diego kept laying out what was he thinking and why he made the choices that he made.
Couple of feedback (if I may):
- I think the first question to ask here is - Why? Why do we want to design a fridge for kids? Answer could be:
- The company has done some market research and found that there is a huge potential market for such a product.
- Or, a competitor has launched a kids fridge and my company wants to respond to it.
- Or may be the CEO woke up one morning and asked to do this ;)
Further course of the interview should be driven by this answer to this "why".
- The next fundamental question I would ask - what is the immediate goal of the organisation with this product? In other words, what is my mandate as a product manager? Looking for answers like:
- We want to launch this product as a low cost trial (may be to be launched in a small market without much marketing $) and then see how we go. Then based on response we’ll decide the course. So, the current objective is to design a product that will help is test the waters
- Or, may be we are so confident that there is a market for this that we want to do a big bang launch. And the objective is to deliver and launch a strong product that can win the market
Another thing I would do is, as Diego identified, while kids are the users, parents are the customers/buyers. And we should look at pain points (or Jobs to be done) for both. For example, for parents, it could be - they want to know what are the kids stacking in the fridge and what are the consuming. On the other hand, kids might want a low height fridge so the they can reach all the compartments (including freezer).
One more thing I would do it - see if there are any “must have” features. These could be related to safety, compliance, legal etc. For example, I’ll perhaps consider ‘no topple’, better electrical safety etc. and prioritise those.
Amazing!
Like including that height feature is something very important.
This is such insightful feedback. Thanks!
Tell us about yourself, please :)
Very interesting and key points
I actually think this is an example of where the typical PM interviewing framework over indexes on brute analysis over user centricity - which can actually obscure obvious insights. If we start from the mind and behavior of the user first (the child in this case) we’d likely identify very different “pain points” and solutions than the ones presented in this mock. Why do kids need their own fridge, or a child-friendly fridge? In practical terms, they don’t (kids have managed just fine with normal sized fridges for decades). Kids also don’t “need” their own ovens, but easy-bake ovens exist and are successful products because they’re toys that get children excited about baking. This tells us that we are really designing a toy fridge for entertainment and maybe even educational purposes (even the PM term “pain point” doesn’t really work in this context, semantically). Borrowing from what we know about toys that children love, our fridge should spark joy, be safe and easy to use, and get children excited about playing. Children often model adult behavior - with our fridge, just as with easy bake ovens, we can assume there’s a large segment of children that would love to pretend to stock and manage their own fridge, just as their parents do. We can also imagine component products that could be sold with the fridge or as add-ons, like toy grocery bags, Tupperware, ice cube tray molds, fun shapes milk / juice bottles, etc.
Only after establishing this ground truth about the user persona is it useful to jump into more analytical frameworks like specific customer segmentation to narrow in on, success metrics, competitors, etc.
Your comment is so useful and makes so much sense. I was assuming the question is about a toy-fridge, and the interview went into the direction of a child-friendly fridge. Very confusing. Thanks for sharing!
Well a 1:56 Stephen says they are a connected appliances company... so they are not going to build toys. But that's true there's a customer analysis that is missing and nothing in here speaks to the actual work of product management. It doesn't talk about how you validate idea with customers or even prioritize based on technical complexity/effort.
I would’ve also added in a users’ journey. That would’ve helped identify pain points. Giving you the ability to discuss not having to reinvent the wheel but designing it with the kid in mind as entertainment.
Most PM product sense questions I find that is usually the part that is missing. Some times they do if that is the specific framework they are basing their answers on calls for it. But other than that it is a huge glaring error In my eyes.
And when I say user journey I mean current standard journey. Not the one designed for a kid with outlier specific case.
my first question "Size wise, what is the maximum number of kids do you need to store in the fridge, at any one time?"
Ahh .. the potential conversations that would spawn from here ...
Should it be energy efficient
Would there be specific compartments etc ..
Because the market for Hannibal lector is also a market ..!
🤣
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
@@raunaqsingh6472 I'm calling the police
Do you often put your kids in the fridge?
The most valuable advice in this interview was at the beginning when he explained what his experience with fridges and kids was. Because it set up the entire premise of the potential pain points and solutions. Because if you're a parent with kids you know your solutions here would be very different than those presented. But everything was so we'll explained which made this interview top notch.
Anything designed for kids should have some basic principles. This include safety measures (paint, rounded corners, does not easily topple, etc) attractiveness (colors/designs, light/sound indicators), user friendliness (size, container/shelf positions), customizable look and feel (stickers, changing light colors, change music/tones)... etc.
Agree, found the pin points and solution way too over the top without taking care of basic things. Also at the Macro level there wasn’t much analysis
You’re absolutely correct! I went a bit off
The biggest pain point for this in my opinion is, what do you store in a fridge? Predominantly food that needs to be cooked. So besides the odd lunchable, milk, fruit and other little bits & bobs that could be a waste of energy, anything else would require the kid to combine a bunch of ingredients and get creative with the pots & pans which I don't think is really safe....?
Considering how kids pretty much outgrow the things that are bought for them at a very quick pace, one policy to incentivize the parents to go for such a product would be to implement a trade-in policy (think Apple for instance) when they seek to upgrade to a regular fridge in the future. This could make the kids' fridge to be a worthwhile investment at the present.
✅
Or stackable compartments
I have some more ideas here:
1. The fridge can have 3 chambers with different doors, one with a freezer for ice creams, etc, one for vegetables and fruits, and the third for miscellaneous and non-veg cooked items.
The fridge can be customized by the parents wherein in one day the chamber with ice cream will only open once and kids can be restricted from having too much ice cream. The fruits and vegetables and cooked food chamber will accessible throughout the day.
Also, with this, the fridge should be able to judge which chamber is empty and that chamber can automatically go on power saver mode. This makes the fridge more power efficient.
The fridge will be shorter and broader(than the regular fridge) in size so all the chambers of the fridge is within the reachable average height of the elementary-age kid. As I identify this as another pain point since the kids are not able to reach the freezer because of its height.
Hi Anamika! Thank you for taking the time to share your ideas! It's great to see you actively participating with the mock interview, even though you are not the interviewee 😆💪
This is easily one of the best interviews on the channel. Stephen, keep bringing him back! It was awesome as you say:)
Glad you liked it!
@@tryexponent this interview definitely stands out and easy to follow! thanks Stephen & Diego
Great Interview!! Really helpful to know the thought process which goes behind answering each question. Also, great questions by Diego at the beginning to understand the problem statement better.
One problem which I've observed is children leaving the Refrigerator door open most of the time. We may add a feature which notifies the parent if the Refrigerator door has been open for a longer span of time.
Hello Bharat bhai , kisi company me baat bani. . . Or are you already a working professional
Diego, you rocked in all way. This proved why Microsoft is so successful company, it is because the people like you that have given so much in all the ways. I wish I get the opportunity to work in Microsoft.
Thank you @d4devotion! I’m glad that you liked the interview. PM interviews seem hard, but breaking them in steps and using a structured approach help to make it less scary
I actually think he misses the big question, which is why do children need their own fridge? What is it that we cannot get for them that they need a fridge? Give them points for picking up a healthy snack? If you don’t want them to get the ice cream then don’t put in any ice cream.
Usually kids left open the gate of the fridge after they use it. So we can think of automatic locking system that will save electricity and will helps the fridge to not loose cooling and may prevent food from spoiling
Thanks so much for this interview! I have some different perspectives/ideas to add (Exponent/Diego I’d love to know your thoughts!):
Some other potential user segments:
(i) kids who enjoy cooking at a young age and want to be independent
(ii) kids who love science and mixing weird things together and parents don’t want those experiments to be kept in the same fridge that the family eats from
Important issue to address:
The most important thing that I think was missing and which prompted me to comment was that I think there was a missed opportunity here to more deeply empathize with the kids and bring up the issue of **eating disorders**. While I think the idea of gamifying the foods is interesting, I think the idea of labeling foods as “bad” or “good” can lead to really unhealthy/problematic behaviors for children. Instead, I think the kids fridge could be a great opportunity to create a fun experience for fresh produce similarly to how dry goods can be fun to dispense. For example, inside the fridge could be things like a twirly slide that dispenses foods like veggies - the slide could even light up or make noise as the food slides down, a chopper that cuts fun shapes out of things like cucumbers or cheese like a cookie cutter, and many other creative ways to make dispensing the food exciting. From this perspective, the goal of the fridge would be to make eating fresh foods as fun (if not more fun!) and accessible as dry goods.
--> Follow up question:
When thinking about how I’d answer this design question, one thing that I would have mentioned is my limited expertise and who I would recruit to help me gain the insight I’d need.
I would have probably said something like: “There’s a lot of things to keep in mind when designing products for kids. Since I’m not an expert, to ensure the success of the product I’d want to consult with different experts such as developmental psychologists, pediatricians, dietitians, child toy/game designers and manufacturers, etc. to help me create a fun, healthy, and productive product for kids.”
Since it’s an interview and I can’t go and consult with those people, I then would say something like “That’s what I’d do in real life, but for the sake of this interview, I’ll give you my thoughts…”
I don’t often hear people mention other experts or point out their limited expertise in PM mock interviews, but I think that humility, self-awareness, and resourcefulness are important qualities for a product manager to have.
-> What are your thoughts on how an interviewer would react to getting a more human-centered design focused answer like this?
Would love to know your thoughts/reactions to these ideas. Thanks so much!
Great insights Eden ! I agree that giving the interviewer a small snippet into how you would deal with any gaps in knowledge with outside help shows humility but also illustrates how you can effectively decide when that is needed.
I agree. Product managers are not SMEs in all subjects. They must know that they need to leverage for expertise outside
In the beginning, the interviewer states that they're a new company dealing with connected appliances. And the goal is to gain market share. As a candidate, I would like to know if any market research was done and what some of the findings were. Mainly, I'd like to understand what feedback was received. What are the problems that cannot be solved by the existing types of fridge. It's likely that a few issues would have been highlighted in the research and that some of them would have been identified as more important than the other.
Once we know what issues remain unsolved today, we can decide which of them we can go after based on criticality and the market size. Getting these details is very important to decide the next course of action and to plan to achieve the business goals.
Liked the solution..one angle of approach would be to also clarify whether it would be a standalone product or an addon to normal fridge
This was of great help especially when Diego walked us through the thinking behind answerign the various stages of the interview and the fact that he suggested not to memorize the framework especially when curveballs are thrown which don't fit into the framework boundaries . Gracias Exponent & Diego !
Glad it was helpful!
Great video - thank you!
If you get this question in an interview, here are a few more dimensions that may be asked about:
1. What assets in the company (that you're interviewing at) could be leveraged to accelerate development of the kid fridge?
2. If we wanted to launch this in the USA, what is your estimate for the market size? How many potential buyers are there?
Good luck
Such an awesome interview, one of the best ones hands down! Stephen, thanks for making such a huge impact on us in not just cracking the PM interview, but actually becoming great PMs in our career. Amazing work!
Really awesome mock product sense interview. I really loved the out of box thinking. One question I had was, in terms of coming with possible solutions, how realistic should we be. Like the scenario where recipe being prepared inside fridge at push of button.
This is literal gold. For free.
Should you discuss the M.V.P and potential development costs for the company before discussing metrics?
One of the best interview I had seen on this channel.
Stephen of Exponent is the Tom of Myspace
Great initial layout plan, I would also like to add one potential risk kids of accidentally getting themselves or their pets inside the fridge inadvertently and accidentally get locked inside, as failsafe there should be a sensor built in to detect living being through temperature fluctuations
Is it better to select one pain point and suggest some solutions to it, or better to suggest solutions without necessarily selecting one pain point in advance?
Really awesome mock interview. I really loved the out of box thinking (I never thought of it). We should built this Smart Fridge.
Just adding a few more inputs. 1) we can create individual's profile and fridge would learn over the time and prepare food (salad) accordingly.
2) Kids can code and gamify/customize the fridge
Hey Manoj! Glad you liked the interview! Thank you very much for sharing your thoughts as well 😎
Awesome interview
I really liked how this guy is cheking in now and then and how creative his solutions are.
Thanks!
This was a great interview.. I am an aspiring PM.. Almost completing my pm course and going through interviews. This one was really helpful.
I liked your thought process and the way you laid it out. Great work :)
Hi Deepti, please what courses are you studying?
Which course did you do for PM ?
Thank you for the video! I like the fact that he gives tips to listeners on the go.
My first question would be to ask if it's safe to assume that this addresses a proven problem -- and whether a fridge is a proven solution.
Very good mock interview! I was thinking this is a small fridge specifically for kids. should ask the interviewer to clarify it's to design a new fridge for kids or redesign the fridge to be kids-friendly. If there is no resource constraint, does it mean we don't need to consider the cost to implement when evaluating solutions? thx
Hey e.w.6470! It's always good to keep cost/feasibility in mind when designing. Mentioning limitations that you foresee (and potential solutions) demonstrates your critical thinking to the interviewer. Hope this helps!
even I was thinking the same. I thought there will be a new compact fridge for kids will be developed.
Wonderfully laid out! Awesome interview
Glad you liked it!
That Duke basketball in the background!
Quick question:
First of all, really awesome example of what a great interview would look like. Thank you so much, Diego and Stephen! It's so refreshing to see an example that doesn't force a framework, but just uses it as a rough guide. Such a great collab!
What would your advice be for candidates when they aren't familiar with the topic at hand? How would you suggest the candidate handling this?
Ideally, interviewers should pick a topic that's fairly generic. Though in some cases, interviewers might select a niche subject.
Thanks!
While dealing with the liquid items such as milk, juice or similar items the kids need to be careful as it may spill down.
Can we add this as a pain points
height of fridges also a pain point right? the freezer is generally always on top and not accessible to kids
Thanks for this amazing resource.
This is brilliant Diego and Stephen! Lots to learn and practise
In third option when diego said, refrigerator can heat the food and make food for kid... I thought like..okay.. now the solution (ideation) went from designing fridge for kids to all in one solution i.e food maker, micro oven and refrigerator ... . may be mock interview responses are way over my head. I might want to take some creative classes...
how much worldly knowledge and products experience should one have before his / her first job?
Would you recommend printing a paper which has your framework and use it as a template during the interview? Would that seem inappropriate or show that you went an extra step?
Hi! I don’t recommend printing anything. Always use a white paper and start from scratch!
The interview will be about how you can tackle a problem thinking like a PM and the framework is just one of the tools... besides, you might not get to cover all of it - it will depend on the interviewer.
I recommend never printing anything for an interview
@@PMDiegoGranados Thank you for the quick response and the guidance!
Very good content guys, thank you for sharing.
One of the best, lot of take aways! Thanks. Keep going
Americans are awesome and absolutely super excited about everything. 😂
For these kinds of questions, how much time do you get to answer them? In real interviews at FB, do they actually give you 15-20 mins for it? Or does it vary by company?
In my experience, you get anywhere from 15 to 45 minutes for case questions like this (including any follow-up questions asked in the process), so good to aim for 30 minutes on average.
Diego did not prioritize the pain points. I have seen in some other places, interviewee prioritize the pain points too. Is this expected to ba optional step?
Hi Exponent,
Once could you please make a video on the whole interview process and what are the resources to refer to crack PM interview. Starting all the way from online coding round to telephonic interview to onsite round.
Regards,
Jay Rathod
Hey Jay! Sign up for tryexponent.com and we'll walk you through the whole process! We have courses on making a great resume all the way to acing the interview.
I would have narrowed the product down to a mini fridge that would cost significantly less as no one buys their main fridge with kid specific intents.
Awesome interview Stephen and Diego !
Thanks!
The problem with one of my kid is that he will take all healthy snack to get the points/or get the sugary snacks after x healthy snacks and will keep it on the table aside and eat all the sugary snack. I am very interested about we can ensure the ownership and accountability of task that he really eats it and not kept it aside on the table :) Real word mom problem
Thanks, Stephen and Diego for the insightful mock interview. I liked the solution provided by Diego. I have a question related to the solution part. Do we need to think about how the solutions will be implemented in the real-life while suggesting the solutions? Because at times I will have an idea but won't have clarity about the implementation.
Hi @Vandita! It will depend on your interviewer and the type of questions. Some interviewers will be interested in the technical parts of your answer so they might want to dive deeper into the “how”... others will simply continue with the case without diving deep into the details.
Most likely, if you are interviewing for a technical position they will ask you the “how”, but if it’s not a technical pm interview it’s unlikely they’ll ask you those details. Hope this helps!
This was incredibly helpful!! thank you
Are your “groups” considered your personas?
At the beginning I thought how this could be a problem and after listening to solution I can say definitely it can be successful 😂
Mini Fridge?
Lol
What would be your North Star metric
We need to use AI in the fridge and connected with app and in creating numerous use cases of around health and safely alerts. Also super funky doors and ui to attract kids...and welcome nite for the kids opening the door with some history
Why do they have to login? Why not just have the parent create kid account that is accessed via an onscreen icon. Using a login will probably introduce another pain point. No? Anyway, I get the point, it’s the process, not the solution.
Points for healthy food is a good one 😀
Great interview.
I’m honestly baffled by the praise this idea is getting. Let’s be real-who actually wants a point system or locked compartments in a fridge? Think about it: parents already deal with enough daily tasks, and now we’re suggesting they should gamify food access for their kids? This just adds unnecessary complexity to a basic household appliance.
No parent is waking up thinking, “I wish my fridge had a points-based unlock system for each compartment.” The whole point of a fridge is convenience-you open it, you grab what you need. Kids don’t need an app or a scoring system to figure out if they’re allowed to eat something. That’s a parenting issue, not a product design problem.
Let’s stop trying to over-engineer simple things. Parents don’t want extra steps just to grab milk or snacks. They want functionality, not friction.
This is brilliant 😂❤️
This was fantastic
I wish Diego had presented the criteria or framework for prioritization rather than just simply prioritizing on the basis of his thoughts and experience.
I want this fridge ASAP.
Didn't prioritise a pain point to solve for?!
This was an awesome collaboration between the two channels! I sometimes hear we need at least 3 levels of ideas (okay, better, moonshot, etc) for a pain point, but in some mock interviews the interviewee dives into 3 or more pain points and offers 1 solution each. And then go into prioritizing. Is it okay to do one or the other? Should we always consider having at least 3 solutions (including a moonshot) for each pain point?
How about designing a fridge that restocks itself with ice cold beer?
well nobody is talking about it, but I liked his shirt OK😆😆
👀
is it a Radiohead, Paranoid Android (music video) shirt?
I was trying to follow using the CIRCLE method. It seems he jumped around from this method. Edit: As soon as I commented on this he made the comment about just understanding the framework lol.
It really depends on the maturity of the interviewer and interviewee .. to be on the same page the CIRCLES method allows both to do that ..!
Amazing!
Point and incentivize ideas made me laugh, it was a great idea.
great interview. i see a fellow board gamer :) spirit island is great!
This is awesome
Thanks!
arent the solutions too over the top? :0
Good stuff. Thanks!
Nice t-shirt
This man from Microsoft is obviously dodging from direct answers on direct questions. Maybe this is one of the key points to become good PM?..
So, here I come to idea, that on that kind of interviews you just need to speak...anything, but do not be silent!
this guy is very good but i can’t stand these management consultant case study type questions. product managers really do not deal with such all encompassing business strategy questions in their day to days. product mgr interviews are really becoming absurd. it feels as though product is becoming saturated with mba/ finance consultants who couldn’t hack it in their own profession but take their toxic culture with them into product.
Why is the interviewee giving all the ideas, I thought that the client was supposed to give the basic structure and parameters and and then ask for feasibility and/or improvements.
First question: Why do kids need a fridge?
Click bait I thought we are discussing one punch man haha
@Vipul, I’m sorry for misleading! I promise that I will keep doing the same thing on my videos 😜 (next is… Attack on Titan!)
Love the channel and content
Had this my question probable answer would be to go back and expand the idea, necessity of fridge and requirement of kids going to fridge to get food.
1st priority would be of kids safety , I would have face scanner to identify kids profile as well a additional scanner at serve area where it auto detect kids height weight parameters to get age , bmi parameters for food selection.
Apart from this on this fridge there would be SOS button which would directly connect on call to parent and via their mobile device they help kid to make choice and vend the food.
Coming to capabilities of the fridge I would have a microwave and heat functionality added so that a kid can request for his favourite cereal, sausages or ready to eat items prepared based on his age and served not cold. Atleast in my country food is not eaten cold so I would like to have it a choice, it would also expand food selection.
At last I would have a validation of food he /she ate by rewarding kid with his fav item with the submission of bowl back and measuring his weight again.
Obviously the fridge would have screen for display but I would put it behind a thick bulletproof glass so kid can only necessarily operate it and when mad can't break the screen. There shall be physical buttons with brail encoding to operate and there shall be voice assisted operation too.
At last for kids small than 3 yr old I would add up token system where instead there should be plastic big size cards with food and reward item printed and system would dispense food by card recognition.
I would also add up cartoon content where kids fav cartoon character would appear on interaction screen to guide for healthy food options as well once food is served it would play video of that cartoon character eating and enjoying that food ... Kids nowadays eat with screen
On further improvement I would add small basin for hygiene where kid can wash , dry hand and system would interact and appreciate kid for this.
One of the weakest solution in the series. I don't buy in the game system at all because firstly you need to combine an auto-sell system into family fridge; secondly you need to change people's stroage habits into the fridge (they need to separate everything) and why would people do that? The interviewer just jumps directly to elementary school students without credible explaination.
Oh Diego,, Solve the F'n problem LOL
Hate to be the naysayer … but most parents I have known are trying to keep their kids out of the fridge. What are some cases in which they would frequent the fridge? Otherwise, college dorm fridge meets crayola - parents will probably load only one snack at a time.
Have they not heard of the marshmallow experiment with kids? Delayed gratification ability = 0.
😮 I assumed this was a real fridge and not a toy fridge 😨
Lucky i dont hv to work w the right guy.
ok.
He’s just too slow to my opinion.
this is terrible the candidate is rambling