Microsoft Product Manager Mock Interview: Design Fridge for Kids

0:00 Design a refrigerator for kids. Hey everyone, I'm super excited to be here today with Diego to do a product management mock interview. But before we jump into it, Diego, could you tell us a little bit more about yourself? Absolutely. Thank you so much, Stephen, for inviting me. Hello everyone. My name is Diego Granados and I'm currently a product manager for Microsoft working on AI and machine learning. Awesome. well, we're super excited to have you here, Diego, to do a mock interview today. And we're going to be doing something a little different today where Diego is not only going to be answering the question, but we wanted to hear a little bit more about what Diego's thought process is as he goes through the question and sort of an explanation of why he's going through that. So, we're going to try out this method that will hopefully give you an even deeper dive into how to answer the interview questions that product managers must face in the interviews.

0:50 so I'm super excited to jump into it. and I'll go ahead and ask the question, Diego, and we can get started whenever you're ready. The question that I'd like to ask you today is design a refrigerator for kids. Absolutely. Thanks, Stephen. So, before I jump into answering the question, I think that one of the most common mistakes that I see candidates do at this moment is they start rushing into addressing how they improve it. So before I start thinking about solutions or users, the first thing that I need to think about is I I want to fully understand the problem and just to give you an idea, here are a few questions that I would ask in an interview. Okay.

1:28 so before jumping into solving this problem about the fridge for for kids in mind, let me ask a few questions, Stephen. So what type of company are we? Should I assume that we're like, you know, a large company like a Microsoft or Google or a startup? Like what type of company are we? Yeah, for the intensive purposes of this exercise, you can assume we're a connected appliance company of some sort that has access to tools like data, AI, and cloud technologies.

1:54 Okay. And since we are this, you know, sort of news type of company, do we have any any constraints, any limits on our resources? Yeah, for the exercise that we're going to do today, let's imagine that we don't have that many constraints. We have a substantial amount of resources to design this refrigerator. Okay. And this is the first time that I hear something about this. So I'm assuming that, you know, we're a new company. This is our first design. So I think our goal should be to enter the market and and just gain market share.

2:23 Is is that a a good goal for you or do you prefer to go after something else? That sounds great. Yes. Let's imagine that we're first to the market for something like this. Okay. So in a real interview, I would u try to clarify many more things, right? as many as as I need to until I fully understand the prompt and the limitations. But for now, let's go with these questions. And the next thing that I want to do is I want to make sure that the interviewer and I are on the same page. So, what I'm going to do next is I'm going to talk a little bit about my experience with fridges. It sounds obvious, but you you can think of how incredibly powerful that is. So, Stephen, you know, like most of the people out there, I do have a fridge at at home and it came with my apartment.

3:03 And while I don't have kids, I've I've had my nephews and nieces around. And you know, the first thing that I noticed is that there's no fridge that is designed for kids in mind. And so, well, yes, there are many competitors for fridges. I'm going to assume that we actually don't have a competitor. This is, you know, first-in-class. So, we don't have to worry yet about features from our competitors. And we'll start you know with a fresh new design of a fridge with the kids design sorry with the kids in mind as we go through the design. Now as we talk about kids we also have to think about parents. So the next thing that I want to do if that's okay with you I want to go into brainstorming a little bit about users. There are multiple segments about you know when we think about kids and we also have to think about parents. Would that be okay for you or is there anything else that you that you want to talk about?

3:51 Thanks for checking in. No that sounds great. Let's go for it. Okay. So, now before breaking it down into the different segments and talking about it in an interview, what I would do next is I would ask Stephen for some time, take a couple minutes, write things down. I would ask something like, "Hey, Stephen, would it be okay if I take a couple of minutes?" Typically, interviewers will say yes. So, take a piece of paper, write things down, and as soon as you're done, start talking. And once you have that, you can start with something like, "All right, Stephen, so I I thought of a few users. first of all, we've got, like I mentioned before, we we have parents. while kids may be users, parents will typically be the customers. And in this case, they're also going to be users. So, that's one segment that we need to think about.

4:34 Then, when we talk about kids, we've have kids at multiple stages in life. And so, I want to focus on elementary because I think that's where we, you know, we can have the most impact on. And, typically we can break that down into other types of FE segments. We could go to, you know, kids who are in high school or even younger, but I want to mention one specific that is typically left out in interviews and that is kids again in elementary who have to use a wheelchair. I think it's an important segment and I'll consider them. But these are my three groups of users.

5:07 Now the next thing in an interview that I would do is I would select one of these groups and tell Stephen why I'm selecting that group. And that's what I'm going to do next. so Stephen, from these three groups that I mentioned, I think that we should go after the kids that are in elementary school and I think that because since we're a new company with a new product, we have to make a big impact and I think that's where we have our biggest market share. Is that okay if we explore that segment or would you be interested in another one?

5:35 That sounds great. And thanks for taking the time to break it down. Just wanted to add pausing one of the most important things to do in an interview and I'm glad you you called that out, Diego. around two minutes is around the normal amount for a pause. but yeah, please that sounds like a great user segment. Let's let's go for it and dig deeper. Absolutely. Thank you. okay, in an interview in this next step, the one thing that I want to think about and I can tell my interviewer is something like, "Hey, Stephen. Okay, now that we have our users, the next thing that I want to do is just take a little bit of time to brainstorm some pain points."

6:06 And again, take one or two minutes. And if you think you're running out of time, start talking of the things that you have written down and continue writing as you talk. But don't take too much time. You don't want that awkward silence of, you know, five minutes. So take your time, brainstorm some ideas, write them down, and you know, you can show that the interviewer, hey, you know, just to give an idea, here's a few things that I'm writing about in terms of users and pain points. And once you're ready, start talking. All right.

6:33 Stephen, so I thought about this, you know, group of users and I thought about three different pain points that that we can have for these for these kids who are in elementary school. So, one of them is that when kids go to the fridge and they open it, they typically go for, you know, snacks and whether that is something like ice cream or just any sugary snack that they can find and a lot of times is they're hungry, they want something and they see the fridge with which is very confusing for them. We see containers, we see raw food, they have no idea what to do with those. So, they go for the easy option.

7:09 So one of the pain points is about not knowing exactly what's you know inside the fridge. The second is a little bit more concerning to the parents but I think it's still a pain point for both kids and parents which is yes even if we had you know the healthy food let's say carrots in a bowl and the kids could easily take them out and start eating some carrots they're always going to prefer you know ice cream over carrots.

7:33 So even if we make it simple, that's still a pain point because over time that could impact the health of the kids. and and the last one and and this, you know, happened with my nieces. And by the way, quick parenthesis, it's always important if you have a personal story to add it into the mix. one of my nieces was taking out a bowl out of the fridge and it fell through her hands. It was made out of glass and of course it was dangerous. Nothing happened, but I feel that kids if they're moving stuff around, you know, it could be potentially dangerous. So, I have these three pain points. The next thing that I want to do is think of how can I solve this. But before that, let me pause here and see if you got any questions for me.

8:11 Yeah. thanks for for checking in with me. I mean, this sounds like a great discussion. You can keep going for it. I would love to hear how you'd solve some of these pain points when you're ready to to get to that step. Yeah, absolutely. Okay, before again going into how do I solve these pain points, I need to take some time and I need to take some time to brainstorm how would I solve these pain points. In in many interviews, you'll come up with two, three, maybe four solutions. And what you want to make sure is that if you're interviewing in a video call like this one, you can typically have a paper that you can show your interviewer what the steps that you're doing. If it's over the phone, you want to make sure that you know you use things like first, the second, and third to make sure that it's clear and how many solutions you have. If you have moonshot ideas, which is, you know, typically common in an interview like with Google, you also want to make sure that you you call them out. Don't be afraid to explore different ideas. You'll get later into things like prioritizing and and measuring. And so don't worry about if your idea sounds a little bit crazy. The whole point of this exercise is to show that you can mix the user the painoint with a little bit of creativity and solve the problem. It's about solving the user painoint not about just making the product the product cool for the sake of making it cool. So take your time brainstorm 2 minutes and then start talking again. okay so Stephen I thought about you know a few ways to solve these three pain points right. the first solution that I can think of is a little bit related to you know my nieces dropped this object.

9:47 It can be dangerous and and parents will be concerned about that. And so one thing that I can think of is we can actually have special compartments inside the fridge that parents can lock or unlock. And anything that could be harmful or that can break, they can simply put it, you know, on that part of of the fridge and and if the parents are not around, they need to open it for somebody else through an app, they can simply touch a button, open it up, people can take out the container.

10:13 but it will be safe for kids and they can just leave the snacks and you know healthy stuff somewhere else where it it's not part of that you know special containment special door or or special part of the fridge. So that's one solution that I can think of for how we can help mitigate that the kids could you know get harmed if they drop something. Another solution that I have, my second solution for for a painoint of kids you know may always choose actually the sugary snacks over the healthy stuff is we can think of gamifying the experience of the fridge.

10:46 So for instance, if we add say a display in the front of the fridge where kids can log in, you know, something simple, something like finger fingerprint scanning or you know, any other way we can we can explore, but essentially I log in as a kid and I'm going to receive points. The fridge can detect if I took out say an ice cream or some carrots or something else healthy. If I take something, you know, healthy, I can gain points. If I take something sugary more than you know one one portion of it I can get you know less points for that or reduce points. Now about the points what I can do as a parent then is I can say well you want to you know extra half an hour of video games it cost 100 points. And so as a kid I'm incentivized to actually if I want to play more I can you know I need to go for the healthy food. And so in time this addresses the concern of the parents saying hey my kid is not being healthy. And the third idea that I have is a little bit related to if I open the fridge as a kid, I have no idea what's in there. Right now, what if we go a little bit crazy on this one and say as a parent, I want the fridge to understand different recipes. I will put into the fridge, hey, I know that I have this, you know, vegetables and and I want this type of salad that I know my kid likes. So, I can simply put the recipe and as soon as the kid opens it, the fridge has a special compartment.

12:11 So, this is what we're designing. I put all the raw ingredients there. The kid opens the fridge. this compartment mixes everything, prepares, or maybe we can even go crazy here and say it can actually heat a few things. And as soon as the kid opens it up, it will serve that that plate to the kid. And so the kid instead of trying to fish for what's out there, it will, you know, be like, "Hey, here's your food. It's healthy.

12:33 It's a snack. You love it. your parents know about it." And so the kid simply takes the plate out from that special compartment and, you know, be done with it. And so that I think we can address that can also address how the kids can say I understand what's inside the fridge at this point before moving forward. You can also again if you're doing a video call you can show your interviewer hey here are my three ideas here are the pain points here's how I'm solving everything. It just gives them a good idea of how you're thinking structuring the problem and also helps them to follow you along as you're talking through through the solution. and and so before continuing the the the prompt with your interviewer again check in just to make sure that they don't have questions or that they don't want to go deeper into a solution.

13:18 So you can simply say something like all right so Stephen so these were my three ideas to the pain points what I'd love to do next is explore how we can prioritize these these ideas but before I go there do you have any questions any comments on any of the things that I mentioned before? Yeah. well, I'd love to hear a little bit more about the point system that you mentioned in just a second, specifically on you know, the video game like experience that you'd be creating for kids and maybe some concerns that you might have it with it as well. so I'd love to hear some thoughts on the concerns of that.

13:52 also, you know, just to comment from a non-interviewer's perspective, I think Diego is doing a great job of checking in. I I what I really like about the paper is not even necessarily that I need to be able to read it. I know it's hard to read on this video call, but what's effective that Diego is doing is he's spatially placing his ideas so he can point to them. So he can say like, "Oh, this is my first one. This is the second one. This one's this one, and this one's that one." And even just the mere act of like spatially placing out things and delineating them helps me as an interviewer understand a little bit more about what Diego is getting at. So just wanted to call that out as being something quite effective. But yeah, Diego would love to hear a little bit more about maybe concerns like let's say I'm a parent and I'm imagining this gamelike system. and then maybe my concern is that you know like after this game system is done or maybe we're traveling on vacation or something like that, I have no mechanism to get my kid to eat. so how would you think about that particular idea in the context of that? And then yes, please go on to to tell me which idea you think would be the best to kind of dig deeper into.

14:51 Absolutely. before I go into the answer stepping back a little bit in into into the interview itself I think this is a great example of why memorizing a framework it's not the right way to approach these problems. You have to understand the concepts of the frameworks like customers customers have pain points. Painpoints provoke solutions. But if I just memorize the framework and Stephen as asks me this this question, I would be nervous because it's not part of the framework. Like it was something that I didn't expect. So I it's not about you have to learn a B or C framework is you have to understand the concepts behind the framework to help you think like a product manager as you go through these interviews. So going back to the answer. All right. So so Stephen, so you're absolutely right. I think if if I actually think of for instance my mom having that system not only with me but with my nieces, my nieces were born with a tablet in their hand. They know how systems work. They can actually, you know, find a way to I don't know make sure that they are actually taking sugary snacks and trick the system into thinking it's it's vegetables. And so I think yes while the system is designed for kids my main concern is that adults have to be able to use it. So we have to make sure that whatever we design it's you know being usable by parents by kids by anyone regardless of their age. So that's one principle that we always have to keep in mind. another concern that I have is that with many things that that we've seen through, you know, mobile apps, games or websites, at some point you get tired of these things, right? And and the kid could say like, " whatever. I just don't care about 30 more minutes of gameplay or I don't care about the system anymore. I'll just take whatever." So, we have to think that this is not something that we designed once and and that's it. Boom.

16:46 Great idea. It's something that we need to keep iterating on and we need to keep iterating on on the user feedback to understand what the kids want to do whether it's you know just the point system or our reward system. How do we improve that gamifying experience? So we this is not a one thing implementation this is a long-term thing and and the last and addressing your concern about hey u you know we went to vacation what's going to happen and we can think of different ways we are talking about connected appliances right so in the future we might have multiple appliances so we can start thinking of a design where we have something that goes with us along the way in terms of I may be a parent I have a mobile app here on my phone that helps me with that point system and and so we can make games with the family as as we are, you know, educating our kids. Although I have to warn here that it's not the life is not just about gamifying, right? But it's a good way to introduce some family dynamics that could also help like with the with the chores and and just helping out, you know, getting points and all that. It's it's a matter of of also families in here. So in the end is is how do we extend that beyond the fridge and just saying as you go on vacation the system has to know that you're on vacation that you know the family is not present but as they come back how do I incorporate the points that maybe I I I want on the travel and then coming back home and and continuing that. So these are some of the concerns that that I have and those are just around the user but of course technologically speaking it's a it's a different story.

18:23 Got it. thanks for diving into that. That makes a lot of sense. would love to hear a little bit more about the detailed solution that you do think would be valuable to discuss a little bit more in this particular problem. Yeah. So going back to to what we were talking about before is now that I have my three different solutions, I think it's important that we prioritize them and and we have to think that prioritizing is not just about saying oh this is the most feasible one or this is the one that just has the most impact. Prioritizing. There are tons of frameworks. There are tons of things that we can do about prioritizing. But to me the important keys are first of all we need to make sure that we address the objective which in our case is about getting that market share and second we have to make sure that our solutions addressed the pain points and we prioritized based on that. And I have a third one which applies to hardware which is it's way easier to implement hardware first and then make software updates versus if I buy a fridge today and then I made a hardware update I'm probably not going to you know replace my fridge in the next 5 10 years. so so I have to keep those things in mind and so with that in mind like I said so if you're in an interview you can show here are my three ideas you can say well you know I think that we should prioritize first the idea of gamifying the fridge adding this screen in the front and I think that's where we could have the most impact at the beginning of launching this new fridge into the market it's connected so once we implement this any new upgrades that can do in software are going to be relatively easier. So that's the first one that I would do and this would again address the pain point of of making sure that kids try to eat healthier. The second one would be about the concern of kids may drop something if it's made out of u you know glass or something that could be hurtful for them. And the reason I say that it could be second is because from a technology point of view this could also be an add-on module. So it's not something that we need to implement today. We can actually you know get a new revenue revenue stream through that sold separately something that that we can add on at a later stage. And the third one about having a special compartment that can prepare the food. I think that could be like a next huge gen of fridges in the smart home appliances but it's something that requires a lot of technology. So while I put it as a third option, that doesn't mean that we need to start it at last.

21:00 We can start with research and development today and plan for it, you know, in the next 5 10 years as the next generation of fridges. And and so that's how I would prioritize these three things. The next thing or the last thing that I love to do just to make sure that that we we we enclose the the this case is to tell you about how I would measure the success of of this implementation. But before that, any other questions that you have?

21:27 No, that sounds great, Diego. yeah, we'd love to hear your metric for success. Yeah. So, and again, in an interview, if you need time, take, you know, ask for a minute or two. you don't want to make it 10 minutes of silence, just something brief. And once you have your matrix, then you can start talking to your interviewer. All right. So, I have these three solutions. I prioritize them. And the first thing that I need to think about is since we're selling a fridge, which is something physical. One of the metrics that I would go to is the sales and also the returns. And I would include into that the service call or support calls because we want to make sure yes, how much are we selling, how much we are returning, but also how many people are calling support for you know XYZ problem. that will give us an idea of are people buying it, are people actually not happy in returning it or are we having too many problems with that. So that's one metric that I would measure to determine whether this has been a successful implementation.

22:25 Another set of metrics is online signals. And so when I think of a product, if I'm buying something on a website like Amazon or Walmart, I look at the reviews and I look at the comments from people, right? So I will look at through the channels where we are distributing this fridge. If we have an online presence, let's look at the reviews. Let's look at how what people are commenting on our solution and and I would also take that as a signal of whether we we are being successful and more people are adopting that and of course that includes the sales, the returns and and the support goals. And lastly, once we have those two, I would say primary metrics, I would also look at telemetry metrics or metrics from our product. How are people using it? And this is something that, you know, through the right privacy and and legal requirements, we can take the signals from the fridge and see, okay, how are people actually using it? Are are are kids enjoying the gamifying experience? Are people being constant about it? are are people actually are there any malfunctions in the program?

23:25 Any bugs? And so this combination of three different types of metrics, I think, can give us a good indication of whether this was a successful implementation or not. Got it. that's an awesome recap or sort of ending to that exercise. Diego, could you maybe summarize kind of like the steps that you went through to get there or anything else that you think would be valuable to add in this interview before we break out of the interview?

23:50 Absolutely. And speaking of of the interview, so if I were in an interview at this moment and I see that I have a little bit of time, one one nice touch I don't think many interviewers like Stephen ask sometimes for a recap, but I think it's a really nice touch that interviewers or interviewees sometimes do that and and just take a couple minutes and and go over all the different steps, right? You can do something like this. In this case, sure. So we started with our, you know, problem of how do we design a a fridge for kids in mind? We clarify a few questions like yes we are a startup that is in charge of smart appliances. We also clarified our constraints and the goal of entering the market with this new product. We talked about kids but also as part of the users we talked about parents and another segment of kids who use wheelchairs. And we decided to go with kids who are in elementary school because it's where we can make the biggest impact for this new product.

24:41 So, we talked about three pain points. Then, being able to identify what's in the fridge, being able to help with the kids health by helping them to choose healthy food over snacks, and finally being able to be to have some safety around containers that that may break easily. Then, we brainstorm once we have those pain points, we brainstorm on the solutions. And the solutions were gamifying the system to allow the kid to have a better health through through points and and exchange that for things like more more more time playing. We also talked about having this, you know, compartment that prepares the food. And we also talked about having an extra layer of protection that parents can put in in front of the fridge for containers that are made of glass. We prioritize them by saying first gamify, second this extra layer of protection and third the container. And we're going to measure the success of this implementation by measuring the sales, the returns, the support calls, online metrics like reviews and some telemetry or in product metrics like bugs and how people are constantly using that. And so that's how I would address solving the designing a free trick kits question. Awesome.

26:01 well, applause to you, D. That was a really awesome interview answer. I want to take a moment to pop out of the interview and just talk a little bit about how it was for you. we already kind of talked about the interview throughout the process, but I'm curious to hear if you had any other tips or things you wanted to share with viewers, including maybe also a little bit more about where to find more resources by you, too.

26:24 Yeah, absolutely. I I think one of the some of the biggest mistakes that that candidates do during these interviews is that like I said at the beginning they they go through a framework end to end thinking that that's the end of the interview without making it a dialogue. And so solving products in an interview just like in real life it's about a dialogue with the other person. The other person might be a PM and you're going to collaborate with them. So the the product question is not just about rushing through the framework. It's about solving this problem together. The interviewer is there to help you come up with with the solutions through questions and through going deep in other different things. He he's not just there to see if you can follow the framework. So that's one advice that I would give. And the second is and I I sometimes get this a lot before an interview is, hey, I have an interview tomorrow. I have not practiced at all. Practice, practice, practice. You wouldn't believe how much actually practicing will help you. Do as many mock interviews as you can. There are plenty of resources out there. Go on LinkedIn, post that. I'm you're looking for mock interviews and you'll be surprised at how many people will be willing to help you with that. So, practice as much as you can. And in terms of resources, so I have a YouTube channel called PM Diego Granados where you can find more information about, what is product management and and some tips on interviews and, just in general, you know, trying to help with, breaking down the day-to-day life of a product manager and things like that. So definitely check it out. And, and last thing is again, thanks Stephen for inviting me. I think this was an awesome thing and I love your channel. So hopefully more viewers will will get here.

28:05 Awesome. Yeah. And and thanks Dgo for sharing all that stuff and and doing this awesome interview. For those watching, if you're not already a member of Exponent, you can check us out at tryexponent.com. We help people land their dream tech jobs, including in product management. we do that with the we have our courses, our coaching, and also a vibrant community of people who conduct peer mock interviews. help each other with answering questions and things like that. and we have an entire interview question database with questions that have been recently asked at top tier companies. so definitely check that out. and if you have any questions about this interview that we did today, let us know in the comments below. we'd love to help answer.

28:44 Both Diego and I will watch the comments to answer any other questions that you have that we didn't cover today. And if you want to get more content like this, please do give us a like and subscribe. once again, Diego, thank you so much for being on the show. It's so awesome to have you and see you in action and really see the thought process behind the interview as you went through it. so thank you again for being on the show. And to those of you watching, good luck on your upcoming interviews.

29:11 Thanks so much for watching. Don't forget to hit the like and subscribe buttons below to let us know that this video was valuable for you. And of course, check out hundreds more videos just like this at tryexponent.com. Thanks for watching and good luck on your upcoming interview.