Product Design Interview Walkthrough

Design a [ blank ] for [ a group of people or purpose ]

Design a fridge for the blind

Design twitter for aliens

Design a backpack for cows

When presented with a product design question, Junior PMs can feel lost and not know where to begin or how to answer such a question. In this short article, I will walk you through how I approach these questions and my overall thought process to successfully acing a product design question.

What the layout will often look like:

1. Oftentimes, you are sharing a document with the interviewer, so write out your ideas and questions to display clear communication skills and organized thinking

2. Walk through the CUPSK framework and the rule of three

3. Remember to take your time, and be very clear with your thought process, sometimes just listing the thoughts out

Example: Design a chair for the blind

I will walk through the CUPSK and rule of three framework and how to utilize it.

The CUPSK framework and the rule of three:

Clarifying questions: Always begin with clarification questions to narrow down the problem window

Users: Define three users that are your main target audience. Then, focus on one user

1. Legally blind

2. Partially blind

3. Fully blind

Pain points: Define three pain points for the user you focused on. Then focus on one point

Focus on pain points that are experiencing disruptions, since your solution addresses those moments. For example, instead of just “not seeing the chair,” the real issue is missing the chair when sitting, so the solution might be a chair that moves into place when it detects a sitting motion.

Solution: Define three solutions to one problem. Then focus on one solution

The best way to design solutions is to scope them out.

1. Tame: This will be your solution 95% of the time (ex., a chair that beeps to detect if the person is in the right spot to sit down)

2. More chaotic: This could be plausible with some intense technical difficulty (ex., a chair backpack that, when space is clear, will shoot out chair legs so the person can sit)

3. Moon shot: pretty much impossible but fun idea (shows you think outside the box) (ex., a chair that moves under anyone in the room that does a sitting motion)

KPIs: Define three KPIs to measure the success of the solution (Follow SMART)

• Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and a set Timeframe

1. 95% rate of 3 successful sit downs by 50 unique participants by 4 months after prototyping

2. 95% of 50 users rated ‘feelings of safety when using’ at least a 4/5 on post-use surveys

3. Achieve recommendations from 5 eye doctors for usage within a year after prototyping

• Risks (if extra time): Define the risks of the solution chosen

With the CUPSK and rule of three frameworks, you are able to cover the most important parts of product discovery and problem definition.