part0032

The product sense interview evaluates whether you can identify a customer problem, tie that problem to a company goal, and define a solution. Your interviewer will begin the conversation by providing a problem statement (e.g., “Design a product for people to find apartments.”) before letting you drive the discussion.

You should take a structured approach when answering product sense questions. Just like building a product, you should start the interview with the problem and goal before diving into the solution:

a) Who are the customers?

b) What problems do they have?

a) How do these problems relate to the company’s mission?

b) What metric are we trying to improve?

a) Map out the user journey

b) Brainstorm solutions

c) Discuss trade-offs and prioritize

d) Wireframe the MVP

Airbnb wants to let people book event spaces like photo studios and outdoor lounges. As the events product manager, how would you bring this product category to market?

Candidate : Thank you! If you don’t mind, I’d like to ask a few questions. First, are there event spaces listed on Airbnb today?

Interviewer : No, but there are some homes listed on Airbnb that could qualify as event spaces.

Candidate : Good to know, is there a type of event space that we want to focus on first?

Interviewer : I think that’s up to you to decide.

Candidate : Ok, here’s how I plan to tackle this problem. First, I want to understand our customers and their pain points better. Second, let’s discuss how addressing these pain points can help Airbnb achieve its goals. Finally, I’d like to brainstorm solutions and then define the MVP with you. Does that sound good?

Interviewer : That sounds great.

The candidate set up a clear framework upfront by talking out loud (First...second...finally) and using the whiteboard. She’ll use this framework as a guide for the rest of the interview.

Candidate : Great, so I think there are two customers here, event space hosts and event organizers.

Hosts don’t want their spaces to go unused, especially during non-peak times (e.g., a restaurant in the afternoon). They want to earn income and meet people by finding organizers to rent out their spaces.

Organizers want to find spaces to celebrate events like offsites and parties with their guests.

Today, hosts and organizers rely on word of mouth, online searches, phone calls, and in-person visits to find each other and book a space. This process is time-consuming and inefficient.

Finding and booking an event space is inefficient: Search / word of mouth → phone calls / in-person visits.

Candidate : Are there any problems that I missed?

Interviewer : What about our existing hosts?

Candidate : Yes, that’s a great point. As you mentioned, some of our existing hosts already have event spaces listed as homes on Airbnb. They could also have spaces that they haven’t listed yet. I think current hosts have the same goals as event space owners: they want to earn income by renting out their space for events. Come to think of it, helping existing hosts rent out their space may be an excellent way for us to enter this market.

Interviewer : Great, let’s keep going.

The candidate started by identifying the customers (there are usually several types) and their pain points. By checking with the interviewer, the candidate was also able to identify a customer segment that she missed (existing hosts). Remember that the interviewer wants to help you succeed, so check in regularly to give him or her an opportunity to provide input.

Candidate : Ok, now let’s think about how helping hosts rent out spaces to organizers helps Airbnb.

Airbnb’s vision is to create a world where everyone can belong anywhere. Adding event spaces will bring us closer to our vision by helping existing hosts earn more income. It will also attract new hosts and guests to our platform. From a metrics perspective, I think we would want to measure both growth (number of event bookings) and customer satisfaction (ratings and reviews).

I know we’re focused on defining the MVP, but let’s imagine what the future could look like for a minute. Long term, we can give hosts tools to help organizers plan their entire event and trip. For example, a host could offer add-on services like catering and allow an organizer to book an event space, home, and experience together as a package.

The candidate was able to tie the customer problem to Airbnb’s vision and key metrics, which she researched before the interview. As bonus points, she also painted a vision of what event spaces could unlock for Airbnb’s business as a whole to give the interviewer a sense of her strategic thinking.

Interviewer : That’s very interesting, I like how you’re thinking about trips as a whole and not just event spaces. But let’s go back to the immediate goal: Would you focus on growing supply or demand to grow event bookings?

Candidate : Well to grow event bookings, we need both hosts and organizers. Do we know how many existing hosts already have event spaces listed as homes?

Interviewer : Let’s assume that that are very few event spaces listed as homes, but a lot of existing hosts have event spaces that they haven’t listed yet.

Candidate : That sounds like an opportunity for us! I think we should focus on supply—specifically, getting our existing hosts to list quality event spaces on Airbnb. Once hosts list their spaces, we can promote these listings on our platform to encourage organizers to book events. Do you agree?

Interviewer : Yes, I think that makes sense.

By establishing a dialogue with the interviewer and asking questions, the candidate was able to unlock the insight that many existing hosts on Airbnb haven’t listed their event space.

Candidate : Great. Before we discuss the solution, let’s summarize the problem and the goal. We want to focus on helping our existing hosts list their event spaces to earn more income. Our goal is to grow bookings and achieve high customer ratings.

Interviewer : Sounds good to me.

Summarize the problem and goal in a few crisp sentences before discussing the solution. Product managers do this all the time when meeting with stakeholders, so it’s a good practice during the interview as well.

Candidate : Ok now let's think about how we can solve this problem. To begin, I'd like to map out the user journey for event space hosts:

Candidate : Since we’re focused on helping existing hosts list spaces, I think we should tackle the first two steps of this journey first. Let’s think about how we can improve host awareness of event spaces and make it easier for them to list their space.

The candidate mapped out the full user journey before prioritizing the steps that she’ll tackle first. She was able to easily explain why she prioritized the first two steps of the user journey because she had summarized the problem and goal earlier.

Interviewer : How will you prioritize these ideas for our MVP?

Candidate : Ok, let’s think this through step by step.

To grow supply, I think we should send an e-mail to hosts who have event space type homes (e.g., lofts) and profiles (e.g., restaurant owner). We should also target our top-rated hosts first to make sure that we have quality event space listings when launching this new category. I chose e-mail as our channel because we may have hosts who are inactive on Airbnb but still have fantastic event spaces to list.

For listing an event space, I think we only need to make a few modifications to the existing home-listing process. We need to add space type, event type, number of attendees, price/hour, and hours available. The rest of the process we can repurpose from the home listings flow.

Channels: E-mail, in product notification, referrals, search ads

The candidate brainstormed an extensive list of ideas before prioritizing what to build for the MVP. She explained her rationale out loud and also crossed out ideas on the whiteboard as she deprioritized them.

Candidate : Probably not. We should start with simple events like team off-sites and parties. A complex event like a wedding comes with high expectations and multiple vendors, so we shouldn’t tackle these events until later.

Interviewer : Makes sense. What about the demand side?

Candidate : On the demand side, we need to make organizers aware that they can now book event spaces on Airbnb. We also need to make it easy for them to find and book spaces. Let's let them select an event space category first, then filter by event type, number of attendees, and other fields. We can use our existing messaging and payment tools when the organizer is ready to book a space .

The candidate did not get flustered or defensive when the interviewer asked follow up questions. Instead, she listened carefully to the interviewer’s input and was thoughtful in addressing any concerns.

Interviewer : Ok, do you want to summarize everything?

Candidate : Yes! Event space hosts want to earn income by finding organizers to book their space.

Entering the event spaces market will help our existing hosts earn more income and attract new hosts and guests to our platform. Long term, our goal is to be the end-to-end provider of events and trips. For this launch, we’ll measure success through bookings and customer ratings.

To enter this market, we decided to focus on helping our existing hosts list their space. We will send a targeted e-mail to existing hosts to encourage them to register their spaces. We will also modify our home-listing process for event spaces and allow organizers to find these spaces on Airbnb easily. If we execute well, our MVP should give us a set of quality event space listings that we can promote on Airbnb for event organizers to find.

The candidate was able to close the interview with a strong summary because she organized everything on the whiteboard and walked through the case in a structured way.

The example above should give you an idea of how you can demonstrate structure, vision, creativity, prioritization, and communication in a product sense interview.