Last Updated: November 2021

Problem

Duration: 20 Minutes
Difficulty: Medium

An interviewer at Google asked:

How would you improve Google Maps?

Tips & Hints

This section provides tips and hints to help you practice this case problem, effectively. The practice tip section highlights how to practice this question. The solution hint section provides clues on how to solve this problem if you get stuck. Skip the solution hint if you want to try this problem on your own.

Practice Tip

To practice this problem effectively, set a timer for 20 minutes and explain your solution out loud to yourself or a practice buddy.
Use a whiteboard, sheet of paper, or word document to jot down your ideas, which can help structure your response.
Share your solution either on the course discussion or Slack channel to receive feedback from peers and instructors.
As you read the solution dialogue, sometimes you will see “*Address this question” after an interviewer asks a follow-up to the candidate. Pause the reading for a minute to respond to this follow-up as though you are the candidate.

Solution Hint

A naive solution proposes ideas without backing them up based on user data. Think about how you would extract ideas based on the behavioral data on Messenger.
Approach the solution by in this procedure. First, elaborate on the business and product context. Second, two to three ideas that improve the product. Third, explain how you would validate whether to build the idea using data. Lastly, explain which idea to prioritize first.

Solution

[Interviewer] How would you improve Google Maps?

Commentary: To address such a question on how to improve a product, it helps to familiarize yourself with the user experience and current features. Knowing what’s already on the existing product helps you identify potential bottlenecks and suggestions that can improve the feature. Otherwise, you risk proposing a solution that is redundant. So, prior to any product-case interviews, make sure to research the flagship products of a company interviewing you.

[Candidate] Thank you for the question. To address this question, I would like to first clarify the goal of this problem, and, secondly, walk through the user experience on Google Maps.

[Interviewer] Sounds good.

[Candidate] The purpose of Google Maps is to enable users to find and navigate locations. Improving Google Maps should enhance the user experience, which in turn, promotes retention and advertisement revenue.

When users enter Google Maps, they can browse on the map to find locations they may want to visit, search the address or name of a destination, and get the direction to the location. There are other features that include advertisement posts, search results based on a keyword such as “restaurants near me,” and a display of the estimated time of arrival upon starting the navigation view.

Commentary: When addressing a product data science question, a naive response is to provide solutions without discussing the goal and user experience of a product. You want to show the interviewer that you understand the context of the problem. Secondly, the context can help you generate ideas for improving a product.

[Interviewer] Sounds good. Now, can you come up with suggestions on how to improve Google Maps?

[Candidate] I can try to think of two to three ideas based on a combination of my personal experience and a data-driven approach.

As a city dweller, I like to find events local to me. Currently, Google Maps only displays the location and general details of a business. But, restaurants and bars sometimes host happy hours and special events such as a comedy show. It would be nice if a local business can display events in the form of an advertisement.

I believe that this can serve users such as myself looking for events to attend, help local businesses attract customers, and help Google Maps generate advertisement revenue.

Commentary: When coming up with an idea to improve a product, you can draw inspiration based on your personal experience of using the product. What is one feature you wish the product had so your life would be easier? Once you come up with an idea, you can validate it by looking at the user event data. Are there behaviors that suggest that users want this type of feature?

An example could be a positive sentiment from Facebook users on Messenger or Comments. Given that users are already sending expressions such as “I like this,” “I love this.” A “Like” button could be in the text box to help the users express the sentiment quickly and meaningfully.

[Interviewer] Sounds great. Can you come up with another suggestion?

[Candidate] Another idea I have is allowing users to look up the ETA of a destination based on some other time in the future. The current ETA is displayed in real-time once a user starts a destination. However, when planning a trip in advance, sometimes it helps to know what would be the ETA of a route so the trip time can be planned accordingly.

For instance, the route from San Francisco to Napa Valley might take about an hour or two depending on the time of the day and day of the week. It would be nice if I could have this information in advance so I can plan a trip outside of the congestion time.

[Interviewer] I like that idea. Now, you made two suggestions: (1) an event banner for businesses and (2) a historical ETA look-up. How would you validate whether users want such features?

[Candidate] I can take a look at the user event data. For the first one, I can track user behaviors via search history. For instance, if they search a bar on Google Maps, and then search events or shows of the bar on Google Search, this indicates that a user’s intent is to find events hosted at the venue.

For the second idea, I can validate this by looking at navigation that a user started and ended without the user physically moving. This suggests that a user looked at the route to conduct planning.

[Interviewer] Now, given these two ideas, how would you prioritize which one the Google Maps team should focus on?

Commentary: A common question asked in a product data science interview involves how would you prioritize which feature to build. To address this question, you can approach this in terms of frameworks.

Pros & Cons – List the pros and cons of each feature. Then, identify a feature that is more meaningful in terms of pros.
Effort Prioritization (Impact vs Effort) – Think about whether an idea is low or high in terms of impact and effort. If the effort is high and impact is low, this may not be an idea a product team would want to invest in. Ideally, they would want to find an idea that has a high impact with low effort.

[Candidate] To address this question, I can evaluate an idea based on the impact and effort required to build the feature. Ideally, the product team would want to build an idea that has a high impact with low effort unless the change is a major feature rollout of a product (e.g. rebranding).

The impact can be measured by looking at the count of user actions that capture the ideas proposed. As this count increases, there is increased demand for such a feature that can provide convenience to users. The product team may want to prioritize the feature based on this demand.

The effort requires a discussion with the product manager and engineering team as, any feature creation, involves the time, money and manpower required to launch it. If the effort is deemed too high with low impact, then this may not be a feature worth pursuing.

[Interviewer] Okay, gotcha. Based on the framework you mentioned, can you evaluate the impact and effort for each of the ideas and provide a recommendation?

[Candidate] I would say that the local event banner is high in impact while the ETA lookup is low in impact. The local event banner would serve a triad of users, businesses and ad revenue of Google Maps. The ETA lookup is nice to have, but not necessarily needed.

Feature Ideas	Impact	Effort
(A) Local Event Banner	High	High
(B) ETA Lookup	Low	Low

In terms of effort for the banner required coordination of teams involving Ads, design, engineering, the effort is high. The ETA lookup only requires a design and engineering change so the effort is low.

Depending on the priority of the team and the overarching, quarterly / annual objectives set by the management, an idea should be pursued. In this case, I believe that the local event banner is an idea worth pursuing as it benefits the triad as mentioned previously in the long term.

Assessment

The candidate is assessed across two attributes: product sense and communication. Each attribute is rated based on the following scale:

Outstanding – Quick response with a sound solution.

Good – Minor mistakes, but converged toward a final solution that is sound.

Borderline – Required several hints before providing a sound solution.

Inadequate – Incorrect response.

Based on the rubric above, the candidate receives the following remarks:

Product Sense – Outstanding

The candidate provided an outstanding response throughout the interview. In the beginning, he clearly detailed the goal and product experience of Google Maps. This shows that the candidate has experience in solving product analytics projects and researched the app thoroughly in preparation for the interview. This level of expertise and preparation is key to thrive in the product role at Google.

Secondly, he demonstrated a strong analytic sense in identifying how he would investigate ideas based on data. Using event logs from users to identify whether users are already attempting a particular action is sound.

Lastly, he understands how to prioritize competing ideas given impact and effort trade-offs.

Communication – Outstanding

He received an outstanding remark on his communication given that his responses were comprehensive, clear, and focused. When asked follow-up questions, he was direct to the point and explained his thought process eloquently.

[Google] How would you improve Google Maps?

Problem

Tips & Hints

Unlock now by joining.