What is the avg salary for a mid level PM with an experience of say 10 yrs overall with no experience in product management. Taking my example, I have a salary of 23LPA as a team lead in a small scale company. If I were to switch to a PM role how much can I expect. P.S : I'm really greedy, excuse me for that!!!
Few more additional points which might be useful: - Catalog and inventory analysis of the product in last 3 days. - Which product category etc. has the highest dip. - What products were not available because of the supply chain or sold out thing. - Any recent Machine learning changes like recommendation/ranking algorithm can bring the dip (unlikely since A/B testing is done but possible) - Checking into the date pipeline to understand the click through events, analytics dashboard bugs etc. - Any partnership change or any merchant backed. - Re-engagement through emails/notifications and ads on other channel - Geographical distribution of the influx of users on the site like a flood, internet blackout etc. can cause a damage in supple chain etc. - Look for seasonality - Diwali/Pay day (Bonus time) etc. and there could be many more...
I was thinking along those lines as well but the problem was only android specific. Its unlikely that things like partnership or inventory is only specific to android apps.
Hey Aditya, that’s a good observation. But do remember that the interviewer is not looking for the right answer, but they are mainly looking at a structured thought process here.
As a PM myself, I also find the answer not very strong. The first reaction of any PM would be to ask more on the numbers, how much was the drop, and then to check from technical side first (any new release, any major UX change, server change) and get from customer service team any customer complaints, check on App Store ratings. These are the easiest and quickest info sources you can get, and if they are actually the root cause, you can get the fix the fastest (every minute matters when you are facing technical issues lol). Researching on the competitors, or trying to learn what's the upcoming promotions we are having would be one of the last things, only if the previous options were eliminated.
It was a delight to do this mock interview with Stephen. Thank you for having me. Just like everything in life, this is not the only way or the best way to solve this case. Shown is a framework which can be modified as per the situation at hand. Exponent has been sharing extensive content which might be helpful for people starting out as PMs.
So Big Billion sale ha 😂, well that absolutely makes sense in such kind of drastic situation, but as being a developer I've been more concerned about the app bug might be the problem but... I didn't think another competitor might affect the sales graph by launching their own on product sale scenario, even though the app is bug-free. Pretty helpful it was... Thank you so much both of you!
@@dariusneidhart1068 could there be multiple ways of approaching the issue? In that one strategy might favor external -> internal while for another the opposite would be ideal?
These interviews are so wonderful. I reference them as a PM, and they ALWAYS help me find new ways to approach a problem. Keep 'em coming Exponent team! Well done! Appreciation from Austin, TX.
Thank you to Khanjan Desai for an amazing mock interview video! Have any special requests for our next video? Let us know in the comments below 👇! And as always, don't forget to like, subscribe, and visit tryexponent.com for even more videos like this!
There could be many reasons for the decline in the numbers which could be - 1) We need to find out the ratings of the products getting moved out of the cart 2) We need to compare the pricing of the product with the competitors 3)We can also check the behaviour of the customer if they have the behaviour of adding items in cart and removing them quite often 4) We need to analyse if those items which are removed from the cart were on sale or under the fresh item without any offer 5)We need to check if the delivery date for those products were for more days because of which the customers removed them from the cart There could be more reasons if we do the detailed analysis on the data
@@AdityaPillai009 Me as a QA, I do that first. But I felt her answering structure is very great. That can be used for any other problems which are not even straight forward.
A framework which I think might work T technical issues R region O other features P other products I is the decline for overall industry C cannibalization
@@speednorm Cannibalisation means introducing a new product that takes away customer base of your older product. Think cars, If BMW says that in a month they are launching a New model, customers might not book for existing model and wait for the new model. That would mean your customers booking current model declines when in fact your new model just cannibalised the existing old one.
Personally, after thinking about external things that can affect it, I would have gone straight to ask questions about bugs and stuff because 15% is a huge huge drop. Definitely the goal is to identify the problem but also efficiency matters in real life. She killed it anyway.
Great content as always! Me being from a tech background, I think it's always better to start checking out issues on the tech side (be it web/app ui/ux or backend APIs not working or server's down) as tech is more error prone than non-tech (because of it's own problems). If there's no issue there, then we surely have other places where we might think that this would have caused the issue. But the way this lady approached is really commendable!
Such a clear, concise and well thought answer. I would not be able to pull something detailed like this off in the heat of the actual interview moment without having prepared or rehearsed it first.
A true learning experience for me. Will remember "always have a good conversation" rather than thinking what will the other person think . Thanks a lot .
This is really interesting, didn't expect to stumble upon something like this but very satisfied that I did. As a UX Designer this actually helps me expand the way I normally think of products. You'll got a new subscriber! Keep it up :D
She forgot to mention any fall in traffic. At the end of the day, Add to CART is a function of Traffic too. If customers are not visiting Product detail page only, then the drop is expected.
One might miss out on a lot of aspects in the real world interviews and hence there are multiple ways to answer the solve the same case. Use this for inspiration and not replication to a real interview.
Very detailed way of showing how to approach a problem like a PM. However, in reality, if there's a major update and something stops working - the first thing you do is to analyse if it's because of an update. Also, if it's ATC that doesn't work, there's so much rush to fix it, idk if any PM will have time to ask these questions. You lose millions while you're doing root cause analysis. This approach would help someone who's coming onboard without any prior knowledge of the product and is given a job to dissect the issue. I understand it's a hypothetical situation in the video with a purpose to make viewers learn. And it's done beautifully. So thank you for your efforts.
He is too nice for an interviewer. And the solution was also too easy. I have given a few PM interviews, they are considerably harder (is there a decline in total number of app users, what are the ways to add to cart, is it across all the add to cart options, how is it 15% fall when all android additions to cart are not tracked, to just mention a few unanswered questions). But this interview serves the purpose as a dumbed down version.
Hey Stephen, I'm just a couple of videos into your channel, but I can sense you have very strong judging(evaluation) skills. The up-speaking thing which you brought up really striked me, I tend to do it almost all the time, like in my peer conversations, group discussions. Learnt something today! Thanks!
I found this mock interview an average one , in order to find the issue we should first do the Behavior Analytics of the customers -which include Funnel Analysis - Drop offs vs Existing users , then further micro segment base into demographic, technographic ,Product categories , Time taken from one step to another ,then after having numbers we should arrest that particular base segment through Aggressive marketing campaigns for win back , Also we should also see the Customer segment - an Low value , High Value or Mid Value then pushing aggressive offers according to the particular segment . Competitor analysis also comes to play in this
RCAs are the most difficult to have a grip on. The flow is so crucial that an interviewer can mess you up around it. Could you pls upload more RCA mocks? Thanks.
@@tryexponent Decline of Quality Control aspects and decline of customer satisfaction in a mobile app development company! Can you consider this as a case study and provide a detailed response or a video based on this aspect?
Best 26 minutes I spent today. Khanjan answered with a great level of confidence and good command of time and direction of analysis. Thanks for making these videos, Stephen!
This was really good but the actual PM interviews are really tough.. her probing and following a framework was good !! Still her following first principles was effective !!
It's simply if you are loosing business, dig into your analytics and find out why!! Instead of asking questions each other. And then once you have why, !!!!!
Great analysis done by Khanjan…a person who doesn’t know anything about pm will also get an idea related to pm from this session…what I have learned from this session is that you should think about internal issues like bug or something or is there any technical issue which might have caused this problem and another way is you can consider other factors like current market competitors,product efficiency etc
This was a great case study. Really helped me understand/reach the why? of the problem. I'm not sure as to how much time was given to Khanjan to draw possible conclusions out of it! But it was exciting to see how she has broken down the problem by asking the interviewer the right questions to reach the root cause of the problem. However, most of the questions she asked was around quantitative aspect. She also lacked empathy towards the interviewer and could have maintained a little composure towards the interviewer. It felt like a banter after a while. She was courageous, but courage and empathy should go hand in hand. Anyway, one of the way I would have approached this problem could have been on the qualitative front. Say, any major financial breakdown that has suddenly impacted the country, since the problem exists from past 3 days. A quick fall in the level of income or an insecurity around loosing their jobs could directly affect the demand. Which basically means less people going on the flipkart platform leads to less addition in the card which in turn leads to decline in % cart addition. I know that here the solution has something to do with the tech issue but without even exploring both sides of the coins we should not reach to conclusions. All said, I loved this case💐
Great thought...I think she mentioned in the beginning about these as uncontrollable factors. Let's say If there is a recession going on in the country, I would like to see how would you approach this one.
IMO if you’re seeing an issue like this with one platform and not others then I’d definitely look at internal factors first. Smells like a bug, config, or UX change induced issue to me. I’d eliminate that first and then look at external factors. Even if you do find external factors, 99% of the time there won’t be a direct causal link to a specific issue, so you’d still need to check for the above internal issue anyways - might as well start with them first.
Great way to drill down a problem holistic to micro level view. It's very helpful for me to apply it in my day to day job. Application security is also a important aspect to consider. User app may be hacked that denied adding items to cart.
Well, so could be said about certain obvious external factors which are often expected, & can be glanced at quickly. Some external & internal factors could even be looked into simultaneously. But I do think just looking for the more apparant things is, as it sounds, easier.
Stephen - My best video in last 6 months. Very thorough and hats off to the interviewee. One question - In particular to this question, one small corner case could be to think from Seller's point of view. I mean what if Sellers have increased the prices of the products and could potential decrease the cart. Am I correct in my point? Please do answer...
most of the people add items to their carts because of what's the final price will be and how much EMI and Interest rate will be charged if they are going to buy and making their budget in their reach. And what are the offers applying to the product. Even though you mention it on product page they check again for Final price
Start with Internal vs External factors. For internal, a very helpful framework here i think is 3P: Product, Place and Price. I would go in that order. What product segment is most affected? (GL comparison). Then, What place is most affected?(Geo impact). Then Have we raised the price of some GL or has competitor reduced the price of that GL? Campaign/promo all falls in this category.
The first question I would've asked is, has flipkart nade any controversial comment/post on anything or involved with someone controversial.😂 The power of community is huge in India. E.g. Snapdeal (aamir khan), Snapchat (Evan's comment on India) , TikTok (China Face-off)
Just a general question. What core skill should a product manager have that can be quantified in some way. Say for a software engineer that skill could be the technology that person is working on like java / python etc. I don’t really see a solid skill that a PM should have apart from the usual BS like communication etc
If you're talking about hard skills, then a PM job is slowly transitioning into a core Data Science job in addition to soft skills. And "BS like communication" is really all you need to have an impact in this world - the ability to learn (not master) new things is a soft skill that will get you everywhere you want to go to.
So u think a person can become a PM with just a BS like communication shows how clueless you are about product management. You better stick to what ever BS skill you have !! and stop watching these kinda videos
@@prashanthn9887 Why take offense on someone's opinion without actually providing reasonable reasons for either taking offense or argue against the opinion. Really, this makes social experience bad for rest of us who read blatant negativity and not a discussion. And yes if you don't think communication is BS then pls articulate that. I am sure OP is all ears
@@prashanthn9887 The word “BS” seems to come off in a wrong way. I don’t mean to belittle the skill. This just shows I have a long way to go for improving my comm skill :P
Not from a PM background but think if a fresh MBA grad were to tackle the same case, he/she would have gone the exact same way. I wonder if this is how PMs actually work at Indian tech companies. This is more of a consulting case interview.
My thought process would be: 1. Look towards internal factors first such as technical bugs with the Add to Cart option, a trial run to be done to understand if the add to cart event is being called or not. Also, simultaneously understand what exactly are the queries coming in for customers as in at what point they are stuck. Also look towards app upgrades and glitches arising because of it. Debug those... 2. If above mentioned don't give answers, go to external factors such competitor promotions, strategy, campaign analysis.
It's an eye opening. These ISB MBAs are heavily overrated. Roadside vegetable vendor can also comeup with almost all these insights. What a pity. My respect to scientists increased many fold
The way she approached the problem was really good, however i felt the set of checks that were mentioned doesn't really make sense to the problem being asked. When we look at the problem, the decline in cart addition is happening only for Mobile check-outs and not for Web check-outs which implies that we doesn't really need to care about external factors like new product launches & sales by external companies. This would be more to analyze the issues with mobile checkouts which could be due to internal factors. I might be wrong, but its just my point of view, but the set of checks mentioned were more general and can be applied to any set of problem.
My funnel would have been:- 1. 15% drop on web or app. 2. Android or IOS. 3. Success rate in android alone. 4. If the success rate is zero. Any hardware/server issue with respect to android. 5. Any specific build 6. Then I'd have experienced the user flow by myself to figure out the exact error 7. checking the release notes of the build 8. Verify developer's unit testing report & QA's test case report to check where it got missed.
Not sure what kind of bigger picture we're trying to see here if the success rate of our own app has gone down to zero. We surely need to check the business side of it or "the bigger picture" If the rate would have gone down by some margin but not completely.
1. We have to analyse whether the issue is because of a new release on the website, APIs or Mobile App. This can be easily identified on checking the source of those failed add to carts. 2. If it is a mobile app, check the version of app and the OS on which it is occurring. 3. Check where any bug report is there/support ticket is there raised by the customer. 4. If there is an issue with the cart decline because of the App version upgrade and happens only to 1 specific Mobile OS i.e. IOS or Android or on a specific android version like Android 11, the best way to identify the root cause is to check the API hit request and response because mobile apps do call the APIs. Getting the API logs for the failed records will tell the actual RCA.
Superb structure and the whole summarisation! I just feel there are some avenues that could have been further explored: a. Has there been Pricing changes in the Product Catalogue? Have we cut down on discounts? b. Have we removed the 'elimination of delivery charge' for products above a certain number or value? c. Have we reduced the number of vouchers and promo codes? However, the issue was diagnosed before this user step so really well done!
I would have liked to start with internal factors first then external factors. Clarifying questions 1) what are cart additions(I wouldnt have asked this bcos its glaringly clear but nevertheless ask away just to be sure . 2) which geography 3) web or mobile . a) iOS or android. let’s say cart additions have declined in India across all cities and across mobile app. 1. Is the analytics working properly on this metric. But when you say there is a decline doesn’t that mean it has worked properly? 1. If someone has tampered with the analytics config or if there is a code breaking at some point , there is a possibility that it is not hence decline . Let’s assume it is working properly. 2. Describe the user flow here and check if customers are able to login and access each page. 3. Is the add to cart visible across all products and on the listing page - let’s assume it is. 4. If add to cart is visible , when customers click on the button does it translate to adding the products to the cart ? 1. If this not working properly then a potential reason 2. If it is then it we can conclude that our internal factors are not the reason. 5. There are a couple of more metrics I want to look at - Daily active users , order rate. 1. Daily active users because if they have decreased it means that people are not even visiting the app 2. Order rate - to see if the decrease in cart additions has affected the order rate in any way. 1. If there is a decrease in order rate , its a more serious problem P0 we need to find the root cause for. 2. If there is not , perhaps passive users are not visiting which is perhaps a P1 , P2. 6. For point 5 could have been caused by eternal factors 1. Big Sale on amazon , Myntra or any other com. 2. Perhaps they have more discounts , competitive pricing , cashbacks etc because of sale. 1. If that is the case monitor the metric few days after these sale ends and see if it bounces back? 7. Perhaps user in general are unhappy with the flow ? Check App Store ratings complaints to see what is wrong. 1. If the App Store ratings have not declined but cart additions have then pint 6 . 2. Point 6 is not the reason we could zero in on customers being unhappy in general or need to a new way to bring back the users. This is just really how i thought nothing else.
1 point from my side that you should ask from interviewer " is there change in sales and profit in these 3 days because it is possible that users directly buy items without adding them to cart 😅 Edit : I remember he tells that there is change in checkout page from few days of updates .. it might be easy to checkout for customers ..so they directly buy them without adding into cart 🛒
I really liked the conversation and the video One thing I would also consider in the product is after thelatest update how many users are using the older version and new version, and is there a relation of this to the drop of cart checkout and also the factor of product declined in sales compared to older data to see what kinda user or product the add cart is droppped
Any sale or competition normally provide a reversal effect on retail growth. During sale events like BBD, GIS etc improves the competition traffic and conversion. A data point which a lot of ppl miss.
From someone with Asper's perspective, I have a different way of thinking because the way that I see things is different. Please let me know your thoughts on this 1) Understand the issue from a 360-degree view For this, I'd have asked for 1) A graph of the transactions/additions to the cart by date (The objective is to confirm whether it is a sharp decline or a curved) -- Sharp decline most likely indicates a change or an internal issue, while a curved decline could indicate something external. In this example, I'd expect a sharp decline with the upgrade on Android 2) Then I'd ask about platforms are we using for this, which would have been (Web/ Android/IOS) - Then, the next ask would have been to see the graphs (like on bullet#1 but filtered by platform). ----- 3 graphs ----- 3) In here, i'd assume that WEB and IOS do not see the decline while Android does. Therefore the question would be.. What changes did you do on X date on ANDROID.... Your response would like had been --- we updated both IOS/ANDROID 4) After, let's get a few test users to simulate a SHOPPING experience from both platforms at the same time, which most likely would have shown a problem that we can send to a developer or support engineer such as items not appearing on the cart, or a bottom not adding the items to the cart or whatever..... This approach would have been much faster, but again... My brain works really differently. What do you guys think about this approach?
The other bug related problem could be that although someone would have added that particular item in the bag but a possibility could be that it won't be visible after a few days. This could also be a reason for less number of additions to the bag which is indirect, even though inspite of addition it won't be counted as added as the item disappeared.
I think one thing Which would be important to consider digital marketing and targeted ads being a co relation Details: Flipkart like any e commerce would have sales plus add to cart experience is there a decline there Also an important question I would ask is the conversation rate (add to cart and checkout) so actual sales going down and if yes then by how much to gauge the greater impact on revenue
One more thing to check is if there is decline in sales of item , if no then it might be possible that customers are buying using buy now button and not using add to cart button
Question: how are we supposed to know whether the question’s answer should be a 3 minute response vs 30 minute? If the interviewer says, for example, “I’ll be asking a series of questions” then we’ve just spent 30 minutes answering one question. How should we avoid assuming that this is the only question the interviewer will ask?
Before directly jumping to external factors, competitions she should have started if any internal factor has impacted that. Should have same more time when real problem exist.
Very nice and detailed root cause analysis was done by Khanjan. Appreciate the analytical probing she did during the interview. This Interview was really very helpful for me. Thanks Exponent team and Khanjan for sharing this video. :) Thanks & Regards, Pratik Naidu
At 5:07 She says - if none of this is a reason, we will look at factors which are beyond our control but worth to analyse. Would love to know about those uncontrollable aspects. Thanks !
It could have also been an algorithmic update in the search or the recommendation part. But since the drop was majorly for Android user's it was quite clear where to dig deeper.
TBH PM interviews for a known product is very easy , B2C space especially , there are formulas/methods which would help you answer in the right direction . And the best formula is imagination ! While taking a PM interview I usually ask about products which are unknown as a commoner , that is where the imagination fades out
Thorough interview but irl it’s almost always internal factors leading to dropoff and I would start there…also when clarifying I’d want to know why the last 3days is the time period for comparison…IMO that’s too small of a window for accurate comparison- a number of reasons could have elevated that cart % over the last few days prior to drop off…15% decline could be getting back to baseline
Liked the structure around the whole answer. But i feel the interviewer gave so many leading directions to the interviewee. Not sure if the actual interviews are such where the interviewer gives clear answers and directs us to the problem.
I Would ask, 2 more question "what is 15% ?" Cart Value or #Cart Volume, App Update ratio, to find out how many user updated the app and Do we see same behavior between old and New version users. this could have reduce some gaps in between.
I think we could have also looked for which Android devices or OS versions are having these issues (if applicable). Because as per this discussion, several times such releases can cause bugs in some particular OS versions or some specific list of devices or a combination of both. Overall a good session though.
Certainly a bug, Decline in product updates and offers, End of events like big billion sales, When competitor makes a move, Scarcity of products, Inventory or supply chain issues, any negative impacts that drag sales downward.
That was great interview. I already noted down many points from here. I have one question, what if we stuck or not able to understand interviewee's questions. (I'm fresher).
this mock is quite intersting and really help for many persons but I have an question how she has develop that ability of cases that she considered in such a very small period of time would you please suggest any book or reference that i can learn .
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What is the avg salary for a mid level PM with an experience of say 10 yrs overall with no experience in product management. Taking my example, I have a salary of 23LPA as a team lead in a small scale company. If I were to switch to a PM role how much can I expect. P.S : I'm really greedy, excuse me for that!!!
Op
who is this girl
she is from a well financied family in vadodara,gujarat
Few more additional points which might be useful:
- Catalog and inventory analysis of the product in last 3 days.
- Which product category etc. has the highest dip.
- What products were not available because of the supply chain or sold out thing.
- Any recent Machine learning changes like recommendation/ranking algorithm can bring the dip (unlikely since A/B testing is done but possible)
- Checking into the date pipeline to understand the click through events, analytics dashboard bugs etc.
- Any partnership change or any merchant backed.
- Re-engagement through emails/notifications and ads on other channel
- Geographical distribution of the influx of users on the site like a flood, internet blackout etc. can cause a damage in supple chain etc.
- Look for seasonality - Diwali/Pay day (Bonus time) etc.
and there could be many more...
I was thinking along those lines as well but the problem was only android specific. Its unlikely that things like partnership or inventory is only specific to android apps.
You are correct and so was she in her approach. The list could go on unless the problem falls within your list.
Hey Aditya, that’s a good observation. But do remember that the interviewer is not looking for the right answer, but they are mainly looking at a structured thought process here.
@@dhruvrudrakapoor true
@@dhruvrudrakapoor Yes true. I was adding few more, what I learned at Google for wider audience.
This is the exact way I answer when I know about interview question well in advance.
🤣😂😂
Haha 😂
Also, after the interview
😎😂
🤣 😆
Lol
The level at which she is answering shows a clear difference between experience Vs having a theory knowledge
Cannot agree more..
True
Are you saying that she's just using theory based knowledge? Iam just curious.
@Aakash Yadav buddy I am thinking the other way around.. she was practical in her approach ehh
As a PM myself, I also find the answer not very strong. The first reaction of any PM would be to ask more on the numbers, how much was the drop, and then to check from technical side first (any new release, any major UX change, server change) and get from customer service team any customer complaints, check on App Store ratings. These are the easiest and quickest info sources you can get, and if they are actually the root cause, you can get the fix the fastest (every minute matters when you are facing technical issues lol). Researching on the competitors, or trying to learn what's the upcoming promotions we are having would be one of the last things, only if the previous options were eliminated.
It was a delight to do this mock interview with Stephen. Thank you for having me. Just like everything in life, this is not the only way or the best way to solve this case. Shown is a framework which can be modified as per the situation at hand. Exponent has been sharing extensive content which might be helpful for people starting out as PMs.
It was so great to have you on the show Khanjan!
Nice interview Khanjan. Great content Stephen
So Big Billion sale ha 😂, well that absolutely makes sense in such kind of drastic situation, but as being a developer I've been more concerned about the app bug might be the problem but... I didn't think another competitor might affect the sales graph by launching their own on product sale scenario, even though the app is bug-free. Pretty helpful it was... Thank you so much both of you!
I loved the way you tapered the possibilities to the exact cause.
Well done ...Appreciate your thought process
The way Khanjan, funnelled from the external factors to the internal ones, and asking relevant questions, made this interview really thoughtful.
We think so too!
Internal factors should be discussed first because those answers are easier and faster to get. External factors come second.
@@dariusneidhart1068 same thoughts
@@dariusneidhart1068 could there be multiple ways of approaching the issue? In that one strategy might favor external -> internal while for another the opposite would be ideal?
ruclips.net/video/V5SPBgNnhMw/видео.html ruclips.net/video/V5SPBgNnhMw/видео.html
These interviews are so wonderful. I reference them as a PM, and they ALWAYS help me find new ways to approach a problem. Keep 'em coming Exponent team! Well done! Appreciation from Austin, TX.
Thanks so much! Fun fact: Stephen's video is filmed in Austin, too!
ruclips.net/video/V5SPBgNnhMw/видео.html ruclips.net/video/V5SPBgNnhMw/видео.html
Thank you to Khanjan Desai for an amazing mock interview video! Have any special requests for our next video? Let us know in the comments below 👇! And as always, don't forget to like, subscribe, and visit tryexponent.com for even more videos like this!
This is ridiculous..how Flipkart can all sort of information..
interview me
@@pamalimaity5336 loda😄😄😄😄
New market entry or business strategy (w product lens) case please!
Excellent answer. Confident, clear and effective. Excellent self-evaluation as well. Overall impressive stuff
Glad you liked it!
There could be many reasons for the decline in the numbers which could be -
1) We need to find out the ratings of the products getting moved out of the cart
2) We need to compare the pricing of the product with the competitors
3)We can also check the behaviour of the customer if they have the behaviour of adding items in cart and removing them quite often
4) We need to analyse if those items which are removed from the cart were on sale or under the fresh item without any offer
5)We need to check if the delivery date for those products were for more days because of which the customers removed them from the cart
There could be more reasons if we do the detailed analysis on the data
The decline is overall 15%. I think it is better to focus on app experience than data analysis on product and ratings for this problem.
Thank you. These are really helpful insights for root cause analysis.
Me finishing the interview in 5 secs... Big Billion Day is over, so cart addition is less😅
So true! lol
Me finishing the interview in 5 secs: Button kharab ho gaya hoga :D
@@AdityaPillai009 Me as a QA, I do that first. But I felt her answering structure is very great. That can be used for any other problems which are not even straight forward.
🤣
Better luck next interview
A framework which I think might work
T technical issues
R region
O other features
P other products
I is the decline for overall industry
C cannibalization
Cannibalization? What
Elaborate 🧐🧐
@@speednorm Cannibalisation means introducing a new product that takes away customer base of your older product. Think cars, If BMW says that in a month they are launching a New model, customers might not book for existing model and wait for the new model. That would mean your customers booking current model declines when in fact your new model just cannibalised the existing old one.
What's P Pother product. Acronyms are supposed to be based on the letters which you highlight by capitalizing but present as pother 😂
With this interview now I realised that PM is like Crime investigation officer.
It's a part of the job, easy side actually.
Personally, after thinking about external things that can affect it, I would have gone straight to ask questions about bugs and stuff because 15% is a huge huge drop. Definitely the goal is to identify the problem but also efficiency matters in real life. She killed it anyway.
Great content as always! Me being from a tech background, I think it's always better to start checking out issues on the tech side (be it web/app ui/ux or backend APIs not working or server's down) as tech is more error prone than non-tech (because of it's own problems). If there's no issue there, then we surely have other places where we might think that this would have caused the issue. But the way this lady approached is really commendable!
Such a clear, concise and well thought answer. I would not be able to pull something detailed like this off in the heat of the actual interview moment without having prepared or rehearsed it first.
We think so too!
A true learning experience for me. Will remember "always have a good conversation" rather than thinking what will the other person think .
Thanks a lot .
This is really interesting, didn't expect to stumble upon something like this but very satisfied that I did. As a UX Designer this actually helps me expand the way I normally think of products. You'll got a new subscriber! Keep it up :D
ruclips.net/video/V5SPBgNnhMw/видео.html ruclips.net/video/V5SPBgNnhMw/видео.html
She forgot to mention any fall in traffic. At the end of the day, Add to CART is a function of Traffic too. If customers are not visiting Product detail page only, then the drop is expected.
Indeed, traffic + no. of sign ups could have been probed in as well.
One might miss out on a lot of aspects in the real world interviews and hence there are multiple ways to answer the solve the same case. Use this for inspiration and not replication to a real interview.
wow this is a fantastic initiative, brilliant idea, interviews is where 95% dont make it, thanks for creating this
Glad you enjoyed it! Hope you can subscribe to see more videos like this!
This is what good bosses should show their pm's to get the right mind set going instead of listening to some bs they think is appropriate.
ruclips.net/video/V5SPBgNnhMw/видео.html
Very detailed way of showing how to approach a problem like a PM.
However, in reality, if there's a major update and something stops working - the first thing you do is to analyse if it's because of an update. Also, if it's ATC that doesn't work, there's so much rush to fix it, idk if any PM will have time to ask these questions. You lose millions while you're doing root cause analysis.
This approach would help someone who's coming onboard without any prior knowledge of the product and is given a job to dissect the issue.
I understand it's a hypothetical situation in the video with a purpose to make viewers learn. And it's done beautifully. So thank you for your efforts.
He is too nice for an interviewer. And the solution was also too easy.
I have given a few PM interviews, they are considerably harder (is there a decline in total number of app users, what are the ways to add to cart, is it across all the add to cart options, how is it 15% fall when all android additions to cart are not tracked, to just mention a few unanswered questions).
But this interview serves the purpose as a dumbed down version.
For the first time i got my approach right in my life as beginner, I was thinking the exact same way, just loved it
Hey Stephen, I'm just a couple of videos into your channel, but I can sense you have very strong judging(evaluation) skills. The up-speaking thing which you brought up really striked me, I tend to do it almost all the time, like in my peer conversations, group discussions. Learnt something today! Thanks!
I found this mock interview an average one , in order to find the issue we should first do the Behavior Analytics of the customers -which include Funnel Analysis - Drop offs vs Existing users , then further micro segment base into demographic, technographic ,Product categories , Time taken from one step to another ,then after having numbers we should arrest that particular base segment through Aggressive marketing campaigns for win back , Also we should also see the Customer segment - an Low value , High Value or Mid Value then pushing aggressive offers according to the particular segment . Competitor analysis also comes to play in this
What do you mean by “arrest that particular base segment”
@@youngo.g.3642 arresting means by focusing on a particular segment and having customized products so that customers could winback or use
It was a great mock interview, thank you so much!
I like how she explained the structure of the answer, she did it so precisely - well done!
😅h
if you can solve cases good enough to make it to the final round at McKinsey consulting, you can nail any PM interview
Really? I thought consulting interviews are just so so.
RCAs are the most difficult to have a grip on. The flow is so crucial that an interviewer can mess you up around it. Could you pls upload more RCA mocks? Thanks.
Definitely- any special requests?
@@tryexponent system design using AWS services
Decline of Quality Control aspects and decline of customer satisfaction in a mobile app development company! @Exponent
@@tryexponent Decline of Quality Control aspects and decline of customer satisfaction in a mobile app development company!
Can you consider this as a case study and provide a detailed response or a video based on this aspect?
Best 26 minutes I spent today. Khanjan answered with a great level of confidence and good command of time and direction of analysis. Thanks for making these videos, Stephen!
This was really good but the actual PM interviews are really tough.. her probing and following a framework was good !! Still her following first principles was effective !!
It's simply if you are loosing business, dig into your analytics and find out why!! Instead of asking questions each other. And then once you have why, !!!!!
The interviewee has become the interviewer. 😇
😂 So true'
Uno reverseee
Great analysis done by Khanjan…a person who doesn’t know anything about pm will also get an idea related to pm from this session…what I have learned from this session is that you should think about internal issues like bug or something or is there any technical issue which might have caused this problem and another way is you can consider other factors like current market competitors,product efficiency etc
Khanjan is one of the subject that are migrating from FK to Amazon😀. She is answering from peesonal experience
This was a great case study. Really helped me understand/reach the why? of the problem. I'm not sure as to how much time was given to Khanjan to draw possible conclusions out of it! But it was exciting to see how she has broken down the problem by asking the interviewer the right questions to reach the root cause of the problem. However, most of the questions she asked was around quantitative aspect. She also lacked empathy towards the interviewer and could have maintained a little composure towards the interviewer. It felt like a banter after a while. She was courageous, but courage and empathy should go hand in hand.
Anyway, one of the way I would have approached this problem could have been on the qualitative front. Say, any major financial breakdown that has suddenly impacted the country, since the problem exists from past 3 days. A quick fall in the level of income or an insecurity around loosing their jobs could directly affect the demand. Which basically means less people going on the flipkart platform leads to less addition in the card which in turn leads to decline in % cart addition.
I know that here the solution has something to do with the tech issue but without even exploring both sides of the coins we should not reach to conclusions.
All said, I loved this case💐
Great thought...I think she mentioned in the beginning about these as uncontrollable factors. Let's say If there is a recession going on in the country, I would like to see how would you approach this one.
IMO if you’re seeing an issue like this with one platform and not others then I’d definitely look at internal factors first. Smells like a bug, config, or UX change induced issue to me. I’d eliminate that first and then look at external factors.
Even if you do find external factors, 99% of the time there won’t be a direct causal link to a specific issue, so you’d still need to check for the above internal issue anyways - might as well start with them first.
I love your content. Has made me so much more motivated to shoot for the best in class APM programs out there.
That's so great to hear Harshal!
Great way to drill down a problem holistic to micro level view. It's very helpful for me to apply it in my day to day job.
Application security is also a important aspect to consider. User app may be hacked that denied adding items to cart.
I would have first checked the system and then moved to other scenarios because the things we directly control are what we should first check.
Well, so could be said about certain obvious external factors which are often expected, & can be glanced at quickly. Some external & internal factors could even be looked into simultaneously. But I do think just looking for the more apparant things is, as it sounds, easier.
Stephen - My best video in last 6 months. Very thorough and hats off to the interviewee.
One question - In particular to this question, one small corner case could be to think from Seller's point of view. I mean what if Sellers have increased the prices of the products and could potential decrease the cart. Am I correct in my point? Please do answer...
most of the people add items to their carts because of what's the final price will be and how much EMI and Interest rate will be charged if they are going to buy and making their budget in their reach. And what are the offers applying to the product. Even though you mention it on product page they check again for Final price
And after that they compare which website is giving discounts or more emi options
All theory based answers, specially scenarios.
Start with Internal vs External factors. For internal, a very helpful framework here i think is 3P: Product, Place and Price. I would go in that order. What product segment is most affected? (GL comparison). Then, What place is most affected?(Geo impact). Then Have we raised the price of some GL or has competitor reduced the price of that GL? Campaign/promo all falls in this category.
It's good to showcase a small report starts with 5Y, Fish Bone, Pareto, CAPA by ending with FMEA...for better understanding of the causes in detail
Excellent, I was thinking of those exact same questions. Amazing mock interview. Thank you
these type of content are so much better than
mostlysane,BYN ,ranveer allhabadia,vedant rusty
Really loved the thought process of her.
The first question I would've asked is, has flipkart nade any controversial comment/post on anything or involved with someone controversial.😂
The power of community is huge in India. E.g. Snapdeal (aamir khan), Snapchat (Evan's comment on India) , TikTok (China Face-off)
😂😂
Just a general question. What core skill should a product manager have that can be quantified in some way. Say for a software engineer that skill could be the technology that person is working on like java / python etc. I don’t really see a solid skill that a PM should have apart from the usual BS like communication etc
If you're talking about hard skills, then a PM job is slowly transitioning into a core Data Science job in addition to soft skills. And "BS like communication" is really all you need to have an impact in this world - the ability to learn (not master) new things is a soft skill that will get you everywhere you want to go to.
So u think a person can become a PM with just a BS like communication shows how clueless you are about product management. You better stick to what ever BS skill you have !! and stop watching these kinda videos
@@prashanthn9887 ok
@@prashanthn9887 Why take offense on someone's opinion without actually providing reasonable reasons for either taking offense or argue against the opinion. Really, this makes social experience bad for rest of us who read blatant negativity and not a discussion. And yes if you don't think communication is BS then pls articulate that. I am sure OP is all ears
@@prashanthn9887 The word “BS” seems to come off in a wrong way. I don’t mean to belittle the skill. This just shows I have a long way to go for improving my comm skill :P
Thanks Khanjan and Stephen. Excellent framework and thought process.
Glad you liked it!
I echo this sentiment as well.. I've really enjoyed these mock interviews you've put together Stephen and the interviewees are really great
So it was a button, some obsession PMs have with button colors
Not from a PM background but think if a fresh MBA grad were to tackle the same case, he/she would have gone the exact same way. I wonder if this is how PMs actually work at Indian tech companies. This is more of a consulting case interview.
Its difficult to figure out who is the interviewer , wonderful interview 👍
My thought process would be:
1. Look towards internal factors first such as technical bugs with the Add to Cart option, a trial run to be done to understand if the add to cart event is being called or not. Also, simultaneously understand what exactly are the queries coming in for customers as in at what point they are stuck. Also look towards app upgrades and glitches arising because of it. Debug those...
2. If above mentioned don't give answers, go to external factors such competitor promotions, strategy, campaign analysis.
need more mock interviews relating to supply chain management and logistics
This one's easy, this is the Karma of FlipKart's customer scare department finally catching up with it.
It's an eye opening. These ISB MBAs are heavily overrated. Roadside vegetable vendor can also comeup with almost all these insights. What a pity. My respect to scientists increased many fold
The way she approached the problem was really good, however i felt the set of checks that were mentioned doesn't really make sense to the problem being asked. When we look at the problem, the decline in cart addition is happening only for Mobile check-outs and not for Web check-outs which implies that we doesn't really need to care about external factors like new product launches & sales by external companies. This would be more to analyze the issues with mobile checkouts which could be due to internal factors. I might be wrong, but its just my point of view, but the set of checks mentioned were more general and can be applied to any set of problem.
That was the idea. In real life we do know a lot more about the problem and focus more on the finer details.
THanks a lot. Really great to see how we can approach a problem step by step and not be conclusive without getting the complete problem statement
Thanks for having this mock interview, this helped me crack the root cause analysis. You got one customer for your course.
Great to hear!
Looks like Sonam Kapoor is a great Product Analyst as well.
My funnel would have been:-
1. 15% drop on web or app.
2. Android or IOS.
3. Success rate in android alone.
4. If the success rate is zero. Any hardware/server issue with respect to android.
5. Any specific build
6. Then I'd have experienced the user flow by myself to figure out the exact error
7. checking the release notes of the build
8. Verify developer's unit testing report & QA's test case report to check where it got missed.
This answer was more on the business side of the problem. While ur analysis consists technical aspects mostly
Have to think bigger picture, not just technicals.
Not sure what kind of bigger picture we're trying to see here if the success rate of our own app has gone down to zero.
We surely need to check the business side of it or "the bigger picture" If the rate would have gone down by some margin but not completely.
It was so impressive. She explained things so smootly.
I'm getting a Jim Halpert-type vibe from the interviewer.
Bears, Beets... oh wait, wrong person :)
Dwight entered the room. Looking at interviewer suspiciously
Michael's mood will be off as he will be thinking if manager position will be given to Jim
1. We have to analyse whether the issue is because of a new release on the website, APIs or Mobile App. This can be easily identified on checking the source of those failed add to carts.
2. If it is a mobile app, check the version of app and the OS on which it is occurring.
3. Check where any bug report is there/support ticket is there raised by the customer.
4. If there is an issue with the cart decline because of the App version upgrade and happens only to 1 specific Mobile OS i.e. IOS or Android or on a specific android version like Android 11, the best way to identify the root cause is to check the API hit request and response because mobile apps do call the APIs. Getting the API logs for the failed records will tell the actual RCA.
Superb structure and the whole summarisation! I just feel there are some avenues that could have been further explored:
a. Has there been Pricing changes in the Product Catalogue? Have we cut down on discounts?
b. Have we removed the 'elimination of delivery charge' for products above a certain number or value?
c. Have we reduced the number of vouchers and promo codes?
However, the issue was diagnosed before this user step so really well done!
Hey arpitmit, thanks for the feedback! Glad that you are engaging so much with our content!
I would have liked to start with internal factors first then external factors. Clarifying questions 1) what are cart additions(I wouldnt have asked this bcos its glaringly clear but nevertheless ask away just to be sure .
2) which geography
3) web or mobile .
a) iOS or android.
let’s say cart additions have declined in India across all cities and across mobile app.
1. Is the analytics working properly on this metric. But when you say there is a decline doesn’t that mean it has worked properly?
1. If someone has tampered with the analytics config or if there is a code breaking at some point , there is a possibility that it is not hence decline . Let’s assume it is working properly.
2. Describe the user flow here and check if customers are able to login and access each page.
3. Is the add to cart visible across all products and on the listing page - let’s assume it is.
4. If add to cart is visible , when customers click on the button does it translate to adding the products to the cart ?
1. If this not working properly then a potential reason
2. If it is then it we can conclude that our internal factors are not the reason.
5. There are a couple of more metrics I want to look at - Daily active users , order rate.
1. Daily active users because if they have decreased it means that people are not even visiting the app
2. Order rate - to see if the decrease in cart additions has affected the order rate in any way.
1. If there is a decrease in order rate , its a more serious problem P0 we need to find the root cause for.
2. If there is not , perhaps passive users are not visiting which is perhaps a P1 , P2.
6. For point 5 could have been caused by eternal factors
1. Big Sale on amazon , Myntra or any other com.
2. Perhaps they have more discounts , competitive pricing , cashbacks etc because of sale.
1. If that is the case monitor the metric few days after these sale ends and see if it bounces back?
7. Perhaps user in general are unhappy with the flow ? Check App Store ratings complaints to see what is wrong.
1. If the App Store ratings have not declined but cart additions have then pint 6 .
2. Point 6 is not the reason we could zero in on customers being unhappy in general or need to a new way to bring back the users.
This is just really how i thought nothing else.
1 point from my side that you should ask from interviewer " is there change in sales and profit in these 3 days because it is possible that users directly buy items without adding them to cart 😅
Edit : I remember he tells that there is change in checkout page from few days of updates .. it might be easy to checkout for customers ..so they directly buy them without adding into cart 🛒
Do we really need to have MBA for this position?
I think excellent reasoning is most essential requirement for this role.
I really liked the conversation and the video
One thing I would also consider in the product is after thelatest update how many users are using the older version and new version, and is there a relation of this to the drop of cart checkout and also the factor of product declined in sales compared to older data to see what kinda user or product the add cart is droppped
Any sale or competition normally provide a reversal effect on retail growth. During sale events like BBD, GIS etc improves the competition traffic and conversion. A data point which a lot of ppl miss.
From someone with Asper's perspective, I have a different way of thinking because the way that I see things is different. Please let me know your thoughts on this
1) Understand the issue from a 360-degree view
For this, I'd have asked for
1) A graph of the transactions/additions to the cart by date (The objective is to confirm whether it is a sharp decline or a curved) -- Sharp decline most likely indicates a change or an internal issue, while a curved decline could indicate something external. In this example, I'd expect a sharp decline with the upgrade on Android
2) Then I'd ask about platforms are we using for this, which would have been (Web/ Android/IOS) - Then, the next ask would have been to see the graphs (like on bullet#1 but filtered by platform). ----- 3 graphs -----
3) In here, i'd assume that WEB and IOS do not see the decline while Android does. Therefore the question would be.. What changes did you do on X date on ANDROID.... Your response would like had been --- we updated both IOS/ANDROID
4) After, let's get a few test users to simulate a SHOPPING experience from both platforms at the same time, which most likely would have shown a problem that we can send to a developer or support engineer such as items not appearing on the cart, or a bottom not adding the items to the cart or whatever.....
This approach would have been much faster, but again... My brain works really differently.
What do you guys think about this approach?
The other bug related problem could be that although someone would have added that particular item in the bag but a possibility could be that it won't be visible after a few days.
This could also be a reason for less number of additions to the bag which is indirect, even though inspite of addition it won't be counted as added as the item disappeared.
So this is what your get to learn from ISB...!
I think one thing Which would be important to consider digital marketing and targeted ads being a co relation
Details:
Flipkart like any e commerce would have sales plus add to cart experience is there a decline there
Also an important question I would ask is the conversation rate (add to cart and checkout) so actual sales going down and if yes then by how much to gauge the greater impact on revenue
Why didn't she ask about traffic. If that had dropped, trickle-down would too
Up speaking! Never heard of the term but i have noticed it and I am so glad steve called it out. Its my biggest takeaway from this video.
Glad you found that point useful!
One more thing to check is if there is decline in sales of item , if no then it might be possible that customers are buying using buy now button and not using add to cart button
Question: how are we supposed to know whether the question’s answer should be a 3 minute response vs 30 minute? If the interviewer says, for example, “I’ll be asking a series of questions” then we’ve just spent 30 minutes answering one question. How should we avoid assuming that this is the only question the interviewer will ask?
Way easier than coding interviews
Before directly jumping to external factors, competitions she should have started if any internal factor has impacted that. Should have same more time when real problem exist.
Very nice and detailed root cause analysis was done by Khanjan. Appreciate the analytical probing she did during the interview. This Interview was really very helpful for me. Thanks Exponent team and Khanjan for sharing this video. :)
Thanks & Regards,
Pratik Naidu
Might be the product catalog in flipkart is not up to date as per current market trend think about it ? 😊
At 5:07 She says - if none of this is a reason, we will look at factors which are beyond our control but worth to analyse.
Would love to know about those uncontrollable aspects.
Thanks !
spike in covid cases..may be
@1.20, she nods in a such way that it can be Yes or No. :D It means she is going to give wired answers.
It could have also been an algorithmic update in the search or the recommendation part.
But since the drop was majorly for Android user's it was quite clear where to dig deeper.
TBH PM interviews for a known product is very easy , B2C space especially , there are formulas/methods which would help you answer in the right direction . And the best formula is imagination ! While taking a PM interview I usually ask about products which are unknown as a commoner , that is where the imagination fades out
Thorough interview but irl it’s almost always internal factors leading to dropoff and I would start there…also when clarifying I’d want to know why the last 3days is the time period for comparison…IMO that’s too small of a window for accurate comparison- a number of reasons could have elevated that cart % over the last few days prior to drop off…15% decline could be getting back to baseline
Liked the structure around the whole answer. But i feel the interviewer gave so many leading directions to the interviewee. Not sure if the actual interviews are such where the interviewer gives clear answers and directs us to the problem.
Root cause. I have phone added to my flipkart cart but suddenly I saw same phone is much cheaper nd lots of offers in amazon that's the root cause
This comment is so underrated
@@ArpanPathak is it?
😂😂😂
This is same as a consultant solving some issue..so what is the difference between a consultant and a product manager ?
I Would ask, 2 more question "what is 15% ?" Cart Value or #Cart Volume, App Update ratio, to find out how many user updated the app and Do we see same behavior between old and New version users. this could have reduce some gaps in between.
I think we could have also looked for which Android devices or OS versions are having these issues (if applicable). Because as per this discussion, several times such releases can cause bugs in some particular OS versions or some specific list of devices or a combination of both. Overall a good session though.
Definitely! Checking the operating system versions is a clever question.
Another tip : Don't wear glasses that cover your eyebrows.
Seriously. Lol
Bruhh
Thank you😂
🤣🤣
😂
Certainly a bug, Decline in product updates and offers, End of events like big billion sales, When competitor makes a move, Scarcity of products, Inventory or supply chain issues, any negative impacts that drag sales downward.
That was great interview. I already noted down many points from here. I have one question, what if we stuck or not able to understand interviewee's questions. (I'm fresher).
this mock is quite intersting and really help for many persons but I have an question how she has develop that ability of cases that she considered in such a very small period of time would you please suggest any book or reference that i can learn .
I feel answers could be more organized. Ex: Identify if it's a technical issue or data issue or competetion issue and then take it forward.
Great Interview.. She is from ISB right? It shows in her answer and approach. very nicely done