Really helpful interview. One of the best product interviews I have watched. Loved the fact that the interviewee is typing and we can see his screen. Note making and keeping track of his general approach is much easier this way. Need more of this
for low frequency users I think, as said in the video, that the value would be great but having someone who is not very connected to fitness activities become a user is something that requires more than an app as in it requires some personal touch. So, when we later design this product for trainers and gyms, I think this would be a better channel to get low-frequency users onboard because there's a lot of gyms that need an infrastructure like that of Meta's for building communities and communication and this could be leveraged.
Interview immediately started with discussing the timeline (2 quarters). Product is the WHAT and WHY - NOT the WHEN. It is not clear they are not discussing the next two quarters of work, not just two quarters of work, however even then, the product manager cannot provide estimates on delivery without engineering/technology involvement - and especially at this stage of ideation.
Yeah I'm always confused when we talk about timeline constraints upfront without talking about the overall goal. If the goal was to increase session time by 50%, no way you can do that in 6 months.
I believe this appears from situations when "clients" have some timeline (e.g. 6 months) and they need to "fit" their idea in this so after understanding idea and what is needed - Product can briefly remove some functions from MVP product.
Thanks for this awesome sharing! Packed with real content. 00:00 The Brief: timeline, geography, strategy 03:50 Overarching Mission 04:52 Product Phases 06:08 Overview 07:14 User Segmentation (Impact x Scale) 14:01 Pain Points (at user journey) 21:40 Solutions (Level of Effort x Scale x Mission) 26:00 Launch & Guardrail Metrics Key takeaways: 1. With building an MVP in mind, doing prioritisation exercise at every step is crucial to give a sense of direction. 2. Be flexible with different prioritisation frameworks.
Thanks for the video it's helpful. My questions are 1. how to differentiate this app from the competition? They were listed but not mentioned later. Since this is not a new solution, the value proposition is important. 2. if we only target at trainees or those that exercise regularly, it limits our imagination as the PM. we want to develop an app that can tap into meta's 3B+ users and turn those not fitness enthusiasts into fitness enthusiasts. 3. I would spend more time talking about the solution, how to center around social community to build a fitness app that compels more people to do more exercise. Actually this would be my goal in this case. I just feel it's disconnected with meta's mission and ecosystem.
I would have segmented by: Instructors and trainees, then segmented further by online versus in-person class-takers. Focused on virtual class takers/trainees since it aligns with the mission of building community and bringing people together.
As the goal was building an app in particular, nothing was mentioned on how the interaction between a user & trainer will occur within the app. Is it an app within Facebook app itself or stand alone.
The approach was kinda top down imho, just wondering if the user segments and pain points could come earlier and how it would impact the exercise. Also selecting the user segment to focus on- could be evaluated basis factors like frequency of usage, market calculations, ease of onboarding etc, which could have been stated outright, so the interviewer is onboard. But the alignment with Meta's vision was great.
Hey! I love it, great interview, easy to digest thanks to the doc sharing. What I did not quite understand is the user segmentation. Particularly, assuming the interviewer mentioned, low frequency group has a bigger scale, Ariel mentioned that the impact is medium to high here and the value is tremendous, but he decided prioritising medium frequency group over this one. I did not quite get it, since the low frequency one have both parameters rated higher than. What I was thinking about it - I could mention competitors at this point and the fact that many apps already target low frequency group, but not the medium frequency ones (new routine explorers), which potentially leaves a gap for Meta's fitness app. I could also imagine prioritising the medium frequency group over low frequency group, because the needs of the low frequency group are very broad and different.
I think it made sense to go with medium frequency. But the question is for the purpose of the interview could we go with a segment which doesnt fit the rubric but would be important to go with to test the product market fit. In my opinion, the product market fit would be a important thing to validate in the 1st iteration of the app. So you may not want to go to the toughest segment in the 1st iteration even though it might be the biggest one. Because real life works this way. Can this also work in the interview ?
@@infotalk12 thanks for response. I agree with assumptions you make, if that is also the assumptions made by Ariel, that’s great and explains the reasoning behind. Reg. Testing product market fit disagree, as testing it on the biggest and riskiest group will lead you to the fastest learnings.
@@mari4ka89, those are 2 different problems to solve. get a person off their butt to start practicing vs helping someone continue their journey. You also have to consider the brand hit that would take when you launch it for the riskiest segment if it doesnt work out and your product that could actually work for the mid and top segment is now stuck because it got a bad reputation by folks bad mouthing it on your own social media and calling it meaningless. But I get your point on quick learnings, the question is what trade-off firms typically make in real life. And in real life they reduce the risk rather than rush for it unless it is a moon shot project. And this doesnt look like a moon shot project. But this is where real life vs interview game comes into play.
This was a good exercise for me to see. I would gave chosen the low level users, so interesting to see it as another angle. I am interviewing for Product Owner roles instead of PM, but this was great see.
Great video!!! The structure was awesome but his judgment wasn't convincing. I wouldn't have chosen/prioritized trainees. His reasoning was not strong. Also, in consumer marketplace products like fitness apps with content built by trainers (unless facebook hires the trainers and drive content creation through that) its always better to focus on the supply side first... or technical word is to seed the supply side of the market. Also, I think based on his prioritization metric the low freq guys again win over the medium. @Exponent: I have heard some companies ask for possible UI designs (wire framing) as part of the prototyping. If that is true, adding interviews would be great.
Would the goal ever be in reality just to build an app and not a business outcome? I think Ariel could’ve asked further questions to understand the “Why” first and base the rest on that, which he can also connect success metrics to as the Objective.
Hi skittles635! Building an app would most likely not be a goal. As you have mentioned, asking the "why" is very helpful. Asking why we are developing this app is a great way to identify the goals of this project (most of the time, it is tagged to a quantifiable business outcome). Hope this helps!
@@tryexponent In this case what could have been a good goal. E.g. grow engagement based on DAU / MAU / Session length within the facebook app ? Please share an example or two of what would be a good goal here.
While the overall structure was good, the individual answers within those sections was not convincing enough. For example, the pain points being listed didn't clearly mention the core motivation behind it - for example, "Tracking my Goals" - is not a pain point - "I don't feel motivated enough to exercise" is a deeper pain point and "Tracking my goal" is a solution to that pain point. Same for other points on that list. Overall - felt that the solution was not convincing enough in terms of what the actual product would look like. In the end, I as an interviewer would feel great, If I can visualize the solution through the interviewees answers - which I felt lacking here. Also, an overall summary towards the end could have been added for closure/conclusion.
Is it expected to cover the user experience for the app. e.g. user will click on a fitness icon, then click on registered trainers, request them to fill up their We never talked about the user experience of the user. Plus we didnt clearly lay out the product vision upfront when we talked about how this fits in facebook mission. Are these important to discuss for senior product manager roles to consider during the interview ?
Hi Jaco! You’ll be happy to know that most companies are open to candidates screen sharing and using whatever app most comfortable for them. One such company is Meta! However, it is recommended to confirm this with the interviewer prior to the actual date. Best of luck for your interviews!
its a good product design. My only gripe with this is how he kept VR as his lowest priority since its low in Meta's list... guess what, Meta has gone all in with VR and i am pretty sure in reality, AR/VR will be Meta's topmost priority in the next 5-10 years.
Short answer: No. If you want to be a Product Manager, you should prepare yourself, and apply for a PM role. It's much faster and more affordable compared to go for an MBA if PM is your post-MBA goal.
This guy seemed pretty bad at this. No discussion of OKRs / measurable goals, minimal discussion as to why product is important to FB's mission + biz, and weird user empathy -> main reason people use FB is for social validation + connection with others, so wouldn't this be key reason to use fitness app as well? Lacking biz fundamentals as well -> how do they make money on this? Aren't advertisers key 'users' of this as well?
Yes, but he is still a product manager at meta and some others complaining on this thread are still looking for jobs. But good that you are pointing out a counter so that we all are educated that the response typically could be better than this.
Really helpful interview. One of the best product interviews I have watched. Loved the fact that the interviewee is typing and we can see his screen. Note making and keeping track of his general approach is much easier this way. Need more of this
for low frequency users I think, as said in the video, that the value would be great but having someone who is not very connected to fitness activities become a user is something that requires more than an app as in it requires some personal touch. So, when we later design this product for trainers and gyms, I think this would be a better channel to get low-frequency users onboard because there's a lot of gyms that need an infrastructure like that of Meta's for building communities and communication and this could be leveraged.
Interview immediately started with discussing the timeline (2 quarters). Product is the WHAT and WHY - NOT the WHEN. It is not clear they are not discussing the next two quarters of work, not just two quarters of work, however even then, the product manager cannot provide estimates on delivery without engineering/technology involvement - and especially at this stage of ideation.
totally agree!
Yeah I'm always confused when we talk about timeline constraints upfront without talking about the overall goal. If the goal was to increase session time by 50%, no way you can do that in 6 months.
I believe this appears from situations when "clients" have some timeline (e.g. 6 months) and they need to "fit" their idea in this so after understanding idea and what is needed - Product can briefly remove some functions from MVP product.
Crisp interview.. very apt... I'd probably ask a lot of unnecessary clarifying question... but here I got an idea on how to structure my answers
Thanks for this awesome sharing! Packed with real content.
00:00 The Brief: timeline, geography, strategy
03:50 Overarching Mission
04:52 Product Phases
06:08 Overview
07:14 User Segmentation (Impact x Scale)
14:01 Pain Points (at user journey)
21:40 Solutions (Level of Effort x Scale x Mission)
26:00 Launch & Guardrail Metrics
Key takeaways:
1. With building an MVP in mind, doing prioritisation exercise at every step is crucial to give a sense of direction.
2. Be flexible with different prioritisation frameworks.
Thanks for the video it's helpful. My questions are
1. how to differentiate this app from the competition? They were listed but not mentioned later. Since this is not a new solution, the value proposition is important.
2. if we only target at trainees or those that exercise regularly, it limits our imagination as the PM. we want to develop an app that can tap into meta's 3B+ users and turn those not fitness enthusiasts into fitness enthusiasts.
3. I would spend more time talking about the solution, how to center around social community to build a fitness app that compels more people to do more exercise. Actually this would be my goal in this case. I just feel it's disconnected with meta's mission and ecosystem.
Great framework. It is one of the most stractul interviews so far. It is great that you used notes. Thank you!
I would have segmented by: Instructors and trainees, then segmented further by online versus in-person class-takers. Focused on virtual class takers/trainees since it aligns with the mission of building community and bringing people together.
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As the goal was building an app in particular, nothing was mentioned on how the interaction between a user & trainer will occur within the app. Is it an app within Facebook app itself or stand alone.
This was quite helpful. I really liked using the prioritisation metric throughout the process.
Valuable for newbees who want to start in to product manager role
The approach was kinda top down imho, just wondering if the user segments and pain points could come earlier and how it would impact the exercise.
Also selecting the user segment to focus on- could be evaluated basis factors like frequency of usage, market calculations, ease of onboarding etc, which could have been stated outright, so the interviewer is onboard.
But the alignment with Meta's vision was great.
All great points! Thanks for sharing your perspective.
> The approach was kinda top down imho
Based on Meta's own mock interviews, I think that's what they're looking for.
Why will it not be top down ? What is the other bottoms up approach that you can apply here ?
Hey! I love it, great interview, easy to digest thanks to the doc sharing.
What I did not quite understand is the user segmentation. Particularly, assuming the interviewer mentioned, low frequency group has a bigger scale, Ariel mentioned that the impact is medium to high here and the value is tremendous, but he decided prioritising medium frequency group over this one. I did not quite get it, since the low frequency one have both parameters rated higher than.
What I was thinking about it - I could mention competitors at this point and the fact that many apps already target low frequency group, but not the medium frequency ones (new routine explorers), which potentially leaves a gap for Meta's fitness app. I could also imagine prioritising the medium frequency group over low frequency group, because the needs of the low frequency group are very broad and different.
I think it made sense to go with medium frequency. But the question is for the purpose of the interview could we go with a segment which doesnt fit the rubric but would be important to go with to test the product market fit. In my opinion, the product market fit would be a important thing to validate in the 1st iteration of the app. So you may not want to go to the toughest segment in the 1st iteration even though it might be the biggest one. Because real life works this way. Can this also work in the interview ?
@@infotalk12 thanks for response. I agree with assumptions you make, if that is also the assumptions made by Ariel, that’s great and explains the reasoning behind. Reg. Testing product market fit disagree, as testing it on the biggest and riskiest group will lead you to the fastest learnings.
@@mari4ka89, those are 2 different problems to solve. get a person off their butt to start practicing vs helping someone continue their journey. You also have to consider the brand hit that would take when you launch it for the riskiest segment if it doesnt work out and your product that could actually work for the mid and top segment is now stuck because it got a bad reputation by folks bad mouthing it on your own social media and calling it meaningless. But I get your point on quick learnings, the question is what trade-off firms typically make in real life. And in real life they reduce the risk rather than rush for it unless it is a moon shot project. And this doesnt look like a moon shot project. But this is where real life vs interview game comes into play.
This was a good exercise for me to see. I would gave chosen the low level users, so interesting to see it as another angle. I am interviewing for Product Owner roles instead of PM, but this was great see.
Perfect interview, one of the best product interviews I watched so far.
Very helpful information, thank you 😊
This is quite helpful, very clear and easy to understand prioritization process
Great video!!! The structure was awesome but his judgment wasn't convincing. I wouldn't have chosen/prioritized trainees. His reasoning was not strong. Also, in consumer marketplace products like fitness apps with content built by trainers (unless facebook hires the trainers and drive content creation through that) its always better to focus on the supply side first... or technical word is to seed the supply side of the market. Also, I think based on his prioritization metric the low freq guys again win over the medium.
@Exponent: I have heard some companies ask for possible UI designs (wire framing) as part of the prototyping. If that is true, adding interviews would be great.
Hey Xtream, thanks for sharing your thoughts and telling us what you would like to see in the future! We will look into it!
Great interview, but I think these interviews are very lenient and very less or almost no-cross questioning happens
This is really helpful. Thank you so much.
Would the goal ever be in reality just to build an app and not a business outcome? I think Ariel could’ve asked further questions to understand the “Why” first and base the rest on that, which he can also connect success metrics to as the Objective.
Hi skittles635! Building an app would most likely not be a goal. As you have mentioned, asking the "why" is very helpful. Asking why we are developing this app is a great way to identify the goals of this project (most of the time, it is tagged to a quantifiable business outcome). Hope this helps!
@@tryexponent In this case what could have been a good goal. E.g. grow engagement based on DAU / MAU / Session length within the facebook app ? Please share an example or two of what would be a good goal here.
thank you!
While the overall structure was good, the individual answers within those sections was not convincing enough. For example, the pain points being listed didn't clearly mention the core motivation behind it - for example, "Tracking my Goals" - is not a pain point - "I don't feel motivated enough to exercise" is a deeper pain point and "Tracking my goal" is a solution to that pain point. Same for other points on that list. Overall - felt that the solution was not convincing enough in terms of what the actual product would look like.
In the end, I as an interviewer would feel great, If I can visualize the solution through the interviewees answers - which I felt lacking here. Also, an overall summary towards the end could have been added for closure/conclusion.
Hey Amit! Thanks for watching and sharing your thoughts! Appreciate your input!
Thanks guys!
Very interesting, thanks for sharing.
what's the name of whiteboard use, please share
Is it expected to cover the user experience for the app. e.g. user will click on a fitness icon, then click on registered trainers, request them to fill up their
We never talked about the user experience of the user. Plus we didnt clearly lay out the product vision upfront when we talked about how this fits in facebook mission.
Are these important to discuss for senior product manager roles to consider during the interview ?
For a real interview, is it common to share screen like this? I know I'd love doing that!
Hi Jaco! You’ll be happy to know that most companies are open to candidates screen sharing and using whatever app most comfortable for them. One such company is Meta! However, it is recommended to confirm this with the interviewer prior to the actual date. Best of luck for your interviews!
can I get a copy of the google doc that you kept a record? would be so helpful to me. Thanks in advance.
its a good product design. My only gripe with this is how he kept VR as his lowest priority since its low in Meta's list... guess what, Meta has gone all in with VR and i am pretty sure in reality, AR/VR will be Meta's topmost priority in the next 5-10 years.
What happened to all the VR? Is it still a priority?
Israeli PMs are really agile and creative, no doubt its one of the reasons why Israel is so innovative.
Hi I decided to do MBA in international business management. can I apply for the product manager role? Is it best choice or not?
Short answer: No. If you want to be a Product Manager, you should prepare yourself, and apply for a PM role. It's much faster and more affordable compared to go for an MBA if PM is your post-MBA goal.
@@Utomo93 So how does he "prepare" for the PM role? I'm curious 🤔
This guy seemed pretty bad at this. No discussion of OKRs / measurable goals, minimal discussion as to why product is important to FB's mission + biz, and weird user empathy -> main reason people use FB is for social validation + connection with others, so wouldn't this be key reason to use fitness app as well? Lacking biz fundamentals as well -> how do they make money on this? Aren't advertisers key 'users' of this as well?
Yes, but he is still a product manager at meta and some others complaining on this thread are still looking for jobs. But good that you are pointing out a counter so that we all are educated that the response typically could be better than this.