Clearing the Product Management Case study round — Sample Solution

I got some good feedback on my last blog around practice case studies for the product manager interview round. A lot of users have also asked me to share the solution of those as well. If you have not checked that post, then here is a link — https://medium.com/@sushantkr17/4-practice-case-studies-for-your-product-management-interview-f30e5adadbfe

I’m sharing one of the solutions which I did for company X (can’t share the name for obvious reasons) a couple of years back.

Case Background

You’ve been on-boarded as a product consultant for InstaFace Messenger. In your monthly catch-up meeting with other product managers, you found that engagement levels of WhatsApp are about 4x of InstaFace messenger.

As a product consultant, you must –

PART 1: New Features
List out improvements in existing features or suggest new features that can be added. Provide a name and a 2 sentence description for each feature.
Select the highest value feature that you can identify that would help achieve any one of the following goals:
• User Acquisition
• User Engagement/Retention

2. Additionally, attach a blog post introducing (and pitching) the feature to the site’s users.

Expected Response:
• Blog Post: A maximum of 300 words
• Feature Mockups: Create wireframes/high fidelity mocks using a prototyping tool such as Balsamiq and export to static images.
• Feature Descriptions, Metrics, and Commentary: A maximum of 2 pages of text or 10 slides in addition to the blog post and mockups

PART 2: New Revenue Stream
You have been tasked with creating an additional new revenue stream for InstaFace Messenger –
propose one additional monetization mechanism.
1. Describe your proposed scheme. Make sure to include details of the new product features that would have to be built, the marketing strategy you would follow, and the partnerships you would look at if any of these are relevant to your proposal.

2. Build and present a 3-year revenue estimation model for the feature. Make sure you provide all calculations underlying your assumptions in as much detail as is available to you.

3. What are the metrics that you would track to ensure that this feature is performing adequately?
Also, list the first areas that you would investigate if these metrics are not performing as expected and the changes you would make to improve performance.

4. Would your monetization feature have any (even minor) negative impact? If so, how would you measure this? What processes and metrics would you use?

Expected Response:
• Monetization Mechanism Description, Metrics, and Commentary: A maximum of 2 pages of text or
10 slides in addition to a single calculation sheet for the revenue-estimation model.

JUDGING CRITERIA:
This submission will be used to shortlist you for subsequent rounds. The following criteria will be used to judge your submission:
• Structure of the document
• Articulation, language, written communication skills
• Strategic thought process
• Usability of the proposed features
• Depth and precision of research
• Rationale used to support arguments
• Feasibility, practicality, and effectiveness of the recommendations
• Additionally, we will take a deep dive into this case during the interview rounds.

My Solution

Once again, I’m highlighting the fact that please follow only the structure of the documents shared below. Please don’t go into the granularity of the proposed features or wireframes or revenue streams. It was completely my thoughts when I just started interviewing for my first ever PM role.

Once again, I’m highlighting the fact the please follow the structural aspect of the documents shared below. Please don’t go to the granularity of the proposed features or wireframes or revenue streams.

Part 1

1. Detailed Documentation — Improving the Instaface Messenger (2 Pages)
2. Wireframes — Showing the flow diagrams 7 Screens
3. Detailed Blog Post — Kind of PR article announcing the release of the product features (300 words)

Part 2

1. New Revenue Streams — Planning the revenue streams (9 Slides)
2. Revenue Estimation — 12 Months revenue projection in an excel sheet.

Download all these — https://gumroad.com/l/pm-case-solution

Please do share your thoughts in the comments.