10 PM product design interview questions (with sample answer)

Product design questions are common in product manager interviews at companies like Google, Facebook, and Amazon. In fact, they made up 13% of the 600+ interview questions that we collected from these three companies.

So we’ve put together a list of product design interview questions, such as "How would you design a phone for deaf people?" along with pointers on how to answer them.

First, we’ll dive deep into a framework that will help you answer all product design questions, as well as a complete sample answer that uses that framework. If you’d like to skip straight to the list of questions, you can here.

Let's get started.

• How to answer product design questions
• Example with answer: Design a computer keyboard
• 10 product design interview questions
• How to practice product design questions

Click here to practice 1-on-1 with FAANG ex-interviewers

1. How to answer product design questions ↑

We recommend using a three-step approach to answer product design questions in a product manager interview. This approach is also known as the BUS framework:

1. Business objective
2. User problems
3. Solutions

If you're preparing for a product manager interview, we strongly encourage you to learn that framework, as it can also be used for product improvement questions (e.g. "How would you improve YouTube?"). Let's go through each of the three steps one by one.

Step one: Business objective

Many candidates skip this step and start listing design ideas in an unstructured way. This is a big red flag for interviewers. Here are the things you need to do before starting to think about user problems and how to solve them:

• Outline your answer
• Define the business objective

First, you should lay out your approach to solving the question. You could say something like, "First, I'm going to try to understand the business situation and our objective in more detail. Second, I will focus on defining the target user and brainstorming what problems we could solve for them. And third, I will generate solutions for these problems, prioritize them, and make a recommendation."

Outlining your answer shows you've got strong communication skills. If you jump straight in and answer the question in an unstructured way, it will be very hard for your interviewer to keep up with you.

Second, you need to clarify the business situation and objective. Knowing the business context and what it's trying to achieve will help you make better design decisions later on. This is particularly important if the question your interviewer asks is vague.

For instance, let's imagine your interviewer wants you to "Design a phone." Then you might want to ask what is the specific business objective we are trying to fulfill (e.g. sell as many phones as possible with a low price point, go for the premium market, etc.); and if we already have a user in mind for the phone (e.g. business users, teenagers, etc.).

You'll design completely different phones depending on the answer to these questions.

Step two: User problems

Now that you know more about the business situation and objectives, it's time to think about the users and their problems in greater detail. Here are the things you need to do in that step:

• Select a user type
• List user problems
• Prioritize user problems

First, you should identify the different types of users for your product, and you should select one to focus on.

Going back to our phone example, with the business objective to focus on an underserved market, you could suggest focusing on: deaf users, visually impaired users, elderly users, users with mobility issues, etc. List these different users and select one with your interviewer.

Note that you can skip this part of the discussion if your interviewer has already specified a type of user they want to focus on in their initial question.

It's also helpful to remember that for some products, the user and the customer are not the same person. For example, that's the case for games that parents buy for their kids, or software (e.g. Jira) that managers buy for people in their teams.

Second, once you've got a target user, you should think through what problems you can solve for them. An easy way to do this is to imagine them using the existing product or service you're trying to replace.

For instance, let's imagine we are focusing on deaf users. What are the problems they are facing with current phones? Here are some examples: 1) can't hear the phone ringing, 2) can't hear the other person talking on the line, 3) can't listen to voicemails, 4) can't hear app notifications, 5) can't hear the sound on videos received from friends, etc.

Third, you should prioritize one to three items from the list of problems you have created. It's common to prioritize based on how painful that problem is for the user. For instance, you could say something like, "My suggestion is to focus on solving problems one and two because those are the two features that really define a phone and they are currently inaccessible to deaf people."

Step three: Solutions

Once you've defined the user problems you are trying to solve, it's time to generate some solutions. Here's how to do it:

• List solutions
• Prioritize solutions
• Summarize

First, for each of the user problems you have identified, you should generate potential solutions.

Let's do this for user problem 1: deaf users can't hear their phone ringing. You could build a phone that does any of the following things when ringing: rings for longer than standard phones to give more time to pick up, flashes bright colors on the screen, vibrates really strongly, is connected to a vibrating wristband / watch, sends visual notifications to other connected devices such as laptops, TVs, connected light bulbs, etc.

At this stage it's helpful to draw a table with two columns on a piece of paper or on a whiteboard. The first column should contain the user problems you have decided to focus on. The second column should contain solutions to solve each problem.

Second, once you've generated a few ideas, it's time to prioritize the ones you will recommend building. A common way of doing this is to grade each solution from 1 (low) to 3 (high) based on how much value they would deliver for the user, and how easy they are to implement.

You will need to do this for each of the user problems that you identified in step 2. Don’t forget to address the trade-offs of your solution (e.g. a vibrating wristband would require users to pay for additional hardware).

Finally, after going through that exercise, it's a great idea to state the initial question again, and summarize what product you suggest building and why. This summary is a simple way of telling your interviewer that you are done answering the question. And again, it's an efficient way of showing you've got great communication skills.

Mistakes to avoid when answering design questions

There are two common mistakes candidates make when answering product design questions that you can easily avoid.

First, a lot of candidates simply skip step one and start answering the question without first agreeing with their interviewer on a clear objective or target user. As mentioned above, this is a red flag.

Second, many candidates don't spend enough time selecting a single target user and creating a short list of user problems. In other words, they start working on step three too soon. The more work you do in steps one and two, the easier brainstorming and selecting solutions will become.

2. Example: Design a computer keyboard↑

Now that you know what approach to use to answer product design questions, let's apply it to a full example.

Try answering the question below following the BUS method we have described. Play both the role of the interviewer and candidate, and make decisions regarding what business objective and target user to focus on.

Try this question:

Design a computer keyboard

Answer:

1. Business objective

Let's start by outlining the approach we are going to take. First, we will discuss the business objective. Second, we will analyze users and the problems we could solve for them. And third, we will look into solutions and make a recommendation.

Here are the questions that immediately come to mind to clarify the business objective for this design question:

• What's the business objective? Maximize profits? Focus on an underserved niche?
• Do we already have a target user in mind, or is that something we should explore / discuss?
• Keyboards are often paired with a mouse. Do we just want to design a keyboard, or should we also design a mouse that goes with it?

Let's assume here that the interviewer wants us to design a keyboard for gamers but isn't interested in the mouse, and that the business objective is to maximize revenues.

2. User problems

Now that the business objective is clearer, let's start thinking about users and user problems in more detail.

There are different types of gamers we could focus on. An easy way to segment them is to split the market between casual and professional gamers. Given we want to maximize revenues, it makes sense to focus on casual gamers, as it's likely to be a much bigger market than the professional segment.

Let's now brainstorm typical problems casual gamers face when using standard computer keyboards:

1. User can't perform at their best because keys are slow to respond, collect dust underneath over time, and aren’t easy to replace
2. User can't easily create personalized shortcuts, as the software available to customize the keyboard is rudimentary
3. User has to replace keyboard frequently as keys that are repetitively used wear out / break (e.g. space, shift, etc.)
4. User is distracted by noisy keys
5. User can't easily turn the game volume up / down from the keyboard
6. User can't see keyboard keys when playing in the dark
7. User's wrists / hands hurt, as keyboard is uncomfortable to use for long periods of time
8. Etc.

Let's now prioritize these problems by putting ourselves in the shoes of a gamer. Most gamers' primary objective is probably to win at the game they play. As a result it makes sense to prioritize solving problems, which will help users significantly improve their performance.

Let's therefore focus on problems one and two, as these look like they could make the user faster and better if solved.

3. Solutions

Let's generate solutions now that we have selected a type of user (casual gamers) and a set of user problems (one and two above).

We'll rate the solutions from 1 to 3 directly inline. For technical simplicity, we'll give 1 to the hardest solutions to implement, and 3 to the easiest. For value delivered to the user, we'll give 1 to the least valuable solutions and 3 to the most valuable. And then we’ll add up both numbers.

Here are some solutions which could help solve problem one:

1. Build keys that don't need to be pressed as hard / deep for the user input to be registered (Simplicity = 3, Value = 3, Total = 6)
2. Build keys which register user input quicker thanks to alternative technologies (e.g. magnetic keys, mechanical keys, etc.) (S = 1, V = 3, T = 4)
3. Build keys that can easily be removed to clean the keyboard or that don't let dust settle under the key caps (S = 2, V =2, T = 4)

Here are some solutions which could help solve problem two:

1. Create software that lets users define different sets of shortcuts depending on what game they play (Simplicity = 2, Value = 3, Total = 5)
2. Create software that makes automated suggestions for shortcuts based on commonly used shortcuts by other players with similar keyboards (S = 1, Value = 2, T = 3)
3. Create software that lets users adjust how hard / deep they need to press the keys for their input to be registered (S = 1, V = 3, T = 4)
4. Add additional buttons to the keyboard that let users generate a combination of keystrokes (i.e. a "macro") in a single keystroke (S = 3, V = 3, T = 6)

Now that we have generated some solutions, let's prioritize them based on how easy they are to implement and how much value they bring to the user. 

For problem one, it therefore looks like prioritizing solution a) makes sense. One of the tradeoffs to bear in mind when implementing that solution is that we could make the keys so sensitive that the user might inadvertently press the wrong keys more often. We will therefore have to balance sensitivity and control of the keyboard.

And for problem two, solutions a) and d) are promising options. Here, an important tradeoff is balancing customization and complexity. We're targeting casual gamers, so we want to give them a good level of customization, but not make installing and personalizing the keyboard too complex and lengthy.

Finally, let's summarize. Our recommendation is to build a keyboard for casual gamers, as this is most likely to maximize revenues. We also recommend building features that will help the user maximize their performance, while remaining simple to implement. Here are the three features to build:

• Keys which are more sensitive than standard
• Software that lets the user create shortcuts
• Additional buttons for "macro" shortcuts

3. 10 product design interview questions↑

Now that you’ve seen a framework to answer product design questions as well as a sample answer that illustrates it, let’s get into some other questions that you can use to practice. 

Below, we’ve listed ten product design interview questions that were asked in PM interviews at Google and Facebook according to data from Glassdoor.com.

For each question, we’ve included a few bullets and jumping-off points to consider as you craft your answers. You’ll find important questions and clarification points under each Business objective, three possible pain points under User problems, and three possible solutions under Solutions.

Of course, these lists are not exhaustive, and you should add your own insight as you work through them. They’re designed to get your wheels turning and offer some hints if you’re stuck. If you'd like to learn about the other types of questions you may face, you can also visit our ultimate guide to product manager interview questions.

Now that you have a list of sample questions to work with, it’s important to consider how you will practice with these questions.

4. How to practice product design questions ↑

With a lot to cover, it’s best to take a systematic approach to make the most of your practice time. 

Below you’ll find links to free resources and four introductory steps that you can take to prepare for product design questions.

4.1 Study the company you're applying to

Get acquainted with the company you’ve applied to. In many cases, the product questions you’ll be presented with will be based on real-life cases the company is facing. If you’re applying to a specific team, study up on their products, the user, etc.

Take the time to find out which products you’ll most likely be working with, based on the job description, and research them. Look up relevant press releases, product descriptions, product reviews, and other resources in order to discuss what’s most important to the role: the company’s product.

If you'd like to learn more about a specific company's PM interviews, then we'd encourage you to check out our guide for that company below :

• Google product manager interview guide
• Facebook product manager interview guide
• Amazon product manager interview guide
• Microsoft product manager interview guide
• LinkedIn product manager interview guide
• Uber product manager interview guide
• Stripe product manager interview guide
• Lyft product manager interview guide
• Apple product manager interview guide
• TikTok product manager interview guide
• Coinbase product manager interview guide
• Airbnb product manager interview guide
• DoorDash product manager interview guide
• Netflix product manager interview guide

4.2 Learn a consistent method for answering product design questions

In this article, we’ve outlined a step-by-step method you can use to solve product design questions. We’d encourage you to first memorize the basic steps, and then try solving a couple of the sample questions on paper.

This will help you to understand the structure of a good answer. This is a good first step, BUT just knowing the method is not enough, you also need to be able to apply the steps in interview conditions. 

4.3 Practice by yourself or with peers

In our experience, practicing by yourself is a great way to prepare for PM interviews. You can ask and answer questions out loud, to help you get a feel for the different types of PM interview questions. Practicing by yourself will help you perfect your step-by-step approach for each question type. It also gives you time to correct your early mistakes.

You can find free practice questions on articles like this one or on YouTube.

If you have friends or peers who can do mock interviews with you, that's a great option too. This can be especially helpful if your friend has experience with PM interviews, or is at least familiar with the process.

4.4 Practice with experienced PM interviewers

Finally, you should also try to practice product manager mock interviews with expert ex-interviewers, as they’ll be able to give you much more accurate feedback than friends and peers. 

If you know a Product Manager who can help you, that's fantastic! But for most of us, it's tough to find the right connections to make this happen. And it might also be difficult to practice multiple hours with that person unless you know them really well.

Here's the good news. We've already made the connections for you. We’ve created a coaching service where you can practice 1-on-1 with ex-interviewers from Google, Amazon, Uber, and other leading tech companies. Learn more and start scheduling sessions today.

Keep reading: product manager interview articles