Product Manager Mock Interview: Facebook Friend Requests are Down 10% (with Meta PM)
Summary
TLDRIn this mock product management interview, Lauren, a PM at Meta, tackles the sudden 10% decline in Facebook friend requests. She systematically explores potential causes through root cause analysis, considering internal factors, user behavior, market changes, and new regulations. Identifying competition from TikTok and a European privacy law as key issues, she proposes strategies to address the problem, emphasizing the need for creative solutions and proactive marketing responses.
Takeaways
- 😀 The mock interview scenario involves a 10% drop in friend requests on Facebook overnight, prompting a need for root cause analysis.
- 🔍 The interviewee, Lauren, suggests a systematic approach to identify the root cause, including segmentation and potential root causes like contextual, internal, and external factors.
- 📊 The problem is not restricted to a specific time period or platform; it's a sudden drop across all platforms in the US.
- 👥 Lauren emphasizes the importance of checking internal systems for any issues, such as product instability or code changes that might have affected the feature.
- 🔄 She also considers external factors like changes in user behavior, market landscape, and competitor behavior, specifically noting the rise of TikTok as a social platform.
- 📉 The interview discusses the impact of a new data privacy law in Europe that affects Facebook's operability, potentially contributing to the drop in friend requests.
- 🛑 The team is not aware of any immediate user reports or logging issues that suggest a problem with the friend request feature.
- 📉 The possibility of decreased marketing efforts by Facebook coinciding with the drop in friend requests is considered as a contributing factor.
- 🤝 Lauren recommends working closely with privacy teams, lawyers, and local designers to understand and navigate the new regulations and to revamp the product accordingly.
- 📈 For long-term strategy, she suggests enhancing marketing efforts and staying proactive with PR and regulatory changes to mitigate similar issues in the future.
- 💡 The interview concludes with advice on using a framework for root cause analysis, leveraging outside knowledge creatively, and being prepared to discuss various scenarios and mitigation strategies.
Q & A
What is the primary focus of the mock interview in the video?
-The primary focus of the mock interview is to address a hypothetical situation where friend requests on Facebook have dropped by 10% overnight, and to determine the root cause of this drop.
Who is conducting the mock interview and what is their role?
-The mock interview is conducted by Kevin Way, who is facilitating the discussion and providing scenarios to Lauren, a PM at Meta, to assess her problem-solving skills in product management.
What is the initial approach suggested by Lauren to tackle the friend requests drop issue?
-Lauren suggests an initial approach of root cause analysis, which involves asking follow-up questions to understand the segmentation and potential root causes, categorized as contextual, internal, and external.
What specific information does Lauren request to better understand the friend requests drop?
-Lauren requests information about the geographical segmentation, platform specifics (iOS, Android, mobile web), and whether the drop is limited to friend requests or extends to other areas.
How does Lauren address the possibility of internal issues causing the drop in friend requests?
-Lauren inquires about any overnight product instability, code issues, user logging reports, and changes in product prioritization that could have affected the friend request feature.
What external factors does Lauren consider that might have led to the decrease in friend requests?
-Lauren considers changes in user behavior, market landscape, competitor behavior, and new regulations or laws that might have affected the platform's operability.
What is the significance of the data quality check in this scenario?
-The data quality check is significant to ensure that the reported 10% drop in friend requests is accurate and not due to issues with data collection or reporting.
How does Lauren handle the unexpected scenario where multiple factors are contributing to the problem?
-Lauren handles the scenario by considering each factor (marketing, competitors, regulators) and discussing potential strategies to address each one, while also planning for future mitigation.
What steps does Lauren propose to work around the new data privacy law affecting the platform?
-Lauren proposes collaborating with the privacy team and lawyers to understand the impact of the law on user flow, brainstorming solutions, and potentially creating a new UI flow for testing in a future update.
What strategies does Lauren discuss to mitigate the impact of competitors like TikTok on friend requests?
-Lauren discusses the importance of increasing the marketing budget and aligning marketing efforts with product updates to regain user engagement, especially in light of competitors' shifts towards social features.
What advice does Lauren give to the audience on approaching root cause analysis questions in interviews?
-Lauren advises the audience to use a framework to organize their thoughts and questions, connect information given by the interviewer, use outside knowledge to add uniqueness to their responses, and be prepared to discuss various scenarios and mitigation strategies.
Outlines
🛑 Product Management Interview Scenario
The video script begins with an introduction to a product management mock interview hosted by Kevin Way, where Lauren, a PM at Meta, is the guest. The scenario presented is a sudden 10% drop in friend requests on Facebook, and the discussion is about how to approach this problem. Lauren suggests a root cause analysis, considering segmentation and potential root causes such as contextual, internal, and external factors.
🔍 Investigating the Friend Request Drop
In this paragraph, the discussion delves into the specifics of the drop in friend requests, focusing on the United States across all platforms. The conversation explores whether the issue is isolated to friend requests or if it's part of a broader trend. It's confirmed that there's no seasonal or one-time event causing the drop, and internal checks reveal no significant product degradation, user reporting issues, or priority shifts that could explain the decline.
🤔 External Factors and Regulatory Changes
The conversation shifts to external factors that might be affecting the friend request numbers. It's revealed that there haven't been any significant changes in user behavior, but there's a consideration of market landscape changes, particularly with competitors like TikTok shifting towards a more social focus. Additionally, a new data privacy law in Europe is mentioned, which could impact Facebook's operations and potentially affect user engagement, including friend requests.
📉 Addressing the Decline and Future Mitigation
Lauren concludes that the drop in friend requests could be due to a combination of the new European privacy law and increased competition, especially from TikTok's shift in strategy. The company's own reduced marketing efforts are also considered a contributing factor. Lauren suggests working with privacy and legal teams to navigate the new law, leveraging insights from local teams to inform product development, and increasing the marketing budget to address the challenges. The discussion wraps up with advice on approaching similar root cause analysis questions in interviews, emphasizing the importance of using a framework and being creative with the information provided.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡PM (Product Manager)
💡Friend Requests
💡Root Cause Analysis
💡Segmentation
💡Internal Factors
💡External Factors
💡Data Privacy
💡Marketing Budget
💡Competitor Behavior
💡MVP (Minimum Viable Product)
Highlights
Introduction to the mock interview scenario where friend requests on Facebook have dropped by 10%.
Lauren, a PM at Meta, introduces herself and her role working on Instagram.
Approach to the problem through root cause analysis, considering segmentation and potential root causes.
Identifying the overnight drop in friend requests and the absence of a specific time period for the decline.
Segmentation revealed: the issue is US-based and affects both mobile and web platforms.
Ruling out seasonality or variance in trends as a cause for the drop in friend requests.
Internal investigation to ensure no product degradation or code issues affected friend requests.
No significant user reporting or logging issues detected within the internal systems.
Assessment of data quality and alignment with data scientists to confirm the accuracy of the reported drop.
External factors considered, including changes in user behavior and market landscape.
TikTok's shift towards being more social and the impact on Facebook's friend requests.
Discussion on the potential influence of new data privacy laws in Europe affecting Facebook operations.
The impact of decreased marketing budget on friend request numbers.
Hypothesis formation combining competitors' actions, regulation changes, and internal marketing strategies.
Developing strategies to work around the new data privacy law and its implications.
Importance of engaging with local teams in Europe for insights on product development.
Revamping marketing plans to address the challenges posed by the new law and competitors.
Long-term strategies to mitigate similar issues in the future, focusing on marketing and PR preparedness.
Advice for interviewees on approaching root cause analysis questions with a structured framework.
Encouragement for using outside knowledge to add uniqueness to interview responses.
Closing remarks summarizing the mock interview and providing guidance for the audience on interview preparation.
Transcripts
let's say you're a pm at facebook and
friend requests are down by 10
what do you do
[Music]
hey everyone welcome back to another
exponent product management mock
interview my name is kevin way and on
today's show we have lauren we're going
to be doing an execution question and
before we jump into that lauren do you
want to say a few words maybe introduce
yourself real quick
yeah hi everybody thank you for watching
this exponent video
my name is lauren and i am a pm at meta
working on instagram
cool thanks for coming on today's show
so we're going to be doing an execution
question and this is what i'd like to
ask
let's say you're a pm at facebook and
friend requests are down by 10
what do you do
yeah okay sounds good um just to kind of
get a little feel for for the problem um
are we looking at a certain time period
or time frame that we're seeing front
requests down by 10 or kind of just
across the board
uh great question let's say that
normally it's at some level and you walk
in overnight it just dropped 10 percent
okay cool
so some level happened overnight um
sounds good then
no specific time period or any
information on that outside of that
right yeah let's just say it was just an
overnight drop
okay sounds good
um so i think for this question kind of
approaching it from a
root cause analysis type style is going
to make the most sense so how i kind of
approach these questions is i like to
ask some follow-ups to kind of get you
know a little bit deeper on segmentation
and where we're seeing the problem and
then i've got it bucketed by
potential root causes so contextual
internal external um and i just kind of
have some questions to probe a little
bit deeper to see if we can find the
issue that sounds good
sounds good
okay great um so we know that it
happened overnight there's no other time
period do we have any information about
you know what segmentation in the world
geographically is experiencing this
issue um and any type of platform
information like are we seeing this on
ios android mobile web
let's say that this is in the us it's um
across
both mobile and web
um and
yeah like that's the information that
the data analyst has
okay and by mobile do you mean mobile
web or mobile as in ios and android
so it's across both mobile and web just
across all platforms we're just seeing
this drop okay cool
across all platforms
and we're only seeing it for friend
requests right
right
okay cool so we've got this 10 drop in
friend requests in the united states
across all platforms um which leads me
to kind of have some initial thoughts
and inklings about where this might go
but i do have some more questions to ask
just to make sure
um so is this are we seeing this on any
type of seasonal basis does this happen
on a weekend or is it repetitive on a
holiday or is this kind of just a
one-time thing
yeah so zooming out we don't see any
sort of seasonality there's no sort of
variance that we're concerned about here
is totally unexpected when we just look
at like the broader uh trends and
historical trends
okay great so then i guess that would
kind of lead me to if i'm walking in and
i'm seeing this as a pm my first gut
check would be to
check our internal systems and make sure
nothing broke overnight on our side
before digging externally to see a
little bit more and just check that
internal box off so in terms of that are
we seeing um any information about a
degrading product um or reprioritization
of product needs
what do you mean by like degrading
products
yeah are we seeing that maybe our
product became unstable overnight due to
a build that was just pushed or did
somebody's code maybe affect um what our
project is and our feature and what
we're seeing in friend requests
so
we're always
deploying things um
there's always bugs and codes somewhere
but um i don't think uh there's anything
large that's standing out but if there's
any specific areas you want me to dive
into um i can definitely take a look for
you
yeah are we seeing anything uh
internally about any logging reports
that are coming from users
so what what do you mean by logging
um sorry so like just internal any
external reporting like our users
reporting to us that there's a certain
problem and we're seeing a spike in all
of our bug volume that we're seeing on
our back end
i see uh no it doesn't look like there's
any sort of concerns from users
okay cool
okay great so we have nothing major on
the code side impacting us and nothing
it seems
in terms of user reporting and nothing
causing major concern
um
have we re-prioritized product needs say
maybe we went to focus completely on
something else and we missed the ball
what we were supposed to do for friend
requests and maybe something didn't get
completed on that side
uh
priorities are always shifting uh
facebook is a huge company um
the friend request feature is still very
prominent on the facebook page um so
in terms of like ui no there hasn't been
any large priorities priority shifts
around like how we're servicing friend
requests
okay great and then does the data
scientists seem to be aligned with the
data that's coming in like is our data
quality you know usually up to par and
where it is um have we seen any changes
with our data quality specifically
uh data quality wise like we can trust
this data it doesn't look like there's
any problems with data quality here
okay cool
okay so then it sounds like on the
internal side of things um we're a
little bit buttoned up there so that
makes me feel better as a pm and now we
can kind of shift and transition to
looking at maybe some external factors
that could be causing this problem
sure
um have we seen any major changes in
user behavior
what are some examples of areas that
you'd look at
um particularly maybe people who have
just stopped requesting friends or you
know people who used to be daily active
users have now converted to monthly
active users um and we're kind of seeing
lower usership that could be causing
this
um
no i mean like uh i think
there isn't anything around like user
behavior that has caused like a sudden
overnight drop
okay cool
um
and then has anything changed with the
market landscape or competitor behavior
um i know we just mentioned that nothing
around user behavior caused a sudden
drop but i know our big competition
right now is tick tock so maybe did they
launch a better feature in terms of
connecting with your friends and the
newest update of their app or maybe
something kind of similar to that
uh
so like
how how would i help you determine if
something happened with a competitor
like is there any area that you would
look at any place you would look at
um i was just thinking maybe general
news um like have we heard anything or
any updates maybe from techcrunch that
would suggest we should be looking out
for competition at the moment
got it um yeah i mean like looking at
techcrunch looking at maybe like the
press releases on some of the tech talks
websites it does look like they they
themselves are shifting towards being
like a more social app rather than just
being like a content app so maybe
there's something there
okay cool that's good to know so tick
tock shifting to be
social and less content driven
okay we're gonna i'm gonna put a pin in
that for right now and potentially come
back to it since it's a really good lead
in terms of regulation and marketing um
you know we've been in the news a lot
has anything new happened that i should
know about from maybe the government or
any new laws that have changed and kind
of changed the way we're allowed to
operate our
uh let's dive a little bit deeper here
like uh what are some examples of like
changes and regulations that you'd want
me to look for and there's like so so
many different areas where we operate so
it's hard for me to dive into a specific
place
yeah um particularly data privacy um i
know that there's been a lot of
talk and conversation about how we
should be implementing data privacy as a
nation at the moment in the united
states specifically
and that's a pretty taboo topic so i'm
not quite sure did maybe a new law come
out or a new set of guidelines maybe
from the ftc that we now have to adhere
to
uh let's say that overnight europe
summit country in europe passed a law
around data privacy and suddenly we're
no longer able to operate in that area
so
even though it's in europe it's
affecting the united states across all
platforms
um yeah um perhaps there's like well
i'll leave it up to you but perhaps like
there's like friends who are maybe like
trying to add people in other countries
and they're no longer being they might
no longer mean they probably are not
able to add friends in europe for
example because of this change in uh how
we can operate in a certain country
okay great so
just to make sure i have that right
country and europe passed a law
that changes user privacy
um
execution for our platform
and it's preventing us from being able
to operate in that country okay which is
preventing operability in that specific
country
okay um
i think
i kind of i think i might have enough
here to to make a well-informed
conclusion on what the problem might be
but if i miss it based off of the notes
that i was taking um definitely feel
free to hop in and just kind of direct
me to the right way
um so i'm thinking that it's a
combination of two things competitors
and then also regulation
um
actually i did i i did have one more
question about regulation um
law that passed in europe did this apply
also to tick tock or all social media or
was it just kind of targeted towards
facebook specifically
yeah let's say that it was targeted
towards both tick tock and facebook and
any other
uh tech companies that were that was
operating in this country in europe
okay so generally maybe any social media
that's operating in europe
okay
and then
one more question have we seen anything
major regarding um marketing campaign
efforts on tick tock or any competitors
or have we ourselves decreased our
marketing budget
yeah let's say due to budget changes we
did decrease
some marketing
okay
okay
um then kind of back to the conclusion
that i was attempting to draw earlier um
i think that because of this law um
it obviously makes it tough for people
in europe to friend americans or people
in americans to or people in america to
find um friend their friends that might
be over in this specific country in
europe
so generally that law that new new law
that just passed is going to decrease
friend requests anyway simply because
the sheer amount of volume that just
simply can't execute because of this new
law um and then i think that in
combination with um tick tock's new aim
to try to shift to be more social and
less content driven um that definitely
plays a big role because of just the
grip and the hold that tick tock has on
society right now and users um they are
the number one social media platform at
the moment and with current trends it
seems that it's going to stay that way
and then we also kind of shot ourselves
in the foot by decreasing our own
marketing budget because now that we've
got this new law we'll probably need to
reamp that up in order to make users
feel secure or find a solution um to
this new law that's been passed in
europe does that sound about right
yeah
i think these hypotheses sound like
there's directions that we can go
towards and i'm curious as the pm for
this area what would you do
yeah um well first i would figure out
you know
how can we work around this law so
getting together with privacy team and
lawyers to figure out you know where
exactly does this law
come into effect in terms of our own
user flow and then narrowing it down to
that specific point and then
brainstorming ideating trying to figure
out you know different solutions or ways
that we could work around it and then
maybe come up with a newer version or a
new ui flow that could be tested later
to see how it fits with users in a new
update
um is there anything else that you would
do to address some of the other areas
like
maybe like what happened in europe or
anything else
well definitely data definitely privacy
um and those teams that sit over in
europe for sure but then also you know
meeting with the people who live in
these countries maybe we have designers
ux designers or user researchers that
can kind of use some of their insights
to inform how we should build a new
product going forward to get that
engagement back up
and then i would also meet with pmms to
up the marketing budget and see
specifically you know where are we
falling in terms of reaching users um
why are they leaving and then revamping
a plan to kind of with marketing to go
together with the
new revamped mvp that we're going to use
based on the new information that we're
getting from our our lawyers our privacy
team our data teams all in europe
cool
um
so let's say um you've you know you've
done you've put out some pretty good
hypotheses it sounds like you have some
good action plans to resolve these in
the short term
um in the long term so we've identified
like three sort of like we're getting
hit on three fronts right like marketing
uh competitors and regulators
um maybe you can pick one of these just
for the sake of time and you can tell me
how you would make sure we don't
fall into this pitfall in the future
again
yeah
um that's a really good
question
i
i would probably choose out of these
like you mentioned marketing competitors
regulators i'm just gonna talk through
them um marketing makes sense because
that is a way to to kind of fix the
problem after it's happened you can get
a good assessment on what's going on and
then figure out a response to what's
happening rather than um trying to
proactively fix it or find a solution
that may not work um competitors i'm a
little bit hesitant to dive right into
there just because like i mentioned
before tick tocks market share is just a
behemoth at this point and it can get
really sticky because users before you
know we had the agency over
over like what they could see what they
do
and how they interact with social media
just
as a result of being you know one of the
first companies to do so but now that
tick tock is growing and social media
platforms are also growing um we're kind
of losing that hold that we've had on
our users once before and they kind of
hold some more of the power um these
days than maybe that they used to in the
past
um and then regulators i'm i'm hesitant
my only answer to regulators would be to
lobby and to put a bunch of money into
lobbying but we don't necessarily know
anything that's going to come out of
regulation or when that that's so um
random most of the time just sporadic
it's really tough to get ahead of so you
would have to retroactively respond to
that too
um i think in terms of making sure that
this never happens or this never happens
again or just mitigates the risk of
happening again as much as possible um i
would really work with the marketing
team closely to keep a plan in place for
pr stuff when this does kind of happen
with regulation
and making sure that we're on top of
everything as soon as it comes out
yeah um cool thanks for the answer
lauren um i think we can conclude the
mock interview here i think you answered
the question pretty well you were able
to sort of like take some quick cuts to
see whether there were any like
geographical or i guess like server
outages or anything like that and then
we took a look at internal and external
factors
i try to put a spin on things usually i
think in these mock interviews for root
cause analysis the interviewer just has
one thing i try to give you three
different areas and i try to like make
this more challenging for you and i've i
asked you a lot of questions like you
asked me like oh like what is logging in
obviously i know what logging is but i
wanted you to tell me what would have
meant for you and um i've definitely
tried to put a lot of pressure on you
and i think you handled all of all of my
pushback very gracefully um and you
probably also didn't expect me to tell
you there were three different areas
where we were being attacked right
um
yeah and i i thought you handled it
very nicely um in the end i loved how we
were able to have a discussion around
not only identifying the problem but
also addressing it and talking about how
in the future we can mitigate this
problem
so all in all i really like the answer
and i guess maybe in the last minute or
so maybe you can tell the audience how
they could approach a question like this
yeah um so as you saw in the in the
video i started with a framework and i
think root cause analysis questions are
the easiest to follow a framework off of
um because it allows you to just segment
all your questions into different
buckets and it keeps it really organized
for the interviewer to be able to follow
um i think what's major here is just
making sure that when you get certain
bits of information or the interviewer
confirms like oh this is the problem or
this is not the problem or we are we
aren't seeing this to start connecting
those in your head and start seeing what
types of trends might be able to be
extrapolated from this information and
really get creative um i'm not afraid to
use my outside knowledge in fact i love
it i think it adds a bit of flair and
uniqueness to the interview because you
don't want to seem too cookie-cutter um
but as long as you know your industry
and you're familiar with the background
of you know what you're being asked then
i think it's totally okay to bring that
knowledge into your interview yeah and
sometimes your interviewer might not
even give you like what the final
problem is what what if in the at the
end of the interview they tell you oh
it's like none of these things then what
do you do so definitely uh be prepared
to speak about various
i guess like scenarios and how you'd
mitigate those risks
all in all love the answer lauren thanks
for coming on today's show and for the
audience watching at home good luck with
your upcoming pm interview
thanks so much for watching don't forget
to hit the like and subscribe buttons
below to let us know that this video is
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thanks for watching and good luck on
your upcoming interview
[Music]
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