If you are interviewing for Google (or most other product companies), you have a roughly 70 -80% chance of being asked:

“What are your three favorite products and why?”

It is followed by the question:

“Pick one (or the interviewer picks one) and tell me how you would improve it.”

They are being nice

This is the quintessential Design prompt. If you get it, the interviewer is being nice, because every product person should know this list and the improvements off the top of their head.

The interviewer is looking for:

• Determination Criteria for Good Products

• User Identification and Prioritization

• Creative Solutions

How to approach the problem

• List your favorites quickly

• Explain your framework

• Walk through analysis of each using framework

• Pickup your design framework of choice for the improve (we recommend S.U.S.S.)

The Framework

• Solves a Need

• Innovative

• Easy to Use

Practice Gold

This is the best way to start practicing for product design cases. Use the S.U.S.S. framework and walk through products you know. This is an ideal way to learn the design framework without stressing out about random prompts that stress you out because they catch you off guard.

What to Avoid

Do NOT pick common products. Why? The interviewer may have their own opinions. Or so many people before you selected the product that it is hard to come up with something they haven’t already heard. So avoid Facebook, Instagram, Google Products, Spotify, etc.

Why a less common product is better

• Opportunity to show off your storytelling skills

• If you both know the product, you bond instantly over a common love

• Ideas more likely to sound fresh and creative

A little more on why

Think about it. If the interviewer doesn’t know the product, you have a chance to passionately talk about who is designed for and the problem it solves. In the rare event they know the product, you bond instantly. (I love when I mention Open Snow and the person I am speaking with skis or boards as well.)

This is an old trick colleges use when they make you list your hobby on your resume to make small talk easier during interviews. And if they haven’t heard of the product before, they will be slightly more engaged and less judgmental, if your storytelling skills are strong.

For Example:

My three favorite products are:

• OpenSnow - Predicting snow fall during ski season

• Oura Ring - Helping insomniacs get control with data and elegant affordances

• Instapaper - Stable workhorse to save and read articles from everywhere on all my devices
  

Diving in a little deeper, I like to evaluate good products based on three criteria:

• Solves a Need

• Innovative

• Easy to Use

Open Snow - It solves a need for skiers who need to plan travel around snow storms, either to stock up on food, get to the resort before the roads close or chase a storm. It is innovative as far as weather apps go because it fairly accurate and puts what you need to make decisions in lists, charts and graphs. And it is easy to use, just set notifications or open the app and your favorite mountains are at your finger tips. I open it every morning before I get out of bed. I am clearly a power user.

Oura Ring - It solves a need for insomniacs using data to enable great control over a debilitating condition. In a few weeks one can get a good handle on what triggers bad sleep patterns. The ring itself was innovative when it launched and continues to be one of the best IoTs for insomnia on the market. It is easy to use on two fronts: (1) the design of the ring makes it easy to position in the dark and (2) the data is clean, simple and consistent, making data comprehension quick and painless after just a few days. I am a power user who finally overcame insomnia after a few months with this ring.

Instapaper - As a former journalist, I need to keep up with the news, I am out of sorts if I don’t. But I read from so many different sources, there is no good aggregation service. Instapaper lets me save articles on any site or app from any device. Then I can read or listen later. It works even when not connected to the internet. It lets me create playlists. And it works with the internet goes out. So it solves a need. It is a little weak on the innovation front these days but it is easy to use. And unlike other apps I have tried it works consistently. Its closest competitor lost me when trying to upgrade it only worked when connected to the internet and often gets hung up trying to provide fancy additions I don’t need. Instapaper is easier to use than just about any other app on my phone. 

From here…
You can use the design framework to walk through a user need, and a solution. Depending on time remaining you can do a quick or more detailed analysis.

For a quick approach, pick a user group and explain why. Then explain, as any good PM you think about it a lot. You believe the best improvement would be X, let me walk you through the experience.

If you have a little more time, you can walk through three users, their motivations and prioritize one. Then you can come up with three solutions and prioritize one of them.