50+ Google Strategy Prompts
A question bank for Google Product Management Strategic Insights Interviews: a list of Product Manager Interview questions asked at Google around strategy.
TL;DR - Start with what you do know rather than getting fluster with what you don’t know. Use the prompts to conduct mocks as well as to drill.
Google strategic insights prompts come in several varieties. There are some clear standalone strategy questions. But it is also common to get a design question with a strategic ‘twist.’
Lucky for recent candidates, Google has started giving a heads-up on what types of questions to expect for each interview (that wasn’t always the case).
When in doubt, ask a clarifying question such as, there are two ways I could go with this question. Would you like me to design a solution and then discuss how to go to market or would you prefer a quick strategic analysis of X?
There are so many different ways the questions that can be asked, you need to adjust your clarifying question accordingly.
With that said, we have identified roughly six different types of strategy questions: (Also note, even pure strategy questions can have a design follow up. This is part of what makes Google strategy questions so intimidating.)
Should X do Y? (~30%)
How would you approach X? (~25%)
General Speculation on Trends and/or Landscape (~20%)
Speculation on the Past: Why did X do Y? (15%)
Go-To-Market (GTM) Strategy (7%)
Pricing Decisions (~3%)
And according to self-reported prompts, you have a roughly 50/50 chance of a Google or non-Google related quetion.
Example Prompts by Category:
Should X do Y?
Should Google do…
Should Google enter the vending machine business?
How much should Google pay for a Pixel 7 phone ad at a concert?
Do you think if Google should buy the iRobot company
If you were Google’s CEO, what will be your roadmap for next 5 years?
Should Google enter the food delivery business?
Should Google get into ride sharing business? If yes, how many cars will it need for a mid size city? (Note: analytics tacked on end of question.)
Should Google get into the in-flight advertising business?
Should Google offer an AirBnB competitor?
Should Google put tablets in restaurants? Yes or No?
Google gets the opportunity to place ads in in-flight entertainment (seat-back and personal device). Should it proceed, or not?
You are PM for Google Maps. Google is considering providing mapping for indoors. Should we do it?
Google CEO wants to open a new data center in Portugal. How would you respond?
You are a PM at Google Workspaces for Education. Should Google launch a Tablet alongside Chromebook?
What product should Google deprecate? (stop supporting and phase out)
Should X (Non-Google Company) do…
AirBnB region has more demand than supply. Why is this? What could you do about it?
How should Waymo introduce ads to cars?
Should Amazon increase the price of Prime Membership? If so, estimate the revenue generated or lost. (notice analytic question added to prompt.)
Should Lyft enter food delivery business?
What would you do if you were head of product at Facebook/Meta?
What should Microsoft's strategy be if they were to try and re-release a mobile device?
Imagine you’re the CEO of Apple — what product would you eliminate from the lineup?
Speculation on Tech Trends & Landscape
(Learn more about a framework specifically for this question type here.
How do you think new technologies will impact public transportation?
How is Google doing right now?
What is your strategic analysis of mobile messaging applications today?
How would you evaluate a product that you don't know much about?
What are some challenges in data privacy?
What are the top 3 headwinds and tailwinds of e-commerce?
What are the top 3 next big technologies that Google should know of?
Given current tech innovations happening, what should Google do in 5 years?
If you were a VC, would you be more bullish on AR or VR?
What product (or service) will be obsolete in 5-10 years? How would you advise the producer/creator/company in this shifting landscape?
Where is Google underinvested today?What should Chrome do next?
Evaluate competitor landscape (direct & indirect) for Dropbox?
How would you monetize [a certain product] more effectively?
How do you see the “creator economy” evolving over the next ten years? What would you recommend we build if Google wanted to make a new significant product investment within this space?
Pricing
A bike sharing company is considering freemium model. Should they do it or not?
How would you price a brand new Kindle book?
How would you price Google Loon in South Africa?
How would you approach X?
Imagine you are the head of product for Chrome. What would your strategy be?
If you were a PM of Google's food delivery service, how will you increase the market share?
You are a PM @ Prime Video team, you need to increase the market share, which strategy will you follow? And then build a solution/product considering Covid. (Design tacked on.)
You are PM of Google Hangouts and after launch, you got an Avg. review rating of 3, detail (rating 1: 40%, 5: 40%, 3: 20%). What will you do?
You are the PM of a new consumer facing music subscription service. What is the key differentiator that you will build as part of this service?
If you were the PM of a video streaming content site, how would you determine what content to put on the landing page?
Imagine you own a wildly successful food truck, and you want to scale it up. How would you do it?
A large amount of Americans might become homeless on the next 5 years. You have 100 days to come with a plan/solution to irradicate or aliviate the homeless situation on the US. Where do you start?
How would you go about deploying Google Fiber to a new city, assuming you were part of the original roll-out team?
It's late 2018, we know everything that is about to happen with COVID in the next 24 months. Come up with an 18 month roadmap to pitch to Sundar.
What could have Google done in March 2020 to help with PPEs issue when Covid was intense?
How would you monetize Facebook Messenger?
Facebook is expanding into travel to compete with AirBnB — should they build a standalone app or integrate new travel features in the core Facebook experience?
Imagine you were considering launching two services which have similar revenues and costs. How would you decide which one to pursue?
You have been hired by Google (Nest), and Nest wants to enter Smart kitchen market. How would you enter this market? What would you build? (tacked on Design.)
Imagine you’re starting up a new social networking service. What would your strategy be?
Think of 10 perks that a hotel chain could offer to loyal guests. How about 20? 30?
Known Company … How would you
You are a CEO of Trip Advisor. In the last 2 week, you received a lot of feedback and complaints about one particular restaurant listing. What would you do?
You area a PM at Uber , Uber is looking at extending product line in bus service. Tell me weather bus service is a good idea or not. If yes, how would be strategize?
What would you do as CEO of Delta?
How would you Go To Market?
How would you market the Android tablet?
How would you market the next version of Android?
How would you choose a market for expansion for Google Cloud?
How would you market a mobile app to track weight, calorie consumption, and exercise?
Google’s CEO wants you to figure out how to enter a new market. What strategies would you explore?
Google Keep is a free product to save, share notes, etc. How would you make it a subscription product & monetize it?
Speculation on the past:
Why did X do Y?
Why did Amazon get into the hardware space?
Why do you think Facebook launched FB Portal?
Why is Google investing in self driving cars?
Why do you think Microsoft bought LinkedIn?
Why did Google invest in Android and Pixel?
Which Google products or services don’t make sense to you? Why?
What do you think were the resons why Google Plus failed to gain traction?
Describe a product you think had a successful launch. Why?
Describe a product you think launched poorly, despite being a good product. What would you have done differently?
Twists & Turns of Compound Questions
Keep in mind: Any design or analytics questions can be asked as a compound question that has a strategic twist to it. Below are some examples of compound questions that could be a design with strategy twist or a pure design question that sounds like a design question. When you get a question like the following, it is best to politely ask the interviewer what they are looking for.
Strategy + Design
A Google exec has just proposed that we start building residential apartments at Google. Pursue that.
How would you approach design and go-to-market for a completely new bike concept?
You're the CEO for a taxi company. Would you invest in driverless cars? Why or why not? What would the MVP look like?
You're a PM in the Google Nest org. Execs think there might be an opportunity to expand into the home-office space given the growth of WFH. What would you build and why?
Strategy + Analytics
PM for Google Assistant, evaluate entry into automotive sector, what do we consider? Follow up questions - Google wants to enter the automotive space with assistant, what’s the TAM? How many new cars sold each year? How many rental vehicles are there in the USA? Of all the new vehicles how many can we get google assistant into?
How would you grow [a certain product] product?
Design + Strategy + Analytics
Define strategy/approach for determining which image should be displayed for the Google Maps search feature. What metrics would you use to make this determination?
How would you decide which unmapped places Google maps should add next? How would you go about mapping a new place? How would you decide on one place over another?
You created a new technology* that allows you to collect every signal off of the human body - how would you use it? (come up with 5 use cases). Calculate the storage your prioritized solutution would need in the first month.
*It is common to follow up these sensor questions with analytics when users for phone screen or strategy but can also be a design question.
