I got an interesting question this week, when should you not segment users?

Yes, there are prompts and situations where you don’t necessarily need to segment users during a product design or product sense prompt. This is a more common scenario with Google, a mid-tier company, or a startup. This is rarely the case with Meta, as they are looking for prioritization signals.

Here are some examples:

1. The interviewer tells you what they are going to ask, and you know you don’t have long to focus on your design prompt.

2. What is your favorite product?

3. Give me three business ideas for X?

4. What business opportunities would you consider?

5. How would you improve X? (can go either way)

There are other prompts, listen to the context of your interviewer’s question. Read the room. But how should I approach these questions, if not with user groupings/segmentation?

1. Listen carefully to what the interviewer has asked for. It is not uncommon for existing products to define what you understand as the core user. Establish that common ground and move forward.

   • Test out answering without user segments when pressed for time. Be sure to show user empathy throughout your answer. You can show you have considered others without a lengthy analysis. See how you like it.

2. When talking about your favorite product, you can quickly describe what kind of user you are and run with that. You don’t need to group them.

3. If they ask for business ideas, you can talk about distinct types of users as your business groupings.

   • i.e. Athletes, Business Executives and Parents

   • Warehouses, Retail Stores, and Hospitals

   • You will end up talking about distinct users that are separated by use case applications. It is a subtle difference but it works.

4. See above. Same thing, different prompt language.

5. If you are asked to improve a product, sometimes you can state your assumption of the core user and ask if you can focus on them or if the interviewer would prefer you explore other or more distinct users. My choice to use this technique would depend on the timing. If I am short on time or know I have multiple questions, I would explore ways to get to the chase quickly.