What’s your favorite product?
Perhaps the single most common product design question asked is: “What is your favorite product?” Searching crowd-sourced prompts, I found 15 examples/variations on the prompt.
This core question has several variations, including least favorite product, poorly executed product, object near you, etc. These prompts are easy for the candidate (because practice is possible) and for the interviewer, they don’t have to remember any crazy prompts.
How to Pick & Prepare Your Favorite :
Pick Niche Products; Avoid Common Products
Decide your structure (Rule of 3 vs One Reason per Product)
Prepare Improvement Answer for each
Why niche products?
Do NOT pick common products. Why? The interviewer may have their on 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.
Also, try to include a variety of products. For example, you don’t want three library/book products. (I once had a candidate do that and I had to send them back to the recruiter for another round because I didn’t get the sense they could empathize with others who didn’t share their interests.)
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 judgemental, if your storytelling skills arr strong.
Examples of 3 Reasons:
Solves a probem > Useful
Ease of Use > Natural Affordances > Intuitive
Innovative
Aesthetically Pleasing > Well Designed > Pretty
Prompts:
Great Products
What is your favorite app? How would you improve it?
Name a technology you like. Design a product using the technology.
How would you improve our favorite consumer hardware product? How would you test and validate the improvement?
What is a non-tech product you really like. Why do you like it? How would you improve it?
Please tell me about your favorite non-digital product and compare and contrast it to its competitors
What is a non-technical product that you use every day and you like? Why do you like it? How would you improve it?
Tell me 4 products you love? Why do you love them? (Interviewer will pic one.) What would you change?
Commonly Used Products
Pick an app on your phone that you use every day and talk about 3 specific features that make you dislike the product.
What are three products you use daily?
Not So Great Products
Tell me about a product you love, but you can't get any of your friends to adopt.
What's your least favorite product? Why? How would you improve it?
What's your least favorite product? Why? How would you address the problem?
Improve a product that has not reached its full potential.
Talk about a product you think is not well designed and why? How would you improve it?
What is your least favorite product from your company? What suggestions do you have to improve it?
Tell me about a product that you use regularly, and you don’t like. How would you improve it?
Random
Pick an object near you. What attributes do you consider as important for this product. How to improve it?
If you were the CEO of _____ product, what would you do?
