Binti · Product sense · Mid · 45 to 60 minutes

What Should Binti Build After Growth Stalls

Binti builds software intended to help more children find permanent families by improving parts of the foster and adoption process. Answer this product management case and get it graded line by line against a weighted rubric.

Problem framing
User segmentation
Product strategy
Tradeoff analysis
Metrics

The situation

You are the first PM working with Binti's founder after the company raised its seed round. Binti's first product helps families apply to foster or adopt online by completing forms, uploading documents, and coordinating paperwork. Early users appreciate the support, and the team has personally guided about 100 families through the process. But growth has flattened at roughly 20 new families per month, and most customers will only go through the process once. The team is also learning that agencies, not families, control many steps that determine speed, status, and approval. The founder still believes deeply in the mission, but the company is small and cannot keep chasing every possible idea in child welfare. She wants a recommendation for where product should focus next so the roadmap, hiring, and go to market plan for the next phase are clear. Your task is to decide whether Binti should keep improving the family product, build for agency staff, or choose another wedge in the same problem space.

What to produce

Write a 1 to 2 page product direction memo.

Your answer must

State the core product problem in one sentence and explain why the current family product may be plateauing.
Compare at least three plausible product directions, including one centered on families, one centered on agency staff, and one other wedge in the workflow.
Recommend one direction for the next phase and specify the primary user, the buyer if different, the main pain point, and why this path could create repeatable adoption.
Define the smallest useful product you would pursue first and list 2 to 4 capabilities it should include, plus what you would explicitly not build yet.
Propose success metrics for the first 6 months and the first three steps you would use to validate the direction before a larger investment.

Constraints

Assume the team can fund only one major product direction for the next 6 months.
You cannot rely on changing government policy or forcing agencies to adopt a new process by mandate.
The team is small, so your plan should not require building and selling multiple products in parallel.
Existing family users still need a working service, so any shift should account for how you handle the current product.

Format

Use sections titled problem, options, recommendation, first product scope, validation plan, and metrics.

How Binti actually played it

Describes a founder shadowing social workers to understand licensing workflow before building software. A model of deep field research for a government-adjacent product.

Shadow users in their real workflow
Capture institutional knowledge as product requirements

Built from Binti's Path to Product-Market Fit: Lessons in Immersive User Research by First Round Review.