Google · Metrics · Mid · 45 to 60 minutes

Reset Metrics for a Slowing Google Surface

Google is a global technology company whose products help people find information, use online tools, and complete tasks across web and mobile. Answer this product management case and get it graded line by line against a weighted rubric.

Metric design
Product sense
Analytical thinking
Prioritization
Structured communication

The situation

Your director asks you to recommend a new metric framework for one Google product surface after growth has slowed. The team currently reviews reach, visits, time spent, and feature adoption, but every planning meeting ends in debate: some metrics rise while the product still feels stagnant, and the team cannot tell which changes actually improve user value. Leadership wants a clearer way to decide what to build next, what to stop investing in, and how to judge whether the surface is healthy. You need to propose metrics that reflect real user success, not just activity, but they also must be metrics this team can influence through product changes on its own surface. The hard part is balancing Google scale, many possible user intents, and pressure for a simple north star. If the metric is too high level it will be hard to act on, and if it is too narrow it may miss what matters most to users. Your recommendation will be used in the next planning cycle.

What to produce

Write a 1 to 2 page metrics strategy memo.

Your answer must

Identify one critical user journey on a specific Google surface and state the user task and what successful completion means.
Propose one primary metric and 3 to 5 supporting metrics, each with a clear definition and why it matters.
Show how each metric connects to product levers that this team can directly change on that surface.
Explain how your metric set would help diagnose a growth slowdown and guide prioritization decisions.
Call out at least two risks or blind spots in your framework and how you would validate or refine it.

Constraints

Stay within a single Google product surface and a single product team's scope.
Do not rely on revenue, partnerships, or company wide brand goals as the primary metric.
Use only metrics that could reasonably be measured with standard product analytics and light instrumentation changes in the next quarter.

Format

Use short sections with one small table for metrics, definitions, and levers.

How Google actually played it

Summarizes how Google teams define metrics around a user doing a successful task on a specific surface and tie them to product levers when growth slows. A useful way to choose metrics.

Define metrics around successful user tasks
Metrics need levers a team can move

Built from Critical User Journeys: How Google's Product Teams React When Growth Slows by Reforge.