Uber · Product sense · Entry · 45 to 60 minutes

How should Uber offer car seats?

Uber is a smartphone app that connects riders with drivers for on demand trips. Answer this product management case and get it graded line by line against a weighted rubric.

Problem framing
Idea generation
Prioritization
Tradeoff analysis
Communication

The situation

You are an entry PM on Uber's rider experience team. Your director asks you to propose how Uber could better serve riders traveling with infants or young children who need a car seat. Today, many families cannot reliably use the service because they may not know whether a suitable seat will be available, and drivers may not be prepared to carry, store, or install one. This is becoming urgent because the gap affects an important rider need, but any solution could raise costs, slow pickups, or create new operational and safety burdens for drivers and support teams. The team wants a recommendation for a first step that could be piloted in one city before broader rollout. Assume you have a modest pilot budget and no existing car seat program to build on. Your task is to explore multiple product approaches, decide which one Uber should test first, and explain why that choice is better than the alternatives right now.

What to produce

Write a 1 to 2 page product strategy memo.

Your answer must

State the core user need and identify the primary target user for the first pilot.
List at least 3 meaningfully different solution approaches, grouped into distinct option types rather than minor variants.
Compare the options using demand pattern, cost, and operational burden on drivers and Uber.
Recommend 1 MVP approach for a single city pilot, and explain why the other options should not be first.
Define 2 success metrics and 2 major risks, with a mitigation for each risk.

Constraints

Do not assume Uber can force all drivers in a city to carry a car seat.
Do not assume perfect forecasting of where and when families will request rides.
Your proposal must work within Uber's core marketplace model of matching riders and drivers through the app.
You cannot rely on a large national rollout or major hardware deployment as the first step.

Format

Use short sections: user need, option set, tradeoff table or bullets, recommendation, metrics, risks.

How Uber actually played it

A real Google interview prompt about getting car seats into Uber rides, with the author's own account of being pushed for more and more ideas. It shows how to generate a wide set of options (dedicated tier, hotspot availability, partnerships) and then pick and defend one.

Interviewers may test breadth of ideas, so brainstorm in groups and then converge
Tie each idea to cost, demand pattern and operational burden
Name the user need first, then the mechanism

Built from Google PM Interview: The Uber Car Seat Challenge by Ajitesh, Tough Tongue AI (PM Interview Prep Weekly).