Strategy question
Define a 3-5 year roadmap to improve the merchant platform capabilities at American Express.
- American Express
- Strategy
- Hard
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What this question tests
Long range strategic planning for a B2B platform, requiring market analysis, prioritization, and a phased roadmap tied to revenue.
How to approach it
- Confirm the target merchant segment: small business, mid market, or enterprise merchants on American Express's network.
- Assess the market: rising merchant demand for integrated payments, fraud protection, and working capital tools.
- Identify American Express's advantage: trusted brand, existing merchant relationships, and rich transaction data.
- Sequence the roadmap: year one strengthens core payment reliability, year two adds data driven insights, year three adds embedded financing.
- Recommend prioritizing embedded financing since it leverages Amex's unique data advantage over generic processors.
- Define success with merchant adoption rate and net new merchant revenue, with risk noted around fraud exposure.
What a strong answer includes
- Sequences the roadmap logically, reliability first, insights second, financing third, rather than listing unordered ideas.
- Anchors the recommendation in Amex's specific advantage, transaction data breadth, not a generic fintech roadmap.
- Assumes an illustrative number, such as targeting 15 percent merchant adoption of the insights tool in year two.
- Names a real risk, fraud exposure from expanded financing products, and how to mitigate it.
Common mistakes
- Proposes a roadmap with no phasing or sequencing logic.
- Ignores Amex's actual competitive advantage and proposes generic fintech features.
Likely follow-up questions
- Which of these three years would you cut if the budget were halved?
- How would you validate merchant demand before building the financing product?
- How does this roadmap differ for small versus enterprise merchants?
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Learn the skill behind it
Chapters of the AI PM course that teach what this question tests.
- Chapter 4: Discovery and strategy for AI products
- Chapter 9: Prove it paid off: outcomes, economics, and pricing
- Chapter 14: Get the job: the AI PM interview loop