Product design question
Design a website for monthly rental units.
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What this question tests
Tests marketplace product design for a specific real estate niche: matching renters and landlords for longer term monthly stays.
How to approach it
- Define the user: renters seeking flexible monthly stays, distinct from both short term vacation rentals and traditional year long leases.
- Identify the core need: flexibility without the commitment of a full lease, useful for relocating professionals or long term travelers.
- Propose the core flow: search by location and move in date, view furnished unit listings, and book with a monthly renewable term.
- Address trust, since monthly commitments are higher stakes than a short vacation stay, requiring landlord verification and clear cancellation terms.
- Define success: booking conversion rate and renewal rate for stays extending beyond the first month.
- Confirm with the interviewer whether the focus is furnished units for traveling professionals or general monthly rentals.
What a strong answer includes
- Targets a specific niche clearly, relocating professionals and long term travelers wanting flexibility without a full year lease, rather than a generic rental site.
- Proposes furnished, move in ready units as a core differentiator, since this segment values convenience over customizing an empty apartment.
- Addresses trust explicitly, requiring landlord verification and clear, fair cancellation policies given the higher financial stakes of monthly commitments.
- Sets a measurable goal, for example a stated renewal rate beyond the first month as a signal the product truly fits the flexible stay need.
Common mistakes
- Designing a generic rental listing site without differentiating it from either short term vacation rentals or traditional leases.
- Ignoring the trust and cancellation policy needs unique to a monthly, higher commitment rental model.
Likely follow-up questions
- How would you handle a dispute over a landlord not honoring the monthly renewal terms?
- How would you differentiate this from a service like Airbnb's monthly stay option?
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- Redesign Twitter for eCommerce.Shopify · Product design · Hard
- How would you go about designing a new location sharing app for Google?Google · Product design · Medium
- How would you improve Google Home?Google · Product design · Easy
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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 7: AI UX and human oversight: design for a system that is wrong sometimes
- Chapter 14: Get the job: the AI PM interview loop