Product design question

Design an application for salons in the nearby areas. The solution should be like a marketplace for salon owners and consumers.

Practice this question out loud. An AI interviewer asks it, follows up like a real interviewer would, and scores your answer. Type or speak.

What this question tests

Whether you can design a two-sided local marketplace balancing supply, discovery, and trust.

Clarify scope: booking salon appointments nearby, covering both salon owners listing services and consumers discovering them.
Segment users: salon owners needing bookings filled and visibility, consumers needing trustworthy options nearby with real availability.
Identify the chicken-and-egg problem: consumers need enough salons listed to find value, salons need enough bookings to bother listing.
Prioritize solving salon-side supply first, since a marketplace with no listings has nothing for consumers to discover.
Propose a concrete MVP: a booking and discovery app with real-time slot availability, reviews, and a low-friction owner onboarding tool.
Define success metrics: number of active salons per zip code and booking fill rate, with a guardrail on no-show rate.

Explicitly addresses the cold-start problem, prioritizing salon supply before broad consumer marketing.
Ties discovery to a concrete trust signal, verified reviews and real-time availability, not just a listing directory.
Gives an illustrative number, assuming a market needs roughly 15 to 20 active salons per zip code to feel useful.
Names a guardrail, no-show rate, that would undermine salon owner trust in the marketplace if ignored.

Designing the consumer experience in detail while ignoring how salons get onboarded and stay active.
Skipping the cold-start problem entirely, assuming both sides will simply show up.

Chapters of the AI PM course that teach what this question tests.