Product design question
Google is working on a tech that allows people to travel from SF to Seattle in just 15 minutes for only $1000 per person, one way. What would you do with this tech?
- Product design
- Hard
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What this question tests
Strategic product thinking for a radically disruptive technology, weighing business model and market impact.
How to approach it
- Clarify the core value: near instant, affordable intercity travel that would fundamentally disrupt short haul flights and driving.
- Identify the primary use case: business travelers and frequent commuters between SF and Seattle who currently fly or drive for hours.
- Assess the competitive impact: this would directly threaten short haul airlines on this route and could reshape regional commuting patterns.
- Propose a phased rollout: limited capacity launch targeting high frequency business travelers first, given the premium price point.
- Address regulatory and safety validation needs, given how radically new and unproven this transportation mode would be.
- Define success as ticket sales relative to capacity and a clear path to reducing price over time to expand the addressable market.
What a strong answer includes
- Names the specific competitive disruption, threatening short haul airlines, showing awareness of real market impact.
- Identifies a clear initial customer segment, frequent business travelers, appropriate given the stated premium price point.
- Gives an illustrative number, e.g. assumes targeting 70 percent capacity utilization on initial routes as a viability signal.
- Proposes a path to price reduction over time, recognizing $1000 one way limits the addressable market significantly.
Common mistakes
- Ignoring the premium price point's implications for market size and addressable customer segment.
- Not addressing regulatory and safety validation, critical for an unproven transportation technology.
- Treating this as risk free with no phased rollout or validation plan.
Likely follow-up questions
- How would you validate safety before wide rollout?
- How would you bring the price down over time?
- What would airlines or regulators do in response?
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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