Strategy question
How do you grow the total number of users in mobile app sign-ups, and what strategies would you implement to increase user acquisition?
- Meta
- Strategy
- Easy
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What this question tests
Tests basic growth-loop thinking for a top-of-funnel problem: acquisition channels, friction reduction, and how you would prioritize among them.
How to approach it
- Clarify the app and audience: assume a consumer app with an existing user base, since growing sign-ups differs for viral versus paid-acquisition products.
- Break acquisition into channels: organic (app store search, SEO, referrals), paid (app install ads), and viral (invite loops, sharing).
- For each channel, name one concrete lever: optimize app store screenshots and keywords for organic, run lookalike-audience ad campaigns for paid, add an incentivized referral program for viral.
- Reduce sign-up friction itself: cut form fields, add social/SSO login, and delay account creation until after a value moment (try-before-signup).
- Prioritize by cost and speed: friction reduction first (cheap, fast), then referral loops (compounding), then paid acquisition (scalable but costs money).
- Set the success metric as sign-up conversion rate and cost per acquired user, not raw sign-up count alone.
What a strong answer includes
- Gives an illustrative number: cutting sign-up fields from 8 to 3 commonly lifts conversion 10 to 20 percent, framed clearly as an assumption.
- Separates acquisition (getting people to the sign-up page) from conversion (completing it), since 'grow sign-ups' is really two problems.
- Names a referral incentive structure (give one month free, get one month free) as a concrete viral lever.
- Flags that paid acquisition without fixing conversion first wastes ad spend.
Common mistakes
- Jumping straight to 'run more ads' without addressing funnel friction first.
- Treating sign-ups as the end goal instead of a step toward activation and retention.
- No mention of measuring cost per acquisition alongside volume.
Likely follow-up questions
- Which of these levers would you test first and how would you measure it?
- How would you make sure new sign-ups are quality users, not just volume?
- What would you do if the referral program cannibalized organic growth?
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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