Product design question
How would you improve OpenTable's post-booking experience?
- DoorDash
- Product design
- Medium
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What this question tests
Product improvement skill: diagnosing a specific post-purchase journey and proposing changes grounded in user anxiety and retention.
How to approach it
- Define the post-booking journey today: confirmation email, reminder, arrival, and no-show or cancellation handling.
- Identify the core user need: confidence the table will be ready and an easy way to change plans.
- Pinpoint the weakest moment, such as no real-time wait updates on arrival or no easy modification flow.
- Propose two or three concrete fixes, like live table-ready notifications and one-tap rebooking.
- Tie each fix to a metric, such as reduced no-show rate or higher repeat booking rate.
What a strong answer includes
- Targets a specific gap (no live updates between booking and seating) instead of a vague 'improve everything'.
- Proposes a concrete feature: SMS notification when the table is 10 minutes from ready.
- Connects the fix to DoorDash's broader logistics strength, since it now owns OpenTable.
- Uses an assumed baseline, e.g. 8 percent no-show rate, to frame the expected impact.
Common mistakes
- Redesigning the whole booking flow instead of the post-booking experience specifically.
- Proposing features with no tie to a measurable outcome.
- Ignoring restaurant-side operations and only thinking about the diner.
Likely follow-up questions
- How would you measure success for this change?
- How would restaurants react to a live wait-time feature?
- What would you prioritize first with limited engineering time?
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More questions from DoorDash
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