Product design question
How would you redesign the Google Home speaker?
- Product design
- Medium
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What this question tests
Whether you can improve a mature hardware product by finding a real, current gap rather than proposing cosmetic changes.
How to approach it
- Clarify scope: redesigning the physical device, the software experience, or both, since Google Home spans hardware and Assistant software.
- Identify the core pain point today: limited proactive usefulness, since most smart speakers are still reactive, waiting for a wake word.
- Segment users: households using it for music and basic queries versus those wanting real home automation control.
- Prioritize proactive, context-aware suggestions, like reminding about a forgotten task based on routine, over new physical form factors.
- Propose a concrete change: a screen-optional companion display mode plus smarter routine suggestions based on time and location patterns.
- Define success metrics: daily proactive interactions accepted, with a guardrail on false or unwanted proactive prompts.
What a strong answer includes
- Focuses on the software and interaction model, proactivity, as the real differentiator rather than just a hardware refresh.
- Segments by use case, music and queries versus automation, since the redesign should serve the underserved automation segment.
- Gives an illustrative number, assuming most current usage is reactive voice queries with minimal proactive engagement today.
- Names a guardrail, unwanted proactive prompts, since over-eager suggestions quickly erode trust in a home device.
Common mistakes
- Redesigning only the physical shape or color instead of addressing the actual interaction model.
- Proposing more proactive features without a guardrail against annoying or invasive suggestions.
Likely follow-up questions
- How would you decide when a proactive suggestion is welcome versus intrusive?
- What would you measure to know users trust the smarter, more proactive version?
More product design questions
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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