Product design question
Imagine that you had to build a start-up. What would you build & how would you measure its success?
- Microsoft
- Product design
- Hard
Practice this question out loud. An AI interviewer asks it, follows up like a real interviewer would, and scores your answer. Type or speak.
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What this question tests
Founder level product thinking: can the candidate spot a real unmet need and define a credible, measurable definition of success.
How to approach it
- Pick a specific problem you have personally experienced or researched, rather than a generic idea like a social app.
- Define the target user narrowly, such as freelance contractors struggling with late invoice payments.
- Explain the core solution and why existing alternatives fall short for that specific user.
- State the business model: how the startup would make money.
- Define success with an early stage metric, such as week one retention or paid conversion rate, not just sign ups.
What a strong answer includes
- Chooses a specific, narrow problem with a believable target user rather than a broad, unfocused idea.
- Explains clearly why current solutions fail this user, showing real market awareness.
- Picks an early, honest success metric like activation or retention instead of vanity metrics like downloads.
- Assumes an illustrative number, such as targeting 40 percent week one retention as an early health signal.
Common mistakes
- Pitches a broad, generic idea with no specific user or problem.
- Measures success only by downloads or funding raised, not actual usage.
Likely follow-up questions
- How would you validate this idea before writing any code?
- What would make you kill this idea after three months?
- Who is your biggest competitor and why would a user choose you instead?
More product design questions
- How would you improve Outlook for the use case when people get overwhelmed by number of emails received after returning from a vacation?Microsoft · Product design · Medium
- How would you improve Microsoft Teams?Microsoft · Product design · Easy
- Design a loyalty program for a search engine that's competing with Google & Bing.Google · Product design · Hard
- How would you improve Microsoft OneNote?Microsoft · Product design · Easy
- How would you improve the MS Teams search functionality as a Search PM at Microsoft Teams?Microsoft · Product design · Medium
- How would you design a car sharing platform like Uber for disabled people?Lyft · Product design · Hard
More questions from Microsoft
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