Product design question
Name two products that are bad but successful anyway.
- Stripe
- Product design
- Easy
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What this question tests
Product judgment and market awareness: recognizing that user experience and business success don't always correlate, and why.
How to approach it
- Pick two well-known, defensible examples, such as Internet Explorer's early dominance or Craigslist's dated design.
- For each, briefly explain what makes it 'bad': poor UX, outdated design, or confusing flows.
- Explain why it succeeded anyway: distribution advantage, network effects, or lack of a better alternative at the time.
- Draw the broader lesson: distribution and switching costs can outweigh polish in the short and medium term.
- Note the risk: such products remain vulnerable once a better alternative removes the lock-in.
What a strong answer includes
- Chooses defensible, well-known examples rather than vague or controversial ones.
- Explains the specific mechanism of success, such as network effects for Craigslist or default-install distribution for early browsers.
- Draws a clear, generalizable lesson about distribution beating polish, not just describing the examples.
- Notes the vulnerability, showing awareness that such advantages can erode, as happened with Internet Explorer.
Common mistakes
- Picking an example and just saying 'it's ugly' with no explanation of why it still won.
- Confusing 'bad' with merely unpopular or niche.
- Not extracting a generalizable insight from the examples.
Likely follow-up questions
- What would it take for a challenger to unseat one of these products?
- Is being 'bad but successful' sustainable long term?
- Can you think of a product that lost its position for this exact reason?
More product design questions
- How would you improve the Uber app?Lyft · Product design · Easy
- For a retail store, users are frequently complaining about long queues during check out. What strategy would you use to improve the experience in the short term and long term?Shopify · Product design · Medium
- How would you re-design the carwash?Spotify · Product design · Medium
- You're a PM at a vending machine company. Your CEO asks you to design a new line of vending machines to be placed in hotels and motels. What would you do?Google · Product design · Hard
- How would you design an app to help people choose which cheese to buy at a grocery store?Stripe · Product design · Easy
- What is your favorite product? Why?PayPal · Product design · Easy
More questions from Stripe
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