Product design question
Perplexity wants one mobile wedge to deepen daily usage of agentic AI. How would you determine the highest-leverage user problem to solve for people on the go, and choose the first surface to invest in across search, voice, camera, notifications, and widgets? Walk through your user segmentation, evidence sources, decision criteria, and first 90 days of execution.
- Perplexity
- 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.
Start a mock interview on this question · Mock interview from a job description
What this question tests
Tests product strategy for choosing a single high leverage mobile surface using segmentation and evidence, then executing in a defined first 90 days.
How to approach it
- Segment users by mobile context, commuters, multitaskers, and hands busy situations, since each favors a different surface like voice or camera.
- Use evidence from current usage data, support tickets, and competitor patterns to rank which surface has the clearest unmet need.
- Choose one wedge, for example voice for hands free query on the go, rather than spreading investment across search, camera, and widgets at once.
- Define success criteria for the wedge, such as daily active usage of the new surface and its effect on overall session frequency.
- Plan the first 90 days as build, ship to a limited cohort, measure adoption and retention lift, then decide to expand or pivot.
- Keep the other surfaces, notifications and widgets, as smaller supporting bets that reinforce the primary wedge rather than compete with it.
What a strong answer includes
- Picks one wedge with a clear rationale tied to a specific user context, instead of hedging across all five surfaces listed.
- Uses concrete evidence sources, current usage data and support tickets, rather than assuming which surface matters most.
- Lays out a specific 90 day plan with a measurable go or pivot decision point, not just a vague roadmap.
Common mistakes
- Trying to invest meaningfully in all five surfaces at once instead of committing to one wedge.
- Choosing a surface based on what is technically exciting rather than evidence of unmet user need.
Likely follow-up questions
- How would you decide whether to expand the wedge or pivot after 90 days?
- What would change your surface choice if voice adoption on competitor apps turned out to be weak?
More product design questions
- How would you improve Perplexity's Comet browser for daily use?Perplexity · Product design · Medium
- Design an AI shopping assistant inside Comet.Perplexity · Product design · Medium
- Design a 'Deep Research' feature that produces trustworthy, citable reports.Perplexity · Product design · Hard
- How would you design Comet Assistant to safely act on tasks like booking flights and managing email?Perplexity · Product design · Hard
- Design the core interaction model for a Project where a human and multiple agents collaborate on ongoing work. How would you handle delegation, approvals, edit history, permissions, and recovery from bad agent actions so the experience feels powerful but dependable?Perplexity · Product design · Hard
- Users of Perplexity Computer say they do not understand why the agent clicked, searched, or changed course, and they hesitate to let it continue. Design a core interaction model that makes the agent’s intent, current state, and next actions understandable and controllable without turning the product into a complex dashboard.Perplexity · Product design · Hard
More questions from Perplexity
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