Product design question
We have hired you as a consultant to create a proposition that will make us the best bank for kids. We want you to develop a strategy, design a product that can be built in 6 months, and walk us through how you would go to market.
- American Express
- Product design
- Hard
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What this question tests
Full-cycle product thinking: can you connect strategy, a scoped MVP, and go-to-market in one coherent pitch for a regulated, trust-sensitive product.
How to approach it
- Strategy: position as a parent-controlled financial literacy product (debit card plus savings goals) rather than a full standalone bank for kids.
- Target user: parents of kids aged roughly 8-14, since younger kids need more control and older teens want more independence, so pick one segment to focus the 6-month build.
- MVP scope: a prepaid debit card linked to a parent's account, with spending controls, savings goals, and simple chore-based allowance automation.
- Constraints: banking regulation likely requires partnering with a licensed bank/card issuer rather than becoming one, which shapes the 6-month timeline.
- Go-to-market: launch through the parent's existing Amex relationship (cross-sell to current cardholders) rather than cold consumer acquisition.
- Define success: parent activation rate among existing Amex customers and card usage frequency by kids.
What a strong answer includes
- Picks one age segment deliberately instead of trying to serve all kids, since needs differ sharply by age and that shapes a buildable 6-month MVP.
- Scopes the MVP to spending controls plus savings goals, a realistic build for 6 months, rather than a full-feature banking app.
- Recognizes the regulatory reality (partner with a card issuer) that a 6-month internal build couldn't bypass.
- Proposes go-to-market via existing Amex cardholders, a concrete, low-CAC channel specific to this company, not generic consumer marketing.
Common mistakes
- Proposing a full-feature bank build with no acknowledgment of banking regulation and licensing timelines.
- Not picking an age segment, leading to a vague product that tries to serve every kid.
Likely follow-up questions
- How would you handle the transition as a kid ages out of your target segment?
- What's your pricing model, is this a paid add-on for parents or free with Amex?
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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