Strategy question
What milestone or markers would you look at to determine if a product isn’t performing well and what considerations do you make before you sunset the product? What is the process you would lay out? How do you handle the stakeholders?
- Strategy
- Hard
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What this question tests
Judgment around product lifecycle decisions: recognizing decline signals, structuring a sunset decision process, and managing stakeholders through it.
How to approach it
- Name concrete decline signals to watch: sustained drop in active users or engagement, negative or flat revenue trend, and rising cost-to-maintain relative to value delivered.
- Define the sunset evaluation process: a defined observation window (e.g. two consecutive quarters of decline) before considering sunset, to avoid overreacting to short-term noise.
- Weigh considerations beyond raw metrics: whether the product serves a small but strategically important user segment, and legal/contractual obligations to existing customers.
- Lay out the stakeholder process: align engineering, sales, and legal early, communicate a clear timeline to affected customers well in advance, and provide a migration path where possible.
- Define what 'done well' looks like: minimal customer complaints or churn spillover to other products, and a clean, on-time wind-down.
What a strong answer includes
- Names concrete, measurable decline signals rather than a vague 'when it's not doing well.'
- Distinguishes metrics-based decline from strategic importance, showing the decision isn't purely mechanical.
- Details the stakeholder and customer-communication process explicitly, matching the question's specific ask about handling stakeholders.
Common mistakes
- Giving only the decision criteria and skipping the stakeholder-management process the question explicitly asks about.
- Not defining an observation window, risking a premature sunset decision based on short-term noise.
Likely follow-up questions
- How would you handle a small but vocal group of power users who strongly oppose the sunset?
- How would you decide between sunsetting versus selling or spinning off the product?
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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 9: Prove it paid off: outcomes, economics, and pricing
- Chapter 14: Get the job: the AI PM interview loop