Strategy question
What should be short and near term goals for Netflix.
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What this question tests
Tests structured near-term strategic prioritization for a mature, competitive streaming business, balancing growth, profitability, and content strategy.
How to approach it
- Clarify the time horizon: assume near-term means the next 1-2 years, requiring achievable, resourced priorities rather than a long-term vision statement.
- Assess the current context: subscriber growth in mature markets is slowing, so near-term goals should balance new growth levers with monetizing the existing base.
- Propose growing the ad-supported tier, a proven, high-margin lever with room to expand ARPU from price-sensitive subscribers.
- Propose further reducing password-sharing revenue leakage and converting borrowers to paying extra-member accounts, building on Netflix's already-successful crackdown.
- Propose expanding into live and gaming content selectively, as a retention and engagement lever rather than a primary revenue driver yet.
- Prioritize and sequence: rank ad-tier growth and password-sharing monetization above new content categories, since they have faster, more certain payback.
What a strong answer includes
- Grounds goals in Netflix's actual recent strategic context, the ad tier and password-sharing crackdown, rather than generic streaming platitudes.
- Sequences goals by certainty and speed of payback rather than listing all initiatives as equally important.
- Distinguishes proven monetization levers from exploratory bets like gaming, showing realistic prioritization judgment.
- Names a clear time horizon and stays within it, rather than drifting into long-term vision territory.
Common mistakes
- Proposing vague, generic goals like increase subscribers or improve content with no specific near-term mechanism.
- Treating exploratory bets like gaming as equally prioritized to proven, faster-payback levers like the ad tier.
Likely follow-up questions
- How would you measure early success of the ad-supported tier specifically?
- What would make you deprioritize the gaming initiative?
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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