Product design question
You are a PM at Shopify. Design a world-class loyalty program.
- Shopify
- Product design
- Medium
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 design for a merchant-platform feature: can you design a loyalty program that works across thousands of independent Shopify merchants, not just one brand.
How to approach it
- Clarify the user: Shopify merchants (the direct customer) who want to retain their own end shoppers, so the product must be flexible enough to fit wildly different brands and price points.
- Identify the core tension: a 'world-class' program needs to feel native and easy for merchants of all sizes to configure, from a solo Etsy-style seller to a large DTC brand, without requiring custom development.
- Design the core mechanism: a points-based system (points per dollar spent, redeemable for discounts or perks) with merchant-configurable rules, plus pre-built templates so small merchants can launch in minutes.
- Add tiering and gamification for larger merchants who want more sophistication: VIP tiers, referral bonuses, and birthday rewards, available as opt-in modules rather than forced complexity.
- Integrate tightly with checkout and existing Shopify data (purchase history, customer segments) so loyalty triggers automatically without extra merchant effort.
- Define success as merchant adoption rate and, downstream, repeat purchase rate lift for shoppers enrolled in the program versus those who are not.
What a strong answer includes
- Recognizes the platform nature of the problem: this is a product for merchants, not end consumers directly, which shapes the design toward configurability and templates.
- Separates a simple default (points-based, one-click setup) from advanced opt-in features (tiers, referrals), respecting the huge range of merchant sophistication on Shopify.
- Ties the design to Shopify's existing checkout and customer data infrastructure rather than proposing a bolt-on separate system.
- Picks a two-sided metric, merchant adoption and shopper repeat-purchase lift, capturing both platform and end-user value.
Common mistakes
- Designing loyalty features as if for a single brand rather than a platform serving highly varied merchants.
- Overloading the default experience with complex tiering that small merchants will not configure or use.
- No metric distinguishing merchant-side adoption from actual shopper-behavior impact.
Likely follow-up questions
- How would you price this feature, bundled or as an add-on?
- How would you handle a merchant who wants a completely custom loyalty structure?
- What would you measure in a beta before rolling this out to all merchants?
More product design questions
- Redesign Twitter for eCommerce.Shopify · Product design · Hard
- 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
- You are a new PM at Google Pay. Design a feature for paying credit card bills.Shopify · Product design · Medium
- How would you design a "Pay Later" feature for Amazon app?Shopify · Product design · Medium
- How would you improve order conversions by optimising the product descriptions page for a fashion Ecommerce platform?Shopify · Product design · Medium
- How would you design YouTube for kids?Shopify · Product design · Medium
More questions from Shopify
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