Strategy question
You are the growth Product Manager for a social carpooling app. Due to COVID-19 and the enforcement of lockdowns, you see your key KPIs like DAU, rides and revenue drop to almost zero. What would be your strategy to revive the momentum and bring back users as lockdown measures are lifted?
- sRide
- BlaBlaCar
- Quick Ride
- Strategy
- Hard
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What this question tests
Crisis recovery strategy, checking whether you can sequence a realistic, trust-first reactivation plan rather than jumping straight to aggressive growth tactics.
How to approach it
- Clarify the context: lockdown restrictions are lifting gradually, so demand will return unevenly by region and user segment, not all at once.
- Segment users: lapsed regular commuters who stopped due to lockdown, versus safety-cautious users who may still avoid shared rides even after restrictions ease.
- Prioritize trust and safety first, since carpooling involves close contact, so visible safety measures are a prerequisite for any user to return, not an optional add-on.
- Propose a phased reactivation: launch visible safety features, like verified sanitization badges and reduced capacity options, before any aggressive reactivation marketing push.
- Sequence marketing: reach out to lapsed regular users first with personalized win-back offers, since they convert faster than acquiring new users from scratch.
- Define success as DAU and completed rides recovering to a percentage of pre-COVID baseline within a set number of months, tracked separately by user segment.
What a strong answer includes
- Sequences safety trust-building before growth tactics, correctly identifying that carpooling's core barrier post-COVID is perceived risk, not lack of awareness.
- Segments the win-back strategy between lapsed users and new users, since reactivation economics are far better for the former.
- Defines recovery against a clear pre-COVID baseline, giving a concrete, time-bound success metric instead of vague 'grow the business' language.
Common mistakes
- Jumping straight to aggressive discounting or marketing without first addressing the safety trust barrier unique to shared rides post-pandemic.
- Treating all users the same instead of prioritizing higher-converting lapsed users over costlier new user acquisition.
Likely follow-up questions
- How would you measure whether safety features are actually restoring user trust?
- How would your strategy differ in a region with a slower reopening timeline?
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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