Strategy question
You have been hired as a CPO of a small bricks-and-mortar Supermarket chain that has no online presence and has seen declining revenue over the last 5-10 years. What would you do?
- Stripe
- Strategy
- Hard
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What this question tests
Turnaround strategy combining digital transformation with realistic sequencing for a capital-constrained business.
How to approach it
- Diagnose likely causes of decline: no e-commerce or delivery option, losing price-sensitive shoppers to big-box and online-enabled grocery.
- Prioritize by feasibility and impact: launch a basic online ordering plus delivery or pickup option first, addressing the most likely revenue leak.
- Sequence fast, low-capital moves first: partner with an existing delivery platform rather than building an in-house app immediately.
- Layer in a loyalty program capturing purchase data to enable targeted promotions, funding a longer-term direct digital channel.
- Address in-store experience: use freed-up staff time to improve service in-store, a differentiator online-only retailers can't match.
- Define success as omnichannel revenue as a percent of total and a reversal in same-store sales trend within 12 to 18 months.
What a strong answer includes
- Sequences fast, low-capital moves before expensive ones, realistic for a declining, likely cash-constrained business.
- Names the real competitive threat, online-enabled grocery, explicitly.
- Proposes a differentiator, in-store service, that a purely online player can't replicate, rather than just copying online competitors.
Common mistakes
- Jumping straight to building custom technology without considering capital constraints of a declining business.
- Ignoring the in-store experience entirely, the one asset a bricks-and-mortar chain still has.
Likely follow-up questions
- How would you fund this transformation with declining revenue?
- Which stores would you prioritize for the initial rollout?
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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