Metrics question
You're the product manager focused on retention at Instacart. How do you decide what to work on?
- Metrics
- Hard
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 metric-tree thinking: translating a broad mandate like 'retention' into a specific, prioritized set of drivers.
How to approach it
- Clarify which retention: new-user activation into a second order, or long-term repeat habit, since levers differ.
- Build a metric tree: overall retention breaks into order frequency, basket completion, and delivery satisfaction.
- Segment users: heavy weekly shoppers versus occasional big-basket shoppers likely churn for different reasons.
- Diagnose using cohort retention curves by segment, correlating drop-off with bad substitutions or late deliveries.
- Prioritize the driver with the largest gap times feasibility, e.g. substitution quality if it tops churn surveys.
- Define the guardrail: don't sacrifice order margin or shopper pay while improving retention.
What a strong answer includes
- Breaks 'retention' into a concrete metric tree instead of jumping to a feature idea.
- Segments users, since a blended retention number hides very different churn causes.
- Names a plausible top driver, substitution quality, marked clearly as an assumption.
Common mistakes
- Picking a vague fix like 'send more push notifications' without diagnosing the cause.
- Not segmenting users, treating all customers as one group.
Likely follow-up questions
- How would you validate substitutions are really the top churn driver?
- What guardrail metrics would you watch?
- How would this differ for a new versus a two-year customer?
More metrics questions
- How would you measure the performance and health of a Netflix Original?Microsoft · Metrics · Hard
- Imagine you are the PM in charge of Reactions on Facebook - the new way to interact with posts by using “love”, “haha”, “wow”, “sad”, and “angry” reactions. What would success look like in terms of number of non-like reactions per post at launch and how do you come up with this? Would this number differ by reaction? Why or why not?Meta · Metrics · Hard
- You launched a new signup flow to encourage new users to add more profile information. A/B test results indicate that the % of people that added more information increased by 8%. However, 7 day retention decreased by 2%. What do you do?Google · Metrics · Hard
- Facebook Ads dropped by 20%. Mark Zuckerberg calls you and asks you to fix it. What do you do?Meta · Metrics · Hard
- Imagine you're the product manager for Facebook Marketplace. Since many sellers don't mark items as sold, what existing functionality and metrics could you use to determine whether an item has likely sold?Meta · Metrics · Hard
- Uber has seen a dip in the ride confirmation rate. As a PM at Uber, you are responsible to investigate and fix the issue. How will you go about it?Uber · Metrics · Hard
Learn the skill behind it
Chapters of the AI PM course that teach what this question tests.
- Chapter 9: Prove it paid off: outcomes, economics, and pricing
- Chapter 2: Data fluency: SQL, logs, and reading the truth yourself
- Chapter 14: Get the job: the AI PM interview loop