Answering Product Strategy Questions — Part 2

Following up on the first part of Product Strategy question, in this blog, I will answer a sample strategy question.

Question: You're the PM of Google Maps tasked with presenting a 3 year strategy to Sundar. What strategy will you present?

Approach to answer:

Ask clarifying questions to understand scope and constraints
Answer why: Generate strategic insights by analyzing market forces
Answer what: Share crisp product vision in 1-2 lines
Answer how: Build on vision to come up with features strategic actions

Clarifying questions:

Let me start by asking a few clarifying questions so that I understand the question better.

Is it a global or US only strategy? Response: Global.
Is there a specific goal of this strategy that I should be aware of or I should set this based on my own? Response: You should set the goal on your own. "I think given Maps wide usage and mature stage, it should focus on maintaining the market share and increasing monetization."

Thanks for answering my question. Can I take a few moment to brainstorm market forces that will affect our strategy?

Strategic insights:

Customer segments: Map has good adoption in digital natives — young generation and even middle aged individuals. However, the usage among senior citizens is relatively low. This demographic faces challenges in navigating the increasingly digital world.

Competition: Apple Maps is there, but I can't think of anything innovative or market moving features they launched. Nevertheless, considering the iPhone segment's high-paying customer base, we need to maintain a considerable feature gap. Facebook Maps, for the most part, is limited to being useful within Facebook pages. However, not sure with Meta angle (AR/AV) something changes — I will analyze that in technology trends. I can't think of any emerging players that's noteworthy. Anything I'm missing here? (active checkin with the interviewer)

Company: Google still after this many years has huge reliance on Search. While Map is widely used, it has huge untapped potentials when it comes to generating revenue for Google. Map did launch enterprise APIs, which are used by some large firms including Uber, Airbnb etc.

Trends: Use of AR/VR in maps. Google Maps has launched a few features that leverage this. Personal assistant: Google and Apple have personal assistants that are somewhat conversational. That mode of communication suits senior citizens. Business to consumer communication channels have improved a lot lately — whatsapp business, brand pages on Snapchat/Tiktok etc. There is also a lot of buzz about Gen AI products, is there something Google could do to maintain the feature gap with competition?

Product Vision

To maintain and grow adoption and increase monetization, I will focus on following:

Increase adoption in under-penetrated senior-citizen segment
Stay 10X better than alternative leveraging new technologies such Gen AI and AR/VR to solve customer problem
Improve monetization by enabling business to take advantage of Maps

Concrete features

Let me think of concrete features I will work on in each area:

Increase adoption in under-penetrated senior-citizen segment

Launch paid assistant feature that uses ML to scan the surroundings and guide what direction to take even walking on foot. Rather than Map being just an announcement service "take left after 2 miles", you can ask it a few questions — can I avoid this exit or is there a McD nearby?

Stay 10X better than alternative leveraging new technologies such Gen AI and AR/VR to solve customer problem

Expand the AR overlay launched in top cities to around the world
Launch a paid feature leveraging VR to learn driving on your city roads. This can be built using actual navigation data
Launch Gen AI feature to help beautify the city by suggesting design elements on StreetView. This feature will be available as a paid service for City Administrators. It will offer recommendations such as altering the color of walls along specific streets, removing wild plants, or enhancing areas that may not look visually appealing.

Improve monetization by enabling business to take advantage of Maps

Launch subscribe feature for Restaurant and public places. Owners of these verified places can then send notifications for promotions and events via Maps. These can personalized notification (only when within 10 miles etc) and charged (1$ per 10 notifications or monthly subscription)
Launch "super reviewers" — super trusted reviews who will be paid by Google to review objectively and detailed. To avail their service, restaurants will be charged a fee.
Launch payments on Map, where restaurant owners link their payment details and I can place pickup orders and pay. Similarly, pay the entry fee for parks etc. Take a % of this as an operating fee.

So that's what I will present to Sundar. Is there anything else I should be addressing? Let me know in the comments.