Google Product Strategy Interview: Photo Storage

[@tryexponent]

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[@princessdipi]

The first exponent mock interview that I've seen which is not "rehearsed" or pre-prepared. Good job there!

[@MattBunch]

This was totally rehearsed. He was giving specific dates on when changes were being made to vendor products.

[@sukanyar8850]

Also, the statement around "1.2 billion users of Google photos". Not like any of us have those stats right at the back of our memories when we need it 🤣 Hence, totally rehearsed :)

[@SSSS7-p8f]

@@sukanyar8850 despite the fact it was rehearsed it was very very average. hes trying to force fit a framework..

[@umg4147]

I was waiting, for one thing, for the entire interview - Power of Vertical Integration ....... Android integrates to Google Photos seamlessly, it also has apps on iOS, because people have Gmail, many Apple users have Gmail. That is the power no one has..... One strength that keeps them going, and maybe be able to push pricing over to customers as well.... Also he looks like Sebastian Vettel (damn cannot unsee it)

[@awxw]

i believe he did bring up android devices, and he touched on vertical integration slightly with the contextual intelligence idea (although he didn't say vertical integration i believe it is within the same area)

[@Theartsygalslays]

I would also add AWS / S3 as a huge play in the photo storage ecosystem, and iCloud as a powerful competitor on device. Amazon’s other weakness then is lack of device persistence where photos are taken.

[@buffalotuber1]

I agree with some of the other commenters that this interview was not well done. He basically identified "opportunities" that were features Google Photos already has. A big mistake was not thinking through the existing pain points for users of photo products, and attempting to exploit those. He could have asked the interviewer about this, which may have provided guidance. If no guidance was given, then think through the journey. User actions are: taking pictures; determining which photos I want to add to google photos; getting from my phone to google photos; organizing them (this could be done either before or after uploading to photos); finding photos; sharing photos. Think about a time in a group conversation thread when you wanted to share a hilarious picture of someone - it can be really difficult to find that picture in your photos. So how can we leverage our search and recognition capabilities to solve that problem in the best way possible. It's also a really bad idea to switch the Pros/Cons table to Effort/ Risk/Impact mid-flight. That would be a huge red flag and show that you aren't a structured thinker, and don't have confidence in your decision-making.

[@OnionKnight541]

Hi, can you please link me to a better interview video of this kind? Thanks.

[@ЮляБас-п7н]

When he mistakes calling the interviewer Steven not Kevin, I was like “what a relief. He is a human”😅

[@Sarah-l1o9o]

Omg I know, if I had made that mistake I would’ve hung up

[@mayankbitsmech]

Why would you force fit Porter's five forces here ?

[@tigerrx7]

Like real estate agents say location, location, location; PMs need to re-center on users, users, users. One of Amazon’s LP is to not focus on competitors too much, there’s a reason for that. P.S. These interview sessions are NOT easy.

[@airliu1]

Nice interview, very good job thinking on the spot and responding to Kevin's answers.

[@CaliLuke]

IMHO this wasn't a good interview. The candidate should have analyzed the situation from first principles and explain the baseline tactics on how to react to a pricing war, and then figure out the competitive landscape more thoroughly and then decide on a plan of action. For example, there's already a similar paid service Google Photos sought to undermine for a while, Apple Photos. What happened there? Is the situation similar now or not (IMHO it's not for a few interesting reasons). Then once you understand what's the competitive situation, you can make suggestions.

[@rtusiime]

This is a brilliant take

[@9028abhishek]

Especially the moat discussion. Google photos moat is clearly Android. And Amazon's moat would be associated information like purchase correlations etc.

[@DiptarkaSaha-s7d]

This is hands down the best strategy mock interview I have seen. The flow of thought is so clear and structured that I feel like I am watching a movie with a great story unfolding.

[@JBShortzz]

Watching Kevin not blinking tricked me a couple of times that the video was frozen on the right side :)

[@batmakshimohan-arvind2127]

Isn't it the case all the ideas mentioned here are already existing features in Google photos? Is it not the expectation that we need to build a new strategy rather than exploring the current features of the application?

[@CaliLuke]

totally agree, this was a bad example.

[@Alex-kf4pl]

It's all about analyzing and comparing the market landscape and identifying the strength, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of a company. Brainstorm strategies or solutions that will help a company excel or strive in the market landscape. It could be by acquiring, improving, building barriers for a new entry, being the one-stop-shop, Being the low-cost leader, etc. I hope this helps.

[@devendradceite1]

I think the biggest miss in the approach was to ask clarifying question about Amazon photos: Why they are launching it? for Brand building, for engagement and retention as a prime member (sell more prime membership), strengthening ecosystem. monetisation as a stand alone product, or as an ancillary product to funnel users into their e-commerce store and

[@tryexponent]

Hey devendradceite1! Thanks for taking time to leave your feedback!

[@barkhabhatia7546]

I will throw in Users pain points like Laziness to keep photos organized, photos are all over the place iphone, icloud, print media, instagram, Facebook etc, Ability to click a good photo I mean tell me how many people you think take a good photo of you :), creating engagement through photos e.g. if there is any latest trend on social media, how to engage with your family and friends on regular basis through photos etc. Some aspect of how to make photos more engaging for people with special needs.

[@ashwinkumar675]

Umm yeah I’m Kevin😆😂 epic! Great video as always.

[@Keepingitreal33]

Kevin has the best poker face ever!

[@yalla_halim]

Agreed :)

[@generalog5826]

@@yalla_halim You mean Steven right ? ;) Good interview BTW

[@imraanmoh770]

I wanted to comment the same, and someone said this already

[@bhavyasingh6393]

Kevin could literally grill anybody on the planet :)

[@LKMUCHIK]

Dropbox: am I a joke to u?

[@ferritafreshi8169]

I really liked this mock interview. Really a good one and I got the feeling that it was not rehearsed or scripted. Thank you.

[@zekoomrkva]

He was very knowledgeable about details in both offerings, how often does that happen in real interviews?

[@meharsridharuddandam6415]

Extremely rare. So, it is always to pre-suppose it during the 'clarification' phase of the interview, so that the same is not called out by the interviewer. To illustrate this better and take the above example: If the candidate didn't know about the offerings, he can go on to say, something like: "can I assume that Google is currently offering unlimited storage as well?"

[@shrutianand5872]

i think the interviewee was well prepared in advance things like google has 1.2 b users,,you might not know this all the time or on the fly and saying amazon has confusing ux/ui doesn't make sense..we can;t measure it

[@OnionKnight541]

the white-board in this example seems to be sooo helpful to the interviewee. is that a good way to do it in an actual interview? it almost seems like a cheat sheet 🤔

[@luseniikromah8475]

its not cheating use it.

[@MohammedKhan-qs5nr]

Why not create a strategy to reduce costs storage on our end as an alternative? See how much it costs us to store a typical person's lifetime photos and what our current margins are and how much can we reduce if we were to be creative with photo storage

[@fifi24sagitarius]

Where does user segment come in

[@itachi2023]

Very helpful videos man :)

[@davidshacklette6119]

This is wonderfully done.

[@generalog5826]

Does anyone what tool is being used for whiteboard ?

[@Sassyfam13a]

He didn't solve it nicely. The interviewer was silent most of the time. Not recommended doing that in the interview

[@generalog5826]

Suggestion: Get rid of those ads popping in the middle (not youtube ads), very annoying

[@adityagovindarajan505]

Great well structured mock interview. What is the white boarding tool that the candidate used?

[@aryanpanjwani]

looks like its a google doc

[@LosAngelesKitchen]

its unfair that you put ads exactly at a point which is very important to hear.. highly distracting.. !!!

[@cyrilajay]

Good interview, but the lack of metrics was a big miss!

[@amirmhp3397]

it was amazing

[@srinivasn415]

Beautiful

[@AbhishekKumar-l9f4q]

nice

[@silasshih2037]

structure

[@SuperKillaki]

This was a bit all over the place

[@japanboy31415]

Sloppy interview im sorry to say that