Improve an Existing Product

A core responsibility of a Product Owner is to always be improving and iterating on a product by adding value to it and its users.  If a client asks you how you’d improve an existing product here is a simple framework you could follow.

1. Discuss the product’s objective - keep it high level.
2. Figure out what the product needs to reach its objectives.  Here are a list of questions you’d start with and then drill down from there based on the answers you received.

           a.  What have you noticed about the product on its way to reaching its objective?  What has it been successful or not successful at doing? 

                 i.  Think acquisition funnel = acquisition, activation, retention, revenue, and referral.  

           b.  Does the product seem to have a hard time acquiring or activating users?  Does the product have features that encourage users to stick around for a long time?  Does the product have enough drivers that could incentivize users to convert into paying customers?  Is there a strong reason for the product to have users refer or recommend it to other users? 

3. Brainstorm improvements for these needs.  Which of the needs is the highest priority for the product and come up with ideas using that priority.  Or ask which need the interviewer needs you to focus on.  Explain your own prioritization first.  With ideas for improvements come up with short and long term implementations.  
4. Lay out your execution plan and success criteria.  With each improvement discuss the pros and cons or costs and benefits of each.  Explore how you’d roll out the execution plan in the short, mid, and long term with your improvement ideas and how you’d launch them.  Short = increasing revenue by improving the completion rate of purchases then briefly discuss how you might conduct split tests around the shopping cart experience.  Explain success metrics for each idea, i.e. for shopping cart is a 10% increase in purchase completion.  Additionally you’ll want to list out the metrics you plan to track in order to confirm the success of this improvement.

This is a brief, but effective way to quickly walk a client through how you’d improve a product they need released to the market.