Brainstorming Product Ideas

How will we consume film in the future? How would you improve the movie theater experience? What is the future of movies?

Many PM product interview questions boil down to "What is the future of X?" X might be an industry, such as wearables, a location, such as airports, or even a non-tech product, like a wrench.

The purpose of this question is to test your ability to identify and communicate an inspiring-yet-actionable product vision.

“Future of X” questions are some of the most fun interview questions, though they can pose challenges. Similar to behavioral questions, it’s easy to ramble. Applying a structured approach can help you bound your thinking effectively while still sharing your passion and vision.

We have two key recommendations to keep you on track:

1. Remember to apply your product thinking skills to these questions. Whatever your bold vision for the future is, make sure it satisfies a real and important need. Articulate the details and continuously tie your answer back to that need.
2. Before the interview, curate a “big ideas” list of all the technologies, trends, and concepts that excite you. This list should be big enough in scope that no matter what “future of X” question you get, you can pull something from your list to speak intelligently about. This will prevent you from rambling or pigeonholing yourself into an idea that doesn’t feel exciting to you.

Here’s a simple process for answering the “future of X” question using the big ideas list.

Step 1: Build a “big ideas” list

Before your interviews, put together a “big ideas” list — a roster of interesting ideas that you’re passionate about and familiar with. Start by brainstorming a list of all your favorite trends and technologies that might lead to a radically different future.

Some interesting trend ideas might include decentralized finance, the circular economy, or cooperatively owned digital platforms. The technologies you list can be anything that inspires you — examples include blockchain, quantum computing, nanotech, etc. For inspiration, we recommend browsing the news in science or tech or watching/reading science fiction. Let your imagination wander.

Pick three to five of your favorite ideas and really study them.

Make sure you know:

• Arguments for and against any existing technologies
• Go-to-market strategies for any major startups
• Popular industry figures
• Ongoing political discussions that might impact your idea (for example, regulation)

and more. Having done the legwork beforehand, you won’t waste time second-guessing yourself during your interview.

Step 2: Combine product thinking with an appropriate “big idea”

Once you’re given the question, begin deploying your usual product thinking approach to understand the product/company/industry goals and users of X. Questions to ask yourself include:

• How might you segment users?
• What are their pain points?
• What characteristics does the product/company/industry have?
• What constraints exist, and how might that change in the future?

At the same time, map items in your big ideas list to the space, and choose the most appropriate to apply X. You might choose one big idea, or combine a few for a really original take — this is up to you.

Step 3: Critically answer the question

Take the pain points or new opportunities you’ve identified and think critically about how some of your big ideas could solve them. Take some time to quietly imagine how this product will fit into the future 10, 20, or 30 years down the line. When you’re ready, begin outlining your vision for your interviewer.

A simple process for arriving at a compelling answer is:

• Summarize big idea(s) and briefly state why you think they will revolutionize X in terms of relevant product/company/industry goals and users.
• Walk the interviewer through the existing user journey, calling out any user pain points or opportunity areas.
• Paint a picture of the future user journey with your big idea(s) incorporated.
• Cite important risks and mitigation strategies as well as any tradeoffs.

Remember to apply critical thinking skills throughout. It’s easy to get swept away in the romance of your vision, but there are always risks and tradeoffs to consider. This is where all the research you did in building your big ideas list will help. Being able to cite arguments against something you believe in shows maturity and the ability to handle complexity.

Let’s work through a short example to solidify this process.

“What is the future of libraries?”

Let’s say your interviewer asks a question that boils down to “What is the future of libraries?” They may actually ask you “How will we consume books in the future?” or “How would you improve the library system?” These are essentially the same questions, and you can use the same approach to answer all three.

Assume your big ideas list includes both context-awareness and the sharing economy and you want to apply both to answer the future of libraries question.

The future of libraries including context awareness

First, you’d summarize your first big idea and walk through the existing user journey.

You might say the following to your interviewer:

“Context awareness, or the ability of technology to understand a user’s context and alter its services accordingly, will radically change the future, especially libraries. Currently, when a “user” walks into a library, they have to search the catalog for desired books, often failing to find the thing they need, or missing an opportunity to find a book they would have loved.”

Next, you’d paint a vivid picture of an improved user journey, thanks to your big idea.

Continuing the example:

“Imagine a future where, when users walk into a library, they’ll be able to scan a unique user-identification barcode at a terminal, which will allow the library to recommend exactly what they should read. This might be based on schooling, current interests, and possibly even browser history (if users opt-in.) The library can then personalize its information to match user interests, instead of surfacing, say, a bunch of advanced accounting books the user has absolutely no interest in.”

Finally, you’d cite risks and tradeoffs.

“Of course, libraries are also about exploration. The algorithms that suggest content should still suggest fresh, new information. There are some big risks here with user privacy and model training which we should make sure to address…”

The future of libraries including the sharing economy

Your interviewer might press you for another idea, or you might want to cover another idea you’re passionate about, say, the sharing economy. Let’s continue our example of the future of libraries including the sharing economy.

As above, you’d begin by briefly summarizing the big idea and why it’s a good fit for libraries. Note that in this case, you’re not indexing on a user pain point. Instead, you’re focusing on the issue of untapped value in personal book collections that might be leveraged for social good.

Continuing:

“Another important way I believe libraries will evolve will include the principles of the sharing economy; a community-based “peer-to-peer” approach to distributing goods and services. Specifically where libraries are concerned, there is an incredible number of physical books sitting in people’s houses. There’s huge untapped potential here for increased personal interactions, increased access to books, especially niche books that a typical library might not carry, and more sustainable processes for book storage and transportation.”

Next, you’d paint a picture of the new and improved future:

“In the future, the sharing economy will help us share not just our homes or our cars, but also our personal possessions, like books. Imagine a future where, if you want a book that’s unavailable at your library, you can instead exchange books with your neighbor, who has a copy. This “decentralized library system” will create tons of new social connections across communities.“

Finally, to cover tradeoffs:

“One issue with this, however, is that cataloging all these books will be hard work. Advanced Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology that can turn images into machine-readable text may be able to help with this. For example, if a user takes a picture of their bookshelf and all of their books get cataloged for them, that's significantly less work. The technology isn’t quite there yet though…”