Seeking Clarification:

1, Restaurant Product as in product that allows Restaurants to connect with their customers?

2, Is the Online Ordering platform?

3, Is this a reservation app, where customers can make an appointment at the restaurant?

4, Is this a product/app where users can provide their feedback and rate restaurants?

5, What are some of the objectives for this Product?

6. Is this product vision to leverage the existing Facebook ecosystem for the Product/bundled with FB or are we proposing a standalone product?

Interviewer: The vision is to bundle the product with Facebook and the main objective is to connect Restaurants with their customers

That sounds great, since Facebook’s mission is to connect people and bring the world closer, the objective of the restaurant app aligns with the broader mission of the company.

I will structure my answer using a simple framework:

– I will first brainstorm objectives and goals, then talk about the user segments, discuss pain points and problems we should be solving for these users, if we come up with too many pain points and problems I would like to prioritize them and focus on the top two or three, I will then like to propose some solution, dram a simple wireframe and finally suggest some metrics that will allow us to measure if the Product is achieving the goals that we have established

Objectives & Goals

Most businesses operate with three main goals – User acquisition, User engagement and Monetization

Since this is a brand-new product (app) I would like to focus on the first two objectives that is to acquire user base both for the new restaurant product as well as FB. Also, since this app/product will act as an extension of Facebook it will also improve user engagement as FB users (both individuals and restaurants) who currently use some other restaurant products like Yelp or OpenTable can perform similar activities on the FB platform and expand their social presence.

User Segments

There are two main Users Personas that the product will cater to:

– Restaurants & Customers

Now within the Restaurant segment you could have high end/Michelin rated/formal restaurants that are less frequented by the general population, then you have your mid-market and casual restaurants that are most commonly used by people and finally there are small/ mom & pop/family owned restaurants that specialize in certain cuisines and fall in the mid to low price range.

In the customer segment too, you could have fancy diners, who are exploring gourmet cuisines or celebrating special occasions and then you have the casual diners who are looking to enjoy a meal in a very casual setup and given the COVID situation the third type of customers that prefer to take out or have food delivered to their doorstep.

From the customer segments I will focus on the mid-range and local/ family owned restaurants since they both have similar set of requirement, and on the customer side l I will focus on the casual diners for our first version of the product/app.

Problems/Pain Points 

Problem/Pain Points for Restaurants:

– Outreach, spreading awareness, gaining market share, building relationships to promote repeat customers, targeted marketing

– Specially in the COVID situation convey their preparedness to the customers by ensuring they are following all protocols, providing for contactless carryout service wherever possible

– With food pickup & delivery being rampant in the COVID situation, be able to enable online ordering and payments, provide faster delivery, not mixing up orders and basically streamline the entire delivery and pickup process

Problem/Pain Points for Users:

– Locating restaurants, getting recommendations on food, look for deals

– If dining-in then make reservations

– In current environment be able to browse menu online, order online and schedule either delivery or pickup at a desired time.

At a broader level those are the pain points I would like to focus on, would you like me to consider any other specific problems?

Interviewer: No, this is good

Solution

In terms of solution, I would like to suggest a new Market Place for Restaurants.

• Restaurants will be able to create their own workspaces or FB pages. The Market place landing page will consider user’s location to default the most popular, most reviewed restaurants in his or her neighborhood. The page will also have a search options where users can search based on one or more of the following attributes:
  • – By Cuisine
  • – By Price range
  • – By what is currently open
  • – By which the one’s frequented by my Friends (since this built on top of the FB ecosystems, we should be locate the frequented or visited restaurants when user’s friends check- in)’
  • – By friend’s recommendation
  • – By ratings
  • – By the one’s currently running promotions
  • – By Name
  • – By Zip Code/City/Location
• Users will be able to click on their preferred restaurant and navigate the Restaurant’s FB page where they will have the ability to reserve a table
• For restaurants with friends check-ins or reviews the system will prioritize these and display at the top of the restauran page
• Access Menu, order online and checkout, during checkout a prompt will allow user to publish a checking to his or her FB page to enable promotion. Restaurants can incentivize their users for publishing their check-ins
• Users can also schedule their pickup or delivery for a specific time
• Restaurants can use the standard FB pages to build marketing content, deals, pictures and given the current situation also create videos with a live tour of their kitchen and masked/gloved employees

Wireframe

(Drawn & displayed)

Prioritization – I will prioritize the following for the first Beta Testing/prototype

Market place for Restaurants

Discovery for Restaurants based on location, and all other attributes mentioned above especially connection activity. Connection activity would be top on my list cause that will allow users to receive tailored recommendations/feedback

Key Metrics

# DAU for Marketplace

# Number of Restaurants joining Market place week over week

# Number of Check-ins by Users