The interviewer is looking for your ability to critique design and explain your thought process — not just praise the product.
You will hear the question "What is your favorite product and how would you improve it?" in almost every PM interview. The actual job is to show your product sense — your ability to identify user pain points, assess how well the product solves them, and propose thoughtful enhancements.
Most candidates fail this question by either giving superficial praise or jumping straight to vague improvement ideas. The trap is to treat it like a casual opinion rather than a structured product critique.
This lesson teaches you a repeatable approach to answer this question confidently and convincingly — grounded in Talvinder's teaching from hundreds of Indian PM interview coaching sessions.
The interviewer's intent behind the question
The recruiter is assessing multiple dimensions:
- Your knowledge about the product and its domain
- How deeply you understand the user problems the product addresses
- How well you can articulate and explain product features and design choices
- Your thought process when proposing improvements — creativity, prioritization, and feasibility
This is a test of product sense, not just product fandom.
The candidate above gave a typical shallow answer. To stand out, you need a framework.
A structured framework for answering
Talvinder recommends this simple but effective structure:
-
Name the product and describe it briefly.
Be clear and concise about what the product is and who its users are. -
Explain the user problems before the product existed.
What pain points or gaps did the product address? This shows you understand the problem space. -
Assess how effectively the product solves those problems.
Use data points or examples of features that demonstrate value. -
Identify one or two specific improvements you would make.
Explain why these matter, how you would prioritize them, and what impact they would have. -
Wrap up with how you would validate or test these improvements.
This demonstrates a user-centric, data-driven mindset.
This framework is not just for interviews — it is how product managers think about any product.
Example: Critiquing Zomato
Let's apply this framework to a popular Indian product — Zomato.
Step 1: Name and describe
"My favorite product is Zomato. It is a restaurant aggregator and food ordering app with two main user groups: customers looking to dine out or order food online, and restaurant partners who list their menus and details."
Step 2: User problems before Zomato
"Before Zomato, finding reliable restaurant information was fragmented. Users had to rely on word-of-mouth or scattered reviews. Ordering food online was cumbersome and unreliable."
Step 3: How effectively it solves problems
"Zomato provides a seamless experience for discovering restaurants, reading reviews, uploading photos, ordering food, booking tables, and making payments — all in one app. Its user experience and design are excellent, making food 'available at your fingertips.'"
Step 4: Proposed improvements
"I would improve the delivery fee visibility. Currently, users must click into a restaurant to see delivery charges, which is inconvenient. I would add a filter for free delivery and display delivery fees upfront in the restaurant listing."
"Another area is group orders. Ordering for multiple people often leads to chaos due to different cuisine preferences. I would explore allowing orders from multiple restaurants in a single checkout, provided logistics can be managed."
Step 5: Validation approach
"I would prototype the delivery fee filter and test it with real users to measure if it reduces friction and increases order frequency. For group orders, I would run a hypothesis test to measure user satisfaction improvements."
The importance of domain knowledge and product depth
Talvinder emphasizes that your answer should reflect your understanding of the product domain. For example, if you choose a fintech product, you should be conversant with financial regulations, user behavior, and competitive landscape.
This shows you are not just casually familiar but have real domain expertise.
How to handle the "improve it" part
Many candidates struggle here. Talvinder advises:
- Focus on improvements that solve real user pain points, not just adding gimmicks.
- Use the Empathize → Define → Ideate → Prototype → Test flow from design thinking.
- Prioritize based on impact and feasibility.
- Be ready to discuss success metrics and validation plans.
Mock interview with a candidate
Interviewer: “How would you improve your favorite product?”
Candidate: “I think adding more features would help.”
Interviewer: “Which features? And how do you know users want them?”
Candidate: “Uh, maybe a loyalty program or better filters.”
Interviewer: “Can you prioritize and justify those improvements?”
Candidate missed the chance to connect improvements to user pain points and data.
The candidate needs to connect improvements to real user needs and business impact.
Practice exercise: Pick your favorite product
Choose a product you use daily — it could be Swiggy, PhonePe, Flipkart, or any other.
- Name and describe the product and its key user groups.
- Identify the main user problems the product solves.
- Assess how well it solves those problems — cite specific features or user flows.
- Propose 1-2 concrete improvements with rationale.
- Outline how you would test these improvements with users.
Write your answers in a structured format following the framework above.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Giving generic praise without critique. Saying "I love the UX" is not enough.
- Listing random features without connecting to user value.
- Proposing improvements that are vague or infeasible.
- Ignoring domain specifics or failing to show domain knowledge.
- Skipping the validation or prioritization step.
Judgment exercise
You are interviewing for a PM role at a fintech startup in Bangalore. The interviewer asks you: 'What is your favorite product and how would you improve it?' You pick PhonePe as your favorite product.
The call: How do you structure your answer to show product sense and domain knowledge? What improvements do you propose, and how do you justify them?
Your reasoning:
You are interviewing for a PM role at a fintech startup in Bangalore. The interviewer asks you: 'What is your favorite product and how would you improve it?' You pick PhonePe as your favorite product.
Your task: How do you structure your answer to show product sense and domain knowledge? What improvements do you propose, and how do you justify them?
your reasoning:
From the field: Talvinder on product critique questions
Where to go next
- If you want to deepen your product sense: Product Thinking
- If you want to practice user research skills: User Research Methods
- If you want to master product design questions: Design Questions in PM Interviews
- If you want to learn prioritization frameworks: Prioritization Techniques