You are planning to add a new product to Facebook's portfolio. How do you approach conducting sophisticated quantitative and qualitative analysis?
Facebook seeks a Product Manager who can incorporate data, research, and market analysis to inform product strategies and roadmaps. As a Product Manager for Facebook, you will spend time performing critical analysis to build strategies that guide your team and projects.
In simple terms, quantitative data is considered information that can be measured with numbers. For instance, the number of times a certain feature was used. However, qualitative data is more subjective and casual. For instance, it's data you gather from customer service tickets or during conversations.
The interviewer wants to know more about your approach to gathering quantitative and qualitative data and how you use this data to help you in your strategic analysis and planning. Walk the interviewer through your approach with as much helpful detail as possible, allowing the interviewer to visualize your methodology.
"Depending on the situation, and what I am measuring, I will begin with either quantitative or qualitative data. Let's assume that there is quite a bit of uncertainty around the product and what customers really want to see. In that case, I would begin with quantitative analysis since the hard data will likely answer more questions for me from the start. Next, I would build a survey to send out to our customers and perhaps perform some A/B testing. The responses we receive will show us what our customers are most excited about and what they are least engaged in. Next, I want to understand why the customer is leaning one way or the other. This is where I would begin the qualitative analysis. In my current PM role, we often take a select number of survey respondents and have a 15-minute call with them to uncover further why they chose the preferences they did. This information will help us to make sense of the survey results. Once the team has collected both hard and soft data, we can better analyze the results and make a balanced decision before moving forward on the project."
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Anonymous Answer
For example, I had to perform a very detailed Topical Point of View on a subject area or domain. Depending on the topic would drive the type of data I would analyze. Many times it is qualitative from the LOB and thus have to look at data and understand does the rationale for the subjective statement make sense. On other hand, if looking at specific operational systems and measuring the availability and uptime or how many Risk Accpetions were signed off by the business for high risks. I would look at and compare multiple months or quarters and provide a trend diagram with examples of the risk acceptances. These would be highlighted in a summary deck and then presented with observations or findings/issues.
If the privacy area needs to show how many users' data was being shared on a 3rd party app or I would look at quantitative but if there was more a look at risk acceptances or security exceptions I would use both.
Marcie's Feedback
Good job! You provide lots of great ideas when it comes to how you approach quantitative and qualitative analysis.
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