In product management interviews, Root Cause Analysis (RCA) questions are commonly asked to evaluate a candidate's problem-solving abilities and structured thinking. RCA involves identifying the underlying causes of a problem within a product, allowing for a systematic approach to finding effective solutions. In this article, we will delve into the art of cracking RCA questions in product management interviews, providing you with a framework and key strategies to succeed.
Understanding Root Cause Analysis
Root Cause Analysis is the process of uncovering the fundamental reasons behind a problem or issue. It goes beyond addressing surface-level symptoms and focuses on identifying the core causes. By employing RCA techniques, product managers can gain a deeper understanding of the problem and develop targeted solutions that address the root issues.
Why RCA Questions in Product Management Interviews?
RCA questions serve multiple purposes in product management interviews. They allow interviewers to assess a candidate's skills in various areas:
Product Sense: RCA questions help evaluate a candidate's ability to analyze a product comprehensively, considering different levels of depth and impact.
Problem-Solving: RCA questions test a candidate's problem-solving skills, specifically their ability to identify and address the underlying causes of a problem rather than just treating the symptoms.
Structural Thinking & Communication: These questions assess a candidate's ability to structure their thoughts, prioritize information, and effectively communicate their analysis to others.
Domain Knowledge: Through RCA questions, interviewers gauge a candidate's understanding of the product's domain and its key metrics, allowing them to evaluate the candidate's domain expertise.
Approach to Solving RCA Questions
To excel at RCA questions, it is crucial to follow a structured and methodical approach. Here's a step-by-step framework to guide you:
Validate the Problem: Begin by validating the problem itself. Seek clarification on the problem statement and ensure you have a clear understanding of what needs to be addressed.
Ask Clarification Questions: Ask detailed questions to gain deeper insights into the problem. Break down the problem statement into keywords and inquire about their meanings. Seek information about relevant metrics, time frames, segmentation, and any significant changes or patterns.
Identify Internal Factors: Explore potential internal factors that could contribute to the problem. Consider aspects such as user journey, changes in policy, UI/UX updates, or technical glitches. Analyze any recent changes that might be relevant to the problem at hand.
Consider External Factors: Examine external factors that could influence the problem. Look into governmental regulations, competitor activities, social media trends, or specific events that may impact the product's performance.
Assess User Intent: Consider the user's intent and potential shifts in behavior that could affect the problem. External factors such as cultural or environmental changes, economic shifts, or societal events might alter user preferences or habits.
Summarize and Communicate: Take a moment to summarize your thoughts and conclusions. Clearly communicate your findings and thought process to the interviewer, showcasing your structured thinking and effective communication skills.
Step 1- Clarify
A data scientist spends most of the time cleaning and preparing data (approx 70%). This step is essential because, in most situations, data provided by the customer has bad quality or just cannot be directly fed to some ML model. Consider this step to be analogous to the data-preprocessing step in data science. You will have to define the scope correctly, narrow down the situation, and clarify terms.
Moving vertically and horizontally through the problem statement: Let’s try to understand this with an infographic.
Moving horizontally to clarify terms used in question and moving vertically w.r.t to “what” and “where” to narrow down the scope. This will help us in limiting our observation to a narrow space of limited variables.
A good question before moving to step 1 could be “have we made any changes to the definition of cancellation, or did we change the tool which used to measure this cancellation rate.”
Step 2- Check for external factors
Make this a habit; sometimes, it’s just an earthquake causing some problem (not joking). You already have some context about the situation after step-0. Use this information to think of major external factors that could have influenced the product in any way.
An excellent way to test the involvement of external factors in a problem is to ask — “Is this an industry-specific problem or company-specific?”
Industry-specific problems can have root causes in factors beyond their line of work. (For example, a roadside vegetable vendor has a bad season because people have started buying packaged food post-COVID-19).
Let’s try to list down some common external factors to check for-
1) Any recent natural calamity/Power Shutdown (can be asked when the trend is not gradual or a single point decline in the graph.)
2) New government regulation/policy change?
3) New product entry in the market/product substitute.
4) Sentiments on social media? (E.g. Controversial tweet by the company, fake news around the company, etc.)
After touching on possible external factors we can move to our next step- Making a user journey.
Step 3- User Journey
Try to make an end-to-end user journey for the product so that you can cover every tiny point of failure where a problem can reside. Let’s try to make a User Journey for our case. We will try to do this in parts-
A. Channels: Different ways a user lands on the product web page/app.
Google search ads.
Ads on blogs/websites.
Organic search.
Emails.
Shareable link (from friends, any third party.)
Push notifications.
Organic app open.
You can club these under promotional and organic, paid and unpaid, or any suitable classification of your choice. Ask relevant questions about each channel. E.g., how’s the trend of cancellation been in these channels?, Are we getting cancellations on orders bought from any specific medium, or is it even for all channels?
B. Key Action in app/web page- Divide the web app segments with which a user interacts during product discovery.
Search Bar- Relevant Question (R.Q.)- Are we facing cancellations on orders discovered through the search bar?
Recommendation section- (R.Q.) — Did we make any changes in the recommendation algorithm?
Product category tab- (R.Q.) — Are we facing order cancellations for a specific product category? Have we made any changes to how we define types? Any new addition to product categories?
C. Selection — (R.Q.) — Any changes made to the product listing page/product description page? Any changes in how users add items to the cart/add details/add address (is it accurate enough)?
D. Payments — Always check for the mode of payment by which the order was bought. (R.Q.)- Are we facing cancellations for a specific payment mode (C.O.D., card payment, credit payment, etc.), Is there a payment failure for canceled orders?
E. Confirmation and Tracking: (R.Q.) — At what point after confirmation, orders are getting canceled? Any specific source pin codes where orders are getting canceled? Any specific mode (Airway, Roadway, Type of warehouse) for which cancellations are up?
A structured narrowing approach with good coverage of crucial considerations regarding the product will be enough to crack this round!
So we are almost done with the R.C.A. post; before I end this post, I have some bullet points and a cheat sheet for those who have skipped directly to the end part ( for claps, maybe :P)
Remember- Simple Problems Are Often the Hardest to Solve. Pay attention to the tiniest of details and never assume anything.
Speak out your thought process at every stage of the interview process so that your hidden assumptions(in case you have made any) are visible to the interviewer.
If you think your structure is lost, summarize your approach and utilize that time to think ahead or change tactics.
Tips for RCA Interviews
Here are some additional tips to excel in RCA interviews:
Ask Clarification Questions: Seek clarification on any ambiguous aspects of the problem statement. This demonstrates your attention to detail and your ability to extract critical information.
Request Data and Insights: Ask for relevant data and insights to support your analysis. This showcases your ability to make data-driven decisions.
Be Conversational: Make the interview more conversational rather than relying solely on a question-answer format. Engage with the interviewer and adapt your approach based on their cues.
Focus on Thought Process: Emphasize your thinking process and how you arrive at conclusions. Interviewers are interested in understanding your problem-solving approach and your ability to think critically.
Remain Flexible: Be open to changing your line of inquiry or adjusting your assumptions based on new information or cues from the interviewer. Adaptability is a key quality in product management.
Conclusion
Cracking RCA questions in product management interviews requires a combination of structured thinking, problem-solving skills, and effective communication. By following a systematic approach, asking relevant questions, and considering internal and external factors, you can demonstrate your ability to identify root causes and provide valuable insights. With practice and a thoughtful approach, you can master the art of Root Cause Analysis and excel in product management interviews.