Netflix take-home assignment for Product Managers during the PM interview process.

Take-home assignments are the most crucial part of PM interviews.

Also, the most hated one.

In 6 out of 10 Product interviews, you will be asked to complete a take-home assignment.

Why is the take-home assignment the most hated part of the PM interview process?

There are multiple reasons for this.

• When someone gives you a Product take-home assignment, there are certain expectations behind it regarding how it needs to be solved. But no one says how to solve it.
• Sometimes, you are not clear about the problem statement.
• No response on the assignment from the company.
• And more…

Also, there is little content available on the internet on how to solve a take-home assignment.

Here, I provided the content to everyone for free.

While Take-home assignments are not always necessary, they have become a way of gauging the candidate's product understanding.

In this article, we will participate in a problem given in an actual take-home assignment.

This assignment was submitted as part of an interview process.

Disclaimer: This assignment was submitted by one of our readers.

What are product take-home assignments?

Product take-home assignments are tasks assigned to Product Managers to gauge their thinking and structuring process.

The interviewers use the assignment to understand the candidate’s thought process.

Who is asked to take a take-home assignment?

The early PMs' roles, like APM and PMs, mostly require them to complete a take-home assignment.

Here is the link to the “take-home assignment.” It is an actual assignment submitted during the interview process! The complete assignment has five questions.

Product Manager Take-Home Assignment

The assignment was emailed to the user in this setup, and the candidate had 5–7 days to complete it.

The assignment included five problem statements. Below is one that the candidate solved and submitted.

Here is the link to the “take-home assignment.” It is an actual assignment submitted during the interview process! The complete assignment has five questions.

Problem statement: Netflix recently launched a new series, “The Office,” and wants to promote it. What can Netflix product managers, marketing managers, and growth managers do?

The Assignment begins below

The Candidate had some questions related to the assignment. So, he asked the team questions to clarify and validate some of his assumptions.

Questions to Interviewer:

• As a PM, do I have access to data? And can I use it for analysis and targeting users?

Ans: You will be provided with a product analyst who is a wizard and can help you with any data that you wish. You can use the data to target specific users.

• What aspects of the product can I control?

Ans: You can control all the aspects of the product. The tech has infinite bandwidth.

• Am I limited to specific product components?

Ans: No, you can use any part of the product for the promotion.

• Do we have a goal in mind with promotion? Like total conversion or impressions?

Ans: It's up to you to decide.

Here is the link to the “take-home assignment.” It is an actual assignment submitted during the interview process! The complete assignment has five questions.

Overview: Netflix is an online streaming platform that offers a vast collection of TV shows and movies. Users can subscribe to a plan and access a diverse library of content. Netflix acquires licenses from producers to host third-party shows and movies while investing in original productions to enhance its offerings.

Below are some of the assumptions I made for this assignment.

Assumption:

• The Office is a comedy genre TV series.
• This is the first time the series has come to Netflix.

Goal: The show promotion aims to maximize viewership and drive user conversions after discovering the show.

As a Netflix product manager, I can do the following:

• Create a Segment of users who have watched the comedy genre in the last 30 days.
• Create a Segment of users who have watched one of the series “Parks and Recreation, Modern Family.”

Send Push notification: Use the above segments and target these users to notify them about the new show using creative copies. Run a push notification for these users about the new series on Netflix.

Recommendation: Show “The Office” as the recommendation to users viewing similar series. Also, personalize the recommendation to users about to end a series and show recommendations on what to watch next.

Search Analytics: Use the Analytics to understand what users search for on Netflix search and use this data and search results to target and show The Office recommendations. Use analytics to look for the most viewed comedy movie or series and show the series in recommendations on that page.

A/B test Thumbnails: Make sure the Series is listed on the home page for the new arrivals. A/B tests different thumbnails and uses the one with the maximum conversion rate.

Final Thoughts and Analysis

This is a perfect example of a take-home assignment submission.

The candidate has taken a structured approach to this problem.

One thing that would have made this submission better was more elaboration on the solutions suggested and to prioritize the solution based on the highest impact.

Overall, it is a good submission for the problem statement.

As you prepare for product management interviews or seek to elevate your skills in the field, remember that practice and attention to detail are key.

Written by Product Managers Club