Unlocking the 60-Second Promise: How This Product Manager Navigated the Kindle Purchase Experience
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INTERVIEWER
Since you are targeting what we'll call a technical product manager role in a in a group that is largely. Well, it's definitely technically challenging what they're trying to accomplish. Uh, this next question is, is geared towards trying to assess. Technical competency in the form of a. Pseudo behavioral interview question. Um Uh, I assume you, you understand how a Kindle device or a Nook or any of these e-reading devices, you've seen one, you know how they work. That's nothing I'm about to say is this. OK, cool. So I want you to pretend you've got a, you know, the Kindle e-reader device. The original promise of this device was to be able to deliver any book ever published anywhere in the world in 60 seconds or less. That was the original promise of the device. It was kind of a, a North Star for did we nail the experience or not. Um, and Turns out there's a lot that needs to happen. To go from the moment you click buy, when you're looking at a book in the store on the device, to within that 62nd window. The book opens up and now you're able to read the book. From start to finish, I'm not asking you to design it how it's designed, but I am asking you to walk me through from start to finish everything that you believe that needs to happen. From the time I click buy to the time I'm now reading the book on the same device after I've clicked buy.
CANDIDATE
Hm. OK. Um, And any device, right? Are you talking about
INTERVIEWER
the device you're, you're, you're browsing on the device, so just, you know, you click by and 60 seconds within the next 60 seconds, that book will
CANDIDATE
open up. I see. OK, so, um, There are Obviously several components that need to be uh included in this and which I would think from an end user standpoint they have to actually purchase, uh, submit the purchase, and so that's going to engage a um a payment application. Obviously when within, uh, let's say Amazon or whatever, um, yeah, they're they're buying that book on Amazon, and they uh have to set up their payment plan to be able to buy uh the Kindle subscription or maybe that one-off uh purchase, uh, putting their their credit card into the system and all, and then, uh, they'll be approved. Uh, for that purchase and that um then that request gets sent out to the um third-party vendor who owns the content of that book and that they will provide that, um. That access Uh, the direct access for the end user who purchased that book to go into a, um, In a folder within uh the Kindle library. And then they, uh, that will be uh that access, that the ability to view that book will be provided into that library, so that they can view that book that they purchased. So, um, it's more, it's a view of that book as opposed to the actual. Um, More of, more of the actual book itself, they can't download or anything like that, but it's in that library for them to be able to access it. So I'm not sure if I'm giving you enough information, but, uh,
INTERVIEWER
well, it's, it's, uh, it's not how it works at all, but that's fine. I'm not asking you to, I'm not asking you to to design it, right, but, but as, as you have laid it out for me, right, you've, you've kind of laid out a series of steps. I'm now going to assert that there is latency in that system, right? There's, there's unnecessary latency in that system. Where is the first place that you would look to address Uh, reduction of latency in the system. Based on the design that you've laid out.
CANDIDATE
OK. It would be after, I think the payment process would probably be the easiest part of it, uh, the fastest part of it, and it's probably the more mature part of it. I think the latency would probably be in providing that, um, whatever the call is out to the third party vendor to Request the access of that uh that content back to to that library that's been created for the end user, and that would be the, the delay in that um. That communication between the uh Amazon, let's say, and who's and the third party vendors who's providing that content into that library, I'd say that that would be delayed possible. Only because maybe it's not um. Perhaps, um, the same, uh, Their system may not be at um. Their their system may have some latency, as opposed to having it internalized within Amazon. If it was like, let's say Amazon owned the content, and they could provide it very fast, but if it's an external third party providing that content into an Amazon library, then it would be slower. It could be slower. Well,
INTERVIEWER
why, I'm, I guess I'm, you're asserting that Amazon would have to round trip to a third party to gain access to the content. Why do you, why would you design the system that way?
CANDIDATE
Um, well, I, I wouldn't necessarily design the system that way. I'm just assuming that, that, that not all the content that, uh, is presented in maybe Amazon doesn't own all that content. I don't know, I'm not sure. Um, I'm assuming that maybe there are other companies that have the rights to that content and they haven't necessarily released that content to Amazon yet. Maybe they are providing uh all that content to Amazon up front, and that way it's going to be a faster retrieval, um, and then the uh I think the then the latency would be Um, it would be different. Uh, with Amazon, I think that the only possibility, uh, would be that, uh, perhaps The content would be um Uh, if I were in, let's say, Uh Some country, I was in Russia and trying to get that book, and let's say the servers were not close enough and um In connection to Russia, then that latency would be delayed because it wouldn't be communicated as quickly to the main server that would provide that content, um, to me, um. Because I'd have to go to to the server that I would have for connection to the internet. So
INTERVIEWER
Yes, it, it certainly would be faster. For Amazon to to to to have the content locally, I, you know, that that is how it was designed, there was no. Making copies of books is relatively cheap, right? It's a single digital image, right? It's more on how you sign the file and and have um the cryptography applied to the file so you know the local user just gets a key to the file, um, and rights assignment can be handled by a DRM server that Amazon runs, but. It's interesting that that's that's how you thought about the process and where you sought to reduce the latency, so with. With that in mind. Right, let's just say, OK, fine, you move all the files locally into Amazon. Where else would you look to reduce latency in this process?
CANDIDATE
Um, Well, I'm thinking again, if I were in um A In a third world country where my connections weren't as um As fast in accessing the Amazon content or even accessing, you know, in Um, my, actually, I don't know if that would, that would, uh, uh, improve that except if you put more, uh, redundant servers around the world to be able to cater to those people, um, that's possible, um. But, um, Where would I reduce the latency? Um, I think I'd Probably have, uh, again, I think I have increased redundancy, um, around the world,
INTERVIEWER
sorry, say that again.
CANDIDATE
Increase since it's so cheap to uh replicate these images, then I'd have an increased redundancy around the world, so that it wasn't uh there wasn't as much latency in accessing the content where it was. So if the, uh, I mean, It would have to be pushed out to the servers where the uh customers are, right? Close to them, closer to them, um, uh, I think that that's uh a huge factor, um. And so pushing that content out to more servers, uh, and making it more available, so that that is reducing that latency for them to access the content. The possibility. I, the other thing too is that uh There's a um perhaps a static image that can be accessed, uh, once they purchase the uh image, then, and they, uh, even though that library is contained within an Amazon. They can uh At least have a static version on their um device, so that they don't necessarily have to log in every time to access that content. If that's, you know, uh, as long as they don't, it make, make sure it isn't downloadable, make sure it's copyrighted and, and, uh, protected, um, then they have the ability to be able to uh download it on their device and, and, and not have to call out to the uh uh Amazon database for that again. OK. That is.
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