How would you improve Netflix? — Product Management Interview Question

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In this problem, we have discussed few innovative solutions like Netflix Geofencing, Netflix Metaverse, Netflix story, Netflix Subconscious playlist etc.

Interviewer: How would you improve Netflix?

Shailesh: Thanks for the questions; let me tell you my understanding of Netflix so that we are on the same page. Netflix is a video streaming platform that provides content like TV shows, movies, documentaries etc. One of the main features of Netflix is its personalized recommendation of content. Is that correct?
Interviewer: Yes, that’s correct.

Shailesh: Before I start stating my solution, I have some questions which I want to get clarified. Since improvement can be of different types like the acquisition of untapped market, user experience, user engagement or monetization, what is our goal. From my point of view, acquisition and engagement both are good options now for Netflix; however, I would like to continue with improving user engagement which will lead to future options to get more revenue. What do you think?
Interviewer: Okay, you can go ahead, but I have one question if you want to acquire an untapped market, what customer segment you would focus on?

Shailesh: Great question; if I had to acquire more customers, I would look into Netflix for senior citizens. Since Netflix kids have already been there and in old age, you have a lot of free time to spend. Old people generally feel marginalized and unsociable because of a lack of information, but by this, we can give them the kind of content that can be entertaining and informative.
Interviewer: Okay, go ahead with improving user engagement.

Shailesh: Do you want me to take into account particular geography, demography or the device option, or I can decide as I go ahead with the problem.
Interviewer: You can assume we have to increase the engagement globally.

Shailesh: Alright, do we have any resource or time constraints that I should be aware of? I am asking this question because it may play an important role while prioritizing our feature set for MVP.
Interviewer: You are not bound by anything.

Shailesh: Cool, the way I would like to approach this problem is, first will see our customer segment and their user journey and, depending on that, will see some of the pain points. After prioritising the pain points, we can see some potential solutions in priority and corresponding success metrics. At last, we can think of some of the potential tradeoffs or some future aspects of the Solution. Sounds okay?
Interviewer: Sounds great; please go ahead.

Shailesh: I would like to put the users of Netflix into two broad buckets one is a content consumer, and another is a content producer. For this, I want to focus on content consumers primary because they are in huge numbers. There can be multiple user personas for content consumers, but if I have to put them in a more MECE way, I would like to have the following personas:

USER PERSONAS

1. Focused content consumers: People who know what they are going to watch are kind of an introvert and generally don’t like to watch what s recommended by other people. They are very particular about their personalised recommendation and don’t want to spoil them.
2. Content discoverer: They are the ones who want to discover the different movies, shows etc. They are open to anything and everything. They want some socialising experience; they want to express their opinions about what they watched.
3. Occasional Watchers: They are those individuals who don’t spend time on Netflix or any other OTT platform because they are busy individuals who don’t like watching content. They watch 1 or 2 highly famous movies either with their friends or alone.

PRIORITISATION OF CUSTOMER PERSONA

Shailesh: If I have to prioritise the customer persona, I would like to focus on the one user persona, “Content Discoverer”. They are the ones who want to explore, and their number is greater than the other two personas. So, improving their engagement can lead us to more business options to monetise. What do you think?
Interviewer: Yes, you can go ahead.

Shailesh: Let’s form the goal of the problem; we have to increase the user engagement of content discoverers on the Netflix platform globally. I think this is aligned with the broad goal of Netflix as well.
Interviewer: Okay!

Shailesh: Now, let’s see some of the pain points of the selected customer persona.

PAIN POINT OF CUSTOMER SEGMENT #1

1. They got bored of all the recommendations on Netflix; they want it to be more of a fun way to discover content.
2. In this pandemic, they miss the kind of socialization feeling that they had in the theatre. They are also very sceptical of going out now as well.
3. Because they watch a lot of content, sometimes they feel lost in some sci-fi series. Also, now the TV series has a lot of seasons, so it becomes frustrating when we don’t remember what happened till earlier seasons.
4. Sometimes they look out for unique content which can be fun and exciting at the same time.

Shailesh: To summarise what we have discussed till now, we have discussed the problems and explored the different personas. We picked the content explorer persona and looked into their pain points. Now I am pausing for a while if you have any questions, suggestions etc.
Interviewer: Yes, go ahead.

PRIORITIZATION OF PAIN POINTS

Shailesh: Now, let’s prioritise the different pain points; I will take two things into account while prioritizing the pain points. First is how chronic the pain point is and how frequently it is occurring. By this, we will be able to see the depth and breadth of the pain point. Pain points #3 and #4 are something that doesn’t occur daily, while pain points #1 and #2 are something that has a high frequency. I want to prioritise pain points #1 and #2. Are you aligned with this?
Interviewer: Yes, it makes sense.

Shailesh: Now, let’s look at different solutions for the pain points.

SOLUTIONS/FEATURES

Solutions to pain point #1

1. We can have a geofencing kind of feature in which a user will "spin a wheel", and the user will be recommended with some suggestions of videos/TV series depending on the content being watched in their neighbourhood. We can integrate a leaderboard kind of feature to this. For example, if Netflix recommends videos you are watching and other people in your neighbourhood like them, you will get some reward points. Netflix can now expand its business model by opening its marketplace and letting users buy merchandised shirts or snacks for a good movie experience. [Medium Effort][High Impact]
2. “Netflix Metaverse” is my second solution in which you can watch the movies in a full and immersive way. [Super High Effort][High Impact]
3. “Netflix Subconscious” is my third feature in which, depending on your retina movement on the Netflix screen, Netflix can recommend you a playlist of videos, tv-series etc. [Super High Effort][Medium Impact]

Solutions to pain point #2

1. “Netflix Social” is my first solution because Netflix doesn’t have followers and following culture. Netflix can prompt users to log in via Facebook and leverage the advantage of a vast network of friends and acquittances. On Netflix social where they can post reviews, comments, experiences etc. [High Effort][High Impact]
2. “Netflix Meta Social” is my second feature in which not only they can watch the movies in an immersive way but also they watch like this with their friends and family remotely as well. [Super High Effort][High Impact]
3. “Netflix Story” is my third feature in which people can put the story of the video they are watching. People who follow you can react and comment on the story like Instagram. It will increase the engagement, and sometimes people also want to express themselves in the form of movie dialogue, so with this feature, they will be able to do that. [High Effort][High Impact]

Solutions to pain point #3

1. Netflix can have recap videos, and people can also opt for WhatsApp updates from Netflix. So let’s say if someone has left the TV series in between, they can have 2–3 reminders sent on WhatsApp about the content. Push notifications are good, but WhatsApp notifications may have a greater impact as people open their WhatsApp multiple times. [Medium effort][Medium Impact]

Solution to pain point #4

1. Netflix can have “Behind the Scene” content that is new, and people are generally curious to watch this type of content. [Medium Effort][High Impact]
2. Netflix can partner with some pro-gamers who can put their live gaming content on Netflix. [Medium Effort][High Impact]

Since Meta technology is currently evolving, what I would like to have currently is the “Geofencing feature”, “Netflix Social”, and “Netflix Story” features.

SUCCESS METRICS

Shailesh: Now, let’s see some of the success metrics for the features which we have proposed.

1. Ratio of the number of content watched or liked to the total number of content recommended.
2. Average time spent by a user on Netflix Social.
3. Average reviews/comments posted by an individual on Netflix social per month.
4. The average number of reactions done on Netflix Story.

-- Technomanagers