Number of Emails sent via Gmail has reduced by 7%. How would you solve it? - PM Interview Question
Interviewer: The question is Number of Emails sent via Gmail has reduced by 7%, How would you solve it?
Shailesh: This sounds interesting. I will start with the clarifying questions so that we have a better understanding of the problem statement.
Interviewer: Yes, please go ahead.
Shailesh: The first thing I would like to ask is about the metric, when we say that the number of Emails sent out via Gmail has reduced by 7% then is it a daily or monthly number of Emails? Also, is there any seasonality involved?
Interviewer: We are measuring the Average Number of emails sent per day. And there is no seasonality involved in this.
Shailesh: The second question which I would like to ask is about the type of email we have seen this issue. There are different types of Emails like Primary Emails, Social Emails or Promotional Emails.
Interviewer: We are seeing this issue in Promotional Emails. Gmail has bifurcated the emails into Primary, Social and Promotional.
So, Promotional Emails are the ones where we receive Marketing, Sales, Offer Communications by Brands or sometimes Newsletter if you have subscribed.
Shailesh: The third question I would like to ask is about the timeframe of this drop. Also, is this across all types of devices or platforms?
Interviewer: This drop has been happening for the last 3 weeks across all types of devices(App/Web) and all platforms(iOS/Android).
Shailesh: The final question I would like to ask is about the demography and geography where this issue is happening.
Interviewer: The drop is happening across all types of users and primarily happening in India.
Shailesh: So, just to summarise, the Daily Average Number of Emails sent via Gmail has Decreased by 7% gradually in the last 3 Weeks across all types of users, devices and platforms in India.
Interviewer: That is well-summarised.
Shailesh: I would also like to discuss the strategic importance of Promotional Email for Google. Promotional Emails contain emails containing offers, marketing communication, and promotions of different products and industries.
When we click any of these Emails, the data is being utilized by Google to give us more personalised Ads. So if we have clicked on any vacation-related promotional email, then the next time when we open YouTube, we are likely to get Ads related to vacation packages.
Interviewer: This sounds right. Good that you covered this.
Shailesh: We will consider the potential factors that can be responsible for this drop.
This can be System Related Factors, External Factors or Internal Factors.
Interviewer: There are no System Related Issues or External Issues. Please focus on Internal factors.
Shailesh: Since I have to focus on Internal factors I will first share my understanding of how Promotional Emails work at a very high level.
Interviewer: Sure
Shailesh: So, the user subscribes to Future Promotions, Newsletter, and Offers.
Once they have subscribed to the future communications, it means that they will receive future automated Promotional Emails.
So at the designated interval, Google throttles the emails in bulk to all the users who have subscribed for the communication.
All these emails don't end up in the user’s mailbox.
First, there is Google Side Filtering happens, Google does some basic checks like whether the email is valid or not. When we subscribe it might happen that we have given the wrong email address. So Google Server Side filtering is performed.
Then there is User Side / Client Side Filtering that happens. For example - If we have shown disinterest in some type of email or marked something as Spam then it will go into the spam folder.
Finally, the Email hits our Promotional Inbox. Here if we haven’t clicked some Emails in quite some time then Google prompts us to unsubscribe the communication.
This is a typical funnel journey of getting Promotional Emails.
Shailesh: I will see the relevant metrics at each of the stages.
The first stage there will be the Average Number of Daily Subscription.
Interviewer: This is more or less the same.
Shailesh: Now I will see the metric at the second stage which is the Average Number of Emails throttled per second i.e. Email Throttling Rate.
Interviewer: This is also unchanged.
Shailesh: Moving forward, at the third stage I will see filtering rate by the Server side and Client side which means from the Google Server side and then the Client side.
Interviewer: We have observed that Google is filtering more Emails as compared to before.
Shailesh: At the last stage I will see a few more metrics like the Average unsubscription rate, and the number of Spam marked by the user.
Interviewer: No difference here.
Shailesh: So the issue is in the third stage which implies that the Emails are getting filtered from Google Side.
Interviewer: Let’s see what can be different reasons for this issue.
Shailesh: The first reason can be a high Image to Text ratio which means the mail which is very heavy depending on the Images and contains minimal text might be flagged as Spam or low-quality Emails. Have we seen such kinds of Emails getting picked up after this Generative AI comes into the picture?
Interviewer: There is no such filtering.
Shailesh: The second reason can be the high bounce rate due to an Invalid Email Address or an Inactive Email Address which is why a lot of filtering is happening at Google Server Side.
Interviewer: No such issue.
Shailesh: The third reason can be purchased Email List, have we seen in the past 3-4 weeks that the advertisers are using purchased email lists which majorly contain Stale Leads? Lower CTR on the client side can reduce the sender's reputation which in turn leads to filtering.
Interviewer: This is a good point but we haven’t seen such an issue here.
Shailesh: The final reason can be that Google has made its Filtering mechanism more stringent.
Interviewer: Yes, Google has rolled out one feature in which if a user receives a Promotional Email 3 consecutive times and hasn’t opened it once, then it will automatically filter out to reduce the user’s Email box. It was great interacting with you.
Shailesh: This sounds interesting. I will start with the clarifying questions so that we have a better understanding of the problem statement.
Interviewer: Yes, please go ahead.
Shailesh: The first thing I would like to ask is about the metric, when we say that the number of Emails sent out via Gmail has reduced by 7% then is it a daily or monthly number of Emails? Also, is there any seasonality involved?
Interviewer: We are measuring the Average Number of emails sent per day. And there is no seasonality involved in this.
Shailesh: The second question which I would like to ask is about the type of email we have seen this issue. There are different types of Emails like Primary Emails, Social Emails or Promotional Emails.
Interviewer: We are seeing this issue in Promotional Emails. Gmail has bifurcated the emails into Primary, Social and Promotional.
So, Promotional Emails are the ones where we receive Marketing, Sales, Offer Communications by Brands or sometimes Newsletter if you have subscribed.
Shailesh: The third question I would like to ask is about the timeframe of this drop. Also, is this across all types of devices or platforms?
Interviewer: This drop has been happening for the last 3 weeks across all types of devices(App/Web) and all platforms(iOS/Android).
Shailesh: The final question I would like to ask is about the demography and geography where this issue is happening.
Interviewer: The drop is happening across all types of users and primarily happening in India.
Shailesh: So, just to summarise, the Daily Average Number of Emails sent via Gmail has Decreased by 7% gradually in the last 3 Weeks across all types of users, devices and platforms in India.
Interviewer: That is well-summarised.
Shailesh: I would also like to discuss the strategic importance of Promotional Email for Google. Promotional Emails contain emails containing offers, marketing communication, and promotions of different products and industries.
When we click any of these Emails, the data is being utilized by Google to give us more personalised Ads. So if we have clicked on any vacation-related promotional email, then the next time when we open YouTube, we are likely to get Ads related to vacation packages.
Interviewer: This sounds right. Good that you covered this.
Shailesh: We will consider the potential factors that can be responsible for this drop.
This can be System Related Factors, External Factors or Internal Factors.
Interviewer: There are no System Related Issues or External Issues. Please focus on Internal factors.
Shailesh: Since I have to focus on Internal factors I will first share my understanding of how Promotional Emails work at a very high level.
Interviewer: Sure
Shailesh: So, the user subscribes to Future Promotions, Newsletter, and Offers.
Once they have subscribed to the future communications, it means that they will receive future automated Promotional Emails.
So at the designated interval, Google throttles the emails in bulk to all the users who have subscribed for the communication.
All these emails don't end up in the user’s mailbox.
First, there is Google Side Filtering happens, Google does some basic checks like whether the email is valid or not. When we subscribe it might happen that we have given the wrong email address. So Google Server Side filtering is performed.
Then there is User Side / Client Side Filtering that happens. For example - If we have shown disinterest in some type of email or marked something as Spam then it will go into the spam folder.
Finally, the Email hits our Promotional Inbox. Here if we haven’t clicked some Emails in quite some time then Google prompts us to unsubscribe the communication.
This is a typical funnel journey of getting Promotional Emails.
 |
| Funnel Journey |
Shailesh: I will see the relevant metrics at each of the stages.
The first stage there will be the Average Number of Daily Subscription.
Interviewer: This is more or less the same.
Shailesh: Now I will see the metric at the second stage which is the Average Number of Emails throttled per second i.e. Email Throttling Rate.
Interviewer: This is also unchanged.
Shailesh: Moving forward, at the third stage I will see filtering rate by the Server side and Client side which means from the Google Server side and then the Client side.
Interviewer: We have observed that Google is filtering more Emails as compared to before.
Shailesh: At the last stage I will see a few more metrics like the Average unsubscription rate, and the number of Spam marked by the user.
Interviewer: No difference here.
Shailesh: So the issue is in the third stage which implies that the Emails are getting filtered from Google Side.
Interviewer: Let’s see what can be different reasons for this issue.
Shailesh: The first reason can be a high Image to Text ratio which means the mail which is very heavy depending on the Images and contains minimal text might be flagged as Spam or low-quality Emails. Have we seen such kinds of Emails getting picked up after this Generative AI comes into the picture?
Interviewer: There is no such filtering.
Shailesh: The second reason can be the high bounce rate due to an Invalid Email Address or an Inactive Email Address which is why a lot of filtering is happening at Google Server Side.
Interviewer: No such issue.
Shailesh: The third reason can be purchased Email List, have we seen in the past 3-4 weeks that the advertisers are using purchased email lists which majorly contain Stale Leads? Lower CTR on the client side can reduce the sender's reputation which in turn leads to filtering.
Interviewer: This is a good point but we haven’t seen such an issue here.
Shailesh: The final reason can be that Google has made its Filtering mechanism more stringent.
Interviewer: Yes, Google has rolled out one feature in which if a user receives a Promotional Email 3 consecutive times and hasn’t opened it once, then it will automatically filter out to reduce the user’s Email box. It was great interacting with you.
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