How would you improve Google Maps? – PM Interview Question

G → Goal / Clarify

Objective

Refine the vague prompt (“Improve Maps”) into a focused problem statement centered on revenue generation in a highly competitive, dense market.

Clarifying Questions & Assumptions

1. Which core business are we improving?
   Assumption: Local Discovery and Transactions. This function is adjacent to Navigation and has the highest direct revenue potential (ads, bookings).
2. What geography should we focus on?
   Assumption: Indian Metro Cities (Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Bangalore). These areas have high population density, diverse transport options, and a large user base for local commerce.
3. What is the business objective for improvement?
   Assumption: Increase revenue. Specifically, we aim for a 15% increase in Local Ad Revenue (Clicks/Conversions) within 1 year by enhancing the commercial utility of the app.
4. What is the primary usage context?
   Assumption: Task-oriented discovery. Users are searching for immediate needs during their commute or daily routines (e.g., “closest café with Wi-Fi,” “trusted mechanic near me”).

Product Mission

Google Maps’ mission is to map the world and enable seamless navigation and exploration. For this context, the mission is to seamlessly integrate high-value commercial and utility information into the user’s real-time journey to increase monetization touchpoints.

Metrics to Measure Improvement

Primary Metric (Success):

Total Local Ad Revenue per Month (measured as the sum of clicks, bookings, and conversions from promoted business listings within the app).

• Why: This is a clear, numeric measure of commercial impact from local discovery improvements. It captures both engagement (clicks) and monetization (conversions/bookings), aligning directly with the business objective.

Guardrail Metrics:

• Search-to-Navigation Ratio — ensures ads don’t annoy users or compromise navigation.
• Daily Active Users (DAU) — monitors for user fatigue; a dip signals ads are too intrusive.
• % of Business Profile Clicks that Convert to Call/Visit — measures the quality and relevance of ad placements.

Refined Problem Statement

Improve Google Maps’ Local Discovery experience in Indian Metro Cities to increase Local Ad Revenue by 15% in 1 year, by integrating highly relevant commercial and utility information into the user’s real-time journey without compromising core navigation or user satisfaction.

A → Audience / Users

User Segments for Local Discovery in Indian Metro Cities

1. The Leisure Explorer
   • Behavior: Uses Maps once a week to find new restaurants, malls, or other places of interest.
   • Rationale: Already a strong revenue driver due to high conversion rates, but low frequency limits incremental gains.
2. The Functional Commuter (Target Segment)
   • Behavior: Uses Maps daily for navigation (transit, car, or bike). Searches for immediate, task-oriented needs during their commute (e.g., “ATM,” “gas station,” “coffee to-go”).
   • Rationale: High leverage segment. While ad conversion is currently low, this segment has high frequency (DAU) and the potential for incremental revenue if ultra-relevant, real-time commercial utility is provided.
3. The Infrequent Planner
   • Behavior: Uses Maps once a month for long-distance travel or trip planning.
   • Rationale: Low frequency; too high effort to meaningfully impact daily ad revenue.

Focus:

The Functional Commuter is the primary target, as improving monetization for this high-frequency segment will maximize local ad revenue growth while maintaining user satisfaction during daily commutes.

U → Understand Pain Points

Friction of Context Switching

• Users must leave or interrupt their navigation to search for a local service.
• Pain: “I need an ATM, but stopping my navigation, searching, and re-routing takes too long.”
• Revenue Impact: Lost clicks/impressions; users skip promoted content.

Confidence Gap (Lack of Live Utility)

• Static business information prevents users from knowing if a task can be completed now.
• Pain: “Is this petrol pump open? Is the queue short?”
• Revenue Impact: Low click-to-visit conversions, advertiser dissatisfaction.

Misalignment of Timing and Location

• Ads or promoted pins appear off-route or too far ahead/behind the user’s location.
• Pain: “I passed the café ad 5 km ago — now I can’t visit it.”
• Revenue Impact: Wasted ad spend, missed conversions.

Overload of Irrelevant Options

• Too many pins or promoted businesses create cognitive overload, making it harder to decide quickly.
• Pain: “There are 10 coffee shops on my map — which one is closest and actually open?”
• Revenue Impact: Lower ad engagement; users ignore ads or pins entirely.

Poor Contextual Personalization

• Ads do not adapt to the user’s preferences, travel mode, or prior behavior.
• Pain: “Why am I seeing ads for restaurants when I just need an ATM?”
• Revenue Impact: Lower relevance leads to fewer clicks and conversions.

Latency in Data Updates

• Business hours, wait times, or stock availability are outdated in real-time.
• Pain: “The pharmacy shows it’s open, but it’s closed now.”
• Revenue Impact: Frustration reduces trust, lowering DAU and ad revenue potential.

Navigation Disruption Fear

• Users hesitate to engage with promoted pins while driving or riding due to safety concerns.
• Pain: “I don’t want to fiddle with my phone while riding — I’ll just ignore the ads.”
• Revenue Impact: Missed opportunities for high-frequency engagement.

Conclusion

To reach the 15% revenue growth goal, improvements must reduce friction, increase confidence, ensure relevance, and respect the commuter’s context — allowing users to act on real-time local needs safely and efficiently.

S → Solutions / Options (Functional Commuter)

1. Real-Time Utility Pins

• Description: Upgrade promoted pins to show live, actionable information such as queue length, current stock availability, payment options, and wait times.
• How It Helps: Reduces the confidence gap by letting users know immediately whether a business can fulfill their need.
• Impact: Increases click-to-visit conversion and advertiser ROI.

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2. Route-Aware Promoted Pins

• Description: Dynamically surface ads/promoted businesses directly along the user’s navigation route, factoring in distance, travel mode, and estimated arrival time.
• How It Helps: Reduces misalignment of timing and location. Users are more likely to engage with pins that fit seamlessly into their current journey.
• Impact: Minimizes wasted ad spend, increases in-route ad engagement.

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3. Contextual Micro-Notifications

• Description: Send subtle, real-time in-app notifications or prompts for high-utility tasks (e.g., “Nearest ATM with no queue, 500 m ahead”).
• How It Helps: Reduces friction of context switching and navigation disruption. Users receive actionable info without leaving the main navigation screen.
• Impact: Drives more clicks and higher task completion rates, increasing DAU monetization.

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4. Smart Personalization Layer

• Description: Adapt local discovery and ads based on user history, preferences, and travel patterns (e.g., frequent café stops or preferred fuel stations).
• How It Helps: Reduces irrelevant options and cognitive overload, showing only relevant businesses for the commuter’s context.
• Impact: Improves ad relevance, boosting both user satisfaction and conversion rates.

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5. Express Booking & Instant Actions

• Description: Allow users to initiate immediate actions from pins (e.g., book a table, reserve parking, pre-order coffee) without leaving the map.
• How It Helps: Converts user intent into instant transactions, reducing drop-offs caused by context switching.
• Impact: Increases revenue from high-frequency, in-route actions.

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Prioritization & Rationale

1. Route-Aware Promoted Pins (Top Priority)
   • Why: Directly addresses timing/location misalignment — the most frequent revenue-leaking issue for Functional Commuters.
   • Impact: Ensures ads are actionable and relevant in real-time.
2. Real-Time Utility Pins
   • Why: Solves the confidence gap, a key barrier preventing clicks from converting into visits or transactions.
   • Impact: Increases advertiser ROI by providing accurate, live info.
3. Express Booking & Instant Actions
   • Why: Addresses friction of context switching and navigation disruption.
   • Impact: Turns clicks into transactions, driving measurable revenue growth.

S → Success Metrics & Trade-offs

Primary Success Metric

Total Local Ad Revenue per Month

• Measured as the sum of clicks, bookings, and conversions from promoted business listings within the app.
• Why: Captures both engagement (clicks) and monetization (conversions/bookings), directly reflecting the commercial impact of local discovery improvements.

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Guardrail Metrics

1. Search-to-Navigation Ratio
   • Ensures promoted pins and ads do not disrupt core navigation.
2. Daily Active Users (DAU)
   • Monitors for user fatigue; a dip would indicate that ads or promoted content are negatively impacting overall app engagement.
3. % of Business Profile Clicks That Convert to Call/Visit
   • Measures the quality and relevance of ad placements, ensuring that clicks translate into real-world actions.

Trade-offs

Solution	Opportunity Cost	Design / Operational Risk
Route-Aware Promoted Pins	Engineering focus here may delay other discovery or mapping features.	Incorrect route prediction could show irrelevant ads, frustrating users.
Real-Time Utility Pins	Integration with live business data may require significant effort.	Outdated or inaccurate live data reduces user confidence and conversions.
Express Booking & Instant Actions	Building seamless action flows may divert resources from other monetization initiatives.	Poor integration could cause UX friction or errors in booking.
Smart Personalization Layer	Complexity in algorithms may slow feature rollout.	Over-personalization could reduce serendipitous discovery or limit exposure to new businesses.
Contextual Micro-Notifications	Frequent notifications could annoy users or lead them to disable alerts.	Must carefully tune frequency and relevance to avoid disruption.

Summary / Recap

To improve Google Maps’ local discovery in Indian metro cities, I’d focus on the Functional Commuter — daily users searching for immediate, utility-based needs. Their main pain points are disruption during navigation, low confidence in static business info, and misaligned or irrelevant ads.

I’d prioritize three solutions: Route-Aware Promoted Pins to surface ads along the user’s route, Real-Time Utility Pins to show live actionable info (like queue length or availability), and Express Booking & Instant Actions to allow transactions directly from the map.

Success would be measured by total local ad revenue per month, while monitoring guardrails like DAU, search-to-navigation ratio, and click-to-visit conversion to ensure engagement and user satisfaction remain high.

This approach targets friction, relevance, and conversion, driving monetization without disrupting the core navigation experience.