Spring Quarter 2025
Product Manager
Take-Home

Background

AggieWorks develops multiple software products to enhance the UC Davis student experience. Some products in the current lineup includes:

• Expresso: a mentorship platform

• Moober: a carpooling and uber splitting platform

  • For students that choose Moober, focus on researching either the carpooling OR uber splitting feature for the take-home, not both

• Dibs: a centralized platform to discover restaurant deals in Davis

Prompt

As a product manager, a key aspect of your role involves analyzing user pain points, identifying growth opportunities with current products, and ideating ways to improve them.

Your challenge is to select one of the 4 above existing AggieWorks products and develop a slide deck that effectively highlights the potential pain points experienced by users, prioritizing them to inform potential enhancements and strategic decisions for the product's development.

Prepare a slide deck that addresses the following:

1. Intro:

   • Introduce your chosen AggieWorks product with a one-liner that addresses what it is and what value it has.

   • Define a product vision based on the product’s value and the long-term impact it will make (example of Airbnb’s product vision: “anyone can belong anywhere”)

   
   

2. Users (1-3 slides):

   • Identify the different sides of the marketplace (example: moober has drivers and riders). What problem does the product address for each side of the marketplace?

   • Segment the product’s existing user base based on key characteristics (examples could include: year in college, experience level, income level). Feel free to choose one side of the marketplace for this (e.g riders).
     
     

3. Pain Points (1-3 slides):

   • Based on your research on your chosen product, identify 3 pain points that are not currently addressed by the product. For each, provide brief context of the pain point, who it impacts and why it’s important.
     
     

4. Improvements (1-4 slides):

   • Choose one of your 3 paint points to focus on and explain your reasoning on why/how you prioritized this pain point over others (examples could include: number of people affected, frequency or severity of the pain point, product vision, etc.)
     
     

   • [Optional] Brainstorm and briefly describe 2-3 features/functionalities as potential solutions to the pain point you have chosen. Choose one feature/functionality and explain your reasoning on why/how you prioritized this solution over others (examples could include: impact, product vision, etc.)
     
     

   • Illustrate your chosen feature/functionality above with notes and one or multiple wireframes. Your answer should outline how your solution will work, what it’ll look like, and (if applicable) why it would work better than the existing solution.

     • Note: We are looking for clear and simple communication of your ideas, and do not expect high-definition mockups.
       
       

5. Analytics (1-2 slides):

   • How would you measure success of the feature/functionality you implemented? What quantitative/qualitative metrics would you track and why?

   • Please specify what your North Star Metric is — the overarching metric that defines your long-term success. Why is this metric the most important one? What insights does this metric help indicate?
     
     

6. Go-to-Market Strategy (1-2 slides):

   • Who are the users for this feature and how would you acquire them? Once again, consider the different sides of the marketplace and their characteristics.

   • What are some potential risks you anticipate with user acquisition, engagement or retention?

   • [Optional] How would the implementation of your solution benefit the success metrics for the entire platform? Note: consider the overall product’s goals to be acquisition, engagement and/or retention
     
     

7. Conclusion

   • Sum up your presentation

Note: The listed number of slides are merely a suggestion. Please feel free to adjust your presentation as you see fit, but keep the final presentation to 16 slides max. Additionally, feel free to be flexible with the guidelines provided above – we are interested in getting to know your thought process!

Expectations

The purpose of this take-home is to evaluate your analytical thinking and ability to develop and articulate ideas pertaining to product management. That being said, we understand this assignment may be ambiguous in certain aspects. Remember, there are no right answers as we are more interested in your ability to communicate your ideas. Use this as an opportunity to showcase your analytical thought process, decision-making, and approach to challenges.

Evaluation Criteria

• Clarity & Cohesiveness: How clearly and effectively are ideas communicated? Is there a logical flow to the presentation that enhances understanding?

• Innovation & Creativity: How unique and original are the proposed ideas? What creative approaches are used to solve problems?

• Product Sense: How well does the solution focus on and enhance user experience? Are the proposed features aligned with the product’s overall goals? Is there an evident understanding of the market and competitive landscape?

• Attention to Detail: How thorough are you in covering all aspects of the assignment?

Deliverables

Create a slide deck (max 16 slides) walking through your project. You’re welcome to use any presentation software (e.g. Google Slides, Figma, etc.) to create your slide deck.

Please download your slide deck in PDF format, upload it to Google Drive, and submit a publicly accessible link in your application