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You work for a company that deploys solar technologies, including solar panels. The company installs them and provides maintenance services. While the business is currently performing well, you've been tasked with achieving a 10x growth within the next two years. What would you do?

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Product Description : The company installs solar technologies and solar panels for residential and office building which helps convert solar energy to electrical energy for house hold purposes. Solar energy is great as it reduces the carbon emmission and helps a greener future to our country.

Clarifying Questions:

1. Can I assume that the company installs residential and office buildings world wide - Yes

2. We are talking about 10x growth, can I assume we are targeting to increase the revenue by 10x -> Yes

3. Are there any geographical constraints that we should care about when it comes to Solar Panels -> Yes, Solar panels cannot be installed in every state. we have to ensure the area is not too hold and the weather is not too harsh. we maintain a list of geographical areas that are restricted.

4. Can I start with a area within US with the idea before we globally expand - Sure

Business Goal : Improve the Revenue of the company by 10 times. 

Dyson is a company that started off with vaccum cleaners and diversified the investments into various other products and Dyson air wrap is a hair styling product that created revolution in the fashion industry. The company leveraged the technology and applied it in a different industry diversifying its investments thus increasing the revenue and I feel thats a good product strategy. With that in mind, I would like to brainstorm few ideas that apply to the solar energy investments.

I have the below use cases in mind :

1. Race cars enabled with solar energy consumption

2. Transport companies - Uber, Lyft etc

3. Office Transport 

4. Stadiums

5. Gas stations which provide EV chargers from Solar energy

Prioirtize the solution based on Infra cost and Market Size

SolutionInfrastructure CostMarket SizeReturn on Investment 
Race cars enabled with solar energy consumption High Low Med
Transport companies - Uber, Lyft etcMedHigh High
Office Transport MediumMedium Medium
Stadiums HighLow Low
Gas stations expanded to provide EV chargers from Solar energyMediumHighHigh

My recommendation : Based on the infrastructure cost and Market size, The ROI is high with a medium investment to have gas stations include Ev Chargers as gas stations have the basic infra today and EV chargers would be a expansion.

Key Metrics

1. Revenue

2. No. of contracts established with the EV stations / Total available Market size

3. Monthly consumption per EV station

4. Demand vs supply

5. Revenue generated per EV station

I would keep revenue as the north star metric to see if we are reaching our target to meet 10x growth with a predicted forecast using a ML algorithm for T+ 5 years.

 

 

 

 

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Get access to 2,346 pm interview questions and answers to give yourself a strong edge against other candidates that are interviewing for the same position
Get access to over 238 hours of video material containing an interview prep course, recorded mock interviews by expert PMs, group practice sessions, and QAs with expert PMs
Boost your confidence in PM interviews by attending peer to peer mock interview practices, group practices, and QA sessions with expert PMs