What is the next big thing for Google?

Approach:

1. Follow up questions to define the area of focus and the business goal

2. Potential area of focus

3. User segments and pain points

4. Brainstorm solutions

5. Prioritization 

Follow up questions and business goal

Candidate: Do you have any paticular vertical in mind such as health, travel, education, communication, information access, etc.

Interviewer: Up to you

Candidate: Would you want it to be a digital product or psycial product?

Interviewer: Up to you

Candidate: I assume the goal is to create a product that solves a major problem and improves the quality of lives of the people around the world.

Interviewer: fair enough

Potential area of focus

A.I Doctor: Using computer vision, ML models, we can develop an app that would help in diagonsis and treatment of diseases

Multi-dimensional search: Today, search results are largely text based, whereas in the future, we want to index and undestand the content of all videos, audio, and images to offer search results through video, audio, image, and text. 

Smart maps: Today, maps does a great job in navigating the outdoor settings such as streets, etc. In the future, we want to enable maps to help users to navigate indoor settings such as railway station, airports, stadiums, etc.

I would want to focus on smart maps, given that navigating the indoor settings has been extremeful painful for a long time now.

User segments

A. Walkers

B. People of wheel chair

C. People in golf cart

To maximize the impact, I want to prioritize the largest user group which is walkers. 

User journey

Get to the destination such as airport, railway station, sports arena, shopping malls; search for the sign boards/look for the help desk/seek help from staff to get to the spot such gate in airport, seat in the stadium

User painpoints

A. Unable to figure the entry requirements (ID, Vaccination proof, Mask requirements, etc) to gain access to the indoor settings

B. Unable to find the psyhical signs/indoor maps to navigate the indoor settings, for example, finding a eateary inside the airport/shopping mall

C. Takes long time to locate the point of interest in the large indoor settings, leading to missed trains and flights

Brainstorm solutions

A. Based on the local laws, show the entry requirements to gain access to the indoor settings, so that users do not forget important IDs, etc. For example, airports require masks; some sports arena require vaccination proof

B. Index indoor settings all major destinations such as universities, hospitals, airports, shopping malls, etc, and create a catalog of layout of all entities such as doctor offices within hospitals, gates/shops within airports, stores within shopping malls. Then use computer vision and AR techniques to guide the users indoors.

C. Today's maps show the eta to enter the desination, but not the actual spot inside the destination. For example, maps shows eta to airport but not to the gate inside the airport. 

Build a feature that incorporates additional time to get the right spot within a large building. For example, the time that it takes to clear the secruity check, time to go from security check to departure gate to board the flight. Thus users can plan trip well and avoid the stress associated with missing out flights/trains.

Prioritization