In this module9 lessons
Diagnosing a metric drop
Work through any "this metric fell" question with the five-step Change Drill, from checking the data is real to the action you take.
6 min readFull kit
What the interviewer wants
"Weekly active users dropped 10% last week. What happened?" This is one of the most common execution questions. The interviewer usually has a specific cause in mind and a few data points ready to hand over if you ask well.
They are scoring three things:
- Structure. Do you narrow the problem step by step, or list causes at random?
- Judgment. Do you ask for the data that cuts the problem in half, in a sensible order?
- Landing. Do you reach a likely cause and a concrete next action, or run out of time?
Checking your access…
Practice this lesson
- Daily active users on a messaging app dropped 10% week over week. How would you investigate?
- Uber trips in one city fell 15% yesterday. What do you do?
- Checkout conversion on an e-commerce site dropped after a release. Walk me through your diagnosis.
- Sign-ups for a SaaS free trial doubled overnight. Is that good news?
- Average session length on YouTube went up, but daily active users went down. What's happening?
- Food delivery orders are flat, but average delivery time rose by 8 minutes. How do you dig in?
- Search usage on an online marketplace fell 20%, but only on mobile. Diagnose it.
- Listings on a second-hand marketplace grew 40%, but sales grew only 5%. What's going on, and what would you do?