Curriculum - Alarm Clock for the Blind (with Twitch Senior PM)

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As a legally blind software developer and aspiring PM, I always find these “design x for the blind” questions really interesting.

Great place to get started on PM questions

I literally had been asked for this question during my latest interview.

Interesting approach , this can be a B2B or a B2C product I feel. B2B where consumer is corporate who can purchase these in bulk for their CSR activities . In that case metrics can be No. of corporate house onboarded , No. of products sold in quarter

Thx!! It's really helpful

Many people have criticized the approach from several standpoints: it could just be Alexa or why is there a caretaker, etc. I think that even if we grant those criticism, - although she does give a very good response as to why that shouldn't be an Alexa like device, and I would agree, - the important bit is that you see someone's thinking in action. I highly recommend this video as having many good insights. And there is no single good answer. What's being tested is your structure, reasoning and understanding of the product lifecycle. And at this point it doesn't really matter what your assumptions are. If the interviewer is fine with a caregiver, then that's fine. That's no the point.

it'd also be interesting, on interview level, to talk to people that have always been visually impaired vs. those who lost it at some point. Two very different perspectives.

Tl;dr: “Siri, set an alarm for 7 am”

Let's be real : "OK google, set an alarm for tomorrow morning at 8".

@Exponent, thanks for all your work on PM. It will be great if you can do a PM mock interview on Acquisition or monetization as a goal over engagement. Thanks

Had to invest lot of effort to understand, may be due to structure of answer. Liked the depth in which she thought about the use cases - Rechargeable, size of the alarm clock etc.

Really loved the interview. 2 reasons why to choose a physical alarm clock for the blind: 1. Avoid distraction - When may get hang around some other stuff and gets distracted instead of just using the alarm clock. 2. App based has dependency of phone and it comes with more dependencies like battery, screen unlock, voice assistants understanding your command, etc. Hence even I would prefer a Physical alarm clock.

I like it very much, and the way how she structured the answer was very good. I have a clarifying question regarding the product goals - what did she say about the first one? I didn't understand, can you write it down for me, please?

If you're assuming that the caretaker is around, then it's not a product for visually impaired. Make something for the visually impaired so that they don't have to depend on their caretakers. If you make it voice activated, then you're assuming that the visually impaired is capable of speaking. I'd go with a wrist-mounted hardware solution. single button. 1 click to tell you the time. The second click to set an alarm. choose between AM/PM, then click 1-12 to set the hour, then click 1-12 to set the minutes, each representing 5-min interval, then ask if you want to repeat daily or 1 time. then vibrate and ring to notify to cover all the bases. Moto Fone back in the day had such voice prompts scrolling through the menu. The buyer can select the time zone and language for voice prompts should be set at the time of purchase and they will be pre-set out of the box to minimize dependency on a caretaker. A solar glass to charge the lithium battery will minimize the need to charge it. Waterproof. and cost-effective. No heavy software, no companion app or smartphone required. No dependency on a caretaker.

I think the main thing she missed is age/profession of the users, because that drastically changes the needs of the product and even how the product looks like. For example: A professional person in mid thirties would love to have a SW alarm clock whereas an elderly person would be okay with a physical device. An elderly person would need reminders for medicines, or timers for naps, whereas a professional person would need several meeting alarms on a single day. Other than that, she was awesome!

I think she missed something here because she started off asking what's important to the company that makes the alarm. If the company is in manufacturing they have a fulfillment and shipping infrastructure of some sort. If not they need to get one or opt in to some sort of program in addition to getting into manufacturing. Same thing with the app use case.

..Product shd be simple with ease of operation..simple physical device with two touch ,brail display..1touch for time while other for alarm with interactive voice control..Sync it or integrate it with Oki Google,or maps to set reminder in case u want to start of somewhere and system reminds u to start early...Also segment the targets,like children, or adults or elderly..User shd be able to use it independently without hazzles...may b solar powered, not power heavy or charge once and use for long...Also if its children or elders who are dependent they needs reminders,one can setup a mechanism to put reminders from others family members which alerts wht one needs to do at a specific time.

As a business owner I am curious if a PM has any role to play in feasibility, viability, budgeting, costing, sourcing, pricing, sales & distribution, after sales service, maintenance & upgrade of the product? Does the role of PM end once the product is ready to ship? Who is responsible for building the team? If all or part of these are relevant to PM role then why I don't see them in any of PM related books or discussions? To me the interview felt more like for product design and for a Senior PM her approach was really lame!

How do you determine whether to address the traditional pain point that an alarm clock is built for (e.g. waking up in the morning) or a different one, such as telling time for blind people? Shouldn’t the design process ultimately address a pain point for the user and not be focused on the product?