For the outputted solution, we’re looking for the following items: A clear problem statement for a customer. The narrower the better. Problem statements are the number one place where we see people struggle - if you don’t have a clearly defined problem you won’t be able to define a solution. This requires a strong understanding of the problem, not just a generic statement. For examples of good vs bad problem statements, a PM at AirBnB when they started out might have said… Bad example: Hosts aren’t happy with AirBnB and many listings are being removed. Good example: AirBnB Hosts don’t trust that Stays booked more than six months in advance will actually occur since the majority of these bookings are canceled. A solution for that problem. Tell us the key components of the solution. Why will this solve the problem? What are the key workflows? We don’t need designs, but we want to know the core mechanisms We are not looking for The supporting evidence How do you know this is a problem? Synthesize stories from customer research and customer conversations to weave them into your story. Link to the actual raw notes - you don’t need to clean these up, but we always want the original. Did you meet with a hairdresser, walk out to your car and furiously type stream of consciousness notes about everything you could remember? Maybe instead you chatted with a mechanic over the phone and scribbled notes on a notepad while you spoke? We want to see that - no need to clean it up (ideally they’re legible though if they’re handwritten, ha). The raw notes don’t count toward the page limit. What are the potential failure points? What do you believe to be true that you could see being wrong? We are not… Asking for you to produce a Working Backwards Document We do want to share our internal guide to writing a working backwards document and an actual example from a previous feature because we think they can help you think through some of the questions that we might ask about your solution. Asking that you limit your problem or solution to be staffing or marketplace related You should ground your proposal in what you think most effectively solves the proposed problem. If anything, we’ll likely scrutinize a staffing solution more heavily given that we like to think we know quite a bit about how those work. Asking for: A Business Plan Financial Projections Market Sizing Competitor Analysis The total length of your submission should be ~6 pages max. In terms of what we care most about - the problem definition and discovery leading you to that problem are by far the most important things you’ll produce from our perspective. Great discovery and problem definition with a mediocre solution are far better to us than a loose problem with a well thought out solution (although what we really want to see is excellence across the board).

The Interview Process Most roles within our organization have multiple cases - this role only has one case. We realize this is a bit unique; we believe it maps to the role well. If you like this work you’ll love the role: your job is to do the discovery work to find out what we need to do to make markets grow. You have to get out into the world and interact with our customers to make it all happen. Successful submissions will be invited to complete an interview. Similarly to the Recruiting Principles mentioned at the beginning of this document, we do not provide feedback for all submissions. There are three potential outcomes from this case: 1) an interview, 2) feedback on the submission, you make edits to produce a second version which will yield an interview, or 3) a rejection. You’ll have 2 (sometimes flexing up to 3) interviews after the completion of this case prior to being hired for the role. We’ll typically ask for an update to the document at some point in time after one of your interviews to gauge how much of an improvement you can make from our feedback. Thanks and we’re excited to see what you produce!