The Product That Grew Too Fast
An online overdraft for small businesses that beat its plan three times over, and the question every panel for this seat asks: is the growth good news?
Banking Seat File No. 5 — Product management
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// THE CASE
A bank's online overdraft for small businesses was planned at 4,000 accounts in its first year. In month five, credit lowered the approval cut-off at the product team's request, and the overdraft launched inside a partner's accounting software. The year closed with three times the planned accounts, arrears across the book look well inside appetite, and the product team wants to double the marketing budget.
THE QUESTION
Is the growth good news, which change did the damage, and what do you propose — and who decides it?
WHAT EACH SEAT IS ASKED
- Product management: Is the growth good news? What tells you, and what does not?
- Product management: What does the product make or lose on the new accounts?
- Product management: What do you propose, and which parts need credit's approval?
The worked answer — and the ninety seconds you would say out loud — are in the file.
// WHAT THE TEN PAGES CARRY
- What these panels are testingThe one instinct the seats' interviews listen for, and the three signals they grade.
- The caseThe file as it lands on your desk: the setup, the numbers, and the question each seat is asked.
- The worked readThree pages: what actually happened, how each seat records and answers it, and what not to accept.
- What you would sayThe answer in ninety seconds, spoken in the order a senior person in the seat speaks it.
- Three curveballsWhere the interviewer goes when the obvious case is answered, and how to respond.
// WRITTEN FOR THESE SEATS
Each seat’s page says what the job is, who arrives in it, and what its interview asks. Its practice paper is in the Exam Hall.
The businesses, the people and the figures in this file are composite and fictional; they do not describe a real business, transaction or bank’s policy. Practice, law and regulation vary by institution and jurisdiction.