The Monday mobile cliff

A root cause analysis question from a product manager interview, set at Hivewire, a fictional b2b saas / team collaboration company.

The question

Skills this case tests

A starting metric tree

Messages per DAU = total messages sent ÷ daily active users; split numerator and denominator, then by platform, plan and app version

How to approach this case

Clarify the metric first: what counts as a message, how DAU is defined and whether the data pipeline is healthy. Then note the timing. A sharp one-week drop after months of flat numbers points to something that shipped or changed, not a slow trend. Split the ratio: is it fewer active users, or the same users sending fewer messages? Then segment by platform, plan, company size, region and app version. List everything that shipped recently on every platform and match each change to the segments that moved. Use a group that did not get a change as your control. The CEO wants an answer today, so be clear about what you know and what you still need to check. A strong close covers the fix today, how you tell affected customers, and how to stop a similar release slipping through again.

The full method for root cause analysis questions · A worked example answer

After the mock interview you get scores on five skills, what to fix with quotes from your answers, and the ideal path for this case.