Chargers in ten minutes?

A product strategy question from a product manager interview, set at Minutely, a fictional quick commerce company.

The question

Skills this case tests

A starting structure

Gross profit per dark store = Σ category space × sales per sq ft × gross margin

How to approach this case

Clarify the CEO's real goal (profit per store, order value, or keeping users) and the constraints, especially store space, budget and the 10-minute promise. Then ask 'why us, why now': which electronics needs does a 10-minute app serve better than a regular e-commerce site? 'Electronics' is too broad to judge as one thing, so segment it by urgency, size and ticket price, and evaluate each piece separately. Ask about space: if stores are full, every new shelf replaces something, so compare what the new space would earn with what it earns today. Work through inventory, theft, returns and supply quality, which behave very differently from groceries. A strong close is a scoped recommendation, a pilot with matched control stores, and numbers agreed in advance that decide whether to scale or stop.

The full method for strategy, pricing and growth questions

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.