Suppose you had the opportunity to change something at Scribd. What would you change?

Question Analysis

This question is a behavioral interview question that assesses your ability to identify areas of improvement within an organization and propose constructive changes. It evaluates your understanding of the company, your problem-solving skills, and your ability to think critically. The interviewer is interested in your ability to make thoughtful suggestions that could benefit the company. It’s important to demonstrate a balance between understanding the company's current practices and a vision for positive change.

Answer

Situation: During my time at Scribd, I noticed that while the company excels in content variety, there is an opportunity to enhance the personalization of the user experience. Many users have expressed a desire for more tailored content recommendations.

Task: My task was to identify a way to improve user engagement and satisfaction by providing more personalized content suggestions, which could potentially increase user retention and subscription rates.

Action: I proposed the development of an advanced recommendation algorithm that leverages machine learning to analyze user reading habits, preferences, and feedback. This system would learn from direct user interactions and adapt over time to provide increasingly accurate recommendations. I collaborated with the data science team to outline the project requirements and engaged with the user experience team to ensure the recommendations would be seamlessly integrated into the user interface.

Result: As a result of this initiative, we observed a significant increase in user engagement metrics, including longer session durations and higher subscription renewal rates. Users reported a more satisfying and personalized reading experience, which led to positive feedback and an increase in word-of-mouth referrals. This change not only enhanced Scribd's competitive edge but also reinforced our commitment to delivering a tailored user experience.