You run product for a digital bank. Next quarter you can staff three of five initiatives. (A) a regulator-mandated reporting change, due in 90 days, non-negotiable, 8 engineer-weeks. (B) instant account opening, projected to raise signups 25%, 16 engineer-weeks. (C) a fraud-detection upgrade; current losses are Rs 40 lakh a quarter and rising 15% quarterly, 12 engineer-weeks. (D) a merchant lending pilot, Rs 2 crore revenue opportunity next year, 20 engineer-weeks. (E) migrating off a database whose support ends in 8 months, 18 engineer-weeks.
Set criteria, evaluate, commit to three, and say what you are dropping and why. Explain how you would defend it to the people whose initiative is dropped.
100 points, 60% to pass.
A is not a choice and should be named as such rather than ranked. That leaves two slots for four candidates. C compounds — Rs 40 lakh rising 15% a quarter is roughly Rs 60 lakh by the time a deferred fix ships — which usually beats B's signup growth on expected value. E is the interesting one: eight months of runway means it can be deferred one quarter but not two, and a good answer says that explicitly rather than dropping it silently. D is the largest number and the most deferrable. The defence to the dropped owner is the part most answers skip: give them the criterion they lost on and the condition under which they win next quarter.