[raganwald]

I didn't get into what I would call the "product management" aspect of the question in that post, but if it doesn't bore you to hear it, I have participated in interviews where this question was asked of non-technical people, specifically a product manager and a web designer.

I don't remember if "fun" was specifically discussed, but the discussions were more focused on what users would do and see, very much in keeping with your second paragraph.

The product manager was also asked to consider the exercise from a competitive perspective. What could be done to differentiate a new site from an existing, popular site? is the strategy to be simplere and easier? To cater to power users running into limitations of the existing site? And so on.

[mathogre]

Not only do I think the "project management" aspect is interesting, I think it is essential!

I develop s/w in an R&D environment. My users are very specific about how they use information, but know almost nothing about s/w development. Likewise I know little of their specific domain, but can develop whatever tools they need. While I can craft and code algorithms that should dazzle them, if it doesn't solve their problem they won't use it. For me, design has to account for the users' experience as well as developing clever and efficient algorithms to solve problems.

I really love the original question, Reg. It was fun.