How To Interview A Product Manager

What Is A Case Study In Product Management

A case study, also known as a case interview, is a sample work assignment thats designed to gauge your approach to product management and the processes you follow.The hiring manager will give you a situation and allow you to make recommendations or propose potential solutions.Whether issued as a sort of homework assignment or taking place live during the interview, these case study simulations can be poorly framed. Dont be afraid to get whatever clarification you need! Ask questions before you start answering. In fact, thats a sign youd be a great PM.If a company asks you to whiteboard or build out a solution, watch out. This could mean one of two things.

1. It could be a trap.

Dont walk into solutioneering territory! Theres no way you have enough information about their product or the problems theyre facing to immediately build a solution. Maybe they actually want you to say, No, Im a better product manager than that. I dont go directly to solutions, instead I ask questions.

So, have some courage to ask more questions about the problem in the case study. Then you can walk them through how youd investigate and research this problem. You could also mention how youd help them step away from solutioneering in the Product team.

2. Its a red flag.

Describe Some Of The Most Important Inputs You Take Into Account When Crafting Your Product Roadmap Explain Why You Use Them

With this question, interviewers want you to provide key insight into the things you value the most when creating product roadmaps.

Recruiters understand just how instrumental product roadmaps are. Not only do they define the technology that will be used to build the product, but they also condition the development team’s workflow.

For that reason, figuring out how you piece together a product roadmap will let them know how good your product management skills are.

The best candidates know that the most important inputs are market-related, strategy-related, and technology-related. The key, however, is to know why these inputs are important.

For example, in the case of market-related inputs, product managers need to express how customers, prospects, competitors, and the target market all impact a product roadmap.

The same goes for strategy and technology: candidates must be able to show a clear link that shows why how inputs are directly related to product roadmaps and vice-versa.

Here are some more common product roadmap questions that recruiters may spring on you in a product manager interview:

2. Talk me through how you managed the roadmap for your previous product.

3. Describe how you communicate the product roadmap to all of the relevant teams at your company.

4. Create a roadmap for an imaginary product.

5. One of your highest paying customers demands a feature from you. This feature wasn’t included in the initial product roadmap. Describe how you will react.

How Do You Control And Avoid Scope Creep

Two of the scariest words in the project world are scope creep. When the feature set keeps growing, and stakeholders move the target over and over, any product development project is more likely to fail. Budgets will spiral out of control, or the requirements become so complex they simply wont fit together. Its a nightmare in the making.

Many hiring managers want to make sure that candidates have strategies for keeping scope creep at bay, so you should be ready to showcase how you make that happen.

EXAMPLE ANSWER:

If a request is out of scope and would have a significant impact on the timeline or budget, I let the person asking for the feature addition that it doesnt fall into scope. I outline the overall impact the new request could have, including timeline delays, budget implications, and risk increases. Often, scope creep puts projects in jeopardy, and I would make that clear in a professional manner. Then, I would provide additional information about how they can have their request assessed in the future, potentially allowing it to be added to a future project.

MIKE’S TIP:

You May Like: Questions To Ask The Cfo In An Interview

What Is Your Favorite Product By Xyz How Would You Make It Better

XYZ could be any famous company with multiple products. Interviewers ask this question to assess your product awareness.

The best way to answer this question is to start with a brief introduction followed by a detailed description on these 3 fronts:

Use talk about how the product is useful in resolving key pain pointsEfficiency discuss how the product enables easy problem-solving for the userInnovation The features that make the product simple and unique.

What To Highlight From Past Experience

Talk about the problems that youve solved. Dont just list what your responsibilities are or what tools/frameworks you can use. Actually name the specific outcomes you were a part of! For example:

I worked on this project which increased user growth from X to Y, or

I scoped and launched this feature which reduced customer churn by 1.5%.

Keep an ongoing log of your wins, accomplishments, and results. Use this log to update your LinkedIn and CV on an ongoing basis. It will be super helpful when it comes time to interview, because you wont have to wrack your brain for great anecdotes or concrete results!

Recommended Reading: Interview Attire Women

Ace Your Product Manager Interview

Mentally answering this collection of product manager interview questions will help you to get your ideas organized to speak with confidence during the interview.

Keep in mind that most questions do not have a right or wrong answer. I recommend looking at every question as an opportunity to showcase your strengths and relevant experiences.

Dont forget to prepare some questions for you to ask the interviewers at the end. You can ask questions about the expectations for the position, about the company, or even about the interviewers role. Asking questions not only helps you to get a better grasp of what your potential job will look like but also demonstrates your interest for the position.

Good luck with your preparation!

Revealing Product Manager Interview Questions

Hiring product managers is one of the most challenging and essential tasks for product team leaders. Unfortunately, theres no perfect template for an ideal PM candidate its about finding the best fit among a sea of unicorns by asking the right product manager interview questions.

The diversity of backgrounds in product manager applicants increases the level of difficulty in making a good hire. Moreover, product manager roles and job descriptions also vary wildly from one organization to the next. The combination of both of those elements makes an effective product manager a challenging position to fill. For example, sometimes you need a technical whiz, or someone with marketing chops, while other opportunities demand deep experience in a particular industry.

Since a cookie-cutter approach wont fly, hiring managers need a solid handle on their specific PM role requirements. They must then determine if a candidate will be a good fit from a few brief interactions.

Get it right, and youve added an invaluable asset to your product team that lifts the product to new levels. However, if you get it wrong, then schedules slip, prioritization falters, and your reputation is at risk.

So how do you make sure youre hiring the right person? Its all about asking the right questions.

Also Check: Questions To Ask A Cfo

Product Manager Behavioral Interview Questions

As you can imagine, product manager interviews consist of many behavioral questions, as is the case for many different roles.

Behavioral interview questions are interview questions that are meant to assess your past behavior and performance in your previous jobs. They are also focused on determining if a candidate can fit in with the company culture.

When it comes to product management interviews, you will be asked many “tell me about a time” interview questions.

Here are some of the best examples of behavioral interview questions you can expect:

• Tell me about a time you made a mistake.
• Tell me about a time you handled a difficult stakeholder.
• Tell me about a time when you solved a complex problem and how you went about it.
• What was your biggest failure as a product manager?
• Tell me about a decision you made based on your instincts.
• Tell me about a time when you had a conflict with someone. How did you resolve it, and what did you learn?
• Tell me about a time you solved pain points for customers.
• Tell me about a time you convinced someone to change their minds.

Relax Its A Learning Experience

Its easier said than done but dont turn your interview into a life or death experience. Yes, you want to perform well. And yes, you want to receive a job offer. But even if you come up short, its not the end of the world. There are plenty of other jobs to apply for.

When youre relaxed, its easier to connect with the interviewer on a personal level. Its also easier to maintain your confidence throughout the interview even if youre stumped.

No matter how well prepared you are, its natural to feel some stress and anxiety before and during an interview. Fortunately, when you know what youre doing and how you want to present yourself, its easier to kick your stress to the side and perform at your peak.

Even if you fall flat, you can use your experience to better prepare for your next interview. Maybe you struggled with a specific type of question. Maybe you struggled to convey your career goals. Or perhaps something out of your control occurred, such as losing your internet connection during the interview.

You hope to ace your interview from start to finish, but thats not easy to do. In fact, its almost impossible. Take notes regarding your performance, go back to the drawing board, and regain your confidence before your next interview.

Read Also: Best Interview Attire For A Woman

Product Manager Interview Preparation For The Win

8 minute read

How to prepare for a product manager interview can vary from business industry to vertical, from corporation to startup. But there are some essential things you can expect in an interview for a PM role.In this post, well cover what you can expect from the interview structure and process. As for product management interview prep, there are a few smart moves you should make to present yourself in the best light and some key ways you can reverse-interview the company to be sure its a good fit!

What Kind Of Budgeting Experience Do You Have

Many technical project managers must manage project budgets, including material costs, project team members, and project completion time. When calculating a budget for a project, a technical project manager must take all of these factors into account so that the customer is aware of the expenses before work begins.

Explaining your experience or expertise in budget management will show the interviewer that you are the right candidate for the job. Good project managers can determine close estimates of a project’s budget, so explaining your experience or expertise in budget management will show the interviewer that you are the right candidate for the job.

Example

“I began my project management career focusing primarily on time management and team member management, but over time, I have developed a thorough grasp of project finances.

I can design and manage budgets for any project because of my past work, which required establishing estimates, budgets, and final expenditures for a project’s cost.

If a project requires more money than initially estimated, I am familiar with the procedures for seeking budget amendments as well as managing resources to keep the project on track.”

Also Check: Best Interview Clothes For A Woman

The Fundamentals Of The Job

Question: What is product management?

Context: Youre looking to see if youre interviewing a project manager or a product manager. They often get mixed up. They are different roles.

What to look for: Product management is about understanding the problems that a user, typically a customer is trying to solve. A product manager is responsible for learning, exploring and defining the problem, so that engineers can find a solution to it. A big part of the role is about prioritising the problems, so the one with the most potential gets solved first.

Question: Whats the difference between product management and project management?

Context: A good product manager can compare and contrast their role to that of the project manager. Its not that one is better than the other. They are just different.

What to look for: Project managers work within the iron triangle of time, scope and budget and are directive in getting a solution delivered. Product managers are obsessed understanding their users, driven by discovery of what people want of and focussing on delivery value to the business.

Question: What do you think the difference is between leadership and management?

Context: Product is a leadership role, it is about getting the best out of people, negotiating through tricky political situations and making tough decisions.

Question: What are the best and worst things about our product?

Question: How do you know youre doing the right thing?

How Do You Communicate A Product Development Strategy

A product development strategy discusses market demand, business situation, competitors, technological capabilities, domain, and design expertise

An effective product development conveys:

Emerging market and technologies that can accommodate customers.How it plans to meet business goals and generate revenuesEconomic factors that affect the customers budgetEvolving customer behavior.

Read Also: Mailscoop Io

Were Preparing To Roll Out The Successor To Our Best

Interviewers are looking to test your technical and soft skills with this question. Make sure your answer contains:

• An understanding of consumer trends

• A grasp of the target audience

• Viable solutions

Example answer:Budget-conscious users make up around 30% of your customer base, so I would lower the price to make it more accessible to that demographic. The new product launch will appeal to users that value owning the newest, best and most advanced technology.

Evaluating Skill: Top Product Manager Interview Question

Walk me through a successful major project you were heavily involved in, and tell me about your role throughout the project.

Followed up by

If you were to change anything about the project, what would you have done differently and why?

With this question the interviewer gets to hear about the candidates past experience in a chosen high quality example it better be a good example! This skill evaluation question lets the interviewer deep dive into the example about the candidates displayed competencies, e.g. collaboration, communication, detail orientation, user science, etc. By selecting an example in the candidates history instead of a forward-looking imaginary test case, the candidate shows what she actually did instead of what she could hypothetically do in an interview question and what points she chooses to bring up.

This historical example has limitations especially the companys and product organizations setup and the candidates earlier career maturity. Thats why the follow up question is important can she imagine a different way of solving the problem? Is the candidate aware of best practices of collaborating, getting details right, performing tests, understanding users, etc. and reflective about opportunities for growth and improvement?

Other ways product leaders ask this question:

Read Also: System Design Interview Prep

What To Expect In A Product Manager Interview

The typical structure of a PM recruitment process involves

• An individual interview with the hiring manager
• A group interview or secondary interviews with other potential colleagues
• A case study, or case interview.

These elements could come in any order. Typically the hiring manager would meet with you first to decide whether to move you forward to the colleague interview or case study stages. That said, some companies might ask for a case study assignment first to qualify you before taking up team members time.

Do You Think Our Website Uses Effective Product Messaging

Hiring managers ask this type of question for two reasons. First, they want your honest and professional opinion on the company’s current marketing efforts. Second, they want to see if you’re able to tactfully and respectfully share ideas for improvement. As a manager, one of your job duties will be to provide feedback to individual employees and teams, so the hiring manager will want to ensure you’re capable of doing so effectively. In your answer, take the time to highlight a few positive elements on the website and identify at least one change you would make with a specific reason why.

Example:”The company’s website is one of the things that drew me to apply for this position. It’s clear you have some talented designers and marketers on your current team. I think the use of color is really effective, especially in highlighting the unique features of the products. I would recommend rearranging the navigation bar, however. I found it took more clicks than are optimal to reach the product page I wanted. I think with a few sub-page rearrangements, we can make it easier for customers to find the information they want and increase customer conversions.”

Related:

You May Like: Design Interview Preparation

Explain Your Role On Your Team And How You Work With Them

The objective of asking this question is to identify the knowledge and experience you possess.

Learning about your role in the team helps the interviewer understand your position in the hierarchy, leadership skills and gives an idea of the rapport you share with the team.

Also read: How to Find the Perfect Company Culture?

General Interview Questions For Product Managers

General interview questions for product managers can give you an opportunity to highlight your strengths and your unique skill set. Personalising your answers with specific goals or hobbies can help you stand out from other candidates. Here are several examples of general interview questions for a product management role:

Related:Interview Question: “Why are You Interested in This Position?”

Don’t Miss: Women’s Outfit For Job Interview