Name The 3 Types Matrices Used To Manage Risk In A Project Using Information Taken From Pmbok If You Have 5 Projects Running Concurrently Describe A Single Matrix That Would Easily Show How Each Of Those Projects Were Doing
Why is an Agile Project Manager interview based on the PMBOK? That’s a really, really bad sign. 🙂Less
For the second question, I’d probably use either a cost/schedule variance chart… since you can’t assume the same budget or schedule for any of the projects, variance against plan would likely be the best way to go.Less
For both of these questions, I told them if there was a single correct answer, I didn’t know it…but I walked them through how I would handle each question.Less
How Do You Know Which Features To Include In A Product
An important duty of a product manager is to find out what features users want in a product. A good candidate would have methods of researching users’ needs. What to look for in an answer:
- Analytical and research skills
- Understanding of framework to identify users’ needs
Example:
“I determine what features to include in a product by first researching current users. I look through comments and go through social media to determine what features they want. I also look at the feedback that they give our customer service representatives. Collecting data and conducting extensive research is a great way to get useful insights.”
How Do You Determine What Customers Want And Need
Customer research is essential to the job. Asking this question will give you insight into how the candidate connects with real, live users to gather feedback and their customer-centric approach. They should be conversant in the different methods for ascertaining this information and have some examples from the past. If they dont mention multiple ways, that could be a red flag or simply an opportunity for mentorship and growth.
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Can You Teach Me Something In 5 Minutes
Teaching is hard. It requires a deep understanding of the subject matter, strong communication skills, and empathy. And pulling it off in 5 minutes? Even harder.
The product manager candidates answer to this question will tell you:
- How realistic they are. Do they try to teach you something complicated that they dont fully understand? Or do they focus on something simple and go through it thoroughly?
- How well they communicate. Is your product manager candidate able to explain the topic in a way that makes sense to you? Do they build on knowledge you both share?
Look for both content and execution on this interview question. They should pick a topic they are well-versed in and use creative teaching methods to get the point across.
More Product Manager Interview Questions
Here are 20 more product manager interview questions many candidates encounter:
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Set The Right Context
When you begin the interview, provide context to your interviewee. Who are you, and what are you generally looking to learn about? Then, ask them to introduce themselves as well, in whatever way theyd like.
After all, your user is a human being. Your product is only a small part of her life. Therefore, you need to better understand who she is.
Of course, you always run the risk of being too broad. For example, it may not help to know that her lifelong dream is to become a firefighter if youre trying to figure out a more effective note-taking tool for customer success managers.
Stay high level and keep your product out of the discussion for now. What is she trying to accomplish, and why is she trying to accomplish it? Whats blocking her from being more effective?
Lets jump back to my example with Instacart. For their introduction, I want to learn more about what their background is: job, family, and life goals.
That helps me better understand their experiences when it comes to shopping for groceries.
Is it fun for them to shop in person? Or is it just a major pain? Do they have lots of free time or none at all?
Keep the introduction to about 5 minutes. You dont want to cut it short because youll lose context, but you also dont want it to consume valuable time to find other insights.
What Do You Understand By A Product Manager
Product managers possess product expertise and take decisions based on innovation, strategy and market conditions.
They are a part of product development from the conception of the idea through a products launch and even beyond.
Product managers know the why, when and what of the product and lead cross-functional team activities for its development.
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Product Sensefor Example How Would You Build Commerce Into Facebook
- “Focus on the people problem first. Why would consumers buy and sell things on Facebook? Then they focus on why it is a good fit for our company given our mission and strategy. The most common mistakes are when people are too focused on the market size, and not the people problem and why our company can bring something unique to the table.
- Good answers usually look at what people are trying to do on the platform today and how we can extend that to a broader audience. This problem is also one that encourages whiteboarding and designing a solution.”
Why The Product Manager Interview Questions Matter
Many people approach an interview with a lets just see how it goes attitude. They think they can get a sense of the person and their fit for the role regardless of which direction the conversation may go.
Entering an interview unprepared is just as bad for the interviewer as the interviewee. You may luck into a deep and diverse discussion that provides a great sense of the candidate, but you may also have many uncomfortable minutes of silence when you struggle to come up with the next question.
And theres no assurance the dialogue will cover all the pertinent points unless the interviewer makes a concerted effort to get there. Thats why every interview should include the most relevant topics to ensure everythings covered.
While the specifics of the role and the candidates background may dictate which of these to include and which to skip, heres a set of basic categories of questions youll likely want to touch on:
- Strategic thinking
- Product management experience
- Other relevant experience
Dont worry that this will lead to a disjointed interview. Multitasking and context switching is essential to the job. If the interviewee cant hop from one area to another easily in an interview, theyre likely to struggle with that on the job. Now, lets review the eleven product manager interview questions to reveal whether a candidate is a good fit for your position.
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Write A Product Manager Resume
Typically, your resume is the first thing a hiring manager will look at, so you need to put your best foot forward. A well-crafted and tailored resume can determine whether or not you secure an initial interview. When putting together your product manager resume, carefully note the requirements and responsibilities highlighted in the job description and make sure to include those keywords.. Regardless of what background youre coming from, the job will likely require you to have experience with at least three of the functions highlighted in the section above. If you can demonstrate results in those areas from your past experiences, be sure to include those.
Also, check our resume writing guide to crafting a winning product manager resume that works for a wide variety of product manager positions. Stop trying to customize it on your own let us help.
Find Vet And Close The Best Product Managers
Todd Jackson has been a part of product organizations across some of the best companies in the Valley, from Google to Facebook to Twitter, after it acquired his own startup, Cover. Now VP of Product and Design at Dropbox, hes worked with hundreds of product managers and hired dozens over the course of his career.
When Jackson was at Twitter, the company surveyed its engineering, product and design teams, asking what they thought and knew about each others areas of expertise. While everyone was clear on what engineers did , and the majority could describe the responsibilities of designers, less than half of respondents knew what product managers actually did. This seemed like something the product team, and Jackson in particular as Director of Product Management, should dig into. .
As he asked more people what they thought PMs did, he realized that everyone had different answers. I think thats because the PM role needs to be purposely flexible, almost by design, he says. A PM basically sits at the center of UX, technology and business. You may have heard the quote: The PM is the CEO of their product. I think thats pretty accurate, but it also means they have to do a lot of diverse things well, and good ones are extremely hard to find.
In this interview, Jackson explains how startups can define the type of PMs they need, source candidates, ask the right interview questions and, perhaps most importantly, convince them to come work for you.
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Can You Describe A Successful Product You Launched As A Product Manager
The goal of this question is to learn more about a product manager’s experience. What to look for in an answer:
- Example of successful product managed
- Actions taken and results obtained
- Effective communication skills
Example:
“Last year, I worked as a product manager for an e-business. The company wanted to roll out a new payment service and I was in charge of managing the product. I picked a team of associate product managers and led them to successfully launch the product three weeks before the deadline. Our payment service was easier to use and more secure than our major competitor’s.”
Personal Traits And Attitude
Most skills can be learned, however, there are some traits that are very difficult to teach, and as such they should form the foundation of any search for a product manager.
Product Passion
There are some people out there who just love products. Not necessarily every type of product, but also not just a single type of product. Great product managers have a love and respect for good products, no matter where they come from, and they live to create them.
This passion for product is an essential ingredient as it will often be called upon to provide the motivation to get through the many very difficult challenges, and long hours, of defining a great product. Further, the product manager will need to inspire the rest of the product team, and the passion for a product is contagious.
It is fairly easy to determine whether of not you are talking to such a person by simply asking them what some of their favorite products are and why. It is hard to feign passion the insincerity comes through. Ask for examples from different domains. Ask what they would improve on their favorite product if they were the product manager. Ask about bad products too.
Customer Empathy
Ask the candidates about the target market and how they believe they might be different from themselves. Try and detect how the candidate feels about the target market, and most importantly, does the candidate respect and empathize with that target market, or does he view his job as enlightening the target market.
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How Do You Know When To Cut Corners To Get A Product Out The Door
I would cut corners and launch a product if:
The product has been long overdue and the team has spent more than the estimated time.The prototype is ready to be launched and I need market feedback for further product development.The product is situation centric and would reap lesser results if launched at a later stage.
However, I would ensure that the product is ready to perform and meet customer expectations before giving a go-ahead on product launch so that the company reputation is not affected.
Based On This Customer Feedback What Improvements Would You Make To This Product
An interviewer may want to learn your process for interpreting customer feedback to improve a particular product. Consider paraphrasing the customer feedback and describing the steps you might take to update your product. This can emphasize your innovation and problem-solving skills.
Example:“It seems as though this customer wants the ability to redeem their rewards from the mobile application rather than needing to visit the store. We can evaluate what data customer service representatives in the store use, analyze their process and have the development team prioritize this on our feature list.”
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How To Choose The Right Feature Prioritization Framework
Prioritizing features is such a critical task for product managers and theres no single right way to do it. Instead, product management teams must sort through potential features and find a realistic order based on the importance and demand of each item. Because of this, nearly 37 feature prioritization frameworks have popped up over the years.
So how do you know which one is the best fit for you and your organization? Heres a crib sheet to help you narrow things down and pick a feature prioritization framework that will work for your team.
What Does A Product Manager Do
Come in hot out of the gate and get them to share their understanding of the role. Since there is so much variety from one organization to the next, many people have different expectations for a product manager. This question helps ensure theyre applying for a job they want and wont be overwhelmed/frustrated/disappointed when they start working in your available position.
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Product Manager Case Study Interview Questions With Sample Answers
In product management interviews, interviewers often seek to gauge your knowledge of various products in the industry to which you’re applying and how you might help them improve business results. They might ask a series of questions to understand how you evaluate products, their specific needs and the ways in which companies effectively market goods or services. Here are some questions you might expect in a product manager interview:
Q: How Do You Measure The Success Of A New Product Feature
This question tests to see if the product manager can quantitatively assess and articulate the metrics that define success of a product feature or a mini-product.
Step 1:Identify and define the intended goals of the features.Identify the key OKRs and the goals of the product. Deeply understand the product feature set and also assess the unintended impacts of the feature. Identify if the product consisted of different feature sets, that collectively and separately addressed a particular OKR.
Step 2:Evaluate if the product met the intended goals.Identify the product usage metrics eg. frequency of use, level of adoption, level of engagement etc. and then correlate them with the goals and objectives metrics of the product.eg. did the 20% increase in the level of engagement correlate to the intended 2% conversion ratio? etc.
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Describe A Scenario That Required You To Say No To An Idea Or Project
Product Managers guide products from ideation to launch, and that means they’re involved in a great number of decisions and brainstorming sessions. So if you’ve been in the job for any amount of time, you’ll likely have a long list of suggestions, concepts and even projects that you’ve had to shoot down as being ineffective, unrealistic, or unoriginal. The key in answering this question in an interview, however, is showing that you can be tactful and encouraging even in saying no. Show that you can be flexible and open-minded.
Here are some additional examples of behavioral interview questions:
- Can you describe a scenario as a Product Manager where you failed? What did you learn from it?
- Tell me about a mistake you made and how you handled it.
- Tell me about a time you used data to make a decision.
- Tell me about a time where you made a gut decision without the use of data.
- Describe a scenario that required you to say no to an idea or project.
- Tell me about the most challenging problem youve faced as a Product Manager.
- Tell me about a time where you had to motivate your team.
- Tell me about a time you had conflict with a team member or a manager.
- Tell me about a time when you made a difficult decision with input from many different sources . What was the situation and how did you arrive at your decision?
- Describe the last time you had to make a challenging decision when prioritizing.
