What Performance Reports Do You Use
As a project manager, it is your responsibility to keep the client and management updated with the status and progress of the project. The interviewer wants to check if you provide regular reports to clients and your superiors.
Example:“I use three different performance reports: progress report, status report and forecast report. The progress report highlights the completed tasks, while the status report focuses on the discrepancies so far.”
What Creative Problem Solving Techniques Do You Use
Good because: Its worth probing the technical skills of candidates. Can they talk knowledgably about fishbone diagrams, De Bonos thinking hats, role play? Branch out to talk about the last project issue they resolved with creative thinking.
Bad response: I tend to solve problems myself without involving the team.
This article first appeared on Elizabeth Harrins blog, A Girls Guide to Project Management.
Organizations dont just want to have broad goals that only top-level personnel are aware of they want to set, track, and measure goals across the entire company. Download our new eBook to learn how your team can be using OKRs.
List Of Product Manager Interview Questions: Leadership And Communication
Leadership and communication are two essential skills for all Product Managers.
Most PMs sit at the head of design and development teams, and all Product Managers have to collaborate with a diverse roster of stakeholders with different job responsibilities, specialties, and goals. It’s a crucial intangible skill for Product Managers to get all of those different people working together in an organized, purposeful goal toward a common purpose.
To get a sense of whether you have these soft skills, questions to ask for interviewers include:
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How Do You Deal With Scope Creep
An essential part of project management is making sure a project stays within the original budget and deadline. Scope creep includes anything that changes within the project that could cause you to miss your targets. Your answer will help the interviewer gain insight into the way you manage resources and handle obstacles. You can use an example of how you were able to manage scope creep in one of your projects.
Example:Scope creep is one thing that I watch for daily. I once had a massive project that included building an entire website, plus applications that would work on all phone and tablet operating systems. We needed to deliver everything in a year, and it was a multimillion dollar project.
I decided to split the project up into small portions that we could work on month by month. I planned weeks ahead as we approached a new month based on client feedback from what we had already presented to them. The project constantly changed based on needs and feedback, and it could have easily gone far over budget and time. With strict time management and communication, we were able to deliver a complete project in 12 months.
How To Answer Questions About Your Product Management Process
You may hear these questions asked more than once throughout your interview process because they make it easy for the interviewer to gage your product management experience level. Use a previous project that you worked on as an example when answering interview questions about your product management process.
What Is Your Product Development Lifecycle?
When describing your product development lifecycle in an interview, be sure to cover the key stakeholders, the key pain points, and any testing that you did. Depending on who is interviewing you they may want you to dive deeper into one part or another. Walk them through each product development lifecycle phase:
- Discover
Where Do You Get New Ideas for Features?
New feature ideas develop from customer feedback. Continue using your past products as examples. Talk about your process for obtaining customer feedback and what ideas you came up with to improve the product based on said feedback.
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What Projects Do You Not Want To Work On
Other versions of this question:
- What kinds of projects interest you the most? Why?
- Do you work better with introverted or extroverted people?
- Tell us about a project that you didnt find enjoyable.
Everyone would like to believe they can handle every project, working with every type of person, but the reality is that most project managers have strengths and weaknesses, industries, and types of projects they excel at, and those they have no experience with.
If your interview subject tells you that they love working on everything and are an ace at every type of project: Theyre probably bluffing and dont actually know what theyre talking about, and theyre unwilling to communicate weaknesses.
You dont want to bring either trait into your organization.
Good candidates are honest. Are they more of a software development person? Do they thrive with creative media campaigns? Would they rather take a ride in a cement mixer than work on a construction project?
Look for a candidate who lets you know what they like and dislike youll know their strengths from the outset as well as areas they need to grow into.
WHAT TO LOOK FOR: The industries and project types your candidate has experience with to determine which of your upcoming projects theyll best align with , as well as a willingness to admit where they lack experience.
How To Answer The Question What Are You Looking For In Your Next Role
Your main goal with this product manager interview question is to express to the Hiring Manager that you are excited about the position, you plan to stay committed to the company, and you meet the requirements of the job description. If this Product Manager position is just a stepping stone for you on your journey to owning your own business, dont share that information in your interview. Companies hiring for a permanent position want to hire someone they can rely on for the long haul.
When constructing your answer, start with your skills that show you are a suitable candidate for the role. Next, talk about what motivated you to apply for this role in particular. Use this as an opportunity to make the company feel that you are only interested in this role, not just applying to every Product Manager position on the internet. Then, mention some of your long-term goals and how this position will help you achieve them.
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Understanding Google’s Product Management Hiring Criteria
First, let’s understand how Google defines the responsibilities of a product manager. Here are the 5 key responsibilities they list on their PM job listings:
Ultimately, Google assesses whether you’ll be able to perform the PM job by assessing you in five core categories: 1) product sense 2) technical chops 3) analytical chops 4) communication skills and 5) culture fit .
Whats Your Ideal Project
The ideal project is the one that youre hiring for of course! But seriously, try to get them to answer honestly. It will let you know what sort of projects they prefer to work on. In doing so youll get a better feel for what kind of project management methodology excites them and maybe even what they excel at. This can help you place the project manager with the right project, or help them adapt to the project team youre hiring them to manage.
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What Do Companies Look For In A New Product Manager
Before we dive into questions, its important to get inside your interviewers head. What are they looking for?
Aside from intellect, smarts, the power to adapt, think and act on their feet? They want a person who is motivated to do the job, can work with different teams and has the ability to prioritize features that they already know users are looking for. A Product Manager has to be resilient, strategic and insightful. Which means the hiring company will ask a multitude of questions to figure out if you are the one.
Here is the ultimate list of questions you can expect to be asked in a Product Management interview. Get ready to nail the interview!
Pm Interview Question #1: You Managed The Project Work As Per Requirements However The Customer Is Not Happy With The Result And Does Not Accept The Product How Would You Convince The Customer
This is a very common and tough to deal situation in project management. Although you delivered the project scope as you agreed with the customer at the beginning of the project, the customer may not accept the product at the end of the project.
This project manager interview question assesses your convincing and justification skills.
In case you receive this kind of question, you have to demonstrate the agreed scope and how your end product fits with the agreed scope. Note that, the final stop of a disagreement like these courts. However, never mention this during your project manager interview. Because you have to fix conflicts with communication and companies do not wish to go courts in these cases since it will take years to reach a conclusion.
The following is a sample answer for this question.
Project manager candidate approaches to the conflict with documents and rationally. After convincing the customer that the new requirement was not in the project scope, he proposes that they can deliver this feature in one month as a change request. Therefore, he creates alternatives and approaches in a result-driven way.
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Focus On Efficiency And Effectively Reaching Goals
A truly successful project manager is able to effectively delegate tasks and use resources to reach their goals. Furthermore, they do so by empoweringâinstead of overly managingâthe members of their team. They must be able to approach and prioritize their tasks in order to manage their time and resources in a way that is efficient and effective. During your interview, make sure that your answers reflect your ability to remain focused during stressful situations.
Leadership Interview Preparation For The Microsoft Tpm Role
You may be asked standard Microsoft Technical Program Manager interview questions such as describing past experiences of leading a project, collaborating with cross-functional teams, handling difficult associates, and more such behavioral questions.
When answering such open-ended questions, use the STAR or CAR method to structure your responses. We have covered these methods in detail in the article.
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Not Quite How People Described It To Me
We appear to be 5% into 2018 and its been a great year so far.
I just completed my first month as a product manager at Rainforest QA we built an on-demand QA platform that uses a combination of crowd testing and machine learning to help companies around the world deliver bug-free software, and were based in SF with a ton of remote people. My first month has been great, and Ive received a ton of support from peers and managers alike.
But before it, I went through a 3-month job hunt after we moved to SF. It was not easy coming from a totally different culture but I learned a lot in a very short space of time. A lot of people I met at events and talks around town ask me how I prepared for it, so I thought Id do a post but wanted to wait for all signals from my manager to turn green before I published it.
There are lots of posts about how to get your first job as a product manager and I certainly read my fair share in preparation. Some of it was useful, some of it was terribly dated or didnt apply geographically. Some of it was very theoretical and never really applied in real life, or they themselves did not use in their day-to-day jobs. Others wanted to hear you rattle off frameworks. Some of the good stuff was hidden away in articles you wouldnt expect. Well-meaning people gave me advice, often contradictory, and shadowed by their own experiences long time ago.
How Have You Improved Project Management Processes At Your Current Firm
Good because: Not everyone has the chance to work on business critical, exciting projects that make for a great CV, but everyone has the chance to offer some suggestions for improvements . Look for someone who has ideas and who isnt afraid to put them forward.
Bad response: Its all pretty rubbish there but I havent bothered to do anything about it as theres no point.
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Tips For Your Next Project Management Interview
Properly preparing for an interview is imperative so that you are able to adequately communicate your interest as well as your abilities. In order to be effective as a project manager, candidates must possess a variety of hard and soft skills as well as formal education and technical training, so it is imperative that you demonstrate these attributes during the interview process. This article will explain why project management is important and then list 12 tips for making a great impression in your next project manager interview.
Related: A Complete Guide To Project Management
Are You Preparing For A Project Management Interview Then This Is For You
This 85-page ebook on how to ace your project management interview gives you everything you need to approach your interview with confidence.
You’ll learn my 3-step approach to Prepare, Research and Practice before you meet the interviewer.
Interview questions
The ebook contains over 35 relevant, situational questions that will help you prepare for whatever you might be asked in a behavioral interview.
For each question, you’ll find out why the interviewer is asking and what they want to know, and prompts for how to respond.
There are also 20 answer prompts for tricky questions, so you’ll never have to wonder how to reply to ‘Tell me about yourself’ ever again!
There are no ‘memorization’ parts to this ebook. Instead, I give you things to think about, answer prompts, considerations and examples of things you might have done that could be an appropriate response. You’ll have to tailor the exact answer you give in the interview to your personal circumstances, but this guide will help you think about the right things and streamline your interview prep.
There is also a checklist to help you decide if your example is really ‘interview worthy’ and also worksheets to help you plan good, rounded scenarios to discuss that showcase your skills.
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How Do You Prioritize Tasks In A Project
Knowing what to prioritize is key to a project. Thereâs a chance youâll receive a question asking what you decide to prioritize, and why. You might also be asked how you would juggle working on multiple projects at once.
How to answer: Tie your answer back to the interest of the project. Your answer might include some combination of deadlines, stakeholder needs, or determining tasks that make up a critical path. You can pull from some examples in the past, or work your way through some hypothetical situations.
What Were The Communication Challenges On Your Last Project
As a project manager, youll need to communicate with your team for all projects effectively. Communication challenges will arise nobody expects that this wont happen. What the interviewer wants to see, however, is how youve handled these challenges in the past. It needs to be evident that even with communication issues, you were still able to work with your team effectively. For example, perhaps instead of being able to have face-to-face meetings when necessary, you were able to put together webchat meetings. Think of a time when something like this happened and how you dealt with the communication challenges efficiently to ensure that the project outcome was still a good one.
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What Was The Most Difficult Ethical Decision Youve Had To Make On A Project
Good because: It can demonstrate their awareness of PMI Code of Ethics and even if they arent aware of that, their general approach to work. You can also use it to open up an interesting discussion and allow you to judge how they will fit into your business culture.
Bad response: I awarded a contract to my cousin once, even though he was the most expensive. I did get a good holiday out of the kickback though.
Best Advice On How To Dress For An Interview
Dress for the job you want is silly and vague.
Just look at how people around dress in the city, and go +1″ as in dress one level smarter than they are. Do you see jeans, hoodies and t-shirts all around? Wear something nicer: pants, a shirt and a sweater. Do you see people mostly in shirts ? Wear yours tucked in with a jacket, and so on. It wont be how youll always dress in case you get the job but interviews are still about first impressions. Overly formal is an impression too.
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Salary Negotiations After A Job Offer
Did you get a job offer and you want to maximize the compensation that you are being offered? If so, then you have 2 main ways:
The Companys Vision And Mission
You want to join a company that aligns with your mission otherwise, you wont be motivated for the long haul.
The best place to research its mission is on the About Us page or its investor portal .
Write down their mission and create a personalstory on how you relate to theirmission. The personalstory could be your ownexperience or have a familyfriend with a similar problem.
Having a personalstory will make you morememorable in the interview.
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