A guide to PM interviews from an interviewer

I have been interviewing PM candidates for more than a year. It breaks my heart to see intelligent; high-potential candidates miss essential areas. Sometimes it's the lack of skills and match, but often it's just a lack of proper preparation and nervousness.?

I have been on both sides of the table with a fair amount of success, and here are a few points that helped me and might help you too.?

I break this whole journey into three parts:

Prepare yourself?

Prepare for the interview and?

Present yourself.?

Prepare yourself

The first step in your journey should be to build yourself as a great PM. Remember that the goal is to be an excellent PM, not just learn hacks to crack PM interviews. Good interviewers can sense the framework mugging candidates from miles away and are experts at reading between the lines. How to be a great PM is a long topic, but below are the two highest ROI efforts you can take for accelerated learning.?

• Surround yourself with great PMs: The best way to learn Product Management is to surround yourself with great PMs. Observe how they set and communicate the vision, align stakeholders, and build strategy. Find great PMs in your company or outside, shadow them, talk to them and try to find how they effortlessly do things where you struggle. It's easier to learn and practice the known unknowns, but great PMs will help you uncover the unknown unknowns.?
• Be curious and try new things: Build experiences and not just resume. Find your strengths and sharpen them; find your weaknesses and fill gaps in the most critical areas. Interview customers, participate in a design sprint, build and present a business case to your leadership, run A/B tests, set the mission and vision of your product areas, and don't be afraid of conflicts. In short, try things you haven't to get a more well-groomed experience.?This is one of the best ways to learn Product Management.

Prepare for the interview.?

You might be shipping great products and doing everything above, but you might still be unable to crack interviews. Well, interviews are an accelerated version of product development. You typically need to go from problem discovery to solution deployment in 30-45 minutes with many assumptions. It's an art and requires practice. No matter how skilled you are, don't go unprepared for an interview.?

Build a structure: Interview questions can be ambiguous and take you by surprise. A good structure will help you think across all aspects without rambling. I built my own framework for structured thinking, and it helped me wade through ambiguous questions. You can choose any framework available in books or on the internet but ensure that you cover the few areas below: Why this problem, Who are the users, What are the solutions, and How will you choose the winning solution and implement it. Spend more time on Why and Who. Similarly, build a structure for analytical, strategy, and behavioral interviews.

Remember, frameworks are your guide. Don't lose the soul of your conversation while following a framework blindly.

• Mock Interviews:?Practice with your friends or a PM buddy a few times. Mocks simulate the interview environment and help you access how fluently you can present your points. Thinking good solutions in a limited time can be stressful and mocks help you overcome that pressure. A couple of mocks will give you the confidence to communicate well.?If you do nothing else, make sure you practice a few mocks.

Present yourself?

Presenting yourself with confidence, poise, energy, and a cheerful spirit is half the battle won.?

• Be confident:?Imagine you are going on a coffee date with the sole aim of having a friendly conversation. The best interviews take the form of a free-flowing conversation. Smile, show energy, show that you care, and be honest.
• Pause:?I see candidates rush to answer when asked a question. Please don't. Take a pause, collect your thoughts, think about what you will say, and then speak. It's always better to let your interviewer know and pause to collect your thoughts than ramble.?
• Be on the same page:?Always clarify the question to ensure you and the interviewer are on the same page. Don't give long monologues; pause and check in often. Make it like a conversation that both parties enjoy.?

Pro tip:

Great candidates lead the interview flow, stating their assumptions, checking in with the interviewer, asking about their point of perspective, and giving solid answers

• Own the interview:?With average candidates, the interviewer asks questions, gives prompts, and steers the direction. On the other hand, great candidates lead the interview flow by stating their assumptions, checking in with the interviewer, and giving solid answers. When in doubt, they speak their mind out loud with confidence and gracefully ask for hints by asking what the interviewer thinks about their approach.?

Cracking PM interviews is a mix of PM skills and preparations, and as with all interviews, a little luck.?I wish you all the best in your journey.