Product Management Interview Process - [Product Manager Interview]

Article Highlights

• Every company have a different PM interview process
• Most interviews will evaluate your core PM competencies like Product Sense, Technical Skills, Relationships, and Leadership

Despite individual differences, most companies evaluate candidates in similar areas. While some focus on technical skills, others prioritize cultural fit or leadership qualities. The guide below offers valuable insights.

First, let’s talk about the Product Management Interview Process. These are the common topics covered in PM interviews.

• Phone screen with HR
• Product Sense
• Technical Skills
• Relationships?—?Engineering <> PM, Design <> PM, Marketing <> PM, Executive <> PM
• Leadership
• Execution
• Analytical
• Strategy
• Product Vision

Phone screen with HR

The first interview is typically with a company recruiter who may have a general understanding of product management. Their aim is to select a smaller group of candidates for the next stage.

The recruiter will explain the role, company, and interview process in more detail. While this is often the simplest interview, don't be deceived. This is where most candidates are disqualified - only 33% of candidates pass this stage. Imagine the process as a funnel, and this is the beginning. With a little preparation, you can easily advance to the next round.

During this step be prepared to discuss the following:

• About You
• Career Highlights
• Why You and Why [company]
• Questions you might have

Product Sense

First, Product Sense or Product Judgement is the capability to know what makes products great, why some products are terrible and how to make them better. Having good product sense means:

• Having a strong understanding of user needs and business goals
• Setting goals or KPIs for each product/feature you build
• Understanding how the product is serving the user and business goals and what to remove, evolve or create a new feature

For more info?—?please see [Product Sense doc]

Technical Skills

The Technical Skills interview is sometimes lumped into a behavioral-type interview. Here you’ll be assessed on your PM-specific technical skills such as roadmaps, sprint planning, backlog management, prioritization, etc.

Relationships

PMs are often a central organization to other functions like Marketing, Sales, Executive, Engineering and Design. You’ll need to demonstrate how you’ve worked with some or all of these groups effectively, and when you had conflicts how did you address them.

For more info?—?please see [Relationships doc]

Leadership

As a PM you’ll need to lead up, down and sideways. Up being leading initiatives and influencing strategy to executives; down being driving your teams and direct reports, and sideways being communication to your stakeholders..

In your interviews, you need to demonstrate, likely through behavioural interviews how you:

• Inspire and motivate others to work towards a clear, compelling vision.
• How you communicate clearly, concisely and assertively.
• Your confidence through being consistently right and persuasive

Execution

Good PMs can dream of the best ideas and innovations but the best PMs ship the best products on a regular basis.

While execution isn’t as sexy as product sense, leadership, strategy and other aspects of product management, it is what bridges great ideas and outcomes. Consistent execution is the straightest path to earning trust.

Signs of good PM execution are:

• They ship incrementally useful and usable features in every release
• They make their roadmap commitments
• They drive processes forward including unblocking engineers, providing required insight to their designers and communicating to stakeholders on a regular consistent basis.
• Use qualitative data and analytics to make product decisions on a regular basis

Analytical

Effective Product Managers champion user needs by consistently engaging with customers. This direct interaction ensures a deep understanding of customer challenges. Additionally, PMs must rely on data to inform decision-making and drive innovation.

While there's a variety of analytics tools available, such as Google Analytics, Mixpanel, and KISS Metrics, the key lies in defining your success metrics and analytics strategy.

Strategy

PMs play a crucial role in creating roadmaps by gathering diverse inputs and perspectives, clarifying problem focus areas, and prioritizing initiatives. The rationale behind these priorities should be clear to both stakeholders and roadmap reviewers.

PMs must consider a wide range of ideas, problems, and perspectives by analyzing the company's mission, resources, market trends, and competitive landscape. They then prioritize the issues that their team will address.

The best tool for Product Strategy is the Product Vision Board by Roman Pichler. It answers most product strategy topics including:

• Who are you selling to?
• What are you selling?
• What value do you provide your customers?
• How will you price your product?
• How will you distribute your product?

See link here: [Product Vision Board]