10-Step Guide to Prepare for a Product Manager Interview
A simple guide to help you prepare for the PM interview and get ready to face the interviewer.
Product Management is one of the hottest careers currently in the market. Every other person is currently looking to get into the product.
From engineers to lawyers, I have met product managers from all walks of life. But everyone has something or the other to bring to the table. That’s our unique perspective at looking at things. That's what makes you different as a product manager.
Today with the increased supply of product managers you need to stand out as a PM and become the top 1% Product manager.
Landing a product manager (PM) role requires thorough preparation and a deep understanding of what makes a product successful. Interviews for such positions are unique as they encompass various topics from strategic decision-making to detailed product design. To help you excel, here’s a step-by-step guide to prepare effectively for a PM interview.
I have created a Template explaining the structure that I use during the PM interview. If you wish to get the template for free. Share your email id in the comments below and write: “ PM template”.
Simple 11 Steps Guide to Preparing for a PM Interview
1. Revisiting Your Current Job/Role
Begin by critically analyzing your current job and roles. Identify your key achievements, learning points, and how your actions have driven product success. This will help you articulate your experience clearly and relate it to the responsibilities of a PM.
This is critical because if you are looking to switch careers to Product, hiring managers will be looking for product management experience.
List down all your current job success & metrics. Write then in this format: “Due to my this ACTION, lead to XY% IMPACT for the product/service”
This is an important step because here you retrospect on your current job role and look at how you can align a story to Product management.
2. Picking a Product to Tear Down
Choose a product you admire or are curious about and conduct a thorough product teardown. Assess its design, functionality, market fit, and user feedback. This exercise will sharpen your analytical skills and prepare you for similar tasks in the interview.
This would be helpful if you are an early career PM or just out of college. This will help to demonstrate your Product sense to the hiring manager.
If you are an experienced PM, it's time you list down all your stories from your current PM role. Make sure these stories show your capability of Product sense, strategy, prioritization, communication, design, collaboration, and data-backed decision-making.
3. Product Interview Questions
Before you go for a Product manager interview it is important that you are well versed with the structure of the interview. Usually a PM interview involves question related to you past experience, behavioural question, question related to your favorite product and solving a problem.
Now Behavioural question and Favourite product we will cover later in the blog. But for the Problem solving it’s quite important to cover all the topics mentioned below.
- Guesstimate: Estimate the number of WhatsApp Messages sent daily.
- Product Strategy: Should Razorpay Build it’s UPI App?
- Product RCA: Uber’s Ride Booking Dropped by 20%
- Product Design: Design Food Delivery App for Senior Citizen
- Product Metrics: What Success Metrics would you set for Spotify?
This is just the glimpse of some of the questions. Go through the blog and try to understand each and every question. And to learn more make sure you are subscribed.
4. Read Books for a PM Interview
Invest time in reading books that offer insights into product management. Books such as “Inspired” by Marty Cagan and “Cracking the PM Interview” by Gayle Laakmann McDowell can be particularly beneficial.
There are unlimited number of PM books which you can read but to specially cover the PM interview. Make sure you read the below books cover to cover.
Before sitting for the interview go through these three books and understand the concepts and make sure to execute it in the interview.
5. PM Mock Interview Videos
Watching mock interviews can provide a sense of the dynamics of a PM interview. YouTube has numerous videos which candidates you can go through. Many creators have shared PM on YouTube.
These mock interviews perfectly mimic the real life interview scenarios and gives first hand understanding of the process. And how to handle various situations and cross questions.
Some of the best video resources are available in these channels.
Some of these content might be labeled as Management consultant interview question. But many of them are common with PM interview questions. So go through them as well.
6. Jot Down the Target Companies and Double Down on the Industry
Now that you are prepared for the interview and concepts are cleared, its time to scout for sector and company.
Make a list of your target companies and deepen your understanding of the specific industries they operate in. Look for industry that resonated with you the most. If you have prior worked as a Engineer, designer etc in a e-commerce industry then it would be suggested you specialise in this industry as a PM.
Once you have decided on the industry to target make a list of all the companies which you would love to work in. Now this is not an easy step. Sicne you need to go through reviews, from different sites to understand if you will be a cultural fit for the same.
Talk to current employees of the company and look out for connections working in your target company. Networking can be incredibly valuable. Reach out to current employees at your target companies, ideally within the product team, to gain insights into the company culture and possibly even the interview process.
7. Building Your Story
Build your narrative to align with each target company’s culture, mission, and values. Demonstrating how your background and skills make you a perfect fit can significantly boost your candidacy.
Now this is important, not all the companies culture will align with were you have worked. So its important you have a different story, resume, cover letter for each of these company.
Prepare impactful stories for behavioral interview questions. Focus on situations that highlight your leadership, problem-solving, and teamwork skills. The STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) method is a helpful framework for structuring these stories.
Having the greatest of story is very important. Because it will not matter how good you are at work, or where you have worked in the past. If you don’t have a great story then all of these are of no use.
Because the PM is always Story teller at heart.
8. Glassdoor for Already-Asked Questions and Reviews
you can use Glassdoor to review questions that other candidates were asked during their PM interviews at the companies you are applying to.
This will help you anticipate what might come your way and prepare accordingly. Many company follow a particular process and fix set of question types in the PM interview process.
Going through the glass door questions will help you in the preparation of the interview.
9. Be Ready for Rejection
This is the last nail in the coffin. You need to be mentally prepared for rejection. The journey to becoming a PM can be challenging and competitive. Each rejection is an opportunity to learn and refine your approach.
You might not be able to convert interviews to might not be getting interview. The competition in this space is very intense. There is more supply then their is demand.
For 1 PM role their are more than 5K product managers available. You need to be better than these 4999 PM’s to get that job.
Keep on learning and improving with every rejection. Make sure you don’t make the same mistakes again.
10. Always keep learning
The last and the most important step is to always keep learning. Because in the future the PM role would be more rare to get. Only the best of the best PMs will be able to make it.
So make sure you are always learning.
We will be providing opportunity to some of the candidates to get on a 1:1 call with the founder of The Product Managers Club. Comment “Ready to Talk” along with your email in the comment section to show your readiness.
End thoughts
Preparing for a PM interview is no small feat, but structured preparation and a strategic approach can significantly enhance your chances of success.
Remember, each step of preparation brings you closer to acing the interview and makes you a better product manager.
And the best product manager is the best storyteller.
Good luck!
