Resources for Your First Product Management Interview
In my last post, I discussed steps you can take to increase your chances of getting calls for product management interviews. In this post, I will share some resources I think will be handy to prepare you for your first product management interview.
Opportunity assessment/idea evaluation
Be prepared to answer questions, such as: “Should Tinder start matrimony service in India?” “If you are a PM at Google, and your CEO asks you if you should launch a smart fridge …”
There is no one way to answer these types of questions, but a few good frameworks can really give a structure to your thought process. I really liked Kevin Hale’s talk on evaluating startup ideas:
Product metrics
This can be a very daunting topic to prepare for, if you have never tracked metrics for any product. Be prepared to answer questions, such as: “What kind of metrics would you track if you were the CPO of Netflix?” “What would be the top three or four metrics you would track daily, if you were product head at Amazon? ”
Here’s an excellent eBook by Mixpanel: “Guide to Product Metrics.” Josh Elman’s blog, “The Only Metric That Matters,” is a great one.
Root cause analysis
This is an extremely important topic, and I have been asked a question related to it in almost every company for which I have interviewed. “Uber Pool ridership decreased by 10% in a day. Why?” “MakeMyTrip’s conversion funnel sees a drop of X%. What questions do you ask your data analyst?” See
https://stellarpeers.com/how-would-you-find-the-cause-of-a-15-drop-in-facebook-groups-usage/.
Product design
These questions are generally asked to evaluate your problem-solving and prioritization skills. Famous questions are: “Design X for elderly/children/blind. Replace X with any famous app, such as Google Maps, Uber, Zomato, etc.”
CIRCLES method is a very popular framework. There are multiple resources to get you started; here’s a handy link: https://www.impactinterview.com/2016/06/circles-method-product-design-framework/.
Also at times, you may be asked to “improve product/feature X.” I liked this ebook by Intercom, which does a fairly good job of explaining how to improve product features.
Product roadmap and prioritization technique
In my opinion, this kind of question is not asked very frequently. But as an aspirant, I always wanted to know how real product managers create a roadmap or manage backlogs. I came across a blog on CohortPlus that gave me some perspective on how they prioritize the backlogs.
Mergers and acquisitions
Read about the latest M&A in the startup world. You might be asked about your opinion: “Why did company X buy company Y?” Subscribe to business newsletters The Ken, ET Prime, etc., and just update yourself regarding what is happening around you.
I will keep updating this post when I come across resources that will be helpful for people preparing for their first product management interview. Share with me the resources you think are helpful.
