Mastering product management interviews
Proven principles and an actionable framework for conducting product management interviews.
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Intro
Recently, I’ve reached a milestone of conducting 300 job interviews — from humble first rounds in 2016 to the present day, where I’ve learned to lead Director-level interviews. I’ve been fortunate to interview Product Managers (~90%), Data Analysts (~5%), and Product Designers (~5%) from all over the world and experience a diversity of perspectives.
This hasn’t been an easy ride, however. There have been many instances where I misjudged people — undervaluing some and overvaluing others. What seemed like a superstar candidate often turned out to be a smooth talker without any execution skills. Conversely, a candidate who completely flunked the interview was a top performer.
Fine-tuning my compass to distinguish between a strong candidate and an aspiring one took me years of trial and error. I want to share the key learnings I’ve learned from this process so you can potentially avoid the same pitfalls I’ve encountered. I believe that hiring mistakes are the most expensive ones your company can make.
Structure of an excellent product interview
The structure that I’ve come up with consists of 3 stages:
- Setting the stage and warm-up (~10–15 mins);
- Problem-solving (~40 mins, ~10–15 mins for experience and the rest for your case);
- Closure (~5–10 mins).
Setting the stage
Frame the context
I used to jump directly to questions or cases but started noticing that more and more candidates went overboard and couldn’t finish the task on time. The root cause was that they didn’t understand the interview structure and how the time for each question should be allocated.
I then decided to make a slight adjustment and give candidates the following disclaimer before the start of the interview: “We have an hour. We’ll do a quick 2–3 minute intro, then talk about your experience, switch gears to the case, and at the end, if we’ve 5–7 minutes remaining, I’d be glad to answer any of your questions.” This approach worked wonders.
Once the context was set and the candidate had a rough map of the interview in mind, it was much easier to navigate between stages, and fewer candidates went over time.
Introduction
The candidate is investing an hour of their time in conversing with you. Who are you? Why are you in a position to interview the candidate? The candidate has the right to know at least a bit about who you’re and your background. Essentially, you’re at the first step of establishing a professional relationship.
In 2015, I was interviewing with Booking.com and had a preliminary screening call. A seasoned recruiter led it. The interview was exceptionally structured, but what blew my mind was that he took about a minute of the interview time to introduce himself and share his experience and what led him to his current job.
This introduction was a great ice-breaker because it transformed him from an abstract figure into a relatable person. Now you’re equals having a constructive conversation and are on the mutual path of figuring out whether there’s a fit.
Since then, I never skip intros. Over time, I’ve devised a short, 40-second pitch, which gives a helicopter view of my experience in reverse chronological order.
I always take the initiative to do the intro first because it sets the expectations of the format and the duration of this part for the candidate. If the candidate ignores it, it’s a reliable indicator of their listening skills and, to some extent, their empathy.
Ask basic questions
This is a crucial part of the warm-up stage. You can evaluate the candidate’s interest in the actual position and identify their areas for improvement. I usually ask questions about the reasons for choosing product management and the motivation for joining the company.
A candidate just shopping around and having only a vague idea of what your company does is probably not the best fit in the long run.
Problem-Solving
Past experience case
“Pick up a case from your past experience and tell me about it”. It’s a ‘comfort zone’ question and an opportunity for the candidate to show themselves without the pressure of the unfamiliar case.
This step gives a pretty good insight into some of the skills, solid sides, and cultural biases the candidate can have from past work experience.
Once the candidate has finished, I usually follow up with 2–4 questions to zoom in and clarify some bits of the case and afterwards transition to the next stage.
Your case
Once the candidate has warmed up, you can proceed to the most challenging part of the interview — your actual case. It can be whatever you choose, but my rule is that it should be as uncertain as possible.
Low-fidelity cases give a good sense of how a candidate can cope with uncertainty, build context, choose the right strategy, and ask for relevant information from the interviewer.
A typical example of such a case is: “We’re thinking about business opportunity ‘X’ but have no idea whether it’ll work out or not. What should we do?”
Closure
Wrap up the case
As the process facilitator, I usually indicate that the interview has reached a logical end and try to loosen up the candidate by saying there are no right or wrong answers. This statement serves as a segue to the actual Q&A part.
Q&A
This stage is critically important. I’ve had instances where a candidate, who fell apart on the case, asked questions so well thought-out that I had to re-evaluate my total scoring.
Conversely, some candidates performed decently on the case but asked junior-level “how did I do” questions or had nothing to ask. Usually, this is a pretty good indicator of maturity and interest in the position.
Fundamental principles of an effective product interview
Lead with context
Once the interview starts, you set the stage and ask the candidate questions. The closer you get to the cases, the less control you should exert over the conversation. Ideally, share the high-level context of the low-fidelity case.
I expect the candidate to lead both cases, with relevant follow-up questions directed to the interviewer. Instances where this doesn’t occur, and the process continues in the ‘interviewer-led’ format, usually signal a lack of maturity.
Write everything down
Once the interview starts, I open my Notion interview section and type critical points about the candidate. This is critically important for two reasons:
- Firstly, as my memory cache is limited, it prevents me from losing track and allows me to ask detail-specific questions later.
- Secondly, having these notes helps with my evaluation of the candidate after the interview has finished.
Sometimes candidates overshare information about a topic where I need more context. Not having notes is a surefire way to lose context and inaccurately assess the candidate’s skills.
Always have scripted questions
There are instances where your mind simply goes blank. Maybe you’re exhausted and didn’t fully understand the case the candidate has shared — whatever the reason, always have scripted questions you can fall back on.
Scripted questions are generic and can be applied to any case or industry, yet they’re still helpful in gaining valuable insights about the candidate’s skills. My favourite ones are:
“What would you have done differently?”
“What’s your biggest learning?”
“Why this project and not the other one?”
Supplementing the case with follow-up questions shows that you’re interested in whatever the candidate says and allows for a smooth transition between interview parts. Remember, this is only applicable to the ‘experience case’.
The segue between parts of the interview
The interviewer’s job is to help the candidate transition between parts of the case. Abrupt shifts from one case to another can make the whole process seem forced (like you’re reading a script), can break the candidate’s focus, and could be negatively interpreted (“I failed this question; that’s why we’re jumping to the next topic”).
I usually use phrases like “Let’s switch gears and talk about X”, “Let’s reflect on your background”, etc.
It’s all relative
Initially, when I was shadowing my first interview at OLX, I thought, “Wow, this candidate failed every single question. It’s a definite no-go.” When I calibrated the results with the interview lead, I was surprised that he was optimistic about giving the candidate the green light.
He justified it by saying, “Relative to a dozen candidates I’ve interviewed in the past, this is a strong mid-level PM.”
I’ve reaffirmed this later; the more candidates I interviewed, the more aware I became of nuances and less rushed to make ‘go/no-go’ decisions.
Know your limits
In my first year of conducting interviews, I wasn’t immune to the superhero syndrome. “Can you take on an interview at 2 p.m.? Sure! Can you take one afterwards at 3 p.m.? Absolutely! What about at 6 p.m. that same day? You can count on me!”
This led to exhaustion, inability to sustain an engaging conversation, and difficulty properly assessing the candidate’s skillset later.
Over time, I’ve learned that the maximum number of interviews I can physically handle in a day is 2. However, it should be only 1 to be at my creative best and maintain the sharpest focus.
In a week, I usually limit myself to 2–3 interviews at most due to the time tax it imposes on my work schedule — 3 interviews already equate to 6 hours of calls and written evaluations.
I’m very vocal in conversations with our HR regarding my daily and weekly interview limits.
Bottomline
A structure and guardrails are critical to success in every problem-solving activity. The same applies to the interview process. Not only will this improve the quality of your assessment at a lower cost, but it will also positively portray the company culture to the candidate.
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