15 Common Execution Mistakes

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In this article, I cover 15 common mistakes in product execution questions and 10 corrective measures you can tak.

15 Common Mistakes

1. No Structure — Or at least you don’t share the structure clearly with the interviewer
2. Not Driving the Interview — Lack of structure frequently causes impatient interviewers to take the lead
3. Missing Two-Sided Marketplace — In our mind we know this but nerves might cause us to forget
4. Shallow Understanding of Products — not enough research, a fatal flaw in all PM interviews
5. Claim Engagement over Aquisition — Default rule of thumb can be dangerous
6. No Logic for Metrics — Again, you might think it but if you don’t say it is important you lose the interviewer.
7. Metrics Not Mearuable — There are three parts to a metric.
8. Also, picking the wrong time period for the metric (e.g. daily vs monthly)
9. Picking ratios as top line metrics (average is a ratio)
10. Getting too specific (it might be more accruate) but likely be too detailed for top metric
11. Not thinking about the product wide impact
12. Not thinking about all the stakeholders involved
13. Not thinking about the short and longer term impact
14. Not thinking about the correct population to experiment with

10 Corrective Measures

1. Share a 4 to 5 part Framework
2. Be clear about transition from one section to another
3. Talk about Demand & Supply
4. Study Product — If still don’t know ask “Am I missing any key part of the funnel?”
5. Cover all key metrics (both aquisition and engagement)
6. Make Sharing the Why and the Metric a unit of your framework
7. Think of funnel (i.e. vist site >> sign up for event >> attend the event)
8. 3 Parts to a Metric — Measure + Action + Time Period
9. Pick the simple metrics (Simple includes something that connects to what the team can drive. Pick a metric that closely represents the usage of your product)
10. Not ideal but if you messed up, change approach if needed

Reference:

1. Diana Yao — Full credit here to another coach. Diana Yao does an amazing job breaking down Meta execution questions do’s and don’ts. I highly recommend that you check out her YouTube videos. In her Execution Playlist, number 9 of 10 talks about common mistakes people make in execution interviews. I will admit, in my mocks in preparing for Meta interviews, I struggled with a lot of these problems even though I knew better. Diana does a great job of breaking things down for you.
2. Rohan Katyal is a PM with a great mind for frameworks and structured thinking. He does a great job breaking down interview prep advice here: How I Prepared for Facebook Interviews

Originally published on intrico.io