Given the nature of the task you have to do, you have to speak about the importance of effective persuasive writing. You should mention that the writing should generate excitement among your target audience while still respecting the brand, image, and voice of the company. Once the definition has been given, the candidate must then describe when Bayesian is better than other techniques, such as frequentist statistics. Of course, the answer that the candidate gives will be based on the type of technique that they wish to compare. Be sure to state the possible pluses and drawbacks to the prioritization framework you use. Break down recursion to someone who has no technical knowledge of it whatsoever.

Mike is a job interview and career expert and the head writer at TheInterviewGuys.com. There isn’t technically a right or wrong answer, so you can speak a bit from the heart. Just make sure you keep your response relevant and, if possible, highlight your enjoyment of specific skills to make your answer particularly meaningful. It gives you a process to fall back on, making it easier to answer even an unexpected question.

List of Product Manager Interview Questions: Cross Functional Teamwork

Your interviewer wants to know if you consider deadlines or quality more important. At the same time, they’re also testing how flexible or inflexible you are. Lifers are pretty much extinct these days, so everyone is always plotting a long-term career path toward their ultimate job. If they can identify the professional gaps this role will fill, it shows humility and drive.

That’s why product leaders spend time digging into the details of candidates’ past experiences and querying the outcomes of past products they’ve owned. Then discuss how you use this framework to prioritize features. You might say that urgency always outweighs impact and explain why that’s your philosophy. If you say that you assign a number (one to 10) to each area, explain how you decide what gets a one versus a 10, and how you use the total value to assign priority. In this session, the values themselves are the focus; it’s not necessarily about the role you’re applying for, and often this interview is conducted by a member of a different Atlassian team. As with communication skills, we look for values alignment throughout our interview process, but we also have a separate interview that focuses on our core Atlassian values.

Sample Mock Interview

The best PMs at tech companies know their company’s market position and long-term goals. You should know how to conduct competitive and market analyses and create a product roadmap. Product design is one-third of the PM interview process, making it a key opportunity to showcase your product thinking skills. By the end of this guide, you’ll understand which parts of product management interviews you feel confident in and which areas need improvement.

Achieving stakeholder alignment, getting engineers on the same page, and overcoming objections are pretty standard fare for a product manager that isn’t just along for the ride. Requesting a specific example gets them to speak with specificity versus vague platitudes about this vital topic. “There’s nothing like sitting in front of someone and saying, ‘Is there a good, positive team https://wizardsdev.com/en/vacancy/product-manager/ aspect here? Is this a fluid work environment where everyone is as important as everyone else? ’ and seeing what their response is,” Matt Curtis, Director of Government Relations at HomeAway Inc. tells Capture Your Flag in an interview. I have included a sample communication framework below to provide you with additional guidance on what goes into solid communication strategies.

Talk me through your preferred prioritization framework. Discuss the pros and cons of using it.

In doing so, you should branch off into product upgrades that improve customer retention and user engagement. In the case of functionality, you ought to highlight speed while highlighting cost-of-operation in the case of efficiency. Recruiters understand that the most direct way to find out what a candidate thinks of their product as well as how best they believe it they can improve it. That said, the best candidates will make mention of some of the most popular management apps out there.

Senior PMs are more active in defining the desired outcome of a product or feature. They tend to work hands-on with users to identify areas for improvement. For low-intent travelers, Airbnb could become more of a research website. It could feature information about different vacations, deliver inspiration for trips, and be top of mind for anyone planning a trip.

Break down the process you use to gather user feedback. Explain how you interacted with your users in a previous company.

Of course, there is a general vetting process to determine if a candidate has the necessary skills, experience, and personality traits to thrive. But there are some specific questions you can expect to be asked if you apply for the role of a product manager. This question seeks to determine just how good your communication skills are.

• Without a clear strategy, products often become a combination of not related features.
• Often referred to as a Mini-CEO, Product Managers are responsible for a wide variety of tasks, from understanding users to coordinating teams.
• Here’s an example of the Kano Model which is used to prioritize product features.
• Talk about how your goal as the product manager is to work collaboratively to help both the company and its customers find success.
• You need to differentiate yourself from hundreds of other candidates.

The more you practice answering, the easier it will be during your interview. A product isn’t done if it isn’t done as planned, and it’s crucial to work within the structures of the company to launch products customers will love. Describe how you will create customer journey maps, roadmaps for your team, and an appropriate overview during the development process.

While you could frame your answer as “and that’s why I want to work here — to make your product as good as the other one,” you risk offending the interviewer. A competing product might be something you can’t live without, but this is a case where honesty is probably not the best policy. While the product is a pot, it’s more than “just a pot.” It’s multi-functional, giving the user options in the kitchen.

There is no substitute for interview preparation, but that doesn’t mean it has to be a time-consuming process. Between nervousness and excitement, the best thing you can do for your product manager interview is to show up well-prepared. At Square, as at nearly all software companies, product managers work closely with engineering managers and designers, and entanglements over features and releases are likely to occur. Planning Make informed talent decisions around diversity, hidden talent pools, and more with real-time data. Hiring Get the right people in the door with easy-to-post jobs, smart sourcing, and branding. Developing Nurture the people at your company with learning, engagement, and performance tools.