This series of posts is for Product Managers who want to get better at interviewing for product roles. The interview process is very similar for PMs who are just starting out and applying for junior APM / PM positions vs for experienced PMs trying to secure Senior PM / Principal PM / Group PM positions. PM interviews usually consist of testing out 3 different types of abilities:
set KPIs/metrics for a product’s success aka product execution round
This is a very analytical, metric- and KPI-focused interview. Example: As a google PM, identify success metrics for google calendar and define a north star metric
create solutions given a problem area aka product sense round
This interview focuses on your product knowledge, creativity, instincts, and awareness. Example: As a facebook PM, design a product to help people date each other
collaborate with cross functional teams to ship products aka behavioral round
The focus here is understanding how you motivate a team, drive alignment, build relationships, and work with others. While the product sense and execution interviews use hypothetical cases, the leadership & drive interview focuses on behavioral questions about how you’ve worked with others in the past. Example: Tell me about a challenge you had with a coworker and how you handled it?
We’ll go into the details of each of these types of interviews in the following sections:
Product Sense / Design Questions
Often, some companies also add the following two rounds:
I cannot stress the importance of mocks enough. For me, they’ve been the single biggest factor that improved my ability to showcase the right skills for different kind of PM interviews.
Which platform is the best for finding practice partners?
Stellarpeers is hands down the best community I have come across to identify PMs for mocks. I personally identified 3-4 PMs who matched the same level and could give some solid feedback and stuck to repeating sessions with them. I have tried other communities like the one by Lewis Lin for finding interview practice partners as well. It didn’t work much for me as I was looking for experienced PMs while this one had PMs across the board. My suggestion would be to keep practicing till you can consistently get a hire decision on your mock interviews for you last 3-4 sessions. You can then start to apply for the companies you are dead serious about.
Ideally, you should have a list of firms researched and segregated into tier-3, tier-2 and tier-1 (couple of firms in each) and start interviewing from the bottom tier. Tier-3 companies are the ones which are meant to boost your confidence for real world interviews but you don’t want to join them. Tier-2 companies are good enough to join and you’ll happily go if all else fails while tier-1 is your dream segment where you’d be the happiest to join!