product manager presentation interview

Playbook steps | Success criteria | Interview loops | Interview templates | Grading rubrics

So you’re a product leader, and need to hire a PM. If you work at a company like Amazon or Google, you’ve likely got a robust infrastructure to lean on: a recruiting team to help screen candidates, question banks honed from thousands of PM interviews, and calibrated interview panelists on standby.

But what about the rest of us? This playbook will help you reduce subjectivity, save time deliberating on candidates, and above all, hire great product managers -- all with a fraction of the resources of FAANG.

The PM interview process playbook (Top)

First, a little context on my perspective:

• The guidance here comes from a blend of my own experience at Gusto and Ethos, where I’ve interviewed over 200 PMs, and conversations with product leaders from other companies who have scaled their product teams at Stripe and Coinbase.
• While the focus of this framework will be on interviewing and finding exceptional generalist PMs, you’ll find the core concepts can be applied (with some additional steps) for roles like Growth specialist or VP of Product.
• The focus of this post is firmly on the interview components of the hiring process. Here’s where it sits:

I’ll walk you through each step, using concrete examples:

• Define PM success : align your team on the attributes required to be a great PM at your company.
• Design your interviews : map these PM attributes to steps in your interview process.
• Standardize grading : Use a consistent grading rubric.

#1. Define PM success criteria at your company (Top)

An obvious-in-hindsight mistake many product teams make is not testing candidates on attributes they value post-hire. This is a bit like holding tryouts for the basketball team by testing tennis skills. You may end up finding good PMs, but it will lead to misaligned expectations for them and company, and costly hiring mistakes.

So it’s imperative that your company articulate the attributes you want PMs to embody.

Let’s illustrate with an example: my fictional bike-sharing company, Mike’s Bikes:

💡 Candidate tip: ask your recruiter or hiring manager what PM attributes they look for. Bonus points for the company if they’ve outlined this publicly on their blog or website.

Prioritize the attributes you want to test for

Many PMs will spike in some areas and be average in others. And you likely don’t have time to deeply test each attribute. So it’s important to decide which of your attributes are deal breakers vs. nice-to-haves.

💡 Got a PM interview? Our PM interview drills help get you in top form

💡 Candidate tip: no one is expecting you to be A+ in each category. Identify your strengths and highlight them ( more on that here ).

#2. Design your interview loops (Top)

There are many different ways to interview PMs, but I’d summarize the most common formats as:

Product skills assessment:

• Product case study (this can be in panel presentation form, or a 1-on-1 session)
• Technical exercise
• UX exercise
• Analytical exercise

Soft skills assessment

• Behavioral experience
• Values assessment

Map interview steps to PM attributes

Now we need to align what we want to test for (attributes) with how we test for them (interview formats).

A couple pointers:

• Your high priority attributes should be tested in at least two different interviews. This gives your interview panel multiple data points to measure the candidate on what matters most to you.
• If you find that multiple interview steps are testing for the exact same attributes (as is the case with Behavioral and Values interviews below), consider consolidating.

Assemble your interview panel

Product managers are the ultimate dot connectors, working closely with partners from engineering, design, product marketing, sales, performance & lifecycle marketing, operations and leadership. So it’s important to get a diverse set of interviewers on your panel.

Depending on the size and makeup of your company, this may need to be tweaked, but here’s a sample for Mike’s Bikes:

💡 Candidate tip: familiarize yourself with each of these panelist roles, and be ready to “speak their language.” For example, emphasizing an unexpectedly delightful user experience may resonate more with a Designer or PM than a VP of Sales.

#3. Build interview templates (Top)

For each interview, we now need to define the 1) the prompts and 2) rubric used to grade responses. I recommend creating a single document containing both that can be easily shared with panelists, and copied for each new candidate.

Here a sample product case study I’ve used for round 1 PM interviews.

📄 Sample interview template: 1-on-1 Product case study

Make a copy of this document to conduct your interview, take notes, and grade the candidate.

Context and format

This is the initial phone or video call with the PM Lead, PM, or PMM before the candidate reaches round 2. Interviewers will score the candidate across the following 4 attributes. See the rubric for more guidance on grading candidates.

• First principles thinking
• Customer empathy
• Product sense
• Stellar communication

Length of interview: 60 mins

[10 min] Intro & warm-up

• [40 min] Case study
• [10 min] Q & A

Hi [candidate], excited to speak with you today. We’ll start by getting to know each other briefly, then spend most of our time working through a product case study together. At the end, I’ll save time to answer questions you have about our company, product, role, or anything at all.

Sound good? Let’s get to it.

Before we jump in, a little bit about myself:

• I lead our Product and Design teams at Mike’s Bikes. Our charter is to make biking the default way to commute in every major city, and take polluting cars off the road.
• My current focus is on our employer experience -- making it really easy for companies to offer Mike’s Bikes as a commuter option to employees.
• Before Mike’s Bikes, I held various product roles at Gusto and Yahoo.

[40 min] Case Study

Part 1: High level scoping

Let’s say you were a Product Manager at Airbnb, and an executive came to you with an idea to allow guests to book cars through the Airbnb platform, as an add-on to Homes (places to stay) and Experiences (curated travel experiences).

📌 Alternative question: a Spotify executive wants to create a video tab in the Spotify app.

📌 As much as possible, tee the candidate up, then get out of the way. Awkward pauses are to be expected.

Part 2: Use case details

Let’s say the idea was greenlit, and we need to dig into the details.

[10 min] Q & A

Thanks so much for going through that with me. Now the floor is yours.

📌 This is a good way to gauge the candidate’s genuine interest in your company. They’ve just gone through an exhausting exercise and their guard may be down. Look for deep interest in your product, mission, and team, not surface-level questions.

#4. Establish a consistent grading rubric (Top)

Some guiding principles on grading:

This isn’t Jeopardy : do not judge the candidate on coming up with specific details. Though they should find their way to reasonable solutions, their thought process and high level structure are what we are judging them on.

Don’t expect perfection : PM’s don’t actually scope new opportunities in short video calls, so have tolerance for some rough edges to their responses.

If it’s not an easy yes, it’s an easy no : If you find yourself agonizing between scoring a candidate as a 2 or 3, go with 2.

Score the candidates from 1 to 3 on each of the key attributes:

Add any concerns that you’d like other panelists to dig into:

• Concern 1 goes here
• Concern 2 goes here

Summary: compounding benefits (Top)

Investing in this process is a non-trivial amount of work, but it will lead to compounding benefits as your company and team grow:

• Time savings: hiring managers won’t need to reinvent the wheel for each open PM role.
• Reduce thrash: the consistency created will lead to less turbulent candidate debrief sessions and hiring decisions.
• Company polish: the interview process is a reflection of the organization, and candidates will take note of a well-tuned and efficient process.

Finally, I hope this playbook will be a useful tool, but it’s certainly not one-size-fits-all: test it, tweak it, and make it your own.

✋ I’m always looking to iterate on this. Have feedback? Shoot me a note at [email protected] or on Twitter @MikeLyngaas.

Thank you to Packy McCormick, Stephanie Long, and Kenton Kivestu for reviewing drafts of this post.

Read this next:

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• PM homework assignments
• Doing a product deep dive
• PM interview preparation plan
• Three key ways to prepare for PM interviews
• Learning about the product org
• PM interview prep next steps
• PM interview prep plan
• Success metrics PM interview questions
• Favorite product PM interview answer
• Cracking PM behavioral interviews
• Product management in fintech

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Product Manager Interview Questions: A Guide to the Most Common Q&A

The product manager interview revolves around the abilities t o create and test a great product.

Who is a Product Manager?

Tasks of a product manager , traits of a good product manager, common requirements for the position of product manager in technological companies , the recruitment process of the product manager in technological companies , general questions in the product manager interview, specific questions in the product manager interview, technological product — from design to launch — examples of questions , conclusion – key takeaways in preparing the product manager interview  .

In today’s article, we share examples of interview questions for the product manager position with the help of two books in the field, Behind every great product by Martin Cagan, and Cracking the PM Interview by Gayle Laakmann Mcdowell and Jackie Bavaro. 

The product manager is the leader of a team that delivers a certain product. The product manager makes sure that what is delivered to the customers is good enough to stand out on the market and to attract with its innovative features. 

Every company wants to launch new products that are different from the products of the competitors. In the technological industry, the products have changed in time by bringing new structures, functions, and designs to the customers. These changes, once settled and recognized by the industry, transformed the way product managers work. 

The road from idea to the factory is no longer linear. Interventions are made by the customers, partners, innovators, and influencers. Digital tools create an unprecedented exchange of ideas that connect the people. And the final result is a complex product. The product manager, alongside their team, integrates these ideas into the fabric of the product itself.

Lumeer is a project management and productivity tracking software. Our product is designed to help especially small and medium businesses. There is also a free version of the app available for individual users. 

Building this kind of software is difficult but extraordinary. We had to make sure that our product manager knows how to:

• handle both the creation and the launch of the product,
• combine design (what we sell) with technology (what digital solution the product brings) with business (how we sell it),
• emphasize the story behind the product: Your humble servant is helping your team in multiple ways!  
• Deliver a product.  

First of all, according to the job description, the Product Manager is creating, testing, and launching a product. This needs to be highlighted in the product manager interview.

• Understand the target audience of the product.  

Secondly, the Project Manager has to understand why and how the product could be used by the possible users. They have to understand the needs of the clients, trace the patterns and design a product that fits the patterns.

• Lead and collaborate with a team.  

A product cannot be delivered without the ideas of the team. The teams work hard. Their work can bring innovation that will improve the lives of many people.

• Take the responsibility for the product.  

The product manager has the responsibility to get the best out of the ideas of the team. And also to pave the road to the successful launch of the product. 

• Solve complex challenges.  

Skills like flexibility, curiosity, growth mindset , excellent communication and negotiation skills are important when solving complex challenges. When the pressure on the delivery is too large, the product manager must share it with the team members. He also has to fuel the motivation of the employees to get it done. 

• Combine technical skills with business and design.  

One of the hardest things is to combine technology with design and business. The Product Manager has to use these 3 layers to create, test, and launch a successful product.  

Product passion. A restless passion for a certain product that could be delivered to the world is very important. 

Here are some examples:

• Thomas Edison with his passion for electricity and lighting solutions. 
• Jiro Horikoshi with his passion for airplanes and opening the air space for ordinary citizens. 
• Hewlett and Packard with their passion for transistors that can revolutionize technology. 
• Steve Jobs with his passion for computers that can be used by everyone at home. 
• Melanie Perkins with her passion to change the world of design. 
• Kike Oniwinde with her passion for providing help to people of colour in the area of career and professional development. 

Customer empathy. Understand the needs, the desires, and the patterns of the customers. A product is never released in thin air, it is designed for a target audience, a certain type of audience. When the customers see the real use of the product, the mission of the product manager is accomplished.

Intelligence and intuition. A good product manager knows how to handle intelligence (the rational perspective) and intuition (the emotional perspective). She then combines the practical side of a product with the beauty of it. In other words, making a balance between technical solutions and social/psychological effects.

Communication skills. The ability to communicate a meaningful message to people from various cultural backgrounds. Next, the ability to respond to different questions, to have strong arguments, and to be assertive. And finally, the ability to present the essential ideas to a wider audience.

Integrity and work ethic. To be a person that values responsible, honest, correct, and collaborative work. Being a person that pays attention and respects the needs and wishes of the customers, team, and their superiors. Although markets don’t always value the moral side, the products should be designed to make life better. 

Confidence. Each product holds the blueprint of the people that created it in the first place. If those people had confidence, this will be shown in the characteristics of the final product. A good product manager has to be confident in his skills, ideas, actions, feelings and the work of the team. Whenever they buy a product, the customers also get the confidence that the product will solve their problems. 

• Industry expertise. 

Industry expertise and experience is the ultimate asset for getting the job of product manager. Usually, companies select individuals that have already designed and launched at least one good product on the market. But there are also exceptions when an individual can demonstrate spectacular innovation and drive. 

• Basic knowledge of computer science and software development.  

This will be important for the logical, computational, and solution-oriented mindset of the product manager. This will also ease the collaboration with the software engineers and developers. 

• Courses in economics/business/financial markets/consumer behavior/engineering. 

This will be correlated with the task of combining technology, design, and business.

• Proven leadership and coordination abilities. 

This will be important for leading a team made of people with multiple backgrounds and using the results of their work successfully. 

The product manager interview is only one part of the recruitment process which has more phases. Here are the phases that are the most common in technological companies. 

Phase 1: Preliminary screening of the CVs and motivation letters 

The CVs and motivation letters of the candidates are analysed by the recruiters. Sometimes, the candidates will also need to provide an essay on the business strategy that they want to use for their future company. A candidate can enter the next phase although they don’t hold a degree in computer science, economy or business.  This happens if he proves extraordinary knowledge, skills, passion for the product/company, and willingness to learn. 

Phase 2: Technical product manager interview covering the technical aspects of the job and the technical abilities of the candidate

The interviewers will test how candidates plan to design a product from scratch. It will also test the ability to elaborate on a story behind that particular product. In this phase, a candidate without a degree in computer science, economy or business, has to know at least the most general technicalities regarding the product created by the company.  

Phase 3: The Product Manager Interview

This is the core interview. In this phase, the candidates will be tested for product knowledge, experience, flexibility, leadership abilities, and vision.  

For the purpose of the sample product manager interview, we’ve created a fictional interview with a fictional candidate Phillip Kerry. In the next section, there are the possible answers that the candidate would give to the most common interview questions. The specific position is a Product Manager at a tech company. 

Phase 4: Feedback about the interview 

This phase covers the feedback of the candidates. The candidates should emphasize that they learned something new from this experience and they understood the core essence of the interview. 

Phase 5: Selection of the winning candidate

All the candidates will receive the final answer from the interviewers. This phase depends on each company. Every company makes its schedule. Sometimes, it can take just a few hours to select the winning candidate. In other cases, it can take even a few days to clarify the final decision. 

Phase 6: Onboard the accepted candidate 

The selected candidate becomes the new Product Manager. He will start the work alongside a specific team. The moment of the truth, when the candidate sees who the team members are, is quite challenging. The onboarding phase, if done correctly, can lead to the formation of an excellent leader and product manager. Time and the skills will do the rest. 

1. Tell me about yourself!

Advice: Connect your experience with the job you’re interviewing for. Tell how you can help the company through your skills and personality.  

Answer: “I worked in Software Development for 7 years and as an Assistant to the Product Manager for 3 years. Now, I think it’s the proper time to make an important leap and to become a Product Manager at Sunreach. I am a reliable and skillful person that pays attention to details. I helped the Product Manager at my former company make their project management software more attractive to customers.” 

3. Why do you want to work for our company?

Advice: Show that you have passion for the product, the company, and the role itself. Make them hire you because of what you did and what you can do.

Answer:   “Sunreach Software is one of the biggest companies in Central and Eastern Europe. From what I’ve understood, you are planning to strengthen your position on the market by delivering new features to your team management software. After 3 years of assisting the Product Manager, I think I have the mindset and the skills to fit into your organization. My main motivation is to make your product a house-hold name to worldwide users. I would also love to innovate, not just the software, but also the team management as a whole.” 

3. Why should we hire you for our company? 

Advice: Prove them that you are fit for the company itself, for its organizational culture. Emphasize the possible benefits that you could bring onto the table.

Answer: “You should hire me because I do my work taking into consideration not only the customers’ needs and business needs but also the overall economic landscape. You want someone to deliver new attractive features to the software. My teamwork abilities would help me take the best ideas of my future team and put them into practice.

I am ready to integrate as many new features as you wish and to do this by innovating team practices and the workplace. I have worked for 3 years with a professional and successful Product Manager.

The stakes of this position are well known to me. I have the confidence that your product and your company will sparkle the interest of millions of worldwide users.

The best way to sparkle this interest is to give the customers something they like and they can use on a daily basis. I plan to do that by learning from all the experts that your company has and by taking into consideration all the latest developments in the software industry and not only.” 

4. Why are you leaving your current job? 

Advice: Focus on the positive aspects such as learning new things, curiosity for other environments, the desire to experience new challenges. Use a convincing story-telling answer.

Answer:   “My 3-years experience as an Assistant to the Product Manager has meant a lot to me. I delivered good ideas and now it’s time to deliver even better ones. My curiosity for new things and new environments has let me take into consideration this position. I have the know-how to kick off this new project, to run the team and to demonstrate to you what I have learned and valid results.” 

5. What do you like to do in your spare time? 

Advice: The best answers the interviewers can get are: exploring new environments, learning each day, volunteering, doing a sport, traveling, reading, spending time with the family, listening to music, etc. Even such a question during the product manager interview can be used to your advantage.

Answer: “I am a big fan of sports, especially football, badminton and tennis. I play whenever I get the chance. When I find a free weekend, I like to have a city break with my wife and my daughter. Every time I see a new city I come back with fresh ideas for the company.” 

6. Where do you see yourself in 5 years? 

Advice: Tell how the future will look for you inside the company. Tell what you wish to create by having a strong team by your side. Outline what is your general ambition and vision.

Answer: “I see myself as a successful Product Manager supported by a team of professional and creative people. I know that I will gain so much knowledge in the next 5 years because I will learn constantly and because I will surround myself with trustworthy and skillful people.”

7. What are your weaknesses and strengths?

Advice: Describe your flaws and emphasize what you learned from them. An important aspect during this part of the product manager interview is to demonstrate the learning process. Tell the interviewers how you cope with them and how you compensate for these flaws. Describe the strengths that you gained while doing your previous jobs. Describe how you can help a team with your strengths. 

Answer: “I could say that I have two major flaws: I sometimes ask too many questions and I become quite nervous when a deadline approaches. When I ask questions I don’t do it to bother somebody. I do it because I want to see the whole perspective of a task. I do become nervous when the deadline approaches because I keep thinking that we don’t have all the things done.

Lately, I’ve been trying to get relief by discussing with other people close to the project. My strengths are: sense of responsibility, good teamwork, creativity, time and energy management, problem solving and work ethic.

I think work ethic is crucial for every workplace. I like to be creative when I solve a problem and I like to ask for advice from the team. For complex products, you definitely have to rely on a team of experts and on their solid opinions. These skills are the ones that will help me as I transition into the Product Manager position.” 

Leadership – Examples of Questions  

1. describe a time when you had to motivate employees or coworkers..

Answer: “There was a moment when me and my team ran out of ideas. One day, I stumbled upon a TED Talk about generating ideas and told my colleagues that we should try those strategies. At first, they didn’t pay attention to it. I’ve told them that we should make a small contest and the person that comes up with the first best idea would win a paid dinner at a fancy restaurant. My colleagues suddenly jumped on board. I was very excited about how things turned out.” 

2. Tell me about a time when you showed initiative.

Answer: “When I was an assistant to the Product Manager, I had to help the marketing team to do important research. There were 5 people in the marketing team at that time. Their overall idea was to plan a new social media strategy for the product, to test it and to keep only the best elements of the strategy for the near future.

I proposed to them a more competitive approach: let everyone in the team come with their strategy, test it for one month and after that, select the best elements from each strategy. I also told them I could provide help in presenting the best elements to the Product Manager when the time comes.

At first, the marketing team was a little bit hesitant but the members of the team eventually accepted it. I argued that a healthy competition inside the team is helpful to discover new solutions and to think about each business problem from more than one perspective.”

3. Tell me about a time when you had to give a presentation to people who disagreed with you.

Answer: “Usually, my presentations were created to show the progress of a major task or project. If I were to give a presentation to people I disagree with, I would talk about the certainties of that particular topic and let them know that I am open to collaborate for new ideas and that they should be as open as myself because they will gain more valuable work experience.”  

4. Tell me about a time when you had to make an unpopular decision.

Answer: “I am afraid I didn’t make too many unpopular decisions. However, from time to time, a team leader has to make a few unpopular decisions. The best strategy is to show the long-term benefits of the decision and to let everyone apply that decision in an autonomous way or at least in a flexible framework. I am telling my people what goal we have and I let them work at their own pace and use the best resources that the company has.” 

5. Tell me about a time when you had to sell another person or team on your idea.

Answer: “In my last year as a software developer I had to convince my team leader that we needed more time to deliver a task. I argued that in order to bring that particular solution on the table, we had to fine tune some crucial details. Fortunately, we had the resources to do it but not the time. Buying us a few more days would have been pivotal. I told him that that wasn’t a delay but a compromise between making things at a fast pace and making them in an innovative way that would bring value in the long-term. He did accept my proposal in the end.”

6. Tell me about a time when you’ve built a team. 

Advice: Tell the interviewers how you have built your leadership abilities inside teams, projects and various life situations related to helping and leading a group of people. 

This is a great opportunity during the product manager interview to demonstrate some important abilities. Describe moments when you took the initiative and inspired team members to join that initiative. Describe moments when you convinced a specific group of people to stay by your side and to deliver good results. 

Answer: “I haven’t built a team so far but I am mentally and physically prepared to do so at Sunreach Software. Let me provide my envisioned timeline of the team construction.

First, I will have a general meeting with all the people to get to know each other. Then, I will invite them to present their ideas for new features for the software. I will present my own ideas as well and fine tune the best ideas. Then, I will create a flexible schedule with the goals for each phase and the tasks for accomplishing those goals. Mainly by providing help whenever asked and collaboration with other departments inside the company to share our latest developments.

I will evaluate the work and the results of my team. I will congratulate them for their accomplishments. They must learn that every success and failure is part of life and I will encourage them to think outside the box.” 

Challenges – Examples of Questions 

1. tell me about a time when you faced a challenge and overcame it..

Answer: “I remember that at the end of my 4-year experience as a Junior Software Developer I was offered a position as a Software Developer at the same company, Central Tech Inc. I wanted to continue inside the company, to show them that I am a reliable person but at the same time I wanted to expand my horizons.

A possible relocation to the United States for a similar job was very exciting to me. I made a fictional presentation of my possible relocation, I analyzed the advantages and the disadvantages, I calculated my intrinsic and extrinsic benefits.

In the end, I chose to take the Software Developer position at the same company because I thought that I could expand my horizon as well there and by trying to do things differently from the rest of my colleagues.” 

2. Tell me about a time when you weren’t able to reach a deadline. 

Answer: “I had to make a presentation about the code for an important client. At the same time I was caught in another project. I couldn’t make the presentation as I planned. However, I managed to invite the client to look at the highlights of the code without having a draft presentation prepared. It was me, my code and my client. I nailed it. We all know that life for a modern company is based on deadlines and  that can sometimes reduce our level of motivation. But we have to go beyond the deadline and to see the meaningful work behind each task.” 

3. Describe a major change that occurred in a job that you held. How did you adapt to this change?

Answer: “One major change was working remotely for 6 months due to some issues at the company headquarters. At that time, I was living in a noisy neighborhood and working from home was nerve-racking. I managed to solve the problem by working in a co-working space offered by a non-profit organization. I arranged an action-plan for each day and stuck to it. After that period, I enjoyed working at the headquarters of the company. Now I master remote work and this fact is helping me a lot.” 

4. Tell me about a time when you had to deal with changing priorities. How did you handle it?

Answer: “A day in the life of a Product Manager can be quite hectic. When I was assistant to the Product Manager I had to work under the pressure of changing priorities. My strategy of handling this change of priorities was to ask for two things: resources and autonomy. Sometimes I got both, sometimes I got none. Despite these situations I learned how to better organize my time, my energy and my mind and to become more flexible while understanding the ultimate reason behind the priorities of a company.” 

5. Tell me about a time when you had to make a decision quickly or with insufficient data.

Answer: “Once, I had to decide whether to join a new project in 24 hours. It was right before successfully closing a project. I had to ask myself if I wanted to embark myself on a new project that was filled with uncertainties at that time. I chose to focus on my usual tasks and not to join the project. However, I did a full initial research for my colleagues that went on doing the project in order to show my support for them.” 

6. Tell me about a time when you handled a risky situation. 

Advice: Change is the only constant nowadays. Focus on the idea of responding to challenges with a smart attitude and proper actions. 

Every company and employee faces challenges and the way they respond to those challenges is vital for shaping their future in the business. 

This doesn’t mean that you are going to give up your most important priorities and the priorities of the company every time a change appears. Instead, it means that you keep the goal in mind and modify your way to get to it in a better way. 

Answer: “I dealt with a risky situation regarding the client onboarding for the team management software. Me and other members of the team had to work on a new welcome packet for a large company that wanted to buy the enterprise plan of our product.

When we showed our new version of the welcome package, the manager of that company became a little bit confused and wanted to put a pause on buying the enterprise plan. I told him to reconsider this option and to invite some of his employees to test the package on their own since they will be the ones working with it more often than the manager himself.

I also told him that if his employees appreciate the welcome package, other minor difficulties can be solved with no major headache. We finished our meeting by agreeing that for every problem that could arise, we will solve things and that the client can always trust in our ability to handle difficult situations.”

Mistakes – Examples of Questions 

1. tell me about a time when you made a mistake. .

Advice: Making a mistake is not the end of the world. Emphasize the fact that you learned from the mistakes of the past and, most importantly, you will change strategy whenever bad situations or malfunctions appear.

If you understand the root cause of the common mistakes, you will be able to fix those mistakes or, at least, mitigate their negative effects. 

When building a product, the review of the team, stakeholders and even customers is good for understanding where things have gone wrong and from where you can start the improvement. 

Answer: “I once messed up some code when I was working as a Junior Software Development. Luckily, I received help from two colleagues that were more experienced than me. After that, I used their tips to finish writing the code. In exchange, I offered myself to help them with some minor tasks as a way of thanking them for their efforts.” 

2. Tell me about your strategy when you fail at something at work. 

Answer: “You fail when you don’t understand the root cause of a problem and you don’t know what things can be improved. I failed a couple of times. My response to failure is to sit back, look at it from the perspective of an objective observer, outline the major causes of the failure and find practical and creative solutions. If you are armed with a “get over it and come back bigger” strategy, you are more likely to be prepared for the next possible failures.” 

3. Tell me about a time when you improperly analyzed a situation.

Answer: ”I had some information about that particular customer and prepared a mix of strategies. Unfortunately, the market position of that customer was at risk at that time. I considered that the small profit was the only problem our customer had and talked to him about how our product was fit for the digitalization of the company and the relative small costs of the product.

However, in order to deliver a complete and effective digitalization, our customer had to rethink the way employees use digital resources at work. My mix of strategies was not that helpful because it mentioned a more idealized situation rather than a practical setup for employees who need to change an entire workflow. After realizing that, I started to look for a more complete picture of the workflow inside the company of our client.” 

4. Tell me about a time when you were disappointed with yourself. 

Answer: “At the beginning of my 3-years experience as assistant for the Product Manager, I had a couple of rough weeks. I was disappointed because I couldn’t find creative ways to do my job. For me it was like a constant race. The Product Manager told me that we can’t be creative all day long. It’s ok to follow classical paths from time to time. He said that the most important time when I need to use creativity at its best is in difficult situations, when all the stakeholders expect the company and its people to do a great job.” 

5. Tell me about a time when you were unable to juggle all your responsibilities. 

Answer: “In one hectic day at my former company, I was a little bit confused about my tasks. I remember asking the Product Manager new questions every 5 minutes. That was a rough day, but not the only one. I think all the employees should learn how to cope with hectic days. I told myself I would be more aware of my role and responsibilities. Planning is important but execution is even more important.” 

Success – Examples of Questions 

1. tell me about something you’re proud of accomplishing. .

Answer: “Becoming an assistant to the Product Manager was an important accomplishment for me. The interviewers told me that I did a fantastic job. Later on, I got to demonstrate that I can provide valuable support to the Manager and innovative solutions when developing a product that was widely appreciated and bought by customers.” 

2. Tell me about a time when you reached an important goal. 

Answer: “When I was a Software Developer, I managed to help my team with a big project for the biggest music festival in Europe at that time. My work received kudos and our company was promoted on TV. My goal was to design a customer journey map for their event app. I did it and it turned out fantastic.” 

3. Tell me a specific insight you gained from something outside of work.

Answer: “When I did my Master’s Degree in Design Thinking, I met a professor who taught at Stanford Graduate School of Business. I asked him a lot about how companies can use design thinking to improve their businesses. I could say that he was the one that sparked my interest and my hunger for creativity. Later, I applied many of his strategies in my work with great results.” 

4. Tell me about a time when you went above and beyond the call of duty.

Answer: “One example that could illustrate how I went beyond the call of duty is the one when I helped the Product Manger to make a technical presentation for our product at the world’s biggest conference in technology. The Manager had some problems in his personal life and he was very distracted at that time. I remember my relatives coming to my house and me telling them that I was very busy helping my manager. Luckily, my relatives understood that and accepted my chaotic schedule.”

5. Tell me about a time when you had to show innovation. 

Advice: Tell the recruiters that you are familiar with success and that you understand how to be successful not just for yourself but also for a team and a company. 

A successful product solves a real life problem, has a fair price and attracts the customers through its unique features. A successful product manager knows how to deliver that product and to satisfy the need for that product. 

Answer: “Innovation is a topic that I am very fond of. One example is this one: I proposed an innovative proof-of-concept workshop with our corporate clients when I was an assistant to the Product Manager. I gathered all my expertise in software development and product management and put it into that workshop. Basically, I transformed the 2-way typical communication into a role play for all the participants. I chose this format so that everyone could understand their role and enjoy the workshop. The clients liked it, they liked to play with the product and to talk about its features during the presentation that I prepared for them.” 

Teamwork — Examples of Questions 

1. tell me about a time when you had to work across teams to accomplish something. .

Answer: “In my first year as a Junior Software Developer I had to work on a project that required expertise from multiple fields. I was shy at the beginning when asking for help but then I managed to take the lead and to create a special chat group where we could discuss our work. Discussion is important for the software industry. If I become a Product Manager at Sunreach, I plan to rely on the expertise of unique and different people and to debate ways to make our product a house-hold name. I would definitely use the democratic style when it comes to leadership.”

2. Tell me about a time when you mentored or aided a coworker. 

Answer: “As a Software Developer, I was in charge a few times with helping and giving advice to our junior software developers. I provided help right in their first month from their arrival at the company, especially with code debugging. I helped them because I wanted to share my expertise and also because they reminded me of my early days as a junior inside the company.” 

3. Tell me about a time when you had to compromise. 

Answer: “One compromise was made when I was assistant to the Product Manager. He gave me an important task to deliver, using his own methods. I wanted to have full autonomy. He didn’t agree. I had to solve the tasks using his methods. In exchange, I proposed to him to let me help with the next tasks by using my own methods.” 

4. Tell me about a time when you had to resolve a conflict.

Answer: “I remember a conflict based on misunderstanding the roles of team members when I was software developer at Central Tech Inc. For that particular project, I had to work on some settings of the product and my colleague had to test the settings and propose, if necessary, ideas for improvement.

The only thing was that my colleague started to propose ideas without testing the settings in depth. He told me that he had more experience than me and that he knows how things work. I proposed to have a one day break while continuing to work on the rest of the tasks and then we would see each other to look at the most important elements of the settings.

I told him that testing the settings in depth, not just proposing ideas, is not a waste of time but a new way to improve his excellent analytical skills. Later, I used a combination between letting things go for a while in order to improve the working atmosphere and peer recognition.”

5. Do you think you can handle our team and make use of everyone’ skills?

Advice: This is your opportunity during the product manager interview to demonstrate to the interviewers that you:

• can handle working with a diverse group of people,  
• understand how to interact with the coworkers,  
• are capable of applying strategies to maintain a good professional relationship with the team members, 
• learned how to move on beyond possible conflicts and misunderstandings with optimism and confidence. 

Answer: “Handling a team is a full-time commitment. You need to use the skills of each team member and to develop new skills in everyone. You needi to work on a product that attracts and satisfies the customers. 

I want to keep a professional relationship with all the employees, allow them to work on their interests related to various aspects of product development and management. I consider using work motivators to improve the performance of the team.

More than this, I am eager to collaborate with the team members and to find innovative solutions. Innovation is important in our industry. Only innovators can rule the world of tomorrow. And I am ready to work for your company so that you can be the one that rules and shapes a new tomorrow.” 

General questions about managing technological products 

1. how would you improve a technological product for online learning .

Answer: “I’m going to tackle this in a few parts. First, I would think about the goals I would have to achieve when improving the product for online learning such as getting more customers for an online learning platform, diversifying the educational packages for both youth and adults or improving collection of customer feedback. We  can decide if we also want to provide our customers with various open opportunities for learning at a more local or a more international level. 

For a tech product for online learning we can think of improving features like: play or download audio and video materials, save, edit and preview the user documents, chat interaction with other members who use the product, hold and record meetings, manage the personal account of the user or rating the overall experience.” 

2. How would you build buzz around our product? 

Answer: “Sunreach is selling a team management software and its vision is to innovate the way every team works. We should build buzz around the idea that teams can behave in an innovative way once they use our product. I even thought about a motto: “Your way of innovation in business!”.

Social media is the second most important element that can help us promote the product. I would build 4 campaigns for these 4 major channels: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Youtube. 

I would create posts on Facebook on how the daily tasks can be solved in an innovative way using our team management software. On Instagram I would focus on the people behind the product, their vision and their hobbies, hence promoting not just the product but also our organizational culture. On LinkedIn I would create behind the scenes posts where we build new features for the product and how these features keep up with the trends in the industry.

When it comes to Youtube, I would create a series of testimonials with case studies of team leaders that use the Sunreach software. A testimonial is more powerful than a plain image with a message. Basically, the buzz would be built around the ideas of innovative teams, product features and good reviews from the customers.” 

3. Would you launch an early minimum-viable product (MVP), or would you wait until the product is fairly full featured? 

Answer: “Thank you for this interesting question. There is no black or white answer for this question. Do we refer to your team management software? Do we refer to technical products in general? What might sound like a dilemma – launching what we already have vs. improving the product before selling it – is actually a problem of perspective. Let’s talk about the launch of the software. 

First, we must consider what the leaders of the company want and what are the market conditions at that particular moment. 

Second, we must consider whether we can afford to add new features to the product while staying alive on that market. We must have a source of profit for sure. 

Third, we must figure out what features of the product can be part of the MVP, in other words, prioritize the features that could be the most attractive for the potential customers. The most important features make the MVP, that version that can be used by customers. 

Nonetheless, we must think of the competitors and what other similar products might appear meanwhile on the market. To draw a conclusion, launching an early version of the product with 3 or 4 major features is better than waiting for a full featured product.” 

4. Your VP demands that you double revenue within four years. How would you go about creating a plan to do this?

Answer: “There are a few classical ways to increase and to double revenues: growing the number of sales and customers, increasing the sales for premium products, decreasing our prices at some point in time, improving our user and customer experience, scaling, acquisitions or even winning important grants from international bodies.  

When doing a plan to double the revenues we must take into consideration more categories of actions. The first category is about researching the market position of the company. We should ask questions like “What is our position on the market among the rest of the competitors?”. We need to find out if we can expand our network of customers by appealing to the customers of our competitors, for example. In addition to that, we have to research how the pricing plans affect our sales, especially the standard and premium plans. We need to know if we can rely on both large companies and ordinary customers. 

The second category of actions is about investing in attracting new customers as well as innovating the product itself. This could mean, for example, implementing a new type of communication with the customers and working on the actual features of the product. Attraction and innovation are the key components of increasing the brand awareness and the revenues at the same time. 

The third category of actions is related to the use of social media in promoting the product and converting our followers into active users and eventually, buyers. The social media content of a company is one important tool for advertising the product, communicating with followers and expressing the real benefits of the product to potential buyers. 

As a general rule, I would look at the market trends, the customer behavior patterns and the resources that the company can have to assure these efforts really pay off.”

5. You manage a product with three pricing plans: free, standard, and premium. What would you do if you saw that the sales of the premium product have fallen but those of the standard product have increased?

Answer: “It depends on the context of our business, whether it is B2B (selling the product to companies) or B2C (selling the product to individual customers). A company can select to focus more on ordinary customers or on big customers like enterprises.  

If the premium sales for a product have fallen, I would verify with my team more elements: what premium features are being less used by customers and why some customers might give up on them, in other words revisiting the customer journey map for the premium product. 

Second, we must check if we can afford to migrate one or more features from the premium plan to the standard plan, thus making this plan even more attractive for the customers. 

Third, we must consider how the decreased premium sales affect the overall revenue of the company and how we can compensate for these losses. As a general action to prevent big damages, I would continue to increase the sales for the standard plan and come up with ways to improve the features of the premium product. 

Or, even a better idea, we could ask what new features would persuade the clients of the standard plan to migrate to the premium plan.

6. You are about to launch a major change to the user interface of your company’s website. What sort of metrics would you want to monitor to notify you if there’s a problem? 

Answer:  “There are a couple of  typical problems that can occur when you bring a major change to your website: creating an initial confusion among the users, existence of broken links, increased error rate, difficulties of search on the website and many others. In this context, you can monitor these problems by looking at some simple metrics such as returning visitors, time on page, average time spent on the website and the number of helpdesk requests. A decrease in one of these metrics would imply a certain problem. 

I would say that the time spent on the website is an important metric. If you don’t spend time on the website it means first of all that you don’t like what you see. Of course, there is also the actual content, but this is another challenge of running a website. If the users don’t spend time on the website, the engagement rate drops. Another defining metric would be the number of returning visitors. Those visitors that looked on the website before the makeover and still return on the website are proof that the website is still attractive to them.”  

Brand-specific questions about managing famous technological products 

1. facebook (now meta) bought instagram for about $1 billion, even though instagram was making no money. why do you think facebook did this .

Answer: “Let me break this down by discussing the key components of the acquisition and then how those aligned with or threatened Facebook’s mission. Facebook’s mission is to connect people and help them share their lives. 

This acquisition involved acquiring three things: the company (employees), the product, and the users. Let’s think about these with respect to Facebook. While I’m sure Instagram had some very talented employees, the company was still pretty small at that time. I can’t imagine that was a strong driver of the $1 billion acquisition.

The product is a bit more interesting. Instagram created a beautiful photo sharing product, and this was probably pretty scary to Facebook. Photo sharing is really vital to a company whose mission is helping people share their lives; it was a big draw of Facebook and a key strength. 

The users are the other big part of the acquisition. As I recall, Instagram had a lot of users as of the acquisition and had essentially built its own social network. This is of course what Facebook is all about and, again, Instagram has succeeded there.  The size of Facebook’s user base is the big entry barrier for competitors. 

Ultimately, it seems like what Facebook might have seen is this hot, young startup which had suddenly started excelling in two areas of strength for Facebook: photos and community. Facebook probably felt they couldn’t afford to risk those areas or even allow another major player there. This is why Facebook might have done this acquisition.”  

2. How would you market Gmail in China? 

Answer: “Gmail is used around the globe by over 1,5 billion customers. Bringing Gmail to the Chinese customers would mean making the product available for the users, building a message around the product, creating a demand for the product and promoting the product to a larger audience. 

First of all, we could consider promoting the idea that Gmail is one of the simplest digital tools that every person should use in their job. We should envision Gmail as more than a messaging app because I am sure that there are plenty of local messaging apps (to give two examples: Wechat or Baidu Tieba). When it comes to increasing the demand for Gmail, I would focus on its online conferencing feature and its free storage up to 15 GB. I would also add an option for migrating the starred emails to a special folder so that the most important emails would be easy to find. 

We should also focus on the free plan and the intuitive user interface. I would also create testimonials with Chinese customers and social media contests to make the product more appealing to the potential users from this country.” 

3. What do you think of Google’s app marketplace? 

Answer: “Nowadays, pretty much all of the products designed by Google are deeply integrated in our lives and in our behaviors. Moreover, Google also stands out when it comes to its app marketplace.  Google Play is one of the most well-known online platforms that provides access to apps that can be downloaded by the internet users. This platform allows companies and developers to share their apps and to gain money (in the case of paid apps). 

I must say this app has an intuitive user interface and solves a specific problem of the users in a clever way. When it comes to improving the overall marketing strategy for this product, I would focus more on the unique features of the product, features that cannot be found on the platforms of their competitors such as Facebook and Microsoft.”  

4. How would you manage a new version of Google Workspace for large enterprises? 

Advice: Answering such questions during the product manager interview means designing strategies at both micro and macro levels. Frameworks such as SWOT and Marketing Mix (Product, Price, Promotion, Place, People) could be used for that. Prepare a list with the most common strategies that companies can use when improving their businesses. Examples of strategies: 

• Diversify revenue sources,
• Be the “One-Stop Shop for  A Type of Product”, 
• Be the Low-Cost Leader, 
• Reduce Reliance on a Key Buyer or Supplier, 
• Test a New Market. 

Usually, the interviewers don’t want an automatic answer or an exact solution. They are looking for ideas that demonstrate you have understood: 

• the needs and mission of a particular company, 
• customers, their behaviors and their purchase patterns, 
• the market competition and the economic landscape, 
• the driving forces within the industry and the trends that will shape the future of a certain product. 

Ask questions to understand the problem and provide a structure within your answer. Identify why the customers might use that product. Find out what other similar products are on the market, what are their strengths and weaknesses. Think of the features that can be improved and how you would implement these features by collaborating with the team. 

Answer: “Making a product launch means making a product available for customers. Google can afford to have a team that handles the product launch itself. If I were to manage this kind of team at Google, I would focus on 3 categories of elements: pre-launch of the product, the launch of the product itself and the aftermath of the launch of the product. 

The first category is organizing the launch of the product. We should take into consideration the calendar of the launch and the product roadmap, from what point we started to improve Google Workspace for enterprises and at what point we are now with this new version of the product. Next, establish the success metrics of the launch, what can we measure to see if the launch went well. Then, we have the features of the product and establish very clearly how these features can bring tangible benefits to big customers. We should also review the final tests for this new version of Google Docs and see what lessons we learned from these final tests.  

The second category is the launch of the product itself. The launch could be an actual physical event. There would be certain logistics involved: venue of the launch, guests and keynote-speakers, presentations for the audience, the availability of demos for participants, concluding remarks, promotion of the event on the social media channels of the company and getting feedback from the participants at the launch. 

The third category is represented by the aftermath of the launch of the product, how well the product was received by the target audience, the media and the social media followers. We should focus on the feedback of the most important stakeholders of the company, the customers themselves. Then we should take a look at what we did in terms of successful metrics of the launch. As a general rule, you get to see the real success of a product launch once the users rate their experience as an excellent one when using your product or your new version of the product.”

As a general rule, you get to see the real success of a product launch once the users rate their experience as an excellent one when using your product or the new version of your product.” 

5. You are working at Apple and instructed to launch a product that is not technical. What ideas can you come up with?

Answer: “I have 7 years experience in software development and 3 years experience as an assistant to the product manager, so my work revolves around technical products. However, I am not afraid to step out of my comfort zone and to experiment with non-technical products such as furniture, cars, electronics or clothes. There are 2 aspects to start with: today, even a non-technical product still has technology incorporated in and what makes a product successful are its core attributes that solve a specific problem and bring a benefit to a customer. 

Moving on to our Apple launch with a non-technical product, I could think of several elements that can be done alongside with my team: preparation of the launch of the product, the launch itself and evaluation of the launch. 

For the preparation of the launch, we could have the following steps: doing a research on the product itself and its core attributes; ensuring that all the tests made with the product were successful, ensuring that all the legal and financial requirements are met and establishing the success metrics for the launch itself. There is also another important step which is to create the user-documentation to make it easier for our potential customers to interact and use our product. 

For the launch itself, we should focus on presenting the practical benefits for customers when using the product, how we innovated along the way to get the final product, how can we solve the needs of our customers with this product, allowing the participants to test the product and make sure we integrate the newly product into the mainstream of the industry. Perhaps, we could even host a physical after party event to involve the stakeholders, the participants and mass media in the promotion of the product. 

For the evaluation of the launch of this non-technical product, we should focus on measuring the success of the launch by looking at the number of participants, the intensity of social media promotion, the number of positive reviews or the quality of interaction with the guests and participants. Getting feedback is also important. Our potential customers need to be put first and we have to make sure we understand their expectations and their attitude towards the product itself.”

Dear candidates for Product Manager positions, here is a summary of the most important things you should take into consideration when preparing for such an interview:  

• Interviewers are looking for candidates who will do the following: 
• Structure a problem: Even seemingly open-ended questions can, and should be, broken down into components. Find a way to tackle a problem in a structured way.
• Show strong instincts: A good future PM should be able to make good business decisions, even in the absence of exhaustive data. 
• Drive, Not Ride: You might not be the CEO of the product, but you are a leader. Show this by driving the product manager interview forward. Be relatively exhaustive in your response to a question and backup your answers with reasons.
• Think of more perspectives when answering these questions and most importantly, focus on the needs of the customers first of all. Then, focus on the need of the company to deliver a good product and to stand out in front of the competitors. The recruiters want to see your way of thinking and your way of solving in a creative and innovative manner all sorts of tasks, issues and dilemmas.  
• Express your creativity when bringing a solution to the table. Describe what resources, people and tricks you could use when solving that particular task. Demonstrate that you are open to novelty yet you rely on the classic formulas that worked for the world’s most successful companies. 
• Focus on the idea of responding to challenges with a smart attitude and proper actions. Challenges are constant nowadays. Every company and employee faces challenges and the way they respond to those challenges is vital for shaping their future in the business. 
• Engage in a mock-session with a professional working in product development, product management or for a technological company in general in order to see how you can handle the most common questions and try to convince them that you are a great person for the Product Manager position. 
• Be confident in yourself. The entire recruiting process can be a very complicated task for one person. However, that person should prove to herself first that she can be confident in her skills and abilities, face the challenge of a long and meaningful product manager interview and nevertheless, understand the stakes of being a successful product manager.

We wish you good luck!

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Product Management Case Study Interview Preparation Guide

Preparing for a product management case study interview can seem daunting. With the right preparation strategy, anyone can master this critical PM interview component.

First, we'll demystify case study interviews and their role in assessing PM candidates. Then you'll learn step-by-step techniques to solve case studies, along with sample responses. By the end, you'll have a game plan to confidently showcase your product thinking.

Introduction to Product Management Case Study Interviews

Product management case study interviews are an important part of the interview process for aspiring product managers. In these interviews, candidates are presented with a business case scenario and asked to analyze the situation, identify key issues, and propose data-driven solutions.

Preparing for PM case study interviews requires dedicating time to understand what these case studies entail, as well as practicing sample cases. With the right preparation, candidates can confidently demonstrate their skills in areas like product strategy, analytical thinking, and communication.

Understanding the Role of Case Studies in PM Interviews

Product management case studies aim to simulate real-world scenarios a PM could face. Interviewers use case study questions to evaluate how candidates would:

• Analyze ambiguous business situations
• Identify the key issues and problems
• Research potential solutions
• Use data and metrics to support decisions
• Communicate recommendations effectively

Essentially, case study interviews enable hiring managers to assess if a candidate can think strategically and make product decisions like an experienced PM.

Rather than testing specific subject knowledge, case studies evaluate a candidate's structured problem-solving abilities. Preparing for these interviews is therefore critical for aspiring product managers.

The Importance of Preparation for Product Management Success

Taking time to prepare for PM case studies interviews is an investment that pays dividends in the long run. Preparation builds three key success skills:

• Structured analytical thinking: Practice analyzing sample cases to develop a methodical approach to solving problems. Break down issues, research multiple solutions, use data to decide, and clearly communicate recommendations.
• Product management knowledge: Understand PM strategy frameworks to analyze case details from a product perspective. Recognize how elements like market conditions, user needs and tech constraints affect product decisions.
• Communication abilities: Construct logical narratives that explain your analysis and recommendations. Prepare to answer follow-up questions on the feasibility, impact and priorities of your proposed solutions.

With these core skills developed through case study preparation, candidates can tackle product management roles with the strategic thinking required to succeed. The time invested is well worth the career advancement and leadership opportunities that follow.

How to prepare for case study interview for product manager?

Here are 4 key things you should do to prepare for a product management case study interview:

Understand the case study you are getting

• Do research on the company and product. Understand the product's key features, target users, business model etc.
• Read up on similar products in the market. Compare features, pricing models, USPs etc.
• Product management case study interview questions often relate to the company's actual products/services. Having this context will help you think through the case.

Know who will be ingesting your case study

• Understand if your interviewers will be from product, marketing, technology or strategy roles.
• Align your approach and terminology to their background and expectations. A PM would look for different things vs a marketer.

Set barriers and clarify assumptions

• Clearly call out any assumptions you make due to lack of information.
• Highlight limitations and barriers that would impact proposed strategies. Interviewers want to see this critical thinking.

Apply the open-ended or narrow strategy

• For open-ended case studies, take a broad approach and think through multiple alternatives.
• For narrow case studies, go deep into analysis before making focused recommendations.

Following this product management case study interview prep approach will demonstrate strong analytical and critical thinking skills expected from PM candidates. Use the tips to tailor your case study interview preparation.

How do you write a case study in product management?

When writing a case study for a product management interview , the key is to demonstrate your structured thinking and ability to analyze data to drive decisions. Here are some tips:

Establish market characteristics

• Gather information on market size, growth trends, customer segments, competitive landscape, etc. This context sets the stage for your analysis.
• For go-to-market case questions, focus more on understanding customer needs, pain points, and willingness to pay.

Layout your approach

• Briefly explain how you would structure your analysis given the case data and timeline. For example:
• Customer discovery
• Competitor benchmarking
• Financial modeling
• Prototyping and testing

Prioritize your actions

• Walk through your proposed approach in sequence, explaining why you are taking certain actions first.
• For example, you may start by deeply understanding customer needs before developing product prototypes.

The key is to demonstrate a structured, data-driven approach to product decisions. Share your logic and assumptions clearly. Use cases and examples to illustrate key points.

Integrate feedback loops to iterate on product-market fit . Avoid big bang launches without validation.

By following this framework, you can showcase strong product management skills - even without prior PM experience!

How do you prepare for a case study interview?

Here are some key ways to prepare for a product management case study interview:

Review sample cases and outline your answers

• Search online for product management case study interview examples. Review the case details and business context thoroughly.
• Outline your approach to analyzing the case. Think through how you would frame the key issues, gather data, develop hypotheses, test solutions, present recommendations, etc.
• Draft sample responses to common case questions like "How would you design the product features?" or "What metrics would you track?" Refine your answers to demonstrate strong analytical and problem solving skills.

Practice mental math to work with quantitative data

• Case studies often involve numerical data analysis. Practice doing quick mental calculations to efficiently process statistics like revenue, user growth rates, conversion percentages, etc.
• Build intuition for metrics - e.g. is a 5% conversion rate good or bad? Getting comfortable working with numbers will help you have more productive discussions.

Review brain teasers and practice solving them

• Many case interviews incorporate business brain teasers to evaluate your logical thinking. Search for popular brain teasers and practice solving them under time pressure.
• Identify patterns in how you approach open-ended problems. Brainstorm multiple creative solutions and highlight your problem-solving process.

Practice case interviews with friends

• Set up mock case interviews with friends also applying for product management roles. Take turns being the interviewer and interviewee.
• Treat practice interviews seriously - have the interviewer give real-time feedback on your structured thinking.
• Iterate on your interview approach to sharpen your ability to clearly communicate complex ideas and solutions.

With diligent preparation across these areas, you'll feel more confident tackling a product management case study interview. Reach out for any other tips!

How do I prepare for a product management interview?

Here are 4 key ways to prepare for a product management interview :

• Study your frameworks - Get familiar with important PM frameworks like the Product Development Lifecycle, Opportunity Assessment, and Prioritization. Understand how and when to apply them. Resources like Product Gym's PM Program have case studies to practice.
• Research the "Four Mindsets of Product Management" - The four mindsets are user focus, business focus, technical focus, and team leadership. Prepare stories from your experience that demonstrate these mindsets.
• Become a product management nerd - Immerse yourself in PM best practices. Read blogs, listen to podcasts, and connect with other PMs. Resources like Product Management Case Studies and Product Design can level up your knowledge.
• Don't be shy about asking your network for help - Reach out to friends, colleagues, mentors who have PM experience. Ask for their tips, practice interviews, feedback on your stories. Leverage your network.

The key is structured preparation across frameworks, mindsets and soft skills. Resources like Sample Questions and interview tips are helpful. With practice, research and help from your network, you can ace your PM interview.

Dissecting Product Management Case Study Interview Questions

Product management case study interviews aim to evaluate a candidate's analytical thinking, problem-solving abilities, communication skills, and overall fit for the product management role. Here are some of the most common types of PM case study interview questions you may encounter:

Challenges in Product Design and How to Navigate Them

Product design case studies focus on the ideation, prototyping, and testing involved in bringing a new product to market. Some examples of product design case study questions include:

• How would you design an app to allow travelers to easily book flights, hotels, rental cars, and other travel arrangements all in one place? Walk through your thought process from idea generation to prototyping and user testing.
• Our company is looking to launch a smart home device. How would you approach the product design process? Outline key considerations around hardware components, software capabilities, target consumer segments, pricing strategy, and go-to-market plan.

To tackle these types of case studies, structure your thought process using a framework like the double diamond design process. Clarify the problem you are trying to solve, ideate potential solutions, describe how you would prototype and test your ideas, and determine how to measure success once launched. Discuss tradeoffs you may need to make regarding features, pricing, and timeline. Provide realistic examples if possible.

Strategizing for Product Success: A Look at Product Strategy Case Studies

Product strategy case studies deal with high-level strategic issues like market positioning, growth opportunities, and competition. Some examples include:

• Our food delivery app has solid market share in urban areas. How would you expand into suburban and rural markets? Consider pricing, driver supply, restaurant availability, and marketing tactics.
• Our e-commerce site seems to have hit a plateau in terms of new customer acquisition. How would you analyze why and determine new strategies for growth?

For these types of case studies, leverage frameworks like Porter's Five Forces to analyze the competitive landscape. Outline the Total Addressable Market (TAM) and serviceable markets to quantify growth potential. Use data to back up your recommendations around pricing, partnerships, marketing channels, and positioning. Discuss risks and provide contingency plans.

Mastering Quantitative Analysis in PM Case Studies

Quantitative PM case studies require breaking down and analyzing numerical data to drive insights and strategy. Examples include:

• Our food delivery app is seeing higher customer churn over the past few months. Based on the provided customer usage data, what insights can you draw about why customers are churning, and what would you recommend to address it?
• We are considering a subscription pricing model for our software rather than a per-seat licensing model. Using the attached financial data, analyze the pros and cons of this pricing change and whether you would recommend for or against it.

For analyzing numerical data, leverage methods like cohort analysis, A/B testing analysis, pricing models, ratio analysis, and forecasting. Structure your thought process, analyze the data to draw insights about root causes, conceptualize solutions or strategic recommendations, and determine how you would measure success if implemented. Quantify the market opportunity and expected business impact to build a compelling case.

Preparing for the variety of PM case studies noted above takes practice over time. Work through examples, learn relevant frameworks, sharpen your quantitative abilities, and hone your communication skills. With diligent preparation, you can master the PM case interview and demonstrate your ability to strategically solve problems.

A Structured Approach to Solving PM Case Studies

A framework all PM candidates should follow when working through a case study.

Clarifying the Case Study Prompt: The First Step to Success

When presented with a product management case study interview prompt, it is crucial to take a moment to clearly understand the key details. This includes clarifying any ambiguous information by asking thoughtful questions of the interviewer.

Be sure to identify the product management case study interview goals and constraints provided in the prompt before beginning your analysis. Understanding these guides will enable you to tailor your response appropriately.

For example, key goals may relate to increasing revenue, improving user retention rates, or reducing customer support cases. Constraints could include budget limitations, technical capabilities, or timelines.

Taking the time upfront to comprehend the case study setup will pay dividends in structuring an effective response later on. Don't rush this step!

Why Structuring Matters: Organizing Your Case Study Response

With a clear understanding of the product management case study interview prompt established, the next step is organizing your response. This is where outlining an agenda slide can be invaluable.

An agenda slide visually sequences the main points you intend to cover in your response. This demonstrates to your interviewer that you can methodically break down the complex problem presented in the case study.

Typically, an effective agenda slide for a PM case study interview will include:

• Clarifying questions
• Key assumptions
• Quantitative analysis
• Qualitative analysis
• Recommendations

Walking through each agenda item in a structured manner lends credibility to your thought process. It also ensures all critical aspects are covered before presenting your final recommendations.

Skipping this organizing step often leads responses feeling disjointed or lacking strategic insight. So take the time to outline your game plan!

Analytical Super Hack: Systematic Analysis for Insightful Conclusions

With your response structured, you can now dive into systematically analyzing the details presented in the product case study examples .

A helpful framework here involves first conducting quantitative analysis based on any numerical data provided - user numbers, conversion rates, revenue metrics, etc. Identify trends in the data and form hypotheses about what could be driving observed outcomes.

Next conduct qualitative analysis based on descriptions of user pain points, customer feedback quotes, persona details, etc. Look for common themes that either validate or disprove your hypotheses.

Finally, synthesize your quantitative and qualitative analyses to uncover powerful insights that will inform your recommended solutions. Don't jump straight to the recommendations without backing them up with analytical rigor!

Following this structured analytical approach demonstrates the strategic thinking and attention-to-detail that PM interviewers are looking for. So don't forget this super hack!

Essential PM Metrics and Concepts for Case Study Mastery

Optimizing user funnels in product management.

Understanding user funnels is critical for product managers. A funnel visualizes the customer journey from initial awareness to becoming an engaged user. Key metrics include:

• Acquisition : The number of new users acquired over a period. This measures the effectiveness of acquisition channels.
• Activation : The percentage of new users who have a meaningful first experience with the product. This indicates whether the onboarding flow is working.
• Retention : The percentage of users who continue using the product over time. This quantifies engagement and stickiness.

To optimize funnels, product managers should:

• Set goals for each metric and prioritize improvements
• Analyze data to identify drop-off points in the funnel
• Run experiments to reduce friction and improve conversion

For example, if activation rate is low, we could A/B test tweaks to the onboarding flow. Getting the funnel right is key for sustainable growth.

The Art of Market Sizing for Product Managers

There are two main approaches to estimating total addressable market (TAM):

• Top-down : Start with the total spending in an industry, then segment by product category and buyer persona. Apply adoption rate assumptions.
• Bottom-up : Identify target customers, understand their spending habits, then extrapolate to the broader market.

For example, a PM could research the pet care industry TAM, narrow to pet insurance, then apply an adoption curve for their specific product. Or survey potential customers on willingness-to-pay.

Being able to accurately size markets helps prioritize opportunities and forecast growth potential. Assumptions should be validated through customer research.

Exploring Monetization Models in Product Management

There are several common monetization models:

• Subscription : Users pay a recurring fee for ongoing access, e.g. SaaS apps. Provides predictable revenue.
• Ad-supported : Free for users, revenue from advertisements. Scales with user base.
• Transactional : Users pay per transaction, e.g. ecommerce. Revenue aligns with usage.
• Freemium : Free tier to acquire users, paid tier for advanced features. Upsell opportunity.

Choosing the right model involves evaluating customer willingness-to-pay, competitive landscape, and marginal costs. Testing pricing sensitivity can optimize monetization strategy.

Understanding monetization early helps build business models that work long-term. Pricing should balance value delivered and market standards.

Mastering the Product Manager Case Study Presentation

Designing impactful product manager case study slides.

When designing slides for a product manager case study interview presentation, focus on creating a logical flow that clearly conveys your thought process.

Here are some tips:

• Lead with the framework. Open by introducing the framework you will use to structure your response (e.g. Market Sizing, 5 Cs, Pros/Cons). This sets expectations.
• Use simple, readable slides. Avoid cramming slides with too much text or complex graphics. Use bullet points, headings, and simple charts to communicate key points.
• Map the framework to slides. Devote individual slides to each part of the framework so your presentation aligns logically.
• Visualize data-driven points. Use basic charts, graphs, or illustrations to visualize market size analyses, financial models, or user research insights.
• Summarize key takeaways. Close by recapping your overall recommendation and next steps in a final summary slide.

Effective Verbal Delivery Techniques for PM Interviews

When presenting your case study analysis, focus on speaking clearly while engaging your interviewer:

• Make eye contact. Look up from your slides frequently and make eye contact with your interviewer rather than reading directly from slides.
• Speak slowly and clearly. Nerves can accelerate speech, so consciously slow your pace. Enunciate words clearly as well.
• Use natural gestures. Use hand gestures and facial expressions to help convey your points rather than stiff body language.
• Gauge reactions and adjust. Observe interviewer reactions and body language. If they seem confused, clarify or provide more context.
• Be conversational. Pose rhetorical questions and speak conversationally rather than a rigid, scripted delivery.

Strategies for Handling Questions During Your Case Presentation

Fielding interviewer questions smoothly will demonstrate knowledge and build credibility:

• Listen fully before responding. Let the interviewer finish the entire question before jumping to reply. Repeat back key parts to confirm understanding.
• Ask clarifying questions if needed. Don't be afraid to ask for clarification if a question is unclear. Break the question down into parts.
• Provide concise yet comprehensive answers. Respond directly and fully while avoiding excessively long answers. Stick to relevant insights.
• Admit if you don't know. Don't try to invent answers. If you truly don't know, say so. Offer related experience or insights that could help.
• Connect answers back to framework. Relate your responses directly back to the parts of the framework covered earlier.

By designing structured slides, delivering insights clearly, and handling questions tactfully, you can showcase your product management skills during case study presentations. With practice, the case interview can become a platform to demonstrate your strategic thinking.

Practice with Real-World Product Case Study Examples

Working through real-world product management case study examples with model solutions is an excellent way to prepare for PM case interviews. Here are two examples to try.

Case Study Example: Food Delivery App Prototype Development

You've been asked to evaluate potential features and conduct usability tests for a food delivery app prototype.

Consider key elements like:

• Onboarding flow
• Menu navigation
• Order placement
• Driver tracking

Develop a prioritized list of features to test based on expected impact and effort required. Outline your usability test approach focusing on:

• Testing environment
• Participant criteria
• Key tasks to evaluate
• KPIs to measure

Provide any other recommendations on how to iterate and improve the app experience.

Case Study Example: Crafting a Growth Strategy for a Social Media Platform

A new social media platform wants to compete with incumbents like Facebook and Twitter.

Outline a strategy focused on:

• Defining the target audience
• Key platform differentiators
• Growth channels to activate
• Engagement and retention tactics

Include quantitative projections on addressable market size and multi-year growth trajectories. Provide examples of tactics to drive growth through both product development and marketing initiatives.

Resources for Comprehensive PM Interview Preparation

Overview of useful sites, books, and courses for continuing your PM interview preparation.

Leveraging RocketBlocks and Product Gym's PM Program

RocketBlocks and Product Gym's PM Program are two specialized platforms focused on preparing aspiring product managers for case study interviews.

RocketBlocks provides customized case prep based on your background and goals, with detailed explanations and frameworks around consumer tech PM interviews. Their platform offers 100+ cases, 1,500+ mocks, and customized study plans to help you practice.

Similarly, Product Gym's PM Program offers a structured 8-week prep course covering all aspects of PM interview preparation. Their training methodology focuses on real interview practice with feedback from senior PMs. Some key components include weekly mentor sessions, mock interviews based on actual PM case studies, and access to an exclusive PM community.

Both RocketBlocks and Product Gym emphasize actually practicing cases rather than just learning concepts. By working through numerous concrete examples and receiving expert feedback, these platforms aim to simulate the actual PM interview experience. This helps prepare aspiring PMs to think on their feet and structure their problem solving approach in a way that impresses interviewers.

Essential Reading: Books and Publications for Aspiring Product Managers

In addition to specialized PM interview prep platforms, reading books and publications focused on product management is invaluable preparation. Here are some top recommendations:

• Decode and Conquer : Regarded by many as the PM interview bible, this book by Lewis C. Lin provides a comprehensive framework and over 35 actual case walkthroughs. It covers product sense, estimation questions, metrics analysis, product design, and product strategy.
• Swipe to Unlock : A bestseller by Neel Mehta, Parth Detroja, and Aditya Agashe, this book shares insights from PM interviews at top technology companies. It features a 5-step framework, sample solutions, and tips from senior PMs.
• Cracking the PM Interview : Focused on product strategy and analytics questions, this book by Gayle McDowell has an extensive overview of PM interview best practices, with detailed examples.
• PM publications : Industry sites like Mind the Product and Product School regularly feature PM interview advice and case studies, which are quite informative.

Immersing yourself in specialized books and publications helps you internalize key PM frameworks while also learning how to structure your thinking. This level of preparation is what separates average from exceptional candidates.

Concluding Game Plan and Next Steps

To recap, here are some of the most critical skills to develop to prepare for a product management case study interview:

Mastering Core Competencies for PM Interview Success

• Structuring: Practice breaking down complex problems and organizing information clearly. Use frameworks like MECE to structure your thinking.
• Quantitative analysis: Brush up on your math and Excel skills. Make sure you can analyze data, create basic models, and communicate insights.
• Communication: Refine your ability to present ideas concisely. Prepare to answer questions clearly and confidently.
• Product judgment: Understand how to prioritize ideas and make product tradeoffs. Study examples and practice applying product principles.

Expanding Your PM Knowledge Base: A Continuous Learning Process

Here are some additional things you can do to continue expanding your PM knowledge:

• Read industry newsletters like The Hustle to stay updated on the latest tech and business trends.
• Study core SaaS metrics like customer acquisition cost, lifetime value, churn rate, etc. Understand how changes impact growth.
• Research companies you may interview with. Analyze their products, business models, and competitive landscape.

Consistently building your PM skills and knowledge will help you bring more insight into case study interviews. With the right preparation and practice, you can demonstrate your capabilities when it matters most. ‍

Additional Resources

• Real-world case studies to help you ace Product Management Interviews
• Case Studies for Product Management: A Deep Dive
• Product Teardown by The Product Folks
• How to make a Product Management Portfolio?

Latest Posts

This article will explore how product management side projects can catalyze professional development by allowing you to experiment with new methodologies and enhance your skillset.

This comprehensive guide promises to equip you with a structured approach to tackling product case studies. You'll gain frameworks to methodically analyze prompts and craft insightful solutions.

Through real-world application, valuable feedback, and community engagement with groups like The Product Folks, PMs can significantly accelerate their skill development and expertise in the dynamic field of product management.

Come For the Content ‍ Stay For the Community

Hacking the Case Interview

Have an upcoming product manager case study interview and don’t know how to prepare or answer these challenging case study questions?

In this comprehensive article, we’ll show you an intuitive, robust way to crush your product manager case study interviews even if you have no prior business or product experience.   We’ll also share with you the exact resources to learn product manager case study interviews the fastest way possible.

If you find this article helpful, you’ll love our product manager interview book . It’ll teach you how to answer 98% of every possible type of product manager interview question you could get asked in just a few hours of reading.

What is a Product Manager Case Study Interview?

A product manager case study interview is a 15 to 45-minute interview in which you are placed in a hypothetical business situation and asked to strategize, design, improve, or grow a particular product. It is a special type of interview question used to evaluate candidates in all product roles.

A product manager case study interview begins with the interviewer giving you a broad, ambiguous business or product question. Examples of questions you may see include:

• How would you design a product that does a particular function or serve a particular purpose?
• How would you improve a particular product?
• How would you improve sales for a particular product?
• How should we respond to the actions of a competitor?
• Is there a company we should consider acquiring?
• Should we enter a new market?

Typically, companies will ask these questions for a particular product that the company sells. However, companies may use other, more well-known products instead if their products are too technical, complicated, or obscure.

What are the Different Types of Product Manager Case Study Interviews?

There are four major types of product manager case study interview questions: product design, product improvement, product growth, and product strategy questions.

Product Design Case Study Interview

Product design case study interviews ask how you would design a particular product or service. Examples of product design case study questions include:

How would you design an alarm clock for the blind?

• How would you design a smart refrigerator that helps users reduce food waste?
• How would you design a mobile application for children to learn a new language?
• How would you design a user-friendly interface for a voice-controlled virtual assistant device?
• How would you design an interactive museum exhibit to engage visitors in learning about ancient civilizations?

Product Improvement Case Study Interview

Product improvement case study interviews ask how you would improve an existing product or service. Examples of product improvement case study questions include:

• How would you improve the iPhone?
• How would you improve Google Maps?
• How would you improve Spotify?
• How would you improve the microwave?
• How would you improve the check-in process at a hotel?

Product Growth Case Study Interview

Product growth case study interviews ask how you would grow sales for an existing product or service. Examples of product growth case study questions include:

• How would you increase the number of Netflix subscribers?
• How would you increase the number of daily active users on Instagram?
• How would you increase customer engagement on Tik Tok?
• How would you increase revenue for LinkedIn?
• How would you increase profit for Amazon?

Product Strategy Case Study Interview

Product strategy case study interviews ask how you would make strategic business decisions regarding a product, service, or for the company overall. Examples of important strategic decisions include:

• Deciding how to respond to a competitor
• Deciding how to price a product
• Deciding whether to acquire another company
• Deciding whether to enter a new market
• Deciding whether to launch a new product

Why Do Companies Use Product Manager Case Study Interviews?

Companies use product manager case study interviews to simulate problems that product managers face daily, evaluate how candidates think, and predict on-the-job success.

1. Simulate challenges that product managers face daily

Product manager case studies closely simulate the problems that product managers face in their role. By presenting candidates with real world scenarios, companies gain valuable insight into how candidates react when faced with a challenging, ambiguous, or broad problem.

These simulations provide a glimpse into how the candidate may actually perform as a product manager. Through product manager case study interviews, companies assess candidates' readiness to tackle the diverse array of challenges inherent in product management roles, ensuring they possess the necessary skills and mindset to excel.

2. Evaluate how candidates think

Conducting product manager case study interviews allows companies to evaluate not only what candidates know, but also how they think. By presenting candidates with hypothetical scenarios or problems to solve, companies gain insight into their thought processes, analytical abilities, and approach to decision making.

This assessment goes beyond assessing technical knowledge or specific skill sets, focusing instead on candidates' problem solving capabilities, creativity, and critical thinking skills.

3. Predict on the job success

Product manager case study interviews play a pivotal role in predicting candidates' on-the-job success by providing a glimpse into their ability to apply their knowledge and skills in practical contexts.

By evaluating candidates' performance in simulated scenarios relevant to the role, companies can gauge their potential to drive product success, collaborate with cross-functional teams, and deliver tangible outcomes.

Candidates that do well in product manager case study interviews signal a readiness to tackle the challenges of product management, minimizing hiring risks and increasing confidence in their ability to contribute meaningfully to the company’s objectives.

What Do Product Manager Case Study Interviews Assess?

Product manager case study interviews assess: problem solving skills, communication skills, product vision and strategy, creativity and innovation, and industry knowledge and expertise.

Problem solving skills

Product manager case study interviews quickly assess a candidate's problem solving skills. These case studies simulate real world challenges, allowing hiring managers to observe how candidates approach complex problems, break them down into manageable components, and develop viable solutions.

By evaluating a candidate's ability to think critically, creatively, and analytically, companies gain insight into their capacity to navigate the different challenges faced as a product manager.

Communication skills

Effective communication is a crucial skill for product managers who must interact with diverse stakeholders across an organization. Product manager case study interviews provide an opportunity to evaluate a candidate's ability to articulate their thoughts clearly, convey complex ideas succinctly, and engage stakeholders effectively.

Strong communicators can convey product vision compellingly, aligning stakeholders around a shared objective. They can build rapport and trust, facilitating seamless teamwork and driving successful product outcomes.

Product vision and strategy

Central to the role of a product manager is the ability to formulate a compelling product vision and strategy. Product manager case study interviews allow companies to assess a candidate's capacity to think strategically, envision the future trajectory of a product, and develop a product roadmap.

Through articulating a clear product vision, defining measurable objectives, and outlining a coherent strategy, candidates demonstrate their strategic acumen and ability to translate abstract concepts into actionable plans.

A strong understanding of market dynamics, customer needs, and competitive landscape informs a robust product strategy, enabling candidates to devise innovative solutions that resonate with target audiences and drive growth.

Creativity and innovation

In an increasingly competitive landscape, companies seek product managers who can infuse creativity and innovation into their product development process. Product manager case study interviews provide a way to evaluate a candidate's ability to think outside the box, challenge conventional wisdom, and generate novel ideas.

Candidates are tasked with solving hypothetical problems or brainstorming innovative features, offering insights into their creative problem solving skills and ability to push boundaries.

By encouraging candidates to explore unconventional solutions, companies identify individuals who can drive product differentiation and deliver transformative products that captivate users and outpace competitors.

Industry knowledge and expertise

A deep understanding of the industry landscape is essential to being a great product manager. Product manager case study interviews allow companies to assess a candidate's industry knowledge, domain expertise, and familiarity with relevant market trends and technologies.

Candidates are expected to demonstrate their understanding of industry dynamics, customer behaviors, regulatory considerations, and emerging technologies that may impact product development.

How to Solve Product Manager Case Study Interviews

For each type of product manager case study interview question, we’ve detailed the exact steps you should follow to deliver an outstanding answer and impress your interviewer.

How to Solve Product Design or Improvement Case Study Interviews

When asked how you would improve or design a product, resist the urge to list the first few ideas that come to your head. Instead, follow this systematic approach to demonstrate to the interviewer how you think about the product improvement and design process.

There are six main steps to solving product design or improvement case study interviews.

1. Define the goal

It is difficult to design or improve a product unless you have a specific and clear goal in mind. What are you trying to achieve?

The way you design or improve a product will change drastically depending on what you are trying to achieve. So, it is important that you confirm with the interviewer what the explicit goal is.

Are you trying to increase the number of monthly users? Are you trying to increase revenue per user? Is the goal to increase customer engagement? All of these different goals have drastically different solutions.

2. Identify a customer segment to target

The goal of this step is to focus and narrow down the scope of product improvement or design to one specific customer segment.

There are two reasons why you should do this.

One, customers can have a wide range of needs and preferences. Trying to improve or design a product that would benefit every single customer can be very challenging.

Two, by focusing on a specific customer segment, you can develop product improvements and designs that are more specific and tailored to the segment’s needs. You will avoid suggesting product ideas that are generic and not impactful.

Therefore, start by listing the different customer segments that come to mind. Select one segment and provide a reason why you are focusing on that segment.

You might choose a segment because they are the largest segment or you might pick a segment if their needs are underserved.

3. Select a pain point to focus on

Brainstorm a list of pain points for the selected customer segment. These can be unmet customer needs or features of the product that customers find frustrating, time-consuming, or difficult to use.

Select one pain point and provide a reason why you are focusing on it. You might select a pain point if it is the most common, the most severe, or the most practical to solve for.

4. Brainstorm product improvements or designs

Now that you have chosen a pain point to focus on, brainstorm a list of different ways to solve for that pain point.

Try to have at least 3 – 5 different ideas. Include a few ideas that are creative and unconventional. This demonstrates originality and out-of-the-box thinking.

If you are having difficulty generating enough ideas, you can use the SCAMPER framework to help you brainstorm ideas.

SCAMPER stands for substitute, combine, adapt, modify, put to another use, eliminate, and reverse.

• Substitute : Replace an element or feature with something else
• Combine : Merge different elements or features to create something new
• Adapt : Alter an existing idea to better fit a new context or need
• Modify : Make changes to the attributes, such as size, shape, color, or other characteristics
• Put to another use : Find new applications for an existing idea
• Eliminate : Remove unnecessary components or features
• Reverse : Change the order or perspective of elements or features

5. Assess which idea is best

For this step, create a list of criteria to assess your different ideas. Common criteria include:

• Magnitude of impact
• User experience
• Ease of implementation

Select the most important criteria based on the nature of the product and the pain point. Afterward, assess each of your product ideas based on the list of criteria you have developed.

You can assess your ideas either quantitatively or qualitatively.

The most common way to quantitatively score ideas is to give them one, two, or three points for each criteria. The idea that has the highest total number of points will be chosen.

Some criteria may be significantly more important than others. In this case, you can consider weighting the point values differently. For example, if the magnitude of impact is by far the most essential criteria, you can double the point value. Each idea will be given two, four, or six points for this criteria.

In assessing your ideas qualitatively, talk through how each idea performs on the criteria you have selected. Choose the improvement or design that has the most positive assessment overall.

6. Explain how you would test this

After you have selected your best idea, suggest how you would test whether this product improvement or design works. Specify what metrics you would want to measure to determine this.

This step is not always necessary, but it demonstrates to the interviewer that you can think like a product manager. Product roles involve a lot of testing and iterating on features and improvements.

A/B testing is the most common way to test a new product feature or design. In A/B testing, you compare the performance of two variations of a product against one another.

Typically, you would run an experiment in which one group of customers is given the original or older product and another group of customers is given the new and improved product.

After defining the right metrics to measure performance, you can determine which version of the product performs better.

How to Solve Product Growth Case Study Interviews

They key to solving product growth case study interviews is to have a comprehensive growth framework where you can systematically list and talk through all of the major ways to grow.

A case study framework is a tool to structure and break down business problems into smaller components.

You can think about growth through two major categories, organic growth and inorganic growth. These two categories form the foundation of our growth strategy case framework.

Organic growth

The most common type of growth that companies pursue is organic growth, which is growth driven by expanding output or engaging in internal activities. In other words, the company is growing through its own capabilities and efforts.

Organic growth can be segmented into growth through existing revenue sources and growth through new revenue sources.

Growth through existing revenue sources is either driven by an increase in quantity of units sold or by an increase in average price per unit sold.

To increase the quantity of units sold, a company can:

• Improve their product
• Decrease prices
• Sell through new distribution channels
• Target new customer segments
• Expand into new geographies
• Invest more in marketing and sales
• To increase the average price per unit sold, the company can:
• Increase prices for their products
• Focus on selling higher priced products

Remember that changing prices will impact quantity of units sold, so it is important to look at the net effect price changes have on revenue.

To drive growth through new revenue sources, a company can:

• Launch new products
• Launch new services

 Inorganic growth

Inorganic growth, on the other hand, is growth driven by acquisitions, joint ventures, or partnerships.

The first way that a company can grow inorganically is by acquiring another company. This gives the acquiring company all of the revenue that the acquisition target generates. In addition, there may be revenue synergies that the acquiring company can realize.

Acquiring a company gives the acquiring company access to the acquisition target’s distribution channels, customers, and products. The acquiring company may be able to increase revenues by cross-selling products, up-selling products, or bundling products together.

In a joint venture, two or more companies enter a business arrangement in which they pool together resources and share risk in accomplishing a particular task. Each company in the joint venture is responsible for profits, losses, and costs associated with the project.

A partnership is an association between two or more companies that provides some kind of benefit to each partner. This is slightly different from a joint venture because in a partnership, companies do not necessarily have to combine resources or efforts. They just need to be associated with each other.

How to Solve Product Strategy Case Study Interviews

When answering a product strategy question, you should create a framework to structure your thoughts rather than saying the first few ideas that come to mind.

As a reminder, a framework is a tool to structure and break down business problems into smaller components. The answers to the questions in your framework will help you answer the overall product strategy question.

There are six steps to creating outstanding frameworks to answer product strategy case study interview questions.

1. Memorize eight robust business categories

There are eight broad business categories that are frequently looked at when making product strategy decisions.

By memorizing these eight categories, you’ll have an easier time creating an outstanding framework rather than having to create frameworks from scratch each time.

These eight business categories are:

• Market: market size, market growth rate, average profit margins in the market, market trends or changes (e.g., technology, regulation)
• Competition: number of competitors, market share of competitors, competitive advantage of competitors, trends or changes happening among competitors
• Company: products and services, strengths, competitive advantages, capability gaps, weaknesses, growth trajectory, synergies
• Product: product benefits, product drawbacks, product differentiation, product lifecycle stage
• Customer: number of customer segments, characteristics of each segment, attractiveness of each segment, customer needs and preferences, customer purchasing behaviors
• Profitability: revenue, costs, breakeven, return on investment, payback period
• Alternatives: alternative markets, alternative products, alternative partnerships or strategic alliances, alternative acquisition targets, alternative investments, alternative strategies
• Risks: major risks, likelihood of risks, severity of risks, mitigation of risks

For each of these broad business categories, we’ve included a few potential topics to give you a sense of what each category means or encompasses.

You will only need to memorize the eight broad business categories. You do not need to memorize all of the potential topics under each.

2. When asked a strategy question, ask for a few minutes to structure your thoughts

When given a product strategy case study interview question, ask for a few minutes to structure your thoughts. Almost every time, the interviewer will give you time to develop a framework.

3. Mentally run through the eight business categories and select the 3-4 most relevant ones

Next, mentally run through the eight business categories that you’ve memorized and select the 3-4 most relevant ones.

3-4 is the ideal number of categories for your framework. It is the right balance of comprehensiveness and simplicity.

Any fewer than 3-4 categories and your framework may not be comprehensive enough. You may be missing critical questions that are necessary to answer the strategy question.

Any more than 3-4 categories and your framework becomes too large and complicated. You also risk having redundancies in your framework.

4. If you are unable to select 3-4 relevant business categories, think of your own business categories to include

If you are unable to get 3-4 categories in your framework after running through the memorized list of business categories, then it is time to think of your own business categories to include.

This happens more commonly when given atypical or unusual product strategy case study interview questions.

Remember, the eight broad business categories you memorized work for the vast majority of strategy questions, but does not cover all of them.

5. Add specific questions under each business category you’ve selected

Once you have identified the 3-4 major categories in your framework, add sub-bullets or questions underneath each of them to add more detail.

6. Walk the interviewer through your framework and answer

When you’ve finished developing your framework, walk your interviewer through it.

At the end of each major category, give your opinion on which answer or recommendation it supports.

Once you’ve walked the interviewer through your entire framework, you should have an overall answer to the product strategy case study interview.

Product Manager Case Study Interview Examples

We’ve compiled a few product manager case study interview examples with complete answers below. These examples should give you a good sense of what outstanding answers sound like.

Product Manager Case Study Interview Example #1

How would you improve YouTube?

For this question, I’ll assume that the goal of the improvement is to increase user engagement on the platform, which can be measured as the amount of time a user spends on YouTube.

First, I’ll think through the different customer segments and pick one to focus on. Three customer segments immediately come to mind:

• Entertainment seekers are users that are bored who are looking for interesting videos to watch to pass the time
• Information seekers are users looking to learn a new skill or acquire information on a topic
• Music seekers are users looking for background music or sounds to play while they are doing something else

Out of these segments, I will focus on entertainment seekers because this segment probably makes up the most significant portion of YouTube’s user base.

Next, I’ll identify a pain point to focus on. Entertainment seekers have a few different pain points:

• The discovery process they go through to find entertaining videos takes time and effort
• Entertainment seekers find long videos dull and too slow to watch
• They get irritated when videos have clickbait titles that do not live up to expectations.

Among these pain points, I’m going to focus on the tedious video discovery process because it is probably the biggest pain point for these users.

Now, I will brainstorm a few ideas on how to make the video discovery process easier.

• YouTube could recommend videos based on videos that friends have seen. Since friends tend to have similar interests and tastes, these videos will likely be entertaining to entertainment seekers
• YouTube can have a continuous, curated video feed such that users do not have to search for the next video. Users can click on a skip button to immediately jump into the following video, which will be curated by an algorithm based on video history
• YouTube could send a curated playlist to the user each day. These videos would be selected by an algorithm based on video history

I will assess each of these ideas on their impact, user experience, and ease of implementation.

The first idea, recommending videos based on videos that friends have seen, would have minimal impact if the user does not have friends that use YouTube frequently.

Additionally, this idea does not change the user experience much because entertainment seekers would still need to decide whether to watch a recommended video. The upside of this idea is that it would not be difficult to implement.

The second idea, having a continuous, curated video feed, could have a tremendous impact. It removes the burden of decision-making from entertainment seekers because YouTube videos are automatically played.

The user experience is also an improvement because the user only needs to click a skip button when they are bored. The downside of this idea is that developing a good algorithm could require substantial investment.

The third idea, sending a curated playlist to the user each day, would have some impact on users. The decision making process is slightly simplified because the user receives a shorter list of videos to choose from. However, once the playlist is finished, the user would still need to look for more videos on their own. 

Additionally, the user experience is not ideal. Getting an email or notification every day can be annoying. The upside of this idea is that it is the most straightforward to implement.

 Based on my assessment, the continuous, curated video feed seems to be the most promising. 

To test this idea, I would develop a minimal viable product and use A/B testing to assess the performance of this feature.

One customer group would be given access to this feature while another customer group would not. I would measure the difference in minutes of video consumption between the two groups for one month to determine if user engagement has increased.

Product Manager Case Study Interview Example #2

For this task, let’s assume that the goal is to design an alarm clock that works reliably in waking up the user and is as easy to use as possible. 

Additional alarm clock functionalities, such as checking the weather or listening to the radio, will not be considered.

The customer segment has already been defined, the blind.

There are four use cases that we need to design for:

• Setting an alarm
• Checking to see if the alarm has been set
• Waking up the user
• Checking the time

For each of these use cases, we can brainstorm a few potential ideas and evaluate the pros and cons for each to decide which design is optimal for our goals.

To set an alarm:

• Design a voice assistant (e.g., similar to Siri or Alexa): This is quicker than a touchpad and can easily set an exact alarm time to the second. Additionally, the voice assistant can repeat the time set out loud so that the user knows the correct time has been set. However, there could be dictation issues for people with accents and this can only be done when the environment is relatively quiet.
• Design a braille touchpad: This would complicate the alarm clock by adding additional buttons. It would also take a longer time to set an alarm. The user would also need to take an additional step to check that the alarm has been set correctly once entered.

To check if the alarm has been set:

• Design a voice assistant that can answer the question of whether the alarm has been set: The user would not need to walk to the alarm clock to check if the alarm has been set. However, this needs to be done in a relatively quiet environment.
• Design a button that when pressed will play the time, the alarm set time, and whether the alarm is on/off: This provides all the information the user needs, but time-consuming as the user will need to hear all of the information each time. The user also needs to walk to the alarm clock to use this.
• Design a button that when pressed, vibrates if the alarm has been set: This communicates the information more quickly, but the user still needs to walk to the alarm clock to use this.

To wake up the user:

• Use visuals: If the user is blind, they likely won’t be able to see anything, especially if they are asleep.
• Use sound: This is what almost all alarm clocks use.
• Use touch: The alarm clock can vibrate to wake the user. However, it is unclear if this would reliably wake up the user.
• Use smell or taste: This is a very unconventional approach to designing an alarm clock. Users probably don’t want to be forced to smell or taste something. It is unclear whether the taste or smell would be strong enough to reliably wake up the user.

To check the time:

• Design mechanical braille buttons that change by the minute: This seems complicated to design and would likely increase the cost of the alarm clock. 
• Design a button that says the time out loud when pressed: This is less complex than designing mechanical braille buttons that change by the minute. However, the user still needs to walk to the alarm clock to check the time.
• Design a voice assistant to say the time out loud when asked: The user would not need to walk to the alarm clock to check the time. However, this can only be done in a relatively quiet environment.

Based on this, it seems that a voice assistant alarm clock that wakes up users with sound would be most suitable for our user.

Product Manager Case Study Interview Example #3

Our company operates in the e-commerce space, primarily focusing on fashion and apparel. We're considering building a virtual fitting room feature that allows customers to virtually try on clothing items before making a purchase. How would you approach the decision of whether to invest in and build this new virtual fitting room feature?

There are four major factors to consider when deciding whether to build this new product feature:

1. Customer needs and preferences: Does this product feature resonate with customers?

• Do customers have a need for a virtual fitting room?
• Will customers actually use this feature?

2. Company capabilities: Does our company have the capabilities to develop this product feature?

• Do we have the expertise or technological capabilities to develop this feature?
• Do we have sufficient resources to develop this feature? (e.g., people, time, capital) 

3. Competition: Will developing this product feature help distinguish ourselves from competitors?

• Do competitors have a virtual fitting room product feature?
• How good are competitors’ virtual fitting rooms? (e.g., user experience, value provided to customers)

4. Profitability: Will building this new product feature be profitable?

• What are the expected costs of developing this product feature?
• What is the expected increase in revenue? (e.g., how much will conversion rate increase, how much will refunds decrease)

Product Manager Case Study Interview Example #4

Our company manufactures smart home security systems and we’ve recently launched a new model with advanced AI-powered features. How do we increase our market share and customer base?

There are four major ways to increase our market share and customer base for this smart home security system product:

1. Develop targeted marketing

• Identify specific customer segments that are most likely to benefit from the product
• Develop tailored marketing campaigns to highlight the unique advantages of our new model

2. Form strategic partnerships

• Form partnerships with prominent players in the smart home ecosystem
• Integrate the security system seamlessly into broader home automation solutions

3. Enhance customer experience and advocacy

• Prioritize exceptional customer support and post-purchase experience
• Implement a referral program to encourage existing customers to refer friends and family

4. Engage with the community

• Actively participate in online communities, forums, and social media groups focused on smart home technology and security
• Provide valuable insights and thought leadership at major smart home conferences or conventions

Product Manager Case Study Interview Frameworks

There are several product manager case study frameworks that candidates may find helpful to be familiar with. These include the: 4P’s framework, design thinking framework, growth framework, product development lifecycle framework, and SWOT analysis framework.

4P’s Framework

The 4P’s framework is a fundamental marketing framework used to analyze and develop marketing strategies for products or services. It consists of four elements, each representing a different aspect of marketing strategy:

• Product : Analyze the product itself, including its features, functionality, design, and user experience. Consider how well the product meets user needs and differentiates itself from competitors
• Price : Assess the pricing strategy, including pricing models, pricing tiers, discounts, and promotions. Consider factors such as value proposition, cost structure, and willingness to pay
• Place : Evaluate the distribution channels and placement strategy for the product, including online platforms, retail stores, and partnerships. Consider how to reach target customers effectively and efficiently
• Promotion : Examine the marketing and promotional tactics used to raise awareness and drive sales of the product. Consider advertising, public relations, social media, and other promotional channels

Design Thinking Framework

The design thinking framework is a human-centered approach to problem solving and innovation that is used to address a wide range of challenges and opportunities involved with product or service design.

It involves a structured process that encourages empathy, creativity, and collaboration to develop solutions that are user-centered, feasible, and viable. Here's how the design thinking framework is typically used:

• Empathize : Empathize with users to understand their needs, motivations, and pain points. Conduct user interviews, surveys, or observations to gain insights
• Define : Define the problem space, synthesizing research findings into clear problem statements or user personas. Articulate the specific challenges or opportunities
• Ideate : Brainstorm and generate creative solutions to the defined problem, encouraging divergent thinking and exploring a wide range of possibilities
• Prototype : Develop low-fidelity prototypes or mockups to visualize and communicate ideas, soliciting feedback from stakeholders and users
• Test : Gather feedback on prototypes through user testing or validation experiments, iterating based on user insights and refining solutions

Growth Framework

The growth framework, also known as the AARRR framework, is a framework used to analyze and optimize the various stages of the customer lifecycle. It is commonly applied in growth marketing and product management to drive user acquisition, activation, retention, revenue, and referral.

Here's a breakdown of the growth framework:

• Acquisition : Identify strategies for attracting new users or customers to the product, such as advertising, content marketing, SEO, or partnerships
• Activation : Focus on strategies to convert new users into active and engaged users, such as onboarding processes, personalized messaging, or product tours
• Retention : Explore tactics to keep users coming back to the product and increase their lifetime value, such as email marketing, loyalty programs, or product improvements
• Revenue : Analyze opportunities to monetize the product, including pricing strategies, upselling, cross-selling, or subscription models
• Referral : Consider ways to encourage existing users to refer new users to the product through word-of-mouth, referral programs, or social sharing

Product Development Lifecycle Framework

The product development lifecycle framework is used to guide the stages through which a product evolves from conceptualization to retirement. It outlines the key phases and activities involved in bringing a product to market and managing it throughout its lifespan.

Here's an overview of the product development lifecycle framework:

• Ideation : Generate and evaluate ideas for new products or features, considering user needs, market trends, and business goals
• Research : Conduct market research, user research, and competitive analysis to validate ideas and gather insights for product development
• Design : Define product requirements, create wireframes or prototypes, and design the user experience and interface
• Development : Oversee the development process, working with engineers and designers to build and test the product
• Launch : Plan and execute the product launch, including marketing campaigns, communication strategies, and rollout plans
• Post-launch Iteration : Monitor product performance, gather feedback from users, and iterate on the product based on insights and data

SWOT Analysis Framework

The SWOT analysis framework is a strategic planning tool used to identify and analyze the internal strengths and weaknesses as well as external opportunities and threats facing a business, product, or project.

SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. Here's how each component of the SWOT analysis framework is used:

• Strengths : Identify internal factors that contribute to the success of the product or business, such as unique features, strong brand reputation, or talented team members
• Weaknesses : Identify internal factors that hinder the success of the product or business, such as limited resources, technical constraints, or competitive disadvantages
• Opportunities : Identify external factors or market trends that present opportunities for growth or innovation, such as emerging technologies, new market segments, or changing consumer behaviors
• Threats : Identify external factors or challenges that pose risks to the product or business, such as competitive threats, market saturation, regulatory changes, or economic downturns

Product Manager Case Study Interview Tips

Below are our best ten tips for nailing your product manager case study interview:

1. Understand the Problem

Take the time to thoroughly understand the problem presented in the product manager case study interview. Break it down into its component parts, clarify any ambiguities, and identify the key objectives and constraints.

2. Ask Clarifying Questions

Don't hesitate to ask   clarifying questions during your case study interview if anything is unclear or if you need more information to solve the case effectively. This demonstrates your ability to gather relevant information and ensure you're addressing the right issues.

3. Define Your Approach

Before diving into the solution, outline your approach to solving the problem. Walk the interviewer through the different steps you plan on taking. Describe the framework or methodology you'll use.

4. Think Creatively

Be creative and think outside the box when brainstorming solutions. Don't limit yourself to conventional approaches. Consider innovative ideas that could differentiate the product and provide unique value to users.

5. Prioritize Solutions

Not all solutions are created equal. Prioritize your ideas based on their potential impact, feasibility, and alignment with the objectives of the product manager case study interview. Focus on high impact solutions that address the most critical aspects of the problem.

6. Consider Trade-offs

Recognize that there may be trade-offs involved in any solution. Consider the pros and cons of each option, and be prepared to justify your decisions based on the trade-offs you've made.

7. Communicate Clearly

Articulate your ideas and solutions clearly and concisely. Use structured frameworks, visual aids, and data to support your arguments and make your reasoning transparent to the interviewer.

8. Collaborate Effectively

Product management is a collaborative role, so demonstrate your ability to work effectively with others. Solicit feedback from the interviewer, incorporate their opinions and perspectives, and communicate openly throughout the product manager case study interview.

9. Showcase Your Analytical Skills

Use data and metrics to support your decisions, solutions, or hypotheses. Analyze any data provided, draw meaningful insights, and use them to inform your decisions.

10. Practice product manager case study interviews

Like any skill, product manager case study interviews require practice in order to excel in them. Therefore, practice doing product manager case studies with a partner under timed conditions. Seek feedback from others to identify areas for improvement. Familiarize yourself with the products and services of the company that you are interviewing for.

How to Prepare for Product Manager Case Study Interviews

There are six steps to preparing for product manager case study interviews: understand what a product manager case study interview is, learn the right strategies, practice a few cases by yourself, practice with a partner, practice with a current or former PM, and work on your improvement areas.

1. Understand what a product manager case study interview is

The first step to preparing for product manager case study interviews is to understand exactly what case study interviews are.

After you are familiar with what product manager case study interviews are, it is important to know what a great case study interview performance looks like. This will help you learn product manager case study interview strategies more quickly in the next step.

Before continuing onto the next step, you should be familiar with:

• The object of a product manager case study interview
• The types of questions you could get asked
• What a great product manager case study interview performance looks like

2. Learn the right strategies

Now that you have all the background information needed to succeed in product manager case study interviews, the next step is to learn the right strategies to build good interview habits.

It is much more efficient to learn the right product manager case study interview strategies the first time than to learn poor strategies and try to correct them later.

The quickest, most efficient way to learn these strategies is to read through our comprehensive product manager interview book . This book provides strategies on exactly what to do and say for over 10+ types of product manager interview questions, such as product design, marketing, estimation, strategy, execution, behavioral, and technical questions.

Before moving onto the next step, you should at least have strategies for the following types of product manager case study questions:

• Product design case study interview questions
• Product improvement case study interview questions
• Product growth case study interview questions
• Product strategy case study interview questions

3. Practice a few product manager case study interviews by yourself

Once you have learned the right strategies, the next step is to practice doing a few product manager case study interviews by yourself.

When practicing product manager case study interviews, it is typically better to practice with a partner than to practice by yourself. Practicing with a partner better simulates the actual product manager interview experience.

However, when you are just starting out, it is better to do the first few cases by yourself because it’ll help you become familiar with the structure and format of product manager case study interviews much more quickly.

 You also won’t have to waste time finding a partner and waiting for a time when they will be available to give you a mock interview.

4. Practice product manager case study interviews with a partner

The next step in preparing for product manager case study interviews is to practice doing cases with a partner. There are many aspects of case study interviews that you won’t be able to improve on unless you practice live with a partner.

When practicing product manager case study interviews with a partner, make sure that you are spending enough time after the mock interview to deliver feedback. Most of your learning and improvement will come from these valuable feedback sessions.

Do not move onto the next step until you have done at least 5 to 10 cases and are beginning to feel more comfortable with product manager case study interviews.

5. Practice with a former or current product manager

At this point, I strongly recommend asking former or current product managers to give you a mock interview. This will significantly help improve your performance on product manager case study interviews.

Doing a practice interview with a former or current product manager is highly beneficial because they know exactly what great answers sound like and can give you high-quality feedback to help improve the quality of your answers.

You can find former or current product managers among your friends, classmates, colleagues, and your broader LinkedIn network.

6. Work on your improvement areas

The last step in preparing for product manager case study interviews is to work on strengthening your improvement areas. Examples of common improvement areas or deficiencies include:

• Developing a comprehensive and structured framework or approach
• Generating creative and innovative ideas
• Using appropriate logic to make decisions
• Considering trade-offs and alternatives
• Communicating clearly and concisely

Try to work on improving one thing at a time. This will be much more effective than trying to improve on all of your weaknesses at once.

Recommended Product Manager Case Study Interview Resources

To prepare for product manager case study interviews, we highly recommend checking out our comprehensive product manager interview book, Hacking the PM Interview , which is available on Amazon in both eBook and paperback formats.

In this book, we’ll teach you exactly how to ace your product manager interviews and secure offers from top companies such as Google, Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, and Apple.

Whether your interview is months away or even tomorrow, this book will teach you the most effective, robust PM interview strategies in the least amount of time.

We’ve eliminated all filler material found in other books and provide you with everything you need to know in a clear and direct way.

With this shortcut guide, you will:

• Learn how to answer 10+ types of product manager interview questions, such as product design, marketing, estimation, strategy, execution, behavioral, and technical
• Uncover how to differentiate yourself from the thousands of other candidates competing against you
• Improve your PM interview skills quickly with the included practice problems and solutions
• Save yourself hundreds of hours of interview prep time

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Top 23 Product Manager Interview Questions (+ Example Answers Included)

Mike Simpson 0 Comments

By Mike Simpson

Every person on the planet feels the impact of product managers. The work of these professionals genuinely affects the day-to-day existence of the masses. They personally shape the products that enter the world. That means their opinions alter everyone’s reality, in a way.

How awesome is that?

Product managers have to be ridiculously capable in a ton of areas. Creativity? That’s essential. Time management and organization? Equally as critical. Innovation? A core part of the job.

For many, being a product manager is incredibly appealing. Not only does it combine the technical with the creative, but it is also a job that many can do from home. After the coronavirus forced millions into their homes and cost roughly 1 in 10 workers their job, that’s a perk that more and more professionals can’t ignore.

If you want to land one of these coveted roles, then you need to take the product manager interview questions seriously. No amount of experience outweighs good preparation when it comes time to meet with a hiring manager. So, if you really want to excel, let’s see what it takes to make that happen.

How to Answer Product Manager Interview Questions

Alright, we know that you’re here for example product manager interview questions and answers, and we promise we’re getting to that. But that’s really not the best place to start, anyway. Instead, let’s talk about strategy .

Having a solid interview strategy makes a difference. It gives you a process to fall back on, making it easier to answer even an unexpected question.

Let’s face facts; there’s always a chance a hiring manager will catch you off guard. In fact, some try to do it on purpose, asking outlandish questions that no one in their right mind would ever predict.

So, how do you develop that winning approach? By embracing proper research and technique.

Research lets you learn details that can help you stand out. While the hiring manager is probably going to ask you open interview questions, they are actually trying to find out if you have skill X or trait Y. They aren’t just going to ask you that directly because “yes” and “no” questions aren’t effective for getting to know what candidates genuinely bring to the table.

Start by reviewing the product manager job description .

If you keep seeing the same skills or traits repeated throughout the posting, those are obviously important to the company. They are there for a reason after all. You need to show the hiring manager in your interview that you possess these skills!

At that point, you have a solid foundation. If you want to take it to the next level, do a little more digging. Head to the company’s website and review its mission and values statements. These act as guiding tenets for the organization, reflecting its broader priorities. If you can speak to those as well during your interview, you’re going to stand out.

Okay, now you know what to talk about. But how do you take that information and use it to craft a fantastic answer? If you’re up against behavioral interview questions , then we have the right technique for you.

Start off by using the STAR method . That lets you take a humdrum answer and turn it into an intriguing story. It’s a technique that’s all about capturing and keeping the listener’s attention, and that’s important during an interview.

Then, take that to the next level with the Tailoring Method . When it comes to making your answers relevant, it’s the ideal technique. It’s all about customization, ensuring you speak to that hiring manager’s and company’s specific needs.

Together, those approaches are stunningly powerful. They’ll turn you into an engagement powerhouse and, during an interview, that can make all of the difference.

We also wanted to let you know that we created an amazing free cheat sheet that will give you word-for-word answers for some of the toughest interview questions you are going to face in your upcoming interview. After all, hiring managers will often ask you more generalized interview questions!

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Top 3 Product Manager Interview Questions

Now that you have a winning strategy, it’s time to take the next step. By reviewing some product manager interview questions and answers, you can harness what you’ve learned and see how to put it into practice. That way, you can formulate your own amazing responses, using a tried-and-true approach that has the potential to impress.

Here are the top three product manager interview questions you might encounter and examples for how to tackle them.

1. How do you control and avoid scope creep?

Two of the scariest words in the project world are “ scope creep. ” When the feature set keeps growing, and stakeholders move the target over and over, any product development project is more likely to fail. Budgets will spiral out of control, or the requirements become so complex they simply won’t fit together. It’s a nightmare in the making.

Many hiring managers want to make sure that candidates have strategies for keeping scope creep at bay, so you should be ready to showcase how you make that happen.

EXAMPLE ANSWER:

“If a request is out of scope and would have a significant impact on the timeline or budget, I let the person asking for the feature addition that it doesn’t fall into scope. I outline the overall impact the new request could have, including timeline delays, budget implications, and risk increases. Often, scope creep puts projects in jeopardy, and I would make that clear in a professional manner. Then, I would provide additional information about how they can have their request assessed in the future, potentially allowing it to be added to a future project.”

2. What aspect of working as a product manager is the most exciting, in your opinion?

This question may seem innocuous, but it isn’t. It lets the hiring manager learn some important details, including how passionate you are about your role and what about the job motivates you.

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.

“The most exciting part of being a product manager is supporting the creation of something that will improve the lives of customers. When that happens, you know your diligence paid off, that your market research was on target, and that the quality of the product and customer experience remained a priority throughout. There’s no greater reward then releasing something amazing into the world, and creating that kind of positive change is a big part of why I enjoy working as a product manager.”

3. If you have two desirable features, but the budget and timeline only support one, how do you choose which to pursue?

At times, you can’t fit every desired feature into a product. When that happens, product managers have to make a tough choice, and the hiring manager wants to know you are up to that task.

Ultimately, answering this question is more about your decision-making approach than anything else. If you have a relevant example of a time when you’ve had to do this in the past, make sure to discuss it. If not, then talk about how you approach problems of that nature, giving the hiring manager a glimpse into how you think.

“If I have to select only one of two features, my first step is to consider the customer. If one is more desirable in their eyes, then that’s a good case for making it a priority. However, I also factor in whether one feature would differentiate the product from the competition, as that could result in greater market success. Finally, I do take the cost and time required for each option into account. If one requires substantially less time or funding, then that’s worth considering. Cumulatively, those points typically allow me to make a sound choice that will serve the customer well and meet the needs of the company.”

20 More Product Manager Interview Questions

Here are 20 more product manager interview questions many candidates encounter:

• How would you define a great customer experience?
• If you had full control over the project, what would you do to improve our product?
• How can you tell if a product is well designed?
• Can you tell me about a product that you use daily? How would you improve it?
• Tell me about a time when you had to say no to a team member’s idea.
• What aspect of product management is the most frustrating?
• If it were up to you, how would you price our products?
• When choosing team members, do you favor technical expertise or soft skills?
• Tell me about a time when you had to motivate a frustrated team.
• How would you rate your project management skills? Would your past team members say the same?
• What approach do you use to ensure that stakeholders who aren’t as savvy about the technical aspects of the product remain thoroughly informed?
• Tell me about a time when you relied heavily on data to make a decision
• Describe the difference between management and leadership.
• If it’s clear that a project is falling behind, what do you do to get it back on target?
• How do you develop a product launch strategy?
• Do you have any technical skills that you believe set you apart from others in the field?
• Tell me about the hardest decision you’ve had to make when developing a product.
• Discuss a time where a product project you were working on experienced a failure. What did you do to recover or learn from the experience?
• When a next-generation product is preparing to launch, how do you position the legacy version?
• What are your go-to approaches for market research?

5 Good Questions to Ask at the End of a Product Manager Interview

In a job interview it’s always a good idea to turn the tables now and then. The hiring manager will typically give you a chance to ask some of your own questions . By doing so, you can assert your interest in the role and find out if the job is actually a great fit for you. Don’t squander the opportunity.

If you aren’t entirely sure what you should ask, here are five amazing questions that are worth having at the ready:

• What is the greatest challenge the company is facing right now? How can this role help resolve it?
• Can you tell me about the most common challenge product managers face here? Do you have any tips to help me overcome them?
• What does a typical day as a product manager here look like?
• Is there something that your best product managers have in common? What about your least successful ones?
• What is the most common negative feedback customers product about the company’s products? Are any efforts being made to resolve them?

Putting It All Together

Ultimately, product manager interviews can be challenging. By making the most of the tips above, you can stand out from the crowd. Take a deep breath, and remember, you’ve got everything you need to take your next interview by storm. Just prepare and keep your chin up. If you do, you are well on your way to interview success.

And as always, good luck!

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Co-Founder and CEO of TheInterviewGuys.com. Mike is a job interview and career expert and the head writer at TheInterviewGuys.com.

His advice and insights have been shared and featured by publications such as Forbes , Entrepreneur , CNBC and more as well as educational institutions such as the University of Michigan , Penn State , Northeastern and others.

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Product Management

50 product manager interview questions and answers.

Erica Golightly

Senior Writer

October 31, 2022

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You’ve made a good impression on your application. Now it’s time to prepare for the next step: the product manager interview questions!

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. 

Customize the ClickUp Interview Process Template to organize your thoughts and responses while you read through this guide! 

What Do Employers Look for in a Product Manager?

A hiring manager looks for prospective product managers that know how to solve problems. So a strong product management candidate knows their KPIs and metrics, collaborates with cross-functional teams , and develops product strategy to serve the company’s customers and product vision.

Product managers deal with ambiguous and novel challenges. Naturally, they’re curious and ask a lot of questions— the right questions —to ship the product toward completion. Their day-to-day responsibilities include coordinating the release path and product lifecycle. Companies need agile product managers who understand both the technical and design requirements of their products.  

Can you lead product team meetings to drive product planning and development ? Do you have methods to plan your time intentionally? Are you comfortable with saying “no” to out-of-scope requests? 

Communicating what you will bring to the team culture and product role will show your potential employer the positive impact you’ll make on the company. 

Read about the top product management certifications ! 

During the product manager hiring process, it’s important to demonstrate your critical thinking skills, technical skills, and communication skills . These will give the hiring manager a panoramic view of you and your experiences. 

As you go through the questions, think back on specific experiences and achievements that have shaped your professional development. Your interviewer wants to know the value and outcomes you made in previous roles: increased production efficiencies, revenue growth, or better team management. 

These responses in your back pocket will help you answer confidently and eliminate interview stress!

So what questions can you expect from a product manager interview? From technical to behavioral interview questions, we got you covered!

1. What do you consider when creating product roadmaps?

Product managers are building and improving the future. The product roadmap is a strategic action plan defining the product OKRs , features, positioning, schedule, and contributors needed to build and ship a product. This is where you’ll walk through a high-level summary of what you’ll be accountable for.    

If you’re struggling with getting a practice response started, ask yourself this: What is the problem we’re trying to solve and how are we going to get there? 

Check out ClickUp’s product management glossary to brush up on relevant terms or spark inspiration for your response! 

2. What changes would you make to our product and why?

Companies engage with their customers to get valuable feedback about their products. It’s essential to the health of the business and its overall impact on a customer’s experience. The hiring manager asks this question to understand your product design and development thinking . 

This insight paints a picture for them of the features you’d prioritize and your strategic approach that will ultimately benefit the target market and business goals.

3. How do you prioritize tasks? 

Time is our most valuable asset, yet the most mismanaged. A product manager has their own workload, but they’re responsible for the overall product progress. Hiring managers want to know how you will actively handle competing priorities , blockers, and unavoidable tech pitfalls. 

Product prioritization helps teams make decisions faster. Here are a few situations to consider for a response: 

• Gathering data, competitive analysis , and various stakeholder comments
• Developing a prioritization framework with repeatable product management templates
• Planning a sprint

Tip : Create a product requirements document using ClickUp’s Product Requirements Template and practice working through product features, plans, and processes!

Try out these extra product requirements document templates !

4. Describe your process to improve a declining metric. 

Product managers have a responsibility to optimize the team’s performance. So it’s important to know if you’re meeting, exceeding, or not yet reaching the product vision and customer needs. Hiring managers want to know product metrics you’ve had an active part in nurturing. 

First, give the hiring manager context to the metric about why it matters . Then, detail your data analysis process. Here are a few examples of product metrics to answer this interview question: 

• Daily active user and monthly active user count
• Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR)
• User engagement/adoption

5. How would you manage a team that works across time zones?

Highly-efficient product teams give full visibility into their planning and activities so task hand-offs are quicker. At the intersection of it all is the product manager. This person should clearly communicate expectations and vision so all contributors are ready to get to work without confusion about what’s happening.

Describe your best practices to set up the team for success! A few examples to consider:

• Breaking down silos with communication channels
• Using modern and relevant product management tools
• Standardizing product processes and information sharing 

6. What software have you used in your previous roles? 

Oftentimes, hiring managers will include a list of tools they currently use in the job listing. If you’re familiar with any software mentioned, briefly explain your skills with the tool. If any of the software is new to you, this is an opportunity to express you’re receptive to learning and using them. 

Call out any roadmapping software, user research tools, and team communication apps you’ve had great success with. The goal is to show how invaluable software is to a successful product launch and team productivity.

Learn why product teams use ClickUp to simplify product management! 

7. How do you explain technical concepts to non-technical teams?

Product managers work with various departments like Marketing, Finance, Sales, and Support to collect ideas and opinions to form the product strategy. These groups are not familiar with the complexities of product features and specifics so making information accessible is critical for collaboration. 

To answer product manager interview questions about communication methods, here are a few examples:

• List the ways you’d use visuals like screen recordings and digital whiteboards to break down concepts
• Different communication channels to keep all teams on the same page 
• How you’d relate the advantages and benefits of the product features 

8. Describe your ideal product management process.

This is a window into what it would look like working with you on a Wednesday afternoon in a product training meeting.

Or the steps you’d take to conduct user research in face-to-face interviews with the target audience.

Or how you would minimize risk while making operational improvements to the team’s workflow. 

Choose relevant examples to illustrate your process and draw from the role requirements under the job listing. This is an open product management interview question so you don’t want to miss the opportunity to show how you’d add value to their organization!

9. Can you tell me about a mistake you made?

This behavioral interview question is deeply rooted in how you would handle challenging situations. Everyone makes mistakes, and hiring managers know this. But ultimately, your response helps them decide if you have the interpersonal and product management skills to succeed in the role.

Write out a few example situations where you made a mistake and what you learned. It’s important not to dwell on the mistake. Focus on the steps you made, the frameworks you put in place, and the outcome of the result. 

10. What do you need from your manager to be successful? 

Employers ask about your expectations from supervisors to understand your preferred management style. It shows if your values align with the team and company . Use these prompts to put together a thoughtful response: 

• What qualities from past managers helped you grow in your career?
• How do you want to receive immediate feedback and recognition?
• How often do you prefer 1:1 check-ins with your manager?
• How important is transparency to you?
• Do you work best independently?

Below are 40 more questions to review and practice responses! 

11. What do you enjoy most about product management? 

12. what metrics on a dashboard would you track for x product, 13. what do you like about our product, 14. what qualities do you look for in a strong product management team, 15. describe how you have collaborated with a design team to ship a product or feature., 16. how have you overcome product failures/challenges or poor feedback, 17. what challenges have you faced when working remotely , 18. what’s your process to perform a cost-benefit analysis, 19. how do you communicate opportunities to engineers, 20. if a team member’s bandwidth doesn’t allow for competing priorities, how do you determine what to focus on , 21. how would you measure the success of x product , 22. how do you collaborate with the marketing and sales team to ship a product , 23. what are the best ways to communicate with senior management , 24. how do you know if your users are satisfied with your product , 25. what are your ideal methods for customer research, 26. how do you think about onboarding new users to your product, 27. why do you want to work as a product manager, 28. what do your day-to-day activities look like as a product manager , 29. how would you work through an issue with an engineer , 30. what’s your process for reviewing metrics  , 31. how would you explain product management to a person without technical knowledge, 32. describe how you would gather team feedback about a new or updated process. , 33. how do you say no to feature requests or suggestions , 34. how would you explain product challenges, 35. what’s more important: getting a product done on time or getting a product done as planned, 36. do differentiating opinions hurt or help team performance , 37. tell me about a time when you had to build or motivate a team., 38. how do you choose a task to focus on from different executive stakeholders , 39. what has made x product successful, 40. tell me about a time you handled a difficult stakeholder., 41. how do you create alignment between technical and design functions , 42. how do you decide what and what not to build, 43. tell me about a time you had to influence a key decision-maker., 44. tell me about a time you solved pain points for customers., 45. how do you utilize ai as a product manager, 46. what is the key to a good user interface, 47. tell me about a time you solved pain points for customers., 48. how do you know if a product is well-designed, 49. is there a product you’d like to see improved how would you do it, 50. do you have any questions for me .

Get more agile interview questions and answers !

What’s Next?

As you reflect on your past accomplishments and job experiences, you’ll need one place to gather your thoughts and responses. Use ClickUp to document all your resources, so you’ll be extra prepared for your next product manager interview!

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• How to prepare for a product manager interview

You landed a product manager interview. Congratulations. All your efforts to apply and craft a winning resume have brought you closer to getting a new role, which is no simple feat. Now, it is on to the next phase — preparing for the interview itself.

No two product management roles are the same — neither are the interviews. It can be difficult to know exactly what to expect. Companies tend to approach individual product management interviews differently depending on their strategy, industry, company size, culture, chosen methodologies , and product type . One thing you can probably count on is for the process to be challenging and last several rounds.

While interview styles vary, all companies are searching for curious and dedicated people to hire. When you can let those qualities shine — bolstered by your knowledge, experience , and preparation — you will feel confident in doing your best in each conversation.

This guide includes expert tips to help you prepare for your next product manager interview, plus free templates for getting started right away. Use the job interview template in Aha! software to take notes and practice your answers to common product manager interview questions as you read through the tips below.

Prepare with the product manager job interview template — try it free .

Start using this template now

And remember — an interview goes two ways. It is as much about evaluating the company, team, and position as it is about showing you are the right person for the job. This is your opportunity to learn all you need, so you can decide whether or not to accept an offer.

You can jump ahead to each tip here:

Research deeply

Align your experience

Look inward

Get familiar with typical questions

Prep your questions for the interviewer

Practice with mock interviews

Get out your notebook

Prep a whiteboard

Find the right mindset

Keep track of each interview

Plus, download the product manager interview tracker template .

10 product manager interview tips

Before diving into preparations, it is worth noting the two main types of interviews you may encounter — behavioral and case-style. Behavioral are the most common while case interviews are mainly used by large enterprises for early-round screening. Here are some quick definitions:

Both types have their benefits. But behavioral interviews are often given more weight because they draw from real-world experience. For example, we prefer to conduct behavioral interviews for product roles at Aha! — we believe past performance is an excellent indicator of future behavior. We also find that behavioral questions keep conversations grounded in real examples rather than hypotheticals.

Successful candidates approach [interviews] with confidence, demonstrating that they have researched the company and understand its vision and values. They point out how their skills, experience, and track record will support their prospective employer’s goals. And the best ones are able to do so with brevity and humility. Brian de Haaff Aha! co-founder and CEO

The tips in this guide are geared primarily towards behavioral interviews. However, many of them apply broadly and should help you study for case-style interviews, too.

Now, let's start prepping. Your product manager interview is scheduled on the calendar — here is how to get ready:

1. Research deeply

Start by researching the company, their product or portfolio , and the people you will be speaking to during the interview process. Seek to understand the problems they want to solve.

As you collect nuggets of information, pay attention to what you discover about their customers and competitors , and even which technologies they use to build and support their products. This can help frame your responses to interview questions.

For example, knowing whether their product is B2B or B2C can help you give a more relevant response on developing product strategy — because the way organizations serve these markets will differ. Some companies might even ask how you would improve their products (similar to a miniature case-style interview). Research is the surest way to find the biggest hints.

The company website, blog , and support channels are great places to look for this kind of information. You can also try reading through the organization's most recent go-to-market launches or sign up for a free trial for a first-hand look at what they offer.

2. Align your experience

Closely examine the job description of the role you applied for — then consider which of your skills and experiences are the most pertinent. That way you can anticipate the questions you may be asked and have ideas ready to go.

This exercise is especially valuable if you are breaking into entry-level product management roles or transitioning from another discipline. For example, if you are early in your career, you may want to highlight product-related coursework or certifications . Or if you are an engineer making a career switch, talk about how your unique perspective of development will help you make thoughtful decisions as a product manager.

Bonus tip — quantifiable results and accomplishments are always more impactful than a laundry list of projects you worked on.

Related: OKR templates

3. Look inward

Once you have thoroughly researched the company and product manager role, it is good to take a pause for introspection. Most interviewers will ask some variation of the same question: "Why do you want to work here?"

A vague reply about "seeking new opportunities" is unlikely to inspire. And interviewers certainly do not want to hear your grudges against past employers. Rather, this is a moment to demonstrate your values . Think of your goals for the role and convey them with passion. Delve into what you hope to learn. Product management is demanding by nature and requires boldness to succeed — you want to demonstrate that you are invested from the start.

Looking inward can also help you clarify the type of company you want to work for — so you know what to ask and listen for during your interview. Then you can find out if the opportunity truly aligns with your interests.

Related: The simple interview question you’re getting wrong

4. Get familiar with typical questions

Product manager interview questions vary but tend to cover similar themes like your general background, past experience, and cross-functional leadership skills. Our job interview template is a simple way to get familiar with these topics — it includes 45 practice questions and space to write out responses.

You can also try different product manager interview question frameworks to help formulate well-rounded answers:

5. Prep your questions for the interviewer

As a product manager, it will be your job to get fully immersed in the company strategy and lead the product team to greatness . You want to ensure that the organization and product itself are both things you feel driven to support.

Interviews are bidirectional. Your interview is a chance to get a glimpse of how the product development team works and if they truly uphold their values . Come with questions to ask your interviewers about leadership, process, and what it is really like to work there. Their responses can clue you in to whether there is mutual alignment.

As a plus, asking thoughtful questions like this demonstrates your curiosity — a core trait of excellent product managers.

Related: How to determine during your interview if a company lives their values

6. Practice with mock interviews

What works on paper does not always hold up when spoken aloud. It is always a good idea to practice your responses verbally — ideally with another person.

Try reaching out to product builders in your network. Ask if they would be willing to do a mock interview with you. More than likely, you will find folks who are happy to help and share their expertise . Welcome any feedback to help you improve.

7. Get out your notebook

Keep track of your thoughts — before, during, and after your interview. In addition to writing out answers to practice questions, it is smart to have a notebook handy while interviewing so you can:

Jot down the question being asked and provide an on-topic response.

Document any details the interviewer shares about the role, team, and product to review later.

Remember follow-up information so you know what to expect if you move forward.

A traditional paper notebook can help in a pinch. But if you are in the middle of multiple interview processes with several different companies, it is worth trying a digital notebook . That way everything is easily searchable and organized in one place.

8. Prep a whiteboard

During a product manager interview, you may be asked to work through a problem or exercise. If you have the opportunity to employ a visual aid like a whiteboard — take it.

Digital whiteboard diagrams can help you articulate abstract concepts in a way that others can clearly understand. Using an interactive tool like this can also highlight your creativity, critical thinking, and ideation — while making your responses more engaging for the interviewer.

Depending on the tool you use, some whiteboard templates can even aid in demonstrating your knowledge of product management concepts. For example, you could use a 2x2 matrix template to show how you might prioritize features to build. Guided templates can also help you be more purposeful in what you cover, so you can avoid trailing off into tangents.

Related: Explore product management whiteboard templates

Start using this template now

9. Find the right mindset

Breathe, meditate, hydrate. Explore ways to stay calm and confident throughout your interview. Mentally prepare that you might not ace every question. (And remember — that is okay.)

Product managers are no strangers to complex challenges . Your disposition alone can help you in landing the role. By showing that you can remain focused and collected in the face of adversity, you signal to the interviewer that you can handle the weighty responsibilities of the role.

Bonus tip — you do not need to respond to every question right away. It is always acceptable to say, "That is an interesting question, can you give me a moment to think through my answer?" before you start talking. Most interviewers would much rather hear a thoughtful response than the very first idea that comes to mind.

Related: Wanted: product manager with superb listening skills

10. Keep track of each interview

Thousands of product manager jobs are available, and the number grows every year. Opportunities abound — you may go through multiple interviews with many individuals before finding an organization that aligns well with your needs, interests, and values.

As you move through this process, keep track of interview dates and times, interviewer names and contact information, as well as the status of each interview. You can also note the specific questions you have for each interviewer — plus ideas for improvement when interviews do not go as well as you hoped. Download the free interview tracker Excel template below to get started.

Product manager interview tracker template

With these tips in mind, you will be equipped to tackle any product manager interview with poise and courage. Embrace your unique set of talents and let them shine. Best of luck.

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11 Key Competencies to Look for When Interviewing Product Management Candidates

Interviewing a product management candidate (and hiring product managers in general) is definitely more art than science. There aren’t many quantifiable indicators of future success, as a product manager’s “ soft skills ” are often way more important than their technical chops.

So how do you properly vet and interview a product manager to be sure you’re entrusting your product to the right person? Other than asking the right interview questions , here are some ways to put them through the paces before making an offer.

1. Can the product management candidate write?

While in-person presence and verbal communication skills are essential, product managers constantly express their ideas, thoughts, and needs via the written word. Whether it’s email, Slack messages, bug reports, user stories, or more complex documents, product managers are constantly using text to get people on the same page.

If a product manager can’t write, the risks run from simply looking unprofessional to providing less than precise or downright misleading direction to other teams. This could result in wasted development cycles, unhappy customers, or sales and marketing using incorrect information.

How to gauge a product management candidate’s writing skills

When interviewing product managements candidate, make them author something as part of the hiring process. While you could ask for sample of their previous work, most product managers with any integrity won’t be able to hand over examples from their current or previous employers, which is why you should give them an assignment that involves synthesizing information and then communicating it clearly to a specific audience.

These shouldn’t be term papers; ask them to write about something where the source information they need is readily available and based on concepts and subject matter they’re familiar with—you can even let them pick the topic. There are plenty of other chances to test their subject matter expertise; this is an opportunity to see if they can follow instructions, communicate clearly, are conscientious enough check their work and catch errors, and whether they’ll just do the bare minimum or go the extra mile.

2. How well does the product management candidate present?

No matter how good their ideas may be, a product manager must be able to sell their vision and use data to back it up. This often involves standing in front of a room of doubters and convincing them with a presentation.

How to assess a product management candidate’s presentation skills

To make sure your candidate doesn’t get stage fright and can win over a crowd, ask them to present to a larger group as part of the interview process. It doesn’t have to be a long presentation, but it should contain some original thought and maybe a few slides to make sure they can sling some PowerPoint when they need to.

Ask them to prepare a presentation for the second interview so they have time to feel comfortable with the material. It shouldn’t be purely informational (i.e. “Here are five trends in dating apps”) and should require them to have reached a conclusion and make a compelling argument (i.e. “Here are the two trends most likely to impact your dating app’s growth”).

3. Can the candidate hold their own with the techies?

While there’s plenty of debate about whether or not a product manager needs a technical background , there’s no question they’ll be interacting with technical people on a regular basis.

How to assess a product management candidate’s technical know-how

Given they have a well-earned reputation for being a bit skeptical of new hires and non-engineering types, it’s worthwhile to have them spend a bit of time conversing with a couple of developers.

This is NOT a time for the technical team to grill the product management candidate and trap them with tricky questions. But rather, an opportunity to see if the candidate can follow along when developers are discussing technical challenges or limitations. Both sides should walk away feeling that they can have a productive and non-confrontational relationship with the other party.

4. Can the product manager do math?

While most product management roles don’t involve quantum theory or calculus, there is definitely some math involved when it comes to looking at important metrics such as growth and profit margins. Plus there’s all those experiments and A/B tests that will need to have their results calculated.

How to gauge a product management candidate’s math skills

While interviewing product management candidates, asking them to “show their work”—even if they’re using a spreadsheet to do the actual calculations—is worthwhile. This doesn’t have to take up too much time during the interviewing process, but asking them to quantify a particular scenario (both explaining HOW they’ll do it and then seeing them ACTUALLY do it) is a reasonable ask.

5. How well does the product management candidate communicate with customers?

While you certainly aren’t going to ask a job candidate to talk to actual customers during their interview, you should still try to get a sense of how they’ll fare in those scenarios. Will they ask appropriate follow-up questions? Do they lead the customer or listen and react? Are they empathetic when a customer complains, or are they dismissive?

How to check how well a candidate communicates with customers

This can be accomplished with some simple role playing, but it can offer a glimpse of their aptitude for this essential product management task.

6. Can the candidate talk to senior management?

A good product manager will be eager to speak directly to senior management and not just rely on a superior to convey their product vision upward. But senior management can be a demanding audience, particularly since their interests and motivations vary based on their own role and inherent biases.

How to gauge how well a product management candidate communicates with executives

The best way to accomplish this during the interview process is to let final candidates actually interview with a C-level employee. This should be one of the last steps in the process because those folks probably have better things to do with their time and you certainly don’t want your judgment to be called into question by putting a sub-par candidate in a corner office interview before you’ve had a chance to vet them yourself.

7. Can the product manager talk business?

While an economics degree or MBA likely isn’t required for most product management roles, candidates should understand the basic concepts and be able to make decisions with this big picture in mind vs. a myopic view of the world based only on the product they manage.

How to examine a product management candidate’s business prowess

One great indicator of this is whether they did their homework before the interview and have a basic understanding of your company, the business model, competitors, and overall industry/market dynamics. And, not only can they regurgitate facts they gathered from your website, but also they have meaningful questions based on that information regarding your business strategy, customer base, and growth.

8. Have they done it before?

Product management candidates shouldn’t be ruled out just because they haven’t done every single bullet point on your job description before. If they have, why would they want the job? Instead, you want someone who has relevant experience combined with growth potential to learn and master the additional things you’ll need them to do.

How to gauge a product management candidate’s level of experience

Unless you’re making a true entry-level hire, you’ll want your candidate to have some experience. So it’s important to look at their resume—along with your expectations for the role—and probe them for examples of the things where they claim to have experience. The important thing here is specificity… they should be able to tell the full story (background, decision point, how they made the decision, how they got buy-in from stakeholders and its outcome).

9. Can the candidate problem solve?

This is an opportunity to both delve into prior experiences (“tell me about a time when a customer was really unhappy and how you dealt with it”) as well as theoreticals. For the latter, it’s not about the actual solution they come up with, but asking them to walk you through their decision process and noting what types of clarifying questions (if any) they ask. This is essential when interviewing product management candidates.

How to gauge a product management candidate’s problem solving abilities

In addition to asking about past experiences, you also want to see if they are quick (enough) on their feet. Curveballs will come at them, crises will arise, and they will eventually be put on the spot. How they react and handle those situations can be the difference between a rock star and mediocrity. So, throw them some wild card questions and ask for their gut reaction (“We just found out we’ve been hacked and we need every user to proactively change their password—how do we make that happen without infuriating everyone and hemorrhaging users?”).

10. Are they data driven?

Managing products and devising a strategy using gut instincts, hunches and anecdotes doesn’t cut it in today’s fast-paced environment (and probably wasn’t a great approach in decades past, either). Making decisions and prioritizing should be based on something real and ideally quantifiable.

How to assess a product management candidate’s data literacy

Ask the candidate how they used metrics in the past, which metrics they think they’d want in this new role, and have them share some examples of where they have used data to overcome faulty assumptions. You can also see how often during the entire process they reference data gathering and analysis to determine if it’s something truly ingrained or just something they can handwave about in a pinch.

11. How well do they listen?

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, a product manager’s listening skills might be more critical than any others. Their ability to succeed is predicated on asking questions and truly hearing what others are saying. This applies whether they’re talking to a customer, colleague or superior.

How to gauge a product management candidate’s listening skills

The best listeners don’t interrupt, don’t “lead the witness,” and give positive reinforcement that demonstrates they really hear what’s being said. Not only do they display “active listener” tactics (eye contact, visual indications, and appropriate follow-ups), but they’re able to incorporate what they’ve heard into their thinking and subsequent questions and statements.

If they think they’re the most interesting person in the room and have all the answers, they’re not likely to pick up on the subtle clues and insights others have to offer, which is where the true nuggets of wisdom that drive innovation are found.

So there you have it. 11 critical skills and traits you want to assess when interviewing product management candidates. What other skills do you look for in candidates and how do you check for them?

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The 50 Most Common Product Manager Interview Questions (With Sample Answers)

Get ready for your product manager interview with this comprehensive list of the 50 most common questions and sample answers.

Posted June 7, 2023

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Table of Contents

If you're looking to become a product manager, you'll inevitably come across the challenge of interviewing for the role. Perhaps you already have some experience as a product manager and want to take your career to the next level, or maybe you're just starting out and want to know what the process entails. Either way, to land your dream job, you must prepare yourself for the interview process.

Introduction to Product Manager Interviews

Product manager interviews are one of the most challenging experiences you'll face in your career. The role of a product manager requires a blend of business acumen, technical knowledge, and marketing prowess. Interviews for product manager roles involve a series of questions aimed at assessing your knowledge, experience, thought process, and abilities.

Understanding the Role of a Product Manager

Product managers are responsible for overseeing all aspects of a product's life cycle, from ideation, development, and launch to ongoing updates, iterations, and enhancements. They work closely with cross-functional teams, including engineering, design, marketing, sales, and customer support, to ensure the product meets customers' needs and exceeds their expectations.

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Preparing for a Product Manager Interview

Preparing for a product manager interview involves a combination of self-reflection, research, and practice. You need to understand your strengths, weaknesses, and areas for improvement. You also need to research the company, its product offerings, its competitors, and the industry trends. Finally, you need to practice answering common interview questions and develop a strategy for effectively communicating your value proposition.

Common Interview Formats for Product Manager Roles

Interviews for product manager roles can take various formats, depending on the company and the interviewer's preferences. Some interviews may be structured as behavioral interviews, where you're asked to describe past experiences and your approach to problem-solving. Others may involve case studies, where you're presented with a hypothetical product scenario and asked to develop a strategy for addressing it. Still, others may focus on your technical knowledge, with questions about software development tools, data analysis techniques, or user experience design principles.

Behavioral Questions in Product Manager Interviews

Behavioral interview questions aim to understand how you've approached challenges in the past and how you'd approach them in the future. Examples of behavioral questions for product manager roles include:

• Can you tell us about a time when you had to pivot your product's strategy? How did you approach the situation?
• Describe a time when you had to influence a stakeholder who disagreed with your product roadmap. How did you persuade them?
• Can you walk us through how you prioritize your product's features and enhancements?

Technical Questions in Product Manager Interviews

Technical interview questions aim to assess your understanding of software development concepts, data management techniques, and other technical aspects of product management. Examples of technical questions for product manager roles include:

• What is Agile development, and how does it differ from Waterfall development?
• What data analysis techniques do you use to inform your product decisions?
• Can you explain what a RESTful API is, and how it's used in software development?

Strategic Questions in Product Manager Interviews

Strategic interview questions aim to assess how you approach long-term planning, business analysis, and market insights in your product management practice. Examples of strategic questions for product manager roles include:

• How do you validate market demand for a new product idea?
• What are the key metrics you use to measure your product's success?
• How do you incorporate customer feedback into your product roadmap?

Leadership Questions in Product Manager Interviews

Leadership interview questions aim to assess your ability to inspire and motivate cross-functional teams to achieve common goals. Examples of leadership questions for product manager roles include:

• How do you address conflicts within your team and mediate differences?
• Can you provide an example of a time when you recognized an underperforming team member and helped them improve their performance?
• What is your approach to delegating tasks and responsibilities to your team?

Communication and Collaboration Questions in Product Manager Interviews

Communication and collaboration interview questions aim to assess your ability to communicate effectively with cross-functional team members, stakeholders, and customers. Examples of communication and collaboration questions for product manager roles include:

• Can you describe a time when your project faced a bottleneck, and how did you address the situation?
• How do you balance competing demands and priorities from stakeholders and cross-functional team members?
• Can you walk us through how you communicate updates and status of your product to executive leadership?

Creative Thinking and Problem-Solving Questions in Product Manager Interviews

Creative thinking and problem-solving interview questions aim to assess your ability to approach complex problems with innovative solutions. Examples of creative thinking and problem-solving questions for product manager roles include:

• Can you describe a time when you identified a gap in the market and developed a new product to address the need?
• What techniques do you use to come up with new product ideas?
• Can you provide an example of a time when you had to develop a product strategy with limited resources?

Tips for Answering Product Manager Interview Questions with Confidence

Answering product manager interview questions with confidence requires practice, preparation, and clarity. Here are some tips to help you excel:

• Listen carefully to the question and ensure you understand what the interviewer is asking.
• Take a moment to organize your thoughts before answering, so you provide a clear and concise response.
• Provide relevant examples from your past experiences to demonstrate your thought process and abilities.
• Avoid using generic or vague responses and provide specific insights into your approach.
• Be honest about your limitations and areas for improvement, but also emphasize your strengths and unique value proposition.

Sample Answers to Common Product Manager Interview Questions

Providing sample answers to common product manager interview questions can help you see how to apply these best practices in real-life interview scenarios. Here are some examples:

Do’s and Don’ts for Acing Your Product Manager Interview

To ace your product manager interview, there are some do's and don'ts to keep in mind:

• Do your research on the company, the product, and the industry to show your enthusiasm and dedication.
• Don't oversell yourself or exaggerate your skills. Be honest and transparent about your experience and abilities.
• Do prepare for common interview questions and practice your responses with a friend or mentor.
• Don't ramble or provide vague or generic responses. Be clear, concise, and specific in your answers.
• Do demonstrate your ability to work collaboratively with cross-functional team members and stakeholders.
• Don't criticize the company or its product, even if you have suggestions for improvement.

What to Expect After Your Interview

After your product manager interview, you should expect to hear back from the company within a few days to a week. The company may provide feedback on your interview performance and indicate whether they will proceed with your candidacy. If you're selected for the next stage of the interview process, you may be invited to meet with more team members or participate in a follow-up exercise, such as a case study or presentation.

Conclusion: Preparing for Success as a Product Manager

Interviewing for a product manager role can be a daunting process, but with preparation, practice, and confidence, you can excel and land your dream job. By understanding the common interview questions, preparing relevant examples from your past experiences, and showcasing your skills and abilities effectively, you'll increase your chances of success. Remember to stay authentic, transparent, and enthusiastic, and you'll be on your way to becoming a successful product manager.

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Lenny's Newsletter

How to interview product managers

Interview structure, skills to test, questions to ask, project examples, and more.

👋 Hey, I’m Lenny and welcome to a  🔒 subscriber-only edition 🔒  of my weekly newsletter. Each week I tackle reader questions about product, growth, working with humans, and anything else that’s stressing you out about work.  Send me your questions  and in return I’ll humbly offer actionable real-talk advice. Now, on to this week’s post…

Q: How should I structure my PM interview process?

I can understand why so many people are befuddled by interviewing product managers—the role is so endlessly undefined, how can non-PMs possibly know what to interview for? As Gergely Orosz (ex-Uber, Microsoft, Skype engineer) confessed in a tweet , “we EMs have no clue how to do these. At first, you wing it; by the third time, everyone has their own, completely different setup.”

In my chat with Harry Stebbings last week , I shared a bit of advice on this, but it was quite brief. So let’s get much deeper. Below, I’ll share suggestions for:

Structuring your PM interview process

What specific skills to test for

My favorite interview questions

How to structure an interview project (plus a bunch of real-life examples)

Tips to get them to take your offer

Disclaimer: People have strong opinions about how to interview, but very few people have enough data (or have looked at their data) to know if their interview assumptions are actually predictive of performance. Interview best practices are generally anecdotal, so definitely do your own research.

With that, let’s get into it.

How to structure your PM interview process

High-level, I’d set up your interview process like so:

Recruiter phone screen [30 minutes, optional]: Make sure the candidate meets the minimum requirements for the role and is likely to be a fit for the organization. Focus on their expectations for the role, basic skill questions, personality fit (e.g. not an asshole ), and their interview timelines. About 50% of candidates should make it through this step.

Hiring manager phone screen [30 minutes]: Make sure there is a strong chance that the candidate is a fit for the role. Focus on getting to know the person as a human, the role, and a couple skills or attributes that you believe to be most important to this role (more on this below). About 40% to 50% of candidates should make it through this step.

A full-day interview [4-5 hours]: The day is made up of two parts:

A project (done at home before arriving, in the office, or live), sharing what they came up with, with a group of potential colleagues

Three to six 1:1 interviews with potential colleagues, each testing for a key PM skill

Post-interview panel discussion [30-60 minutes]: Each interviewer blind votes Strong No, No, Yes, or Strong Yes. Share your vote, discuss, and then the hiring manager makes a decision.

Reference checks: Ping their references (and backchannel) to make sure you aren’t missing anything.

Make an offer: Put together a compelling offer, share it with them, and try like hell to get them to accept.

To benchmark a typical hiring funnel, I asked Benji Encz , CEO of the recruiting platform Ashby , to share stats he had on conversion rates at each step, and wow, did he deliver. Here are hot-off-the-presses stats his team pulled for me, based on over 75,000 recent applications across high-growth tech companies. Takeaway: You need to talk to an average of 23 PM candidates to hire one great one.

“Many early-stage teams underestimate how many candidates they need to speak to to make one hire. In our data we also saw that only 13% of inbound applicants even make it to the first screen. You will either need a lot of inbound, or more likely, you will have to fill the funnel with sourced candidates and referrals.” — Benji Encz , CEO of Ashby

I would be remiss if I didn’t plug my new Talent Collective here, which is quickly becoming the single best place to find and hire product managers—and help you find your next dream gig. Learn more here .

What skills to interview for

There are 10 core skills of product management , but assuming you’re interviewing an IC PM (i.e. not a manager), you can whittle it down to these six:

Communication

Collaboration

Product sense

Interestingly, product sense isn’t ever on PM career ladders, but it is something that companies interview for , so I’ve included it in the list above.

What interview questions to ask

I wrote a whole post sharing my favorite PM interview questions , so definitely go read that, but here’s a sampling:

Collaboration: Tell me about a time you disagreed with an engineer on your team and how you resolved it.

Execution: Pick a project you’re proud of that took 3-9 months. Walk me through it from beginning to end. I’ll ask questions along the way. [Give this ~7-10 minutes]

Strategy: Pick a product you worked on in the past year—talk me through your strategy for it.

Customer insights: Tell me about a time you did user research on a product/feature and that research had a big impact on the product.

Impact: What’s the most important or impactful product you shipped? What made it so important or impactful? Would it have been as impactful without you, and why?

Product sense: How would you improve feature x in our product?

This full post includes what to look for in the answers, red flags, and a ton more great interview questions to inspire you. Seriously, go check it out.

And don’t forget to keep your questions consistent, with predefined good and bad answers, to avoid bias .

“Companies should rely on a structured interview that standardizes the process among candidates, eliminating much subjectivity. These interviews pose the same set of questions in the same order to all candidates, allowing clearer comparisons between them.” —Iris Bohnet, Harvard Business Review

The project

I’ve found the project portion of the PM interview process to be the most informative component of the interview. It’s the only time you’ll get to see the candidate tackle a chunky new problem, be able to watch them in action, and have a discussion about it. Though some people don’t include it, I couldn’t imagine a PM interview without it.

“Years later I can see that the performance on the project was closely related to their success at Slack over the course of years.” — Merci Grace , former Head of Growth at Slack

The goal of the project is to get a taste of how a candidate approaches a new problem. Most importantly, you aren’t looking at how close they got to the right answer. Instead, you are looking at how they break down the problem, how they structure their solution, and how they communicate it to you. Often the discussion afterward is even more valuable than the prompt itself.

You have two options for delivering the project:

Before the interview: Give them a project before the full-day interview, to work on at home in some timeboxed amount of time. They then share what they came up with when they come in (or Zoom in) for the full-day interview.

The day of the interview: Give them a project at the beginning of the interview day, with a timeboxed amount of time for them to work on it (e.g. 90 minutes). Once they are done, they share what they’ve come up with.

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How to Pitch Your Product Vision in Product Management Interviews

Learn a framework for quickly pitching a new product idea, and enhance your career!

When I interview a product manager to work in my team, I want to know that they understand the whole of the product cycle - how to make it happen, from concept to rollout and beyond, and most importantly what will make it successful.  Too many product managers only ever see a part of the process (which I think is a fault of their management), so the product will never quite achieve its potential. Think of a great product that is way too expensive (e.g. the Apple Mac Pro computer), or a wonderful hiking device that doesn't have maps for your area (e.g. Garmin GPS), and you wonder how someone missed the big picture. A product manager that I hire needs to always keep in the mind the product vision and key success factors, and emphasize them through all of the discussions with company teams that seek to limit their own team's effort, expenditure, or risk, and will blindly limit the product's potential. Luckily, this approach works well both in large companies and in startups, but it takes a speciatl person to 'get it'. To identify that special person, I usually spend at least half the interview inviting the product manager to pitch me a new product idea.

Don't panic!  At this point inexperienced product managers are ready to walk out, but I give them a framework in order to structure the discussion. To my surprise, many have told me at the end that they learnt more from our short discussion than they had in the previous several years, and several have decided to actually go and build the product they pitched!   Yes, there are frameworks such as CIRCLES out there, but this one is more complete - I've based it on the standard 10-slide pitch that is frequently used when asking for venture capital money, but shortened to fit within an interview, or your rare lunch with a VP.

The framework I suggest to candidates is this:

 1. Pain points

 3. market sizing,  4. product vision statement,  5. features,  6. metrics,  7. pricing,  8. profit over 3 years,  9. rollout plan,  10. risk assessment.

While it may seem daunting when seen in a long list like this, a product manager with more than a year of experience should immediately recognize familiar steps in this framework, but I agree that it needs courage for them to tackle the ones that are unfamiliar. As most Exponent clients know, what the interviewer is looking for is not a 'right' answer, but a logical pattern of thinking and mental agility that will serve a product manager well in pretty much any situation.

One curious point is that most product managers are happy to talk about product features, but that is only number 5 in the list, and there is so much else to discuss!

How long does it take to get through this framework?  Time is very limited in an interview, but I have tested this framework with several hundred candidates, and we can get through most of the topics within 40 minutes, albeit with a bit of helpful coaching.  I recently tested it with a senior coach from Exponent, and he aced the whole thing in 30 minutes!   However, inexperienced candidates can take up to 1.5 hours, so it is worth practicing beforehand.

Stepping through the Framework

Let me guide you through each step in the Framework to tell you what I am looking for, and describe the mistakes that I see many candidates make.

Scenario:  A Good Walks App

I usually ask candidates to suggest a new product idea from their hobbies or home life, so that we avoid non-disclosures from other employers, and because candidates usually have more passion about such topics!  Something that has really annoyed them, and needs to be fixed ( Hint: have a topic pre-selected before your interview! ). A popular topic among candidates is the need for an app that can guide their young family on good walks or bike rides near home, usually with kids, so let's choose that one for this article.

• Pain points

Any product discussion should always start with pain points, although it is heavily intertwined with Users, and I don't mind candidates mixing the discussion as long as they summarize the pain points clearly.  You get extra points if Agile story format is used!

Ideal Answers:

• As a young parent, I need to be able to quickly find walks that are appropriate to age, walking ability, and interests, so that my family can have a healthy and happy day out.
• As a responsible parent, I need to know exactly where critical facilities are, such as  parking, toilet stops, baby-changing stations, and food along the route, so that my family is happy.
• As a responsible parent, I need to know whether handicapped persons or ageing grandparents can accompany us on the chosen walk without difficulty, so that no-one gets left out.

Mistakes candidates make:

• No clear definition of users - parents, children, grandparents, friends. Most people forget to mention handicapped users!
• No clear definition of the pain points.  Without that it is hard to know whether the product features are appropriate!

3. Market Sizing

In this step we figure out how many potential users there are so that we know whether the product is worth building, and of course it is an estimation question in disguise.  The usual approach is to derive the potential user count from the population of the area.  For instance, the San Francisco Bay area has a population of roughly 8 million . ( Hint: check the rough population size of your local area before the interview! )  Take 60% to get the size of the working population , divide by 2 to get couples, and then take the percentage of young families, which is about 30% ( see here ). That gives about 720,000 households (the actual number is 784,000 , but that is accurate enough).

How many households would use an app for family outings?  That is unknown, but I suggest you use a number like 10% where you have no other information. That gives a potential user count of  72,000 households, which is pretty good for just one market.  I would proceed with an app that had that kind of usage potential.

Ideal answers:

• Any user number that the candidate arrives at is fine, because it is the logic that matters, but I would expect an answer between 50,000 to  100,000 users, and for the candidate to confirm that it seems like a reasonable answer.
• Is this product idea worth proceeding with?  Yes.

Oh where do I start?  Not knowing the population of their local area, having no concept of how to do this estimation, and particularly serious - not being able to judge whether the answer is reasonable, or whether we should proceed with the product are all typical problems.  ( Hint:   Practice estimation questions ! )

4. Product Vision Statement

Popular with Bay Area companies like Google, it helps to create a very brief phrase or a 'product vision statement' that you can use to sell your product idea to management, and refer to the product with engineering and other teams.  It is a good way to keep the product true to its vision, because you can refer to it in meetings all the time!  There are many good guides for writing one ( see here for one ), but I recommend the following:

• No more than 3 or 4 words
• Must mention (or clearly imply) the primary user who is going to benefit from this product
• Must mention one or more key benefits to that user
• Must indicate the activity with which the product will help

Examples:  'Quick first-time homebuying',   'No-hassle airport arrival', 'Fast retail customer checkout', 'Accurate medical appointment timing', 'Happy beginner cooking', etc.

• 'Happy Family Walks', 'Easy Family Outings', 'Fun Family Hikes', are all reasonable product vision statements for this new product idea. The key users are there - families, and you can understand the activity and the key benefit.
• Again, another difficult one for candidates - I have to coach people a lot on this one. The major problems are usually a phrase that is too long, doesn't identify the users or a key benefit, or has no context.  I get non-sensical things like 'going out with the family and finding a bathroom'!
• Candidates for whom English is not their first language struggle more with this topic.  ( Hint - practice constructing these statements before the interview! )

5. Features

Candidates usually breathe a sigh of relief when they get to this topic - they have been waiting to dazzle me!  But I know that they have missed the point when they start describing the logo, the web page design, the user registration process, etc.  What I am looking for are features that DIRECTLY address the pain points that they themselves identified back in step 1!

• Ability to detect or specify your local area
• Some kind of grading, difficulty level, or way to quickly indicate whether a walk is suitable for my particular family's needs (age of my children, handicaps, wheelchairs, etc.)
• Precise location and distance to reach toilets, food, etc. along the way is essential.
• For extra credit, a graph of the gradients on the walk, a map showing the location of the facilities, video of the walk, recommendations from other users with a similar family profile, etc.
• If you can draw for me how the app includes all of the above features, then wow!
• Not addressing the pain points.  This is such a serious failure that I would be tempted to end the interview at this point.
• Describing the non-essential items of the app, such as colors, user registration, dimensions of wheelchairs, or how other users will rate the walks, even though they have a different family profile.

By this stage, I usually want to put my head in my hands, because I know this interview is already a waste of time, or I am so energized that I want to hire this person immediately!  However metrics is another hurdle that causes many good candidates to fall down.  What I am looking for are ' metrics that show me that the product is a success ', and I usually specify that I do NOT want to measure revenue.  The key to answering this question is to focus on what really matters to a potential investor, and not spend time measuring number of downloads, number of accesses, number of recommendations, etc.

• The most important metric in my view for most apps is RE-USE .  That is the number of times the same user comes back to use the app again.  It tells me that they see value there, that it is solving a problem for them (though we don't know which one), and that this app has long-term staying power and growth potential.
• Other key metrics include: number of walks available within the app for a specific local area, number of times the app is recommended to new users, and  accuracy of the data (location of the walks, location of the rest stops, etc.).
• Candidates love to rattle off as many measurements as they can, once they get over the shock of hearing that I am not interested in measuring revenue!  Rarely do the metrics they propose have anything to do with the success of the app, but rather are about the usage of parts of the app such as number of logins per hour, number of downloads per hour, number of searches per hour, etc.  While these are useful in measuring activity, they don't tell me whether the product has actually solved the pain points for those users.  If I download a walk one time, does it tell you that I will use your app again in the future?   No.  It only indicates that I want to try out what you have.
• Telling me how the metrics will be collected may be interesting, but is another irrelevant answer.  

Many product managers have a fear of pricing, because they have never been allowed near the topic. This is a mistake of senior management, because the balance of features versus cost is a key factor in users deciding whether to use your app or one offered by a competitor. This is the classic 'PC versus Mac' debate in a nutshell.

The fear factor means that I find it very hard to get candidates to specify an actual price e.g. $5 dollars per walk download.  You need to think about the value that the app offers to users, and therefore how much they might pay.  What are the alternatives, and how long do they take?  How do people find a walk today without your wonderful app?

• Give a number:   $1 per download, $5 per download, or a subscription price of $10 per month.  It doesn't really matter what number you give me, as long as you  have the courage to give a number, and outline how you are charging - by download, by subscription, by user, etc.
• No number. I have had candidates actually refuse to specify a number!
• No sense of the value of the app to the users - how much is this information worth?
• No appreciation of alternative sources of information for the users.

8. Profit over 3 years

This is a trick question, because most candidates hear the word 'revenue', not profit.  Profit means revenue minus expenses, so you will need to estimate both.  All I am looking for are ballpark, back-of-the-envelope (or napkin) estimates that you could do during lunch. Here are the steps:

• Estimate how long it will take until you can ship a working product. My personal rule of thumb is that from initial concept to delivering version 1.0, including all user testing, takes 1 year. That means NO REVENUE during the first year.
• Estimate your expenses per year.  Allow a minimum of $1M per year - that is enough to fund 5 people in Silicon Valley, and more in other parts of the world.  Allocate $1M in years 1, 2, and 3 for development and maintenance costs, and $1M per year in years 2 and 3 for marketing.  A good product manager will add on another million per year to fund data collection and updates - all that valuable walk data costs money!
• Estimate your revenue per year.  That should be easy for year 3 - take your price and multiply by the number of users that you estimated!  But in year 2 you may only make half of that.
• Expenses of something like $6M over 3 years, and revenues of between $3M to $4M over 3 years sound reasonable (assuming $1 per download, with families downloading twice a month on average). But that is just for the Bay area, so you need to specify how many metropolitan areas can be added during those 3 years - let's be conservative and say 5.  That gives revenue of $3M x 5 = $15M, which gives an overall profit of say, $15M - $6M = $9M over 3 years.
• I want the candidates to say whether they would invest in this business.  Often the answer is yes, especially if their estimates include wild revenue calculations!
• Most candidates think revenue starts from day one, and assume it grows exponentially.  I wish that were true!  They give wild revenue estimates, but if they can back them up with reasonable assumptions, I'll accept it.
• Most candidates have a hard time thinking about the costs.  Salaries, marketing, and data collection/validation are the large cost items.
• Don't be afraid to give numbers! All I am looking for is a logical approach to this task - the results themselves are not so important.

9. Rollout Plan

To my surprise, few candidates understand this step, and expect it to be handled by the marketing team or product marketing team.  Only when I ask whether they have the walk data to rollout their app across the whole world, or even the whole of the US, do they suddenly realize that there is a problem. This often occurs with apps that depend on data (think of the work it has taken for Exponent to create their library of study materials for you!).

So a good answer requires an estimate of how many locations you can reasonably collect and validate data per year, which in turn depends on the investment made.

• Any answer that gives a measure of 5 to 10 cities per year per data collection person is probably in the ballpark.  Of course that can be scaled up by adding crowd-sourcing, crowd-validation, or more data collection specialists (think of how Wikipedia is run), provided you monitor quality.
• Any candidate that is able to lay out a progressive plan of US state by state, or world country by country gets high marks.
• Not realizing that data collection and validation is key to the success of this solution, and that it doesn't happen overnight.
• Crazy estimates like rolling out a US state per week or an additional country per month (all in local language?) are worthless.

10. Risk assessment

By this stage most candidates have run out of time, and the interview has already finished.  For those who have been quick I add this extra challenge - tell me what investors should know about the risks of this project.

• Poor data quality
• Too few walks available per region, or too few that address the specific family needs
• Difficult to search for what you want
• Competition - which comes not just from other apps, but all of the existing walk guides, tour guide books, and websites already available for free!
• Blank stare, or a claim that there are 'no risks' (unbelievable, I know!).
• Risks that have little to do with the success of the app, such as the number of public toilets in an area.

What's Missing?

I mentioned at the start of this article that this framework is based on a typical 10-slide new product pitch.  Have we covered all of the topics that would normally appear there?   No - a typical new product pitch or startup presentation would also include the following topics:

Competition

You would normally expect a comparison of the strenths and weaknesses of your proposed product versus several key competitors.  I have removed this from the interview version of the framework partly in the interests of time, but also because finding out about your competition requires research, which is not practical during an interview.  However, a take-home assignment which a prospective employer might ask you to do should definitely include a competitive analysis.

A new product pitch would normally include a bio for each of the key players that will launch and guide the new product. Investors often place more confidence in the people that are involved than they do in the product idea, knowing that the product and its market may change rapidly. During an interview it is not fair to ask a candidate to name the team that will bring this product to life - they might perhaps go and do exactly that!

I have learned over the years during which I have used this new product pitch framework that it is a tough test for product managers, but a worthwhile one. If you can get through this framework in a coherent, logical way during an interview, I trust that you could do the same thing in real life, and I would have no hesitation in hiring you.  Of course different interviewers are looking for different things, but something in this framework is bound to spark their interest.

Learning the framework also serves another purpose - it gives you a ready-made way to present new ideas and proposals to your management and colleagues once you get hired.

One of the best ways to prepare for a product management interview is to train yourself to be curious about the world around you, and start describing it in terms of this framework. For instance if you are in a restaurant, you will probably see several product opportunities while you watch how people order, pass the time, and make their choices.  The same thing can happen if you are on public transport or in a public office - so many things around us are just waiting to be improved!   It could be you that does it.

Want to learn how to use tools like the above to answer interview questions? Want to get expert coaching from interview coaches like Tim to ace your next PM interview? Check out Exponent's PM Interview Course  and Interview Coaches .

Learn everything you need to ace your product management interviews.

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How did Raygun qualify for the Olympics? Is she really the best Australia has to offer?

By Mawunyo Gbogbo

ABC Entertainment

Topic: Olympic Games

Rachael "Raygun" Gunn did not score a single point at the Paris Olympics. ( Getty Images: Elsa )

Since Australian breaker Rachael "Raygun" Gunn failed to score a single point in any of her Olympic bouts, many have asked how she qualified for the Games.

Fellow breaker and anthropologist Lucas Marie says she won her qualification "fair and square" last year, but African American man Malik Dixon has criticised the Olympic body for letting her in.

What's next?

Breaking will not be an event at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games — a decision made before Raygun's performance.

The 2024 Paris Olympics marked breaking's debut as a sport at the global event, with 36-year-old lecturer and breaker Rachael "Raygun" Gunn representing Australia for the first time.

Having failed to win a single point in any of her Olympic bouts, Raygun quickly became a viral sensation.

The question on many people's minds now is: How did she even qualify?

Lucas Marie is a breaker who has competed, performed, taught and judged breaking competitions over the past 25 years. He's also an anthropologist who recently co-authored an article with Gunn.

He says the answer to that question is simple.

Lucas Marie recently co-authored an article with Raygun. ( Supplied )

"There was an Oceania qualifier in which any B-boy or B-girl from Australia [or] New Zealand could enter, and that was in Sydney in October 2023," he told ABC News.

"And leading up to that, there were a lot of other events in which breakers were competing.

"She won those battles fair and square and won the qualification in Sydney.

"And it wasn't really a surprise to anyone. 

"She's been fairly consistent, winning or coming second or third at a lot of breaking events in Australia for the last five to 10 years."

Marie said there was nothing out of the ordinary about Raygun's performance.

"It's not like gymnastics where there's this kind of agreed-upon standard," he said.

"It's always had a rawness to it. It's always had an improvisational kind of quality. And I think looking different and trying different stuff has always been celebrated.

"And I think Raygun, in a way, was just expressing a core kind of hip hop trait in a way a lot of breakers do."

He described her efforts as bold.

"I thought — and this is how I judge a lot of breaking events — I thought, 'Oh, she's making some really interesting choices to mimic Australian animals.' And you can kind of see the choices that she's making in the moment."

Is she the best Australia has to offer?

Team Australia chef de mission Anna Meares insisted after Raygun's performance that she was the best breaker the country had to offer. But is this true?

Lucas Marie has competed, performed, taught and judged breaking competitions for more than 25 years. ( Supplied: momentsby.naz )

"It's sometimes just who's performing better on the day," Marie said.

"And at the qualification event in which she won, and other events in which she's won, she performed better on that day and won the ticket.

"That doesn't mean she's the best. It doesn't really work like that.

"I think she's a great breaker. She won the qualification. She's won other events in the past, and she was a good representative for Australia at that competition."

Asked whether there were B-girls in Perth, regional Victoria or rural Brisbane who might have qualified but could not afford to travel to Sydney for the tryouts, Marie agreed this was possible.

"Of course, there's breakers all over the country that maybe should have been in that event, but they weren't."

Breaking will not carry over to the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, a decision made before Raygun's battle.

Marie described this as sad.

"Maybe, based on the ratings, they'll reassess that and maybe allocate some medals to breaking," he said.

"I really hope that's the case, and I hope that for other breakers who want to compete in it as a dance sport."

Marie said that at the end of the day people should remember they were dealing with a human.

"As a friend of Rachael's, there's a human being who's getting a lot of negative attention," he said.

"I think people kind of miss that sometimes and forget the human aspect of all this."

'Toying with the culture'

Malik Dixon is an African American who has been living in Australia for more than a decade and is a Sydney University graduate.

He said Raygun made a total "mockery" out of breaking at the Olympics.

Malik Dixon says too many people feel entitled to African American culture. ( Supplied )

"She was dressed like a member of the cricket team or an Australian PE teacher, and from that point it just seemed like satire," Mr Dixon told ABC News.

"It just looked like somebody who was toying with the culture and didn't know how culturally significant it was being the first time in the Olympics and just how important it was to people who really cherish hip hop and one of the elements of hip hop, which is breakdancing.

"It made me think, was Borat her breakdancing coach?"

Mr Dixon said too many people felt entitled to African American culture.

"The African American space has been one where we've shared our community so much and without any restraints, any barriers, roadblocks, obstacles, any gatekeepers, that essentially what should have been African American cultural capital is just shared, which is cool," he said. 

"We like to share, right? 

"We shared 400 years of free labour.

"To see Rachael in her attempt to be a part of the culture just be grossly underwhelming made it seem like she didn't take it seriously."

Olympics body criticised for Raygun qualification

Mr Dixon criticised the body that qualified Raygun, saying she devalued breaking with her performance.

"Whatever governing body nominated her as Australia's entrant into the Olympics either did not understand the assignment or didn't really believe in the integrity or significance of breakdancing, because if they did they would just say, rather than disrespect the culture, we're just not ready to send an applicant this year."

He said Raygun was extremely audacious and not self-aware.

"You've got to know your role, know your position, know your limitation," he said. 

"And I think that part of privilege is saying that there are no limits to what I can do. 

"Part of privilege is having the authority to say that there are no limits and there are no requirements, there are no prerequisites to what I can do."

Raygun's degrees do not hold much water with Mr Dixon.

"Due to consumerism, this Foundational Black American product, which is hip hop, is global," he said.

"And even people who have no connection to any African Americans or any local or regional things that come out in these songs, they have become a part of the whole experience now.

"If I came in and said that I was an authority on Greek music and I was going against the grain of what the mainstream Greek musicians thought, or the school of thought, and I've said that I was the authority, people would check me on that.

"If I had a PhD in sprinting, does that qualify me to go against Noah Lyles? No, it doesn't."

He also doubts Raygun was the best breaker Australia had to offer.

"[There's] got to be somebody out here that's better than that! The kangaroo! The sprinkler! She did the sprinkler out there, man!" he said.

Should everybody just lighten up?

Should we lighten up? Mr Dixon does not believe so.

"Larrikinism is used as a get-out-of-jail-free card and to escape responsibility of how words or actions impact a hurt person," he said.

"But when the majority culture is offended, there's no playing around.

"This is a part of my culture, and I don't think Australians are in a place to tell me how I should feel about breakdancing being mocked on an international stage.

"People who don't have any or limited access to black people or hip hop culture now may see Rachael and her buffoonery as a representation of hip hop and black culture.

"People who were already side-eyeing breakdancing as an Olympic sport, Rachael Gunn has put the nail in that coffin.

"This might be the most viral clip of the whole Olympics. From a comedy standpoint, she's got it, but from an Olympics perspective, its regressive."

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Table of contents, product manager case study interview prep: 4 things to prepare for.

• January 13, 2022

The case study round carries more and more weight in the Product Manager interview process. Your case study interview is your opportunity to show the hiring team how you solve problems and how you will respond to the company’s needs. To make sure you knock this round out of the park, you need to set yourself up with the right case study interview prep .

This piece will cover the different ways you can prepare for the case study interview round. There are four things you need to handle to ace your case study interview prep:

• Understand the case study you are getting
• Know who will be ingesting your case study
• Set barriers and clarify assumptions
• Apply the open-ended or narrow strategy

Follow along with our four-step case study preparation guide in this video by Product Gym co-founder Cody Chang:

Case Study Interview Prep: Step 1

Understand the case study you are getting.

The very first thing you need to figure out is what kind of case study you’ve been presented with. The best way of doing so? Ask questions. What are you being asked to solve? What are the main goals and values to consider? Is there a set timeline for when you need to complete the case study?

More commonly, case studies come up in the third round of interviews. But, there are some companies that will utilize these exercises in the preliminary interview.

One great misconception regarding case study interview questions is that the case study will always be a take-home assignment. Although this is common, it’s not always a guarantee that this will be the case. In some case study interviews, you’ll have to complete the assignment in a given amount of time and on the day.

Understand Your Case Study — Ask Questions

The best way to know what you’re getting into — regardless of how the case study assignment is presented to you — is by asking questions. Never start by going head-first into a case study. First, make sure you have all the information about the problem you’re trying to solve.

Here are some examples of questions to ask:

• How did the company create this feature?
• What stakeholder group suggested this product/product change? 
• What is the goal of this new feature? 
• Is the assumption that leadership has already signed on board to this feature? 
• Are we assuming that this is just a small product that we have been given to test? 

By asking these questions, you’re figuring out the bounds and the constraints of the case study question and evaluating the need for your case study solution and presentation. Therefore, to understand the needs of the company, you’re validating the need of the case study. This is the moment that you’re able to state assumptions and beliefs (something we’ll discuss later in this article). 

Another incredibly important point to consider is the method in which you’re presenting the case study. Will it be presented on the spot, or is it a report that you’re going to submit later? You’ll want to ask questions that clarify the expectations surrounding how you’ll submit your solution.

Having this information is important for when you present the case study, whether it be in a written report or in person, but it needs to be the focal point of consideration as soon as you start preparation. If it is a whiteboard case study , you’ll be meant to present and solve on the spot.

Case Study Interview Preparation: Step 2

Know who will be ingesting your case study (who will read it/attend the presentation).

Whenever you’re preparing for any kind of presentation, knowing your audience is a large determinator in its success. So when you present your case study , you need to think about who is going to be at the receiving end. Remember: what you discuss in your presentation should address the concerns of whichever stakeholders are present at your interview. This way, they’re more likely to feel involved, pay attention, and expand the discussion with engaging questions. 

When we discuss stakeholders, who do we mean? And what does it mean you’ll need to include? You may encounter UX Designers and Researchers, Product Owners, and Engineering Leads.

As mentioned, the stakeholders present will be more drawn to your case study if you’re mentioning factors that concern them: this is called optimization. A lot of people will only pay attention to the parts of your presentation that they care most about, or that directly apply to them.

So, you have to be sure to cover all the pieces that are relevant to the people present. If you know that there’s going to be a UX Designer in the room, then you should think about including product design elements. You can’t always depend on people to listen to your entire presentation, especially if it’s expected to be 20 to 25 minutes. Quite honestly, the hiring committee is likely going through a lot of candidates: there’s a lot they need to try and remember.

To help make your case study as memorable as possible, here is a comprehensive list of the Do’s and Don’ts when it comes to preparing and executing the case study interview:

Do’s  

• Act as if you are an employee. Granted, you’re just interviewing and you’re not officially an employee yet, but nothing is preventing you from acting like one. The best way you’re able to demonstrate your desire to work for the organization is by using company logos, colours, and designs when presenting.
• Use the right amount of content. It’s easier said than done, but you need to make sure that you’re including enough content to ensure people know about the product but are also curious to learn more about the finer details. Your presentation is only as strong as the ideas you include.
• Include visuals and media to spark audience interest. High-quality graphics help convey your point by not presenting too much information for the audience to be overwhelmed . Most people are visual, meaning the inclusion of graphics and media is a really easy way to portray your point, while also ensuring that you’re captivating those watching.
• Make sure you can explain your pitch to anyone of any age and education level.  Although not everyone is going to understand the finer points of your pitch, everyone should be able to understand the basics of what you’re trying to pitch. So, start off simple. This way you’re ensuring that everyone starts off on the same page, regardless of their individual knowledge and experience levels.
• Assume that you’ll be able to take it home. While it is common for case studies to be set as take-home assignments, it’s not always a given. Make sure that you’re prepared to create and present your case study on the day that it is set.
• Forget to set a goal for the feature. The goal that you set for your case study tends to be based on profitability. However, there are a variety of metrics that could be used to determine its success and suitability. Here is a key guide to the different and important metrics you can use when presenting and preparing for your case study.
• Avoid asking questions. The best way to ensure that you’re providing your audience with the most comprehensive and engaging case study is to ask what the audience wants and expects from you beforehand.

How to Prep for the Product Manager Case Study: Step 3

Set barriers and clarify assumptions..

There are many points that you can cover when it comes to the case study, but to make sure that you’re giving a comprehensive and relevant pitch, you need to set barriers and set assumptions. 

A key part of this is to understand the time constraints and make decisions about how you’re going to handle them. At Product Gym, where we see a lot of people stumble is when they don’t know when to stop: they don’t know when to create the guardrails, barriers, and assumptions that stop their case study from going in 12 different directions.

When given a case study, the best thing you can do is to come up with assumptions and state them beforehand so you can create the guardrails and connect with the interviewer. Don’t be afraid to ask them about a specific time limit or to suggest a timeline that they want the candidates to spend. Ultimately, the time that you spend will dictate the quality of work that you’re going to put in.

So what do you do if the company doesn’t have given guardrails that they can communicate with you? Don’t be shy — suggest some and see what they prefer.

Case Study Prep: Step 4

Consider your strategy..

We’ll cover the two main approaches you can take to solve a case study: Open-Ended VS Narrow.

Remember that when it comes to case study interview prep, either route is suitable. But once you pick open-ended or narrow, stick with it. We see many candidates make the mistake of panicking because they think there’s too much to cover. make sure you’re keeping a consistent view so that you can convey all the information and reasoning that you’re wanting to get across.

We get it — you want to go as broad and in-depth as possible. But covering absolutely everything in full detail is never an option. The best thing you can do to help your chances is to stick to one strategy and have a clear opinion. Whichever strategy you pick should include: 

• The product development life cycle
• Your stated assumptions
• Your drafted vision and strategic direction
• User stories

All these components make a successful case study, but make sure that you always include your opinion and make sure that it’s extremely clear.

Now that you know the “why” behind choosing a consistent strategy for your case study preparation, let’s unpack the Narrow vs Open-ended strategy.

Narrow Strategy

The narrow strategy is somewhat explained through the name: A narrow approach prevents you from going through the entire product lifestyle. Instead, you’re focusing on the area that you feel most comfortable and knowledgeable talking about. Thus, you’ll come across as more affirming and confident. 

If you’re trying to showcase your specific product management skills, you should pick a particular area or skill set that you feel most confident about and focus on that in the case study solution and presentation.

So when is the narrow strategy suitable? When the case study asks you to pick a product that you’re familiar with, really iterate on it. Create some suggestions or build a product roadmap. Some Product Gym candidates will pick very specific products that only they, or very few people in the industry, know. The advantage to that is that they can really robustly use data and insights to inform their roadmap that many interviewers may not be familiar with.

The downside to that is not a lot of people know about the product. This results in more effort on your end to create the context and really explain a lot of things about the industry. Ultimately, you want the interviewers to be able to ask questions and participate so that you can show a side of you as the interviewee: that you’re collaborative and thinking together in your brainstorming. If you pick something so specific that they’re not able to interact with it, that’s a failure on your part. You need to create that space where they can ask questions and really pick your brain.

Open-Ended Strategy

The open-ended strategy is the opposite of the narrow strategy. It involves covering all areas of the product lifecycle in broad strokes. It is a more general and wide-reaching approach.

Many avoid the open-ended approach because they don’t want a list of questions when they present their case study. However, if this is an environment that you thrive in, then it’s a fantastic opportunity to prove your ability to think on the spot. If you have experience in a Product Manager role, this is a great opportunity to present an open-ended case study. With this strategy, you need to think multiple steps ahead.

Which Strategy Should I Choose? 

The strategy you choose is dependent on many different factors: the case study itself, your experience, and the level of confidence with what the case study is asking. Ultimately, you should pick the strategy that you’re most comfortable with based on your knowledge of the product and how you plan to answer the case study question itself. 

BONUS Step 5: Get Your Solution and Presentation Reviewed by a Professional

You’ve worked through the case study and put your solution into a slide deck to present to a panel of interviewers: congratulations! But if you want to go above and beyond to impress the hiring team, take some time to get your case study solution reviewed by a professional.

A fresh set of eyes may catch typos and grammar errors, but will also be able to point out the areas where you can improve the solution overall. A Product Manager who’s gone through multiple case study interview rounds is going to be able to assess your solution from the perspective of the interviewer and use their experience to help you polish it.

At Product Gym, our interview coaches routinely check over members’ case study presentations, offering insight, constructive criticism, and tips on how to make their technical interview round a success. Solving case studies isn’t just a good practice for acing your interview — it’s also an excellent way to develop applicable Product Manager skills. That’s why we include classes on case studies in our program. Our case study curriculum was developed and continues to be taught by Senior Product Manager for Atlassian,  Roman Kolosovskiy .

Because we’ve been working with Product Manager job hunters for the past five years, we’ve had ample opportunity to test and perfect the case study strategy we teach our members. We’ve even compiled a bank of case study prompts that aspiring Product Managers have received in their interviews so that members can exclusively access to hone their problem-solving and storytelling skills.

Nail Your Case Study Interview Prep

You got this. Bring your confidence , your passion for the role (and the company), and your enthusiasm to solve a problem. That, combined with our case study interview prep, can take you from underwhelming to impressive as a Product Manager candidate .

Do you still have questions about case study interviews and how to prep for the Product Manager interview process? Schedule a call with our in-house team of career coaches and learn how Product Gym can help you prepare for case study interviews and land the offer of your dreams.

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