Six top interview questions for product management positions

 

You’ve just completed a degree or certificate in product management or decided to make the leap from another career path. Now you’ve landed your first interviews in the field. Congratulations are in order. But so is a little bit of anxiety.

You may be a job interview veteran, but every new field (and sub-specialty) has its own particular lingo and ways of thinking to master. Success in your first product management job interviews demands not only mastering the vocabulary and theory of the field, but figuring out how to best showcase your existing skills and experiences to highlight the most relevant competencies.

The best way to prepare is to think through your answers to questions you’re likely to hear in product management job interviews ahead of time. What product management-specific questions are you likely to encounter? Priyanka Upadhyay, who has 17 years of experience in product management across different industries and is a coach for Stanford Online's Product Management Program, shared six questions to prepare for as well as insider tips on what makes for an exceptional answer.

1. Product Design: How would you design an oven for a person in a wheelchair?

Accessibility is, of course, a hugely important topic in product design, but that’s not what your interviewer is getting at with questions like the one above that ask how you would design a hypothetical product for a specific user. What they’re really doing is testing your understanding of the fundamentals of product design. Impressing the interviewer isn’t about ticking off a particular list of features, but instead about demonstrating the thought process you used to arrive at your answer.

Rather than jump into features, successful candidates will start by digging into the users’ needs and wants. Does the user have any other disabilities you need to be mindful of, for example? How exactly will they be using the product? Is there anything else about the larger context of their life it’s important to understand? Only once you’ve truly understood the user, their goals, and their situation should you suggest possible approaches or features.

When you do continue onto features, it’s a good idea to suggest which features you think should be prioritized and why. Walk the interviewer through the trade-offs you’ve considered in your selection. Finally, identify which one or two of these features you would need to build a Minimum Viable Product (or MVP). Don’t forget to explain your reasoning.

Interview coaching service IGotAnOffer offers a helpful template that can assist you in structuring answers to this type of question.

2. Product Strategy: Google is thinking about acquiring the question-and-answer site Quora. Should they acquire it? Why or why not?

Strategic thinking is a key competency to be successful as a product manager. To assess it interviewers will often rely on hypotheticals like the one above. As with many questions on this list, performing well is less about a specific answer and more about demonstrating the thinking that leads you there.