How To Crack Product Manager Interview | Career Path | Interview Tips | Product Management | UpGrad

Summary

This video script offers insights into the product management (PM) interview process, emphasizing the five key areas companies assess: problem-solving, analytical skills, leadership, communication, and the ability to prioritize and build roadmaps. It provides strategies for tackling common PM interview questions, such as improving a favorite app or designing for niche markets, and highlights the importance of context clarification, user assumption, and focusing on significant solutions. The script also discusses how to demonstrate analytical thinking through estimation problems and the significance of leadership and cultural fit in PM roles.

Takeaways

• 🧩 The product management (PM) interview process is centered around problem-solving and can be both exciting and nerve-wracking due to the unique assessment methods of each company.
• 🔍 Companies typically assess five key areas in PM interviews: problem-solving, analytical skills, leadership skills, communication and teamwork skills, and the ability to prioritize and build a roadmap.
• 🤔 Problem-solving in PM interviews often involves unfamiliar areas to push candidates out of their comfort zones, such as designing a navigation product for the blind or a new type of hardware product.
• 📝 When answering problem-solving questions, it's crucial to clarify the context, make assumptions about the users, and focus on big challenges that require significant solutions.
• 📉 Analytical skills are tested through estimation questions, where the approach to breaking down the problem is more important than the exact numbers.
• 📊 For estimation questions, a systematic approach such as top-down or bottom-up is essential to demonstrate how to tackle complex problems by breaking them into manageable parts.
• 💡 Leadership and communication skills are often assessed through behavioral questions about past experiences in resolving conflicts, making decisions, and convincing team members or executives.
• 🤝 Cultural fit is an important aspect of the interview process, where companies look for honesty and alignment with the company's work culture and values.
• 🗺 Prioritization and roadmap building skills are evaluated through exercises where candidates are asked to create a vision and plan for a product within a specific timeframe, highlighting the importance of addressing large problems first.
• 🏆 The interview process aims to find candidates who can logically prioritize goals and demonstrate a deep understanding of the business and industry to drive impactful solutions.
• 🛠️ Frameworks and methodologies learned during product management courses can be applied to justify prioritization and roadmap development, emphasizing the impact on users versus the difficulty of implementation.

Q & A

What are the five key areas companies typically assess during a product management interview?

The five key areas are problem-solving, analytical skills, leadership skills, communication and teamwork skills, and the ability to prioritize and build a roadmap.

Why are problem-solving questions in PM interviews often designed to be outside of the candidate's comfort zone?

Companies aim to see how candidates react to new situations and unfamiliar product problems, rather than how they handle familiar tasks.

What is an example of a problem-solving question that a company might ask in a PM interview?

An example is to design a navigation product for blind people, which tests the candidate's ability to think creatively and adapt to unfamiliar challenges.

How should a candidate approach the task of improving a favorite app during a PM interview?

The candidate should clarify the context of the improvement, make assumptions about the users, and focus on big problems and solutions rather than minor visual or functional tweaks.

Why is it important for a PM candidate to demonstrate strong analytical skills during an interview?

Analytical skills are crucial for a PM role as the candidate will be constantly examining metrics, numbers, research data, and surveys to make informed decisions.

What type of question is commonly used to test a candidate's analytical skills in a PM interview?

Estimation questions, such as estimating the market size for a product or the number of flights in the air at a specific time, are used to assess analytical skills.

How should a candidate tackle an estimation question in a PM interview?

The candidate should focus on the approach to breaking down the problem, whether it's a top-down or bottom-up approach, rather than the exact numbers.

What aspects of leadership and communication skills are companies looking to assess in a PM interview?

Companies want to see how candidates have handled leadership challenges, managerial issues, and hard decisions in the past, and how they resolved conflicts or convinced others.

Why is cultural fit an important consideration during a PM interview?

Cultural fit is important because it determines whether the candidate will work well with the existing team and align with the company's work culture.

How can a candidate prepare for questions about cultural fit during a PM interview?

A candidate can prepare by researching the company's culture, reaching out to current employees, or asking HR for insights to understand the work environment and cultural expectations.

What is the purpose of asking a candidate to build a product roadmap during a PM interview?

The purpose is to assess the candidate's understanding of the business and industry, their ability to prioritize goals and vision for the product, and their strategic thinking in addressing key challenges.

How should a candidate prioritize tasks when building a product roadmap in a PM interview?

The candidate should prioritize based on the impact on users and the difficulty of implementing the solution, focusing on large problems that will significantly move the needle for the product.

Outlines

00:00

🧑‍💼 Mastering the Art of PM Interview: Problem Solving and More

The first paragraph delves into the intricacies of a product management (PM) interview, emphasizing the excitement and challenges it presents. It outlines the five key areas companies assess: problem-solving, analytical skills, leadership, communication and teamwork, and the ability to prioritize and build a roadmap. The speaker provides examples of common problem-solving questions, such as improving a favorite app or designing a new product, especially in unfamiliar domains. The importance of understanding the context, making assumptions about users, and focusing on significant challenges rather than minor improvements is highlighted. The discussion also touches on how to approach questions that push candidates out of their comfort zones, such as designing navigation for the visually impaired.

05:01

📊 Demonstrating Analytical Acumen in PM Interviews

The second paragraph focuses on showcasing analytical skills during PM interviews, a critical aspect for product managers who must constantly interpret metrics and data. Companies often use estimation questions to test this, such as estimating market size or the number of flights in the air at a given time. The speaker explains the importance of the approach over the exact numbers, suggesting strategies like breaking down the problem, considering demographic factors, and making reasonable assumptions to arrive at an estimated figure. The example of estimating the market size for men's fairness cream in India is used to illustrate a step-by-step analytical process, from population breakdown to usage estimation and affordability considerations.

10:03

🗣️ Leadership, Communication, and Cultural Fit in the PM Interview

The third paragraph discusses the assessment of leadership and communication skills, as well as cultural fit, during PM interviews. It notes the difficulty of evaluating these skills in an interview setting and suggests that companies often ask about past experiences with leadership challenges, conflict resolution, and decision-making. The speaker advises candidates to be prepared with examples from their professional life that demonstrate their ability to lead, communicate effectively, and handle difficult situations. Additionally, the concept of cultural fit is explored, with advice on understanding a company's culture to determine if it aligns with the candidate's values and work style.

15:04

🛣️ Prioritization and Roadmapping: Key to a Successful PM Interview

The final paragraph addresses the importance of prioritization and roadmapping skills in PM interviews. Companies may present candidates with a hypothetical product scenario and ask them to build a short-term and long-term roadmap. The speaker emphasizes the need to understand the business and industry, identify key challenges, and prioritize goals effectively. The example of creating a roadmap for a payments product at an e-commerce company illustrates how to focus on impactful solutions and justify prioritization decisions based on user impact and implementation difficulty. The paragraph concludes by reinforcing the importance of logical thought and clear justification in building a compelling product roadmap.

Keywords

💡Product Management Interview

A product management interview is a process where candidates are assessed for their suitability to manage products within a company. It is a key part of the hiring process for product managers. In the video, the theme revolves around the various aspects that companies test during such interviews, including problem-solving, analytical skills, leadership, communication, and prioritization.

💡Problem Solving

Problem solving is the ability to analyze a situation and propose a solution. In the context of a product management interview, it is crucial as it demonstrates a candidate's capacity to handle challenges and devise strategies. The script mentions common problem-solving questions such as improving a favorite app or designing a new product, particularly in unfamiliar areas to gauge the candidate's adaptability.

💡Analytical Skills

Analytical skills refer to the capacity to assess complex situations, break them down into components, and understand their relationships. For product managers, these skills are vital for making data-driven decisions. The script illustrates this through examples of estimation questions, where candidates are expected to demonstrate their approach rather than the accuracy of numbers.

💡Leadership Skills

Leadership skills are essential for guiding teams and making strategic decisions. In a product management role, these skills are tested through questions that require candidates to recount instances where they resolved conflicts or made tough decisions. The script emphasizes the importance of these skills in leading teams that may not directly report to the product manager.

💡Communication

Communication is the ability to convey information effectively and clearly. It is highlighted in the script as a key skill for product managers, who must articulate their vision, negotiate, and persuade various stakeholders. The video discusses how companies may assess this through behavioral questions related to past experiences.

💡Teamwork

Teamwork involves collaborating with others to achieve a common goal. The script mentions that companies assess a candidate's ability to work within a team, especially in a product management context where cross-functional collaboration is often required.

💡Cultural Fit

Cultural fit refers to how well a candidate's values, work style, and personality align with a company's culture. The script discusses the concept as an aspect that companies consider during interviews, emphasizing the importance of being honest and understanding the company's work culture.

💡Prioritization

Prioritization is the process of arranging tasks or goals in order of importance. In product management, this skill is critical for deciding which features to develop or issues to address first. The script provides an example of building a road map for a product, which requires the candidate to prioritize based on impact and implementation difficulty.

💡Road Map

A road map is a strategic plan that outlines the direction and priorities for a product or project over a set period. The script uses the term to describe an exercise where candidates are asked to create a 6-month and 12-month plan for a product, demonstrating their understanding of the business and industry.

💡Estimation Question

An estimation question is a type of problem presented in an interview to test a candidate's analytical and reasoning skills. The script mentions such questions, like estimating market sizes, to evaluate how candidates approach complex problems and break them down into manageable parts.

💡Behavioral Questions

Behavioral questions are used in interviews to explore how candidates have acted in past situations. They are designed to predict future performance based on past behavior. The script notes that these questions are common in product management interviews to assess leadership and communication skills.

Highlights

Cracking a PM interview involves showcasing problem-solving, analytical, leadership, communication, and prioritization skills.

Problem-solving in PM interviews often involves unfamiliar areas to assess adaptability to new situations.

Interviewers may ask to design a navigation product for the blind as a common problem-solving question.

Candidates should clarify the context and objectives before proposing improvements to an app or a new product design.

Assumptions about the users should be made and clarified when discussing product improvements.

Focus on big problems and solutions rather than minor visual or functional tweaks in product improvement discussions.

Analytical skills are tested through estimation questions that require a logical breakdown of the problem.

The approach to solving estimation problems is more important than the exact numbers in a PM interview.

Leadership and communication skills are assessed through questions about past challenges and conflict resolutions.

Cultural fit is evaluated to determine if the candidate aligns with the company's work culture and values.

Understanding the company's culture can help candidates prepare for cultural fit questions in the interview.

Prioritization and road-mapping skills are tested by asking candidates to build a product roadmap for a given timeframe.

Candidates should prioritize large problems and justify their choices based on impact and implementation difficulty.

A 6-month and 12-month product roadmap can be a common exercise to assess a candidate's vision and understanding of the business.

The importance of picking large problems first in a prioritization exercise to show strategic thinking.

Justifying prioritization with impact on users and implementation difficulty demonstrates logical decision-making.

Transcripts

[Music]

[Applause]

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so let's talk about cracking a PM

interview a product management interview

can be both very exciting uh because

it's usually very logical and centered

around problem solving but it could also

be pretty challenging uh and

nerve-wracking because each company has

their own way of assessing new product

managers uh and there's a lot of

unexpected elements involved in a PM

interview

broadly there are about five things uh

that a company would like to test when

uh interviewing new PMS they include

problem solving your analytical skills

your leadership skills your

communication and teamwork skills and

also your ability to prioritize and

build a road map so let's talk about uh

each of these five things and how

companies typically go about assessing

so let's first talk about problem

solving

two very common questions that usually

come up uh in a PM interview for problem

solving

include pick any favorite app of yours

um and figure out how would you improve

it right or the second question would be

about designing a new product um often

times companies here would not pick a

area that you you're familiar with like

you will very rarely get a question like

design a new food ordering app for

example right um companies will tend to

choose areas that might make you feel

uncomfortable or out of your comfort

zone so for example a common question

that I like to ask which is actually

which I borrowed from Google is design a

navigation product for blind people um

sometimes people will ask you questions

about Hardware products like design a

new stool or design a new sort of new

type of headphones Etc um the idea there

is to think about how you react to new

situations new product problems um

rather than giving you something that

you're comfortable with so let's say you

are in a PM interview and you're given

one of these questions which is like

pick a favorite app of yours and how

would you improve it design something

new or it could also be like a specific

app like how would you improve go+ so

there are couple of things to keep in

mind when um you know answering such an

interview question first make sure that

you clarify the context that is why are

we doing this Improvement um are there

any specific set of users for which we

are you know doing this Improvement

what's the objective is it to increase

engagement is it to increase revenue is

it to increase you know downloads

retention Etc so clarify the problem

context second clarify and take some

assumptions about the users of of this

product so let's say if you're doing you

know designing a new stool uh and let's

say it's designing a new stool for

people in business uh for sitting in

offices right so then think about take

some assumptions about these users like

where would people in an office be you

know using a stool because usually they

sit on a chair um you know sometimes it

could be in meeting rooms sometimes it

could be in canteens which means that

this stool you're designing is probably

not going to be used 8 hours a day you

know by an individual it's probably

going to be used one or 2 hours a day um

so again list down all these assumptions

um about your users that you're basing

uh you know your solution or your idea

on

the third thing to remember in such an

interview is uh think about big problems

big challenges and hence big Solutions

so um a big mistake that people make is

you know let's say given a question how

would you improve Gmail people start

pointing out small visual things that oh

I don't like the color of this button or

oh I think like you know this link

should be here now unless that change is

fundamentally altering user Behavior or

fundamentally increasing some Metric for

Gmail um usually that answer is not good

enough a really good answer in this

context that how would you improve Gmail

would be is there a way to reduce

storage you know so Gmail people are

using 50gb of storage on average that's

a huge cost to Google um given it's a

free email service people run out of

their storage space as well and then

they need to purchase additional storage

so can you figure out a new way of

archiving emails or a new way of

indexing emails um you know such that it

uses less space um let's talk about

Google+ you know it's often talked about

as a graveyard for you know social

networks so again a common answer that

people give in that case is Facebook

does this so I would do this in Google+

now is that really going to move the

needle for

Google+ um no probably not so a better

bet would be to pick a certain use case

for which people use social networking

and maybe push users to use go+ for that

so an example would be that a lot of

people post pet photos um you know on

Facebook or their wedding photos Etc uh

now that gets you know kind of lost in

the generic mil of photos on Facebook so

can you make Google+ a destination for

sharing your just your travel stories or

wedding stories or stories about your

pets or stories about your kids um you

know such that you're driving a huge

engagement for from a certain set of

users now all these are of course

hypothetical uh but the point being that

try and point out big measures Big Ideas

big Solutions big problems to solve

rather than uh you know focusing on

small things so the second thing the

companies uh usually like to test is uh

your analytical skills um now as a

product manager you'll be constantly

looking at metrics numbers you know

research data survey so it's very

important and very helpful you know if

you're strongly analytical so the way

the companies usually test uh your

analytical skills in a PM interview is

by giving you an estimation question

typically be you know estimate the

market size for men's fairness cream in

India for example or even uh this is

something I got asked once in an

interview which was estimate the number

of flights in Indian airspace at 11:00

a.m. right so how do you tackle a

problem like that so the first thing to

remember uh while answering such an

interview question is do not fret about

the actual numbers right because the

exact numbers I don't know you don't

know no one knows right it's the

approach that counts the most important

thing people are looking for when you're

answering such an interview question is

how are you able to break down this

problem you know whether you're taking a

top- down approach or you're taking a

bottom up approach so let's for example

talk about men's fairness cream in India

right so how would you approach this

problem so if I was answering this

question I would start with you know

this is India's population let's say 1.2

billion now I'll assume 50% male 50%

female right now the exact gender ratio

in India is not 50-50 right but that's

fine um I think it's making your math

easy you're making your you know General

point that I'm just concentrating on um

you know the male population for men's

fairness cream so let's say gender ratio

is 50/50 right so now talking about

males 600 million um male population in

India now what is the next sort of

demographic variable that can define

whether someone would be a user for

men's fairness cream or not uh let's say

age probably right so again you could

divide people in buckets by age so let's

say here I divide people by 0 to 15 15

to 30 30 to 50 and everyone above 50

right now I could have done bucketing

differently that's totally fine the

point here is that I'm showing the

interview uh interviewer that I can

think about which of the target segments

are actually going to be users of this

product again I can also make an

assumption that you know all the male

population in India is evenly divided

between the ages of 0 to 80 um

again uh you know we know that India is

a younger country um so probably you

know people in the younger age group are

sort of higher proportion but you can

mention this to your interviewer but

still take the Assumption of even

distribution you know just again to make

your math

easier so then the next step would be

estimating you know usage among these

age groups right so let's say 0 to 15

years um you know no one's really going

to use it right then 15 to 30 years you

take a certain percentage uh as an

assumption that okay you know probably

20% of uh uh men are actually going to

be you know interested in using a men's

fairness cream similarly you take

percentages for the other age bracket as

well right so now is there any other

demographic element that would affect

usage of fairness screen um

affordability right so the next cut you

would take is of affordability that of

the number of people that you've gotten

through this exercise now you can assume

that only a certain certain percentage

of them would be able to afford a

product like you know a fairness creen

product um because it's it's in some

ways it's a luxury product it's a uh you

know it's it's a enhancing product it's

not something that people are you know

going to be desperate to use um so that

will be a small percentage of people you

know who actually have the income levels

to spend on you know like a fairness

cream product right so you left with a

certain number of men who you feel are

eligible to be using fairness screen now

Market size usually is uh you know in

terms of dollars like uh dollar per year

so the next step for you would be to

think about okay if um X is a user of

men's fairness cream how many times on

average a year are they going to be

using that fairness cream right so let's

say you make an assumption that on

average a user of men's fairness cream

uses four creams um in a year and the

price of each cream is 100 rupees so

that means uh a user of men's fairness

cream on average is spending about 400

rupees a year on men's fairness cream

this when you multiply by the number of

you know people that you've gotten into

your target segment gives you the total

Market size of men's fairness cream in

India so the next thing that uh people

will look to assess are your leadership

and your communication skills you know

remember that we've learned that one of

the hardest jobs of being a PM is to

lead a team that is not directly

reporting to you um now that's very very

challenging to actually assess in an

interview right so the most common way

companies will try to assess it is try

to ask you questions where you faced

leadership challenges or managerial

challenges or place or you know

occasions when you had to make hard

decisions uh and how did you react to

those so be prepared for questions like

you know mention a time in a

professional life when you resolved a

conflict among two of your team members

or mention a time when you know someone

was not agreeing with what you were

suggesting and how did you try to

convince them and what was the end

outcome or again you know mention a time

when your managers or the executive team

at a company that you were working at um

you know did not agree with your

suggestion um how did you react to it

what were your next steps these are

pretty common behavioral questions that

you'll find in you know all sorts of

interviews but I think in the context of

PM they become really important and

people really care about what you answer

to them so apart from leadership you

know when talking about communication

and teamwork um what I mean mean is that

companies will usually try and see

whether you are a cultural fit with

their organization now each company you

know kind of lays different emphasis on

culture fit some people are very very

strong on it that they want people who

they feel will fit into the culture uh

some people don't give that much

importance to culture um but you might

hear this term come up again and again

you know in an interview so cultural fit

is not really something you know under

your control so if people say that we

want to do a cultural fit interview just

means you need to be honest uh you know

you need to communicate what you've done

in life what you've done in different

situations whatever questions come

across and they're only trying to judge

whether you know they think that you

would be good fit working with the other

team members in their company that's

about it so I think there you don't

really need to prepare you don't need to

fret what you could really do there is

try and understand um what is the

culture of the company if you can and

you know culture people Define

differently but it usually means uh you

know how people in that company work

together right so if you can um find

someone in the company you know someone

you know personally or just reach out on

LinkedIn or even ask HR to you know can

you connect me to someone already

working in the product team just to try

and understand you know what's their

culture What's the culture of Building

Product What's the culture of different

teams working together in that

organization you know that'll help you

give more contextual answers in that

interview it'll show that you've tried

to understand um you you know kind of uh

about this company more you've put in

the effort uh and it'll also help you to

make that decision whether this is you

know the right company where you see

yourself working is this the cultural

environment where you see yourself

working and another thing we mentioned

that uh companies try and understand is

your you know skills in prioritization

or building a road map uh again there

are different ways that companies will

go about this but a pretty common

question is you know and it this usually

happens in the last or you know the

second last rounds is is they'll give

you a product you know either of their

own company or you know something else

so let's say if you're interviewing with

Flipkart flipcart might say let's assume

you are the product head for payments at

Flipkart right um can you build a

6-month and a 12-month road map for this

product with your vision given what you

know about the payments product there

right so again what they're trying to

understand there is how much do you

understand the business right now how

much do you understand the industry

taking this intelligence are you able to

prioritize you know your goals and your

vision for the product for 6 months and

12 months like are you really picking

those key challenges those key problems

that you think um you know a payments

product should be solving for an

e-commerce company and tackling those

first or are you coming up with small

you know incremental changes that are

not really going to move the needle or

really alleviate any user paino so I

think that's in this kind of 6 Monon or

12 Monon prioritization exercise again

it's important to pick large problems

first and give your justification like

why are you putting this in the first 6

months versus that you know sort of down

the line any sort of framework you know

that actually you learn in PRI product

prioritization during this course you

know can be used so very simple way to

think about this is how much impact is

it going to have on my users versus what

is the you know difficulty in

implementing this solution I think

that's even if you justify your

prioritization bases those two elements

um you know it'll show that you've

logically thought about prioritizing uh

and that's how you've built this road

map um so yeah that's that's pretty much

it for this

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