Live Product Manager Interview: Slack
Summary
TLDRIn this PM lesson live mock interview, Sid and Steven explore product management roles and the challenges of breaking into the field. Steven shares his background, including experiences at a startup and a business intelligence firm. They discuss his favorite product, Slack, highlighting its notification system, onboarding process, and developer community. The conversation delves into potential improvements for Slack, emphasizing the need for better inter-organizational communication and idea management. The session concludes with feedback on interview techniques and the importance of understanding product roadmaps and prioritization.
Takeaways
- 😀 The interviewee, a rising junior at Vanderbilt, has experience at a seed-stage startup and a business intelligence firm, MicroStrategy, reflecting a diverse background in tech.
- 🚀 The candidate aspires to product management to oversee the entire lifecycle of a product, from ideation to sales, based on their past experiences.
- 📘 The favorite product discussed is Slack, chosen for its innovative approach to notifications, onboarding new team members, and fostering a strong developer community.
- 🔔 Slack's notification system is praised for reducing spam and ensuring that users are only alerted to high-priority messages, enhancing productivity.
- 📚 The interviewee appreciates Slack's channel-based system for its ability to help new members quickly get up to speed with the team's past discussions and ongoing projects.
- 💡 The interviewee suggests Slack could improve by facilitating better decision-making processes, possibly by implementing a feature that allows for more thoughtful, less ephemeral idea discussions.
- 🤔 The candidate proposes a system similar to Jeff Bezos' approach of written memos and comment periods for new ideas, to ensure thorough consideration before decisions are made.
- 🔄 The interviewee identifies a need for Slack to enhance inter-organizational communication to expand its network effects and user base beyond individual organizations.
- 🛠️ The interviewee suggests that Slack should focus on features that address pain points for businesses, such as improving the onboarding process for new employees to save companies money.
- 📉 The candidate highlights the importance of high-priority notifications in maintaining user trust in a platform, drawing a contrast with platforms that overuse notifications.
- 🔑 The interview concludes with advice on interview techniques, emphasizing the importance of clear communication, pausing to consider responses, and being aware of the interviewer's engagement.
Q & A
What is the purpose of the live mock interview session?
-The live mock interview session is designed to provide an interactive educational tool for individuals looking to prepare for product management interviews, offering them the opportunity to practice and receive feedback in a simulated interview environment.
What is Sid's educational background mentioned in the interview?
-Sid is a current rising junior at Vanderbilt University and has spent previous summers working at a seed-stage startup and a business intelligence firm called MicroStrategy.
What are the key aspects of Slack that Sid appreciates based on the interview?
-Sid appreciates Slack's effective notification system, its ability to help new team members get up to speed quickly, and the strong developer community that enhances the product's stickiness.
What is the main challenge Sid sees with Slack's current product management?
-Sid identifies the challenge of Slack's difficulty in inter-organizational communication and the lack of network effects between different organizations, which is an area that Slack needs to focus on improving.
What is the idea for improving Slack that Sid suggests during the interview?
-Sid suggests an idea for improving Slack's decision-making process by implementing a system where ideas are posted with clear outlines and expected outcomes, allowing team members to comment and vote on them without seeing others' feedback initially, thus reducing influence bias.
What feedback does Steven provide to Sid regarding his answer about Slack?
-Steven advises Sid to enumerate his points clearly, speak slower to ensure the interviewer can keep up, and to provide more depth by discussing high-order topics related to Slack's features and philosophy.
Why does Steven suggest that Sid should have mentioned competitors to Slack during the interview?
-Steven suggests mentioning competitors to demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of the market and to be prepared to answer questions about why Slack is superior to other communication platforms.
What is the recommended approach for building a product roadmap according to the discussion?
-The recommended approach includes understanding the product vision and goals, validating assumptions with short-term features, and planning for long-term features that align with the product's overall objectives.
What is the advice given for handling the timing of responses during an interview?
-The advice given is to ensure not to speak for more than two minutes without acknowledgment from the interviewer, and to use passive or active checks to confirm if the interviewer is ready for the candidate to move on to the next point.
What is the significance of the 'PM lesson comm' mentioned in the script?
-PM lesson comm is a resource mentioned for those preparing for PM interviews, offering free course information, community access, and direct access to former Google PMs for additional insights and practice.
What is the final advice given to Sid about his interview performance?
-The final advice given to Sid is that he did a great job overall, but to focus on providing a higher-level perspective before diving into specific product features, ensuring he impresses the interviewer with his product insights and vision.
Outlines
😀 Introduction to Live Mock Interview
Sid and Steven from PMS and Calm initiate a live mock interview session. Steven, a rising junior at Vanderbilt, shares his background, including his experience at a seed-stage startup and a business intelligence firm, MicroStrategy. He expresses his interest in product management due to its comprehensive role from ideation to sales. The session aims to explore a classic PM interview question: discussing a favorite product and its features.
🚀 Favorite Product Discussion: Slack
Steven shares his admiration for Slack, detailing its efficient notification system that prioritizes important messages, its channel-based approach that allows easy access to historical conversations aiding new team members in getting up to speed, and the robust developer community that enhances its functionality. He also addresses the limitations of Slack in personal messaging and its closed-platform nature, which he sees as both a pro and a con.
🤔 Reflecting on Slack's Business and Personal Use
The conversation delves into Slack's business use, with Steven discussing its challenges in personal messaging and the platform's closed nature. He contrasts Slack with open platforms like email, which suffer from irrelevant marketing emails. Steven also contemplates Slack's potential expansion into inter-organizational communication, a move he sees as necessary for Slack's growth and to overcome its current lack of network effects.
💡 Ideas for Improving Slack's Communication
Steven proposes improvements for Slack, focusing on better decision-making within the platform. He suggests a system inspired by Jeff Bezos, where ideas are outlined and discussed asynchronously, allowing for thoughtful consideration and voting without immediate influence from others. This approach aims to prevent rushed ideas and promote quality decision-making within organizations.
🛠 Enhancing Slack's Product Features
In the mock interview, Steven is encouraged to enumerate his points for clarity and to provide a richer understanding of Slack's features. The feedback emphasizes the importance of high-priority notifications and the financial benefits of getting new employees up to speed quickly. It also touches on the ethics of notification systems and the importance of user trust in a product's communication strategy.
📈 Discussing Slack's Product Roadmap
The session explores the concept of building a product roadmap, with an emphasis on understanding the product's goals and vision. Steven is advised to consider the importance of features, customer value, and how these align with the product's overarching objectives. The discussion highlights the need for prioritizing short-term and long-term planning based on these goals.
🔑 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
The mock interview concludes with a reflection on the session's performance and a discussion about applying for jobs and understanding product roadmaps. Steven receives positive feedback on his insights into Slack and is encouraged to continue practicing for PM interviews. The session ends with an invitation for viewers to engage with PM Lesson for further interview preparation resources.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Product Management
💡Notifications
💡Channel-based System
💡Developer Community
💡Network Effects
💡Ephemeral Ideas
💡Roadmap
💡MVP (Minimum Viable Product)
💡
💡Prioritization
💡Product Vision
💡Interviewee
💡Mock Interview
Highlights
Sid and Steven from PMS and Calm initiate a live mock interview to explore product management roles.
Sid shares his background as a rising junior at Vanderbilt with experience at a seed-stage startup and a business intelligence firm, MicroStrategy.
Steven discusses the difficulty of entering product management roles directly from school and his aspirations for an end-to-end product experience.
The interview begins with a classic PM question: discussing a favorite product, in this case, Slack, and reasons for its preference.
Sid appreciates Slack's notification system for its focus on high-priority alerts and minimal spam.
The channel-based system of Slack is praised for its ability to provide access to historical conversations and company-wide context.
Sid finds Slack's developer community and its integration capabilities as a significant factor in the product's stickiness.
Steven suggests that Slack's closed-platform approach prevents spam and irrelevant messages, enhancing communication within organizations.
The discussion explores the challenges Slack faces with inter-organizational network effects and the need for expansion beyond intra-organizational communication.
Sid proposes a feature within Slack to improve decision-making by allowing time for reflection and voting on ideas without immediate visibility of others' opinions.
Steven emphasizes the importance of understanding a product's goals when building a roadmap and prioritizing features based on their contribution to those goals.
The interview highlights the value of practice in preparing for PM interviews and the role of platforms like PM Lesson in facilitating that practice.
Steven provides feedback on structuring answers during an interview, suggesting the use of enumeration and signposting to clarify points.
The conversation touches on the ethics of notification systems in product design and the potential negative impacts of prioritizing metrics over user experience.
Sid and Steven discuss the importance of being aware of a product's competitors and being able to articulate why the product of interest is superior.
The mock interview concludes with advice on engaging with the interviewer, using techniques like checking for understanding and pacing one's responses.
Transcripts
cool cool well so this is Sid and I'm
Steven from PMS and calm and we're about
to start the live mock interview and
Before we jump into interview said can
you just give us a little bit of
background about yourself yeah sure so
I'm a current rising junior at
Vanderbilt I spent this last summer at a
seed stage startup so it's a really
small group of just six of us who's a
lot of fun and then I spent the summer
before that doing software engineering
you had like a business intelligence
firm called MicroStrategy cool and said
one last question like you know what are
you looking for with product management
roles or what do you or your aspirations
or dreams short so from what I've heard
I found that like product management
roles are very difficult to jump into
right out of school and at least looking
back at the experiences I've had in this
past summer at the small startup and
then the some before that the like
bigger enterprise I thought about things
like what do I do I and do I not like
about like software engineering do I and
do not like about marketing like and
just the different like options I got to
try and I figured product management was
the best way for me to see like an
end-to-end experience of like how do I
take a product from ideation to like to
sales cool okay cool awesome
um so said we're gonna start off and for
the audience's well we're gonna start
off with a mock interview question and
then we'll kind of walk through it a
little bit and then we'll we'll go to a
feedback at the end so again please
please please please come in and ask
questions or participate in this video
if you're interested so Sid the question
we'll start off with is the classic PM
interview question that is asked at
pretty much every p.m. interview what is
your favorite product and why great so
my favorite product is slack so until
using slack I never understood why
people raved about it I mean I I didn't
understand how it could be different
from any other application they all seem
the same to me so the only difference to
me was the one that my friends were on
at the time since my internship finished
I'm unsuccessfully tried to get my
friends to convert that our personal
effects the application because I'm a
true believer of like
the product as a whole now here's why so
the first thing that I've three reasons
the first of those is reimagine
notifications so I can't be the only
person in the past you've been bothered
by the fact that when I walk away from a
group message for a couple hours
I'm barded with so many message that
they decide to look at none of them I
mean there's just too many to possibly
go through so I think this might be a
function of the KPI is that like
Facebook has or like group me has where
they're trying to keep you on the
platform as long as possible serve you
ads or for god knows what but they want
to know like your goals notify you every
time that they send you a message
because they watch you back on that
platform versus slap serves as a tool
for you to be as productive as possible
so they only notify you when it's
necessary and I found that very
interesting so I will only get notified
when someone does the app here sign or
if someone typed my name at something
that's the only time that your
notification but beyond that if it's not
like necessary for myself to see it I
can see that anytime in the future but
I'm not gonna get a notification saying
hey you should see this right now
another thing I found very interesting
was the access to like old and like what
some might call like irrelevant messages
so like if I was like a marketer I could
see what the software engineers were
working on I could see what the
salespeople were working on because the
channel based system so I never thought
this would be important until I started
my last internship where the first thing
I was given was my slack account and any
time I had any downtime during the first
couple days I went through I start going
through some old channels and I was able
to see like not only how people
interacted but also what the goals were
for the next couple weeks
and what everyone was working on without
anyone having to come and bring me up to
speed so I found this very interesting
to see what the entire company was
working on I mean as a six-person team
is it wasn't difficult to see what the
company was working on there's a 600
person team it would give it gives you
insight into the organization without
someone having to walk you through every
step
additionally I found the developer
community behind slack very interesting
like it's a big factor in the stickiness
behind the product like it sort of
became our team's go-to hub to see like
any information beyond just our team's
communication so what users have signed
up how much our Mr ROA is like if any
servers have faster like any pager do
the notifications have come in like I
didn't have to be given any like access
to any tools to be able to see any of
this information I was given full trust
of our like everything that was
happening
company immediately without having to
ask for any permissions cool and awesome
interests it I great job you know it
sounds like you know the three kind of
main things that you're you loved about
slap chuckles a notification spam
avoidance and like really really
focusing on high priority notifications
and getting up to speed and really
easily for new team members and then the
development community and cool and and
so just to kind of keep going on this
like what do you imagine like a lot of
these things that you're talking about
are related to kind of like the business
case is that where you see you know
being really great or do you see slack
expanding into the personal messaging
space and why or why not
would you see sock doing that so that's
something I don't like about slack where
like when when I had said I tried to get
my friends to start using it I found
that like uh like I found it was
impossible because the product was
seriously not built for it like for me
to get my friends to use it I would have
had to create an organization around my
friend group and then like I would not
be able to add anyone to it unless I had
had someone to that organization so it's
just like a wildly painful thing but
this is something I think like in a way
I think it's a pro and con right so the
fact that I'm not able to reach out to
just about everyone like the fact that I
as an organized of my startup was not
able to reach out to anyone else means
that no one's able to reach out to me so
if you if you think about it right like
what do I hate about you know right
because it's like so I couldn't
recommend her to email right so I really
like the fact that slack is a closed
platform because anytime I log on to my
email ice like I open up like 20
irrelevant marketing emails from
companies comes a chore to figure out
what's important and what's not
important so I just choose not to open
up my email unless it's necessary but
like versus lock as a closed platform so
I'm only able to talk to people in my
organization I know anytime I open it up
it's just gonna be messages that are
pretty useful for myself gotcha okay
cool
so I think you know it sounds like
there's a lot of so what are your
thoughts at Facebook implemented a
system very similar to channels you know
with development community bots and you
know
points that you can invention could
Facebook do this like could they just
implant a lot of these features and be
successful nervous a new platform so
that's a great idea and I think that's
like the biggest thing that slock needs
to get like needs to do right now like
that's a that's an area that slack needs
to move in so the issue with slack right
now is that like it if you if you think
about it the network effects behind
slack are like base it spreads like
wildfire
like intra-organizational II but inter
organizationally there's absolutely zero
network effects so like so like me at at
Google for example like me Google if I
start using black and I get mighty
misused lacks then like their teammates
will you slacking and crows like
wildfire within the organization but
because I Google is use are like because
I Google am using slack no-one at
Facebook is inherently going to be using
slack right so this is something that
like slack needs to focus on right now
which is the inter organizational
communication right so how can they do
this right as I said before one of the
things I dislike about email is the fact
that I open it up do tons of marketing
emails right but inter-organizational
like messages can be a good thing right
so like I at my tech startup would want
to talk to a ton of other people at
different organizations and this kind of
creates that sticky factor where it says
like if every other startup is using it
for their communication there's no spam
that's going through it because like
it's my name that's tied to everything
right so it's not like a faceless person
that's reaching out to me but if every
other startup is using slack for example
I don't have the option to go into
Facebook has their own I think it's
workplace right so face I wouldn't be
able to go to Facebook workplace as
though I if I'm starting my own startup
because on every other team member or
every other startup is on slack that I
want to communicate with culture
um yeah I think you have a really great
point any b network effects i hate
sitting you there i just wanted to make
sure you're in video yeah okay okay cool
you're just really still for a little
bit yeah I think you know the network
effects are a huge problem for slack
because there's no you know slack has
grown kind of basically just from people
realizing that this is an amazing tool
you know the actual products being great
but in terms of Internet work network
effects it doesn't really have much
going on for it and you know and I think
there's they're doing a lot of
integration work which is you mentioned
earlier about the development
communities there's a lot of stuff going
on there where like if I'm using stripe
maybe that will promote shock to me as a
way to kind of communicate or plug into
that service so yeah that's a fantastic
point okay and then yeah I guess you
know the other thing that I'm kind of
curious about so you know we talked a
little bit about how slack might go
about you know kind of updating and
improving and you know I want to just go
back to this question maybe this is
already your answer for it but a very
common follow-up question to the
favorite product question is how you go
about improving this product and so you
know could you just you know if it is
what you just said that's totally cool
if it's not just give me a little bit of
sense of you know how would you change
slack if you were in charge of it and
maybe you know something other than the
network effects if that's something that
you would rehash too much sure so I
started give me one second I pro tip for
everyone watching it was it's just a
quick pro tip for everyone watching if
you ever need a break in an interview
just drink water it's like a super great
strategy so you ever need to like pause
to think just drink a little bit water
I'm not saying that's what you did said
I'm just totally joking with me of it it
is actually a strategy that that is
pretty good yes so I think the biggest
thing is inner organizational
communication because that is there's a
huge sticky factor to it
but another thing I've like grown to
dislike with slack and I'd say this is
like true of any like messaging system
that at least I've used is the fact that
like or is the thought process that all
ideas are ephemeral so like it's very
difficult to make decisions over slack
because uh
an idea is brought up people immediately
start discussing it but it's impossible
for anyone to come in after the fact a
couple hours later and rehash that idea
so I think that like this is a very
difficult result like no solution has
solved it and it's a function of the
fact that slack is asynchronous well
it's like e synchronous with quotations
but it causes that online like you
always need to be online to like
reactant discussion so as a six-person
team we had the luxury of moving offline
there's a 600 or 6000 person team like
you might not so I have two ideas here
um the first is that like I've read this
quote about Jeff Bezos where he forces
like if you ever want to make change
within this organization you have to
write a four-page paper on what you want
to change and what you hope the desired
outcome is and then everyone's given a
period of time to comment on it and then
talk about what they think about it so I
think a similar system can be
implemented in slack where like as I
said one of the things I dislike is the
fact that all ideas are like our short
look like if they immediately get shot
up the moment people start discussing em
but if someone just posted an outline of
what they want to happen what they hope
the out like the expected outcome for
that is and everyone can comment on that
but no one's able to see the comments
that anyone else caters for it's that
period of time so it gives everyone the
time to think through it and then ideas
are voted on um I think that could be
very interesting because it gives the
idea if it gives the opportunity for a
an idea without being forced to do it
within like six minutes because like at
least I feel like when I'm rushed to
think of an idea within a couple minutes
I feel like I come up with four ideas
and if I'm given four hours and some
alone time
unfortunately for product managers and
interviews you how do you have to come
up with ideas in six minutes sometimes
but yeah I totally agree with you in a
practice and it's not good to come up
with to force idea generation within a
short time frame and because it prevents
the ability to kind of think and process
these ideas go ahead uh yeah I agree
with you there I mean I get why it has
to be done in product management
interviews but like in the real world
the company is hoping for the best
possible outcome like they don't care if
it takes four minutes or four hours
because that's like still an irrelevant
time to an organization like if you just
give the person a couple hours so like I
think in practice I
would be a very effective way of making
sure the best possible idea happens
within the organization yeah so can you
tell me a little bit more about the
feature that's like talk about it a
little bit more so you're imagining so
can you walk me through I guess like
they use the use case you're imagining
so like from beginning so let's say I
post some message and what happens after
that like it wouldn't necessarily be a
standard message right like this could
be another like tab called it could be
like a sub channel called ideas or
something of that sort but like people
get notified saying hey here's this idea
that like Stephen said or steps and has
come up with and it's just a long list
of hey here's what I think here's what I
want to happen here's how I how it
happened here's the changes like here's
what I hope would happen to it and
anyone is able to just like kind of
Google Docs comment on it and say this
is what I think so everyone else is able
to write up what they like what they
agree with what they disagree with
they're able to vote on the idea but no
one's able to see what everyone else has
done I mean it's kind of a with awesome
process behind like the CEO should be
the last person to stand up and say what
they think about the product because
like most people would just follow the
CEO stop so like if I if I'm an
influential member of the organization I
like give it my thumbs up other people
might just follow what I say and give it
that thumbs up as well right so like no
one's able to see other people's
comments for four hours eight hours 24
hours like I mean these should all be AV
tested but like for specifics at the
time until until after that time period
where everyone's thoughts become open to
the public
now people can vote on people can vote
on my ideas they can vote on your ideas
and you vote on another co-workers ideas
and ideally good ideas float to the top
that ideas post the bottom okay awesome
yeah yeah that makes sense so you know
it sounds like you know we're gonna have
a voting system basically that and have
the key principle here is that we want
to get the team to understand and agree
on a decision or an idea without having
too much like over too much influence
from certain company members and the
idea is that you know this is a common
use case in slack is that like these
ideas are brought up but then are not
handled
almost like a platform is live now is
that kind of a what you're getting at I
mean yeah that's the idea behind
bottom-up management versus up or down
up down up men versus top-down
management okay okay cool yeah that
makes sense so so why don't we we've
been traveling for about 20 minutes so
we can kind of pause here and again if
folks have questions if it's very
comment below this is the PM lesson comm
live mock interview and this is the
product question Sid is with me and we
have just started talking about slack
and so you know now I'm gonna kind of
transition to feedback and talking a
little bit about you yes sir so we're
all said like awesome job clearly you
use this product clearly it's a product
that you have a lot of opinions about
and you have some you have already
thought about things so it's a great
like I totally recommended most people
interviewing for product management
roles to practice this question I
actually started thinking about points
that they make one slight adjustment to
your first answer that would like make
it even better in my opinion would just
be if you enumerated your points um it's
really simple so in the beginning you
said you basically made three points
right you did notifications up to speed
in development community just say one
two three like or you know just like go
through them kind of and enumerate them
and just say like okay you know there's
three things I think slack is really
great for one is that it notifies me at
the right time - is that it helps
getting you members up to speed and
three the developing community so number
one notifications and then any kind of
like go into that and the reason it
sounds like overdoing it sometimes it
sounds like too mechanical
and you know I would actually go so as
far as to like write on the whiteboard
or to like maybe like make little
markings my whiteboard when you make
your points just because interviewers
are generally really busy and they don't
pay attention in as much and it always
helps to like hammer your point in and
just be like 1 2 3 and maybe you don't
have to do it like too much but just
give a little bit more signposting in
enumeration throughout your answer does
that make sense that does yeah and I
think maybe the reason that I think it's
pretty clear useful for you is they this
is something that I like and I have this
problem - you're really fast speaker so
for some people that's great and your
like speeding through your answer and
giving me a lot of rich content fast but
for some people I can be like a truck
good coming at them and they're like oh
my gosh I don't know what he said and I
missed something so I would ever maybe
they like looked at notification on the
computer while you were talking or
something and they missed everything
that you just said so I would reiterate
more and and try a little bit to speak a
little slower it often happens when like
you are nervous or like they're in an
interview that the end up speaking
faster than they already would have so
it's always just good like when you're
public speaking or you know speaking you
know interview just slow yourself down a
little bit and be aware that you may
have that that problem so those are the
main things I had about like kind of
structure and and such and I would say
that you know you did a great job with
the actual items I think you could have
in the beginning so I think you know
notifications is great I would talk a
little bit more if you can and this is
like I'm taking you from like an APM
level to like a higher PM level talk a
little bit more about fury or kind of
like philosophy behind these principles
that you're talking about so you know
notifications is a fantastic point to
bring up but what like you know there's
a lot of discussion a lot of different
platforms a deal with like high priority
notifications versus low priority
notifications and understanding what
those are and how to like message those
and what the UI affordances are like you
know slack still notifies you about
things if they're not high priority but
they just put a red badge in your app
you know um for example so that I think
I think it's worth having a little bit
of discussion about push and pull
notifications and the various like
notification systems and I'm getting
give you a lot of rich content and I
don't think that you should and put
everything that I'm saying into your
answer but just add a little bit of
flavor and a little bit more depth to
your answer by kind of mentioning some
of these like higher-order a topics
about slack so yeah with notifications
that would be one thing to mention is
just like this principle of you know
slack is great at giving me high
priority notifications and the reason a
system needs to do this is because if it
stops giving me high priority
notifications I no longer trust that
system and I no longer will like you
know that's just no longer guarantees
that there's useful information there
and face if it gives a great example of
someone who has really low priority
notifications because every time I
to Facebook I have a red badge and half
the time it's them permitting an ad or
half the time it's like some random
friend that I didn't care about posting
some picture so it is actually really
important to have a high protein
notification system otherwise you just
end up becoming a newsfeed in your
notifications tab you know so yeah you
know that could be one way to like kind
of frame that in sorry yeah go ahead
said uh I was gonna say I wonder if
that's something maybe tested like cuz I
I often like have like ten notifications
and like all ten of them or just like
absolutely useless so maybe it just
makes people feel better when there's
just like tons of notifications sitting
there yeah I mean you know that could be
an interesting to talk about it's like
the whole psychology experiment the rat
pulling the lever and it randomly gets
rewards and it still feels you know it
still pushes all over just as much even
if it's a random yeah reward it's like a
reliable reward I I would say that like
this insidious of the company you know
and maybe that's like as a product
manager you're responsible for the
ethics of the company's design and
that's like it's something not to do if
if that decision is made purely on a
metric basis it seems like it was a it
was a selfish decision not considering
the user you know so yeah that's also
totally something interesting to bring
up in your interview at some point and I
think there's been a lot of like recent
news about kind of how irresponsible
these companies have been with regards
to notifying us and another just I just
wanted to give I got another way to kind
of add flavor to your questions a little
bit a little more depth and like
basically you're operating well you're
giving me a good synopsis of like why up
to speed is good you give me a good
anecdote but you can always relate it to
something a little bit more so for
example you know there's a huge monetary
cost involved with updating employees
right like if a new employee comes on
board and it takes them like two weeks
to get up to like running and to
actually start using our tools that is a
large cost of the company so if slack
could promise like this idea that like
yeah when users join us they can like
really get it up to speed quickly that
has a financial incentive for the
company so that's like a huge deal right
and so yeah that's maybe one way they're
like frame why that's such an awesome
feature or why that's so good for slack
it's like yeah so I guess literally
saving companies money by
helping employees get to what they need
to do faster so yeah another way to kind
of show that there's an impact here and
it's kind of like on your resume
statement like when you add the impact
part of it and okay cool so those I mean
what's in the first section was just
like I thought you had a so overall
killer ant sir great job like I don't
think isn't anything you really need to
change but these are just ways to
accentuate it and make it even more rich
and profound because if this question
you want to impress me and show me
something that I don't already know like
tell me something I don't know in terms
of the improvement section I thought you
did well I think you know we talked
about this feature I think it's and we
kind of like jump into it if you
actually were in an interview in
whiteboard excuse me you should
whiteboard that I think you should draw
it up and what it looks like because
it'll be much clearer to me I will say
it's a little dangerous to like suggest
a specific feature in this section you
me talk a little bit about like how it
should be better with a intercompany
working and it's a great point
and that's awesome and you had that
point you might have brought that up if
I had asked that question right off the
bat but in this case it's better in
these sorts of questions to kind of give
a sense of like the overall area that
you're interested in improving is
opposed like a specific product feature
that you think will fix that problem and
because like I'm asking you kind of like
how would you improve it so yeah I would
recommend just pausing a little bit
before you jump in into an actual
specific solution talk a little bit more
about idea is talked about like why this
is such an important problem for slack
like house will really help companies
grow because I'm not quite asking you
like a specific feature yet and I see
more of a general overview of like what
is going on with slack and why we should
prioritize this and once we agree that
this is a pain point once we agree this
is really important maybe I'll follow up
with you and ask you about how you'd fix
that problem but until then just just
give me kind of an overall overall
perspective question is that is that
question meant to kind of probe me on
what do I think like where do I think
the organization can improve or is it
trying to like so it's not trying to see
what I would do to fix it like it's just
where I see pain points so it's where
see plain points and then it's like kind
of areas that you would focus on like
for example you could say that like
intercompany networking this thing we
should focus on that's that's fine
that's not a feature I'm not like saying
exactly like the thing that we should do
and maybe you can name some ideas but in
this question I felt like you had a
specific credit in mind that you wanted
to make and it kind of detracted from
your overall points about slack and
understanding of slack and then you know
an interviewer might then switch to
evaluating you on that product unlike
what you're proposing even though it
might like not be that deeply
thought-out and you want the interviewer
to assess you on your insights your
product insights and to select overall
not unlike this specific product because
like maybe you suggest this thing in the
interviewers I guess doesn't give me a
good product but you still had really
good insights you still had like really
good points to make and like in the
beginning and overall but then the
interviewer will have this bad taste in
their mouth because this like product
that you suggested it didn't really fit
the bill and so I I would definitely say
at a higher level for that question
until the interviewer asks you to go
down low level I did eventually ask you
we played around with it but I'm just
saying that like in general we try to
stay at a higher level try to give
overall suggestions about areas that you
would improve slack or or take it in the
next five years do you think I spoke for
too long before like bringing you back
into the conversation what I mean by
that is like so you ask me like what's
your favorite product and I do think I
like when should have gone on stated all
my points and then you come back in or
kind of make it back and forth so yeah
it's a great question and I think a lot
of people interviewers how this
interviewees have this problem about
like timing so there's no right answer I
would say that for any given amount of
time you should not be going on for more
than like two minutes without some kind
of nod or acknowledgement or eye contact
from the interviewer so the interviewer
is not giving you signal you should not
be continuing to talk and what you
should do is is there's - wait are you a
computer science major said yeah okay
cool so for the computer science people
out there there's kind of like a
it's like a networking when you you you
you can have like a passive or active
like ping back from the interviewer or
they it's kind of like a push-pull
system so you can actually you can say
like hey like I'm gonna keep going onto
this section I'm or you know I just
finished point my point one
now I'm going on to point to let me know
if there's any issues with that and
you're basically you're requesting a
passive like you're asking the
interviewer if they want to interrupt
you and to like Ritu guide you right by
saying that little phrase you might if
you wanted if you want an actual ping
from the interviewer you can say I'm
gonna move on to point two is that okay
with you and then wait for the
interviewer to respond and say yes and
then you go on and then you're actually
getting like a ping back from the
interviewer it's like okay cool like the
interviewer is like listening
interviewer is okay with where I'm going
and etcetera etcetera so yeah I would
use those liberally throughout your
interview answers maybe every two
minutes or so I eat I personally tend to
use the past the ones more because I
have a sense for like how I would go
about the question but if you're really
unsure
you're feeling really unclear just like
end to the point that you're making and
then ask the interview big okay now I'm
gonna move on here is that sound all
right to you you know and it's like
casual and the interviewers it's not or
something don't do too much of those
interviews gonna get like God like just
do it you know but I would say those are
those are good strategies to sprinkle in
your answers that you avoid that problem
great I appreciate that
cool okay hopefully that's helpful and
we are pretty much some of the session
will take it to questions so if you're
watching please comment below with any
questions you have about this interview
about slack or just about Kim prep
interviewing in general and we already
have one question that what we've got to
in a gentleman's again this is a p.m.
lesson comm live interview session where
we interview people live on Facebook
live I just live three times on the
interview people on Facebook live for
mock interviews as an educational tool
for folks out there like you as well as
people we're looking to get some extra
practice and you can visit more PM
interview prep tools at p.m. lesson calm
your
in questions right now if you would like
to ask any questions you're more than
encouraged to ask questions I know that
some of you guys are watching and cool
so yeah any other tough things do you
want to talk about the interview said
any other questions you had overall I
really do think you did an excellent job
with the interview question you've
clearly thought about the product well
you know other things that might be
worth mentioning kind of as like
competitors to slack and like Facebook
I've kind of brought that up with you
and the interview but like you know why
couldn't do this or you know other
platforms that might be communication
not sufficient okay Nona though that was
an option answer all I was saying is
that um and like this may or may not
come up but generally it's always good
to like be aware of competitors really
clearly in these preview product
questions if you're if you're doing
stock like it's really critical that you
know its competitors because they knew
you were may ask you like oh why it's
like better than like anything you
should have a clear answer you you had
an excellent answer to Facebook but
there are other platforms out there that
maybe do channeling that maybe also do
like you know have a good development
community as well you know really why is
you know not good you know and and have
some concrete things to say about why
email is not a viable competitor to slot
and there's plenty you can say there but
the point that I'm just trying to say
I'm sure you intimately know the
competitors sorry I cut you out what's
up said that make sense okay cool and
cool okay so oh we have a couple
questions and we want to get to and said
you can help me as for them if not so
Rulon is asking sorry I asked this
question before but I hope to get
information about those perspectives for
the 2018 grads which I don't think you
are you your stone school but if you've
already started working a software
company doesn't make sense to apply to
Google slash Facebook 2019 programs
right away is a bad to change job after
one year
so I all answered this one said since I
don't know if you have direct experience
but the TLDR is that real on no it
always depends but I see
people do this I've seen people move
into your job after one year what's more
important is that you apply early you
can always get in the system and maybe
you know if it's not the right fit for
you right now they'll tell you to kick
it to the next year but the answer to
your question is that yes you should
apply and if you are looking to switch
jobs and it's okay to work at a job for
one year especially out of new grads
you're still figuring things out so the
answer is yes you should apply right
away in my opinion um
quote we have two questions from head
one common question that gets asked
during PM interviews is how do you build
a road map I obviously have two
questions one is how do you build a road
product roadmap and the second question
is how do you prioritize short-term
versus long-term planning in that road
map SID do you want to take a stab at
you know how you would think about
building a product roadmap and I can
kind of chip in as well I I would say
that you know from just to start off
with Ken like this question is kind of
vaguely predator ridden map there's no
such like part of road maps take many
different forms and could be at many
different levels of specificity so it's
not really or what the interview is
asking so the first thing that I would
actually ask is what exactly is in this
product roadmap or what would I see in
this probably format before
or actually diving into an answer and
sometimes take so do you have anything
you want to mention no where is no rush
or pressure anything we're just kind of
chatting about the questions sure yeah
it for me I think I think through like
what's important to the product right so
like it's kind of like the idea of like
maybe lesser of big companies but you
want to build an MVP and test out your
like hypothesis of is your product like
does your product have like viable users
before like investing a ton of money
into it so you want to stack rank how
important are the features to building
it and like what features will customers
value the most and then kind of like
front row the front load those before
you like end up on like later features
yeah I think it's a great that's
absolutely great approach I think the
other thing I would recommend Ken for
this question is like really
understanding the products goals right
like you're basically II I think that
you need to you need to have the product
vision laid out and that's kind of what
you're getting at here a little bit said
to you like just like understanding the
product better and like you know I I
think
you really you really need to know like
one of the overall principles the
envision of this product so let's say
it's YouTube that we're talking about
and I'm talking about how I would build
a YouTube roadmap like I need to know
what YouTube's goals are for the year so
maybe it's watch time and and then
therefore I'll be prioritizing the
short-term features depending like you
know easy ones in the beginning or
things that will help validate
assumptions that we've made and then
long term planning or kind of the larger
features that we think will be really
impactful but you we need to use these
short-term features to validate that but
overall where we where we going why are
we building this thing how are we
defining this roadmap it's based on what
our goals are for the year and we can
talk a lot more about this so I won't be
able to get into too much but I
hopefully that answers a question and if
not feel free to comment again Ken we
are with you here on this channel cool
so that pretty much ends the session
thanks to how much for joining this is
kind of experimental thing we're doing
and we've done this year a third one so
far but so far we've getting better and
better each time and I think and not not
the interview user sorry I just thing
like me as the system are getting better
quality is getting better and we're
understanding how to do these
effectively but yeah great great job
with the interview you did a fantastic
job good luck with your job search and
for those of you watching again and
please visit p.m. lesson comm for more
free course information and access to
our slack channel where we have a ton of
information and what I've been telling
people lately is that at the end of the
day the best thing that were prepared
from p.m. interviews is practice and
p.m. lesson is hoping to give you
exactly that by interactive questions by
community access and direct access to
and former Google peons at cetera all
right cool well that's it thanks slid
for joining us today and you did a great
job great I really appreciate that
thanks for the help
cool okay I'm gonna end the broadcast
now thanks Facebook live viewers for
joining us
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