Live Product Manager Interview: Slack

Summary

In 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

00:00

😀 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.

05:00

🚀 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.

10:03

🤔 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.

15:03

💡 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.

20:05

🛠 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.

25:06

📈 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.

30:06

🔑 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.

Keywords

💡Product Management

Product Management refers to the process of guiding a product from its conception to its launch and beyond, involving tasks such as planning, defining, and overseeing the creation of the product. In the video, the interviewee expresses an interest in product management roles as a way to experience the full lifecycle of a product, from ideation to sales, which is central to the theme of the interview.

💡Notifications

Notifications are alerts or messages that inform users of events or updates within an application. In the context of the video, the interviewee appreciates Slack's approach to notifications, which prioritizes high importance alerts and avoids spamming users with unnecessary messages, enhancing productivity.

💡Channel-based System

A channel-based system is a method of organizing communication within a platform, typically used in team collaboration tools. The interviewee finds Slack's channel system interesting as it allows access to historical conversations and project updates, which is crucial for new team members to get up to speed quickly.

💡Developer Community

The developer community refers to the group of programmers and developers who contribute to a platform's ecosystem, often by creating integrations or extensions. The interviewee highlights Slack's developer community as a significant factor in the platform's 'stickiness', meaning its ability to retain users.

💡Network Effects

Network effects describe a phenomenon where a product or service becomes more valuable as more people use it. The video discusses the lack of inter-organizational network effects for Slack, suggesting that it spreads rapidly within organizations but not as effectively between them, which is a key challenge for the platform's growth.

💡Ephemeral Ideas

Ephemeral ideas are those that are short-lived or quickly forgotten. The interviewee criticizes the transient nature of ideas in messaging systems like Slack, where discussions can be lost, making it difficult to revisit or build upon them later, which poses a challenge for decision-making and organizational memory.

💡Roadmap

A roadmap is a strategic document that outlines the long-term vision and direction of a product or company. During the interview, the concept of building a product roadmap is mentioned, emphasizing the importance of aligning features and development with the product's goals and vision.

💡MVP (Minimum Viable Product)

An MVP is a version of a product with just enough features to satisfy early customers and provide feedback for future development. In the script, the interviewee suggests building an MVP to test product hypotheses and validate the product's viability with real users before further investment.

💡

💡Prioritization

Prioritization is the process of arranging tasks or objectives in order of importance. The interviewee talks about the importance of prioritizing features in a product roadmap based on their value to customers and their alignment with the product's goals, which is essential for effective product management.

💡Product Vision

Product vision is a clear and concise description of the future direction of a product. It is mentioned in the script as a critical component for building a product roadmap, as it guides the decision-making process regarding which features to develop and when.

💡Interviewee

The interviewee is the person being interviewed in the video. In this context, the interviewee is a current rising junior at Vanderbilt with experience in startups and software engineering, seeking to break into product management roles. The term is used to refer to the individual providing insights and answers throughout the mock interview.

💡Mock Interview

A mock interview is a practice session that simulates a real job interview, providing an opportunity for candidates to prepare and receive feedback. The video script details a live mock interview conducted by PM Lesson, where the interviewee discusses their background, experiences, and thoughts on product management.

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