Essentials of Cracking the PM Interview

The Product Manager Role

A PM is responsible for making sure that a team ships a great product.

The major functions of PM includes:

1. Research & Planning: PM needs to create or propose a roadmap, bring other people on board, and define success.
2. Design: PM needs to define the features and functionality of the product including goals, use cases, requirements, wireframes, bullet points, internalization and security.
3. Implement & Test: PM keeps track of how the project is going and makes adjustment during the implementation stage. PM needs to progress iteration through dogfooding, usability studies and running experiments, and prioritize requests and works.
4. Release: PM runs through a launch checklist. PM makes sure that the teams who will support the product going forward are prepared. PM prepares for all the things that could go wrong.

The actual work and the career of PM job depends on the product.

• Shipped Software: the product requires more project management and coordination between teams. PM is good at project management and communication.
• Online Software: PM is skilled with data analysis and designing experiments, and working under pressure.
• Consumer Products: Engineers are strong-opinion and making decisions, while PM is a guider and preferably data-driven.
• B2B Products: PM is focusing on customer research and market analysis, and having the most influence.
• Early Stage Products: PM focuses on prioritization and needs to do things the quick and dirty way. In return, PM gains the most achievement.
• Mature Products: The products already have a huge user base, thus PM has a multiplied impact from every improvement.

Top 10 truths about product management are:

1. Product Managers are NOT Project Managers/Program Managers.
2. Product Managers are not in the marketing department but usually in the engineering organization.
3. Product Manager can be a entry-level job for new grads.
4. Product Managers are NOT just writing specs.
5. Product Managers are NOT just setting up meetings.
6. Product Managers should build what is even beyond the customers ask for.
7. PMs do not set dates. Engineers set dates.
8. Product Managers are NOT the boss. They don’t have authority.
9. Execution of an idea is much more important than the idea itself.
10. PM is a more fluid role. You can’t say that’s not your job.

Project Managers/Program Managers do a different function than PMs in the following ways:

• Clarify goals and gather satisfaction metrics.
• Determine the people and skills needed to complete a project.
• Set up project management tools, plans and processes.
• Run status meetings and gather status reports.
• Analyze data to identify opportunities.
• Identify & implement changes to improve efficiency.
• Manage changes that come in from the customer.
• Find ways to keep the project on track even when things go wrong.

Companies

The companies can largely impact the PM role and career in the following aspects:

• Transparency: more transparent vs. more soloed
• Ratio of PMs to Engineers: a ratio of 1:10 is more common
• Product Strategy: bottom-up vs. top-down
• Company Culture: quality-oriented/perks vs. hard-working/frugality
• Who they recruit: MBA, new grads, experienced, APM program, technical background, rotation program, etc.

The daily jobs for PM role varies among different companies. Generally, larger companies tend to hire new grads, and specify a concrete role, while startups tend to hire fewer and more experienced PMs, who have much broader impact in the whole company.

Getting the Right Experience

For new grads, here are some advices for getting a PM job:

• Major in computer science, or get a minor or related fields
• Pick up a double major in economics or business
• Take group project courses
• Take on a leadership role
• Start a side project
• Intern as a product manager or software engineer

Make the most of career fairs. Research the companies you are most interested and check the availability of PM role. Pick out your best talking points, practice with your brief introduction, think of good questions to ask, go up to booth and have a friendly conversation with the most relevant employee. Do not just hand over your resume.

For current PMs, the most important way you get judged is by the products you have launched. In addition, filing patents and having a well-round skill set can help a lot.

Although not required for PM, strong technical experience can be very helpful in the following ways:

• Able to form a relationship of mutual respect with engineers
• Good intuition on how long engineering work should take
• Scrappy and self-sufficient

For engineers or designers who want to transition to PM role, you need to consider the downsides of being a PM first:

• The work is less tangible
• You become a focus point for criticism (Don’t take it personally!)
• You don’t have time to do it all. You need to prioritize.

Then, try to build and develop the capacities most relevant to a PM role:

• Customer focus. Take a customer support ticket, or write user scenarios for features.
• Think big. Prepare visionary and strategic thinking. Dream.
• Embrace the persuasive elements of communication. Data-driven also matters.
• Practice prioritization.
• Sharpen your analytical skills.
• Look for leadership opportunities.

Meanwhile, actively search for openings in your team or other companies:

• Let your interests be known.
• Re-read your prior performance reviews for any potential PM issues. Improve them.
• Start taking on some PM work, even without the title.
• Take on other types of leadership and coordination work.
• Think about how to clearly mark the change from engineering to product management.

Lastly, there are a few other ways that help.

• Be a domain expert and find a specialized PM role.
• Go to B-School.
• Use your network.
• Do side projects.

Career Advancement

Here are some tips and tricks for advancing the next level:

• Ship great products. This is the biggest measure of your success.
• Get some launches under your belt. Pick the products with shorter launch cycles.
• Become the expert. Be the expert in your customers.
• Find teams where you can pick up new skills. Try to work on new, un-launched product.
• Pick the company where you can learn the most.
• Choose a growing company with lots of new opportunities.
• Find a manager who believes in you.
• Focus on your own efficiency. Again, all about prioritization.
• Understand how your role fits into the company. Figure out how the feature fits into the whole product line.
• Help your team with something tangible early on.
• Work on something that’s important to your team and the company. Don’t waste your time on unimportant tasks.
• Take on cross-team or company-wide tasks.
• Define and measure success. Quantify it.
• Don’t let your team do unimportant work. Try to redirect or shut down that if you have to.
• Don’t just do what’s asked of you. Get the job done, proactively.
• Demonstrate you can consistently deliver work at the next level.
• Find a mentor, or mentors. Be specific when ask.
• Build credibility. It is your currency.
• It is better to be a senior member in the team.
• Demonstrate value to people as early as possible. Show clearly you are driving the product development.
• Figure out your own framework and principles. Use them consistently and often. Stick with it.
• Make who you work with your top priority. They are the best resource for learning.
• Whoever write things down defines the history. Respect the power of the pen.
• Spend your free time learning something you are really interested in. It is the best way to test your passion about something.
• Step back and think about who are your customers and how to define success before designing any solution.
• Goal-oriented, get things done, focus and prioritize.

Behind the Interview Scenes

Remember every company has its own focus and strategy to find the best candidate. While your core value is still the combination of your product, business, technical and analytical skills, you also need to adapt to the uniqueness of the target company.

The general process of the interview is basically a routine below:

• One or two phone screen interviews, often technical.
• One-day onsite interview, the interviewers include the hiring manager, your future team members and some guys from other teams.
• Your interview performance is evaluated by all interviewers in written report, which is collected by the hiring committee.
• You need a strong hire from one of your interviewers.
• Since the hiring committee cannot hear you directly, you need to have a mixed strategy during interview to deliver your key factors to the committee via multiple interviewers.
• Culture fit is not a joke. It really matters.
• Most companies like you to know and talk about their products, especially why you love them and what you think can be improved.

Resumes

Your resume has only 15 seconds or less for skimming. It is everything about prioritization, conciseness and highlights.

In general, there are 5 rules for writing a good resume:

• Shorter is better. One page. Highlights. Focus on what is important.
• List bullets, avoid blobs. Most should be one line, no more than two lines.
• List quantifiable accomplishments, not responsibilities.
• Use a good template for clear reading, not fancy showing.
• Don’t skip the best stuff, even it is not “done” or successful.

For PM, a good resume should focus on:

• Your passion for technology.
• Initiative/ownership.
• Leadership.
• Impact. Explicitly state what you’ve built, created, led and implemented.
• Technical skills.
• Attention to details of your resume. No stupid mistakes.

Apparently, work experience is always the most important section in your resume. But you should be aware of what to include and what not to include for other sections:

• No objectives. Simply no.
• No summary. It is very rare in a few exceptions.
• List only as-needed skills. No obvious skills.
• List awards with meanings and selectivity.
• List only relevant activities showing your accomplishments.
• Projects, please. It may be the second most important section.
• Website, yes. Be prepared for your website viewers.
• No social media accounts.
• Founding experience, yes. Just title? no.
• The further you are from graduation, the simpler the Education section is. But list a good GPA anyway, it doesn’t hurt.

Company Research

Firstly, you should dig into the product of the company with the following information:

• What is the product line? What are the main features?
• Who are the competitors? How does the company differentiate?
• What is the target market/customers?
• How does the company make money?
• How do customers feel about the product? What are the highlights and complaints from the customers?
• What are the key business metrics for the company?
• Are there any news and rumors about the company?

Secondly, you should know why the company is doing things, i.e. what the company strategy is.

• Look up the mission statement of the company.
• What is the company’s strategy?
• What are the selling points of the product? How are they leveraged?
• What are the major issues and weaknesses of the company?
• What are the biggest challenges for the company at the moment?
• Is there any opportunity horizontally and vertically?
• It there any threats from other companies or industries?
• What does the future hold for the company?

Thirdly, consider the culture of the company in the following aspects:

• What is the company’s culture?
• What does the company value?
• How long has the company been around? Look at the history, what are milestones and breakthroughs for the company?
• Who founded the company? Who funded the company? What are some key people to the company?
• What is the size of the company? How is the company organized?
• Search your interviewers if possible. Do not disturb them.

Fourthly, you should know how you fit into the company by the details of the applied role:

• What is the daily job of the role? How are decisions made?
• Where do ideas come from? Bottom up, or top down?
• What is the company’s style? Aggressive, practical, conservative?
• What are the things you want to change in the company?
• What is your passion about the company? Why do you want the job?
• Why would you be a good fit for this position? Pitch yourself!

Generally, interviewers would give you some time to ask questions. Be well prepared and don’t waste the valuable time. Never make it awkward silence. The classical questions are the following:

• What is the typical day like for you?
• What is the technical stack in the company?
• What do you find the most challenging work about the job?
• What are the teams and departments to cooperate with in this role?
• What is your favorite part in this company?
• What makes the company’s culture unique?
• What are the career development like?
• How do you think the future of the company’s product and strategy?

Don’t ask stupid, obvious and irrelevant questions. Also, remember the questions should vary based on the level and function of the interviewer.

Define Yourself

Pitch yourself.

• Be mindful how long you speak.
• Highlight the most interesting or important part of your jobs.
• Discuss relevant activities.
• Tell a well-connected story.
• Be passionate and proud of your past work.
• Practice, practice and practice.

“Why do you want to work here?”

• It is the time to show how you know the company in details by the result of your company research
• Show relevant experience
• Show your passion

“Why should we hire you?”

• Why are you a good fit to this role?
• Why are you a good fit to this area?
• Why are you a good fit to the company’s culture?

“Why are you leaving current job?”

• Don’t complaint. Don’t be negative. Don’t talk money.
• Always be proud of your past job.
• You want new job because you find opportunity for your interest or your career. You are not escaping, you want better.
• You are amazed by the company’s product. You are obsessed with it.

“What do you like to do in your spare time?”

• Show technical interests, leadership and initiative.
• Do side project, and do it pretty well.
• Love to learn.
• Have amazing achievements.

“Where do you see yourself in five years?”

• Show you actually want this job.
• Show you have a long-term plan for your career development.
• Show your ambition.
• Show you can learn a lot from this company.

Strengths and Weaknesses

• This question is not popular any more.
• Strengths: analytical, scrappy, creative, passionate, good at taking feedback, detail-oriented…
• Weaknesses: indecisive, over-optimistic, not able to multitask…

Behavioral Questions

The behavioral questions are asked because the interviewers want to know about your content and your communication.

In terms of content, you need to concretize your resume:

• Interviewers want to validate your resume by diving deep
• Interviewers want to know how you make an impact
• Interviewers want to evaluate whether you have the relevant skills and attributes for the position by asking questions

In terms of communication, you need to have a “structure”:

• Nugget first. Start with a summary of your point.
• Situation, Action, Result.
• Speak in bullets. Give your point a number.

The main types and attributes of behavioral questions can be categorized as the following 5 aspects:

1. Leadership & Influence
2. Challenges
3. Mistakes & Failures.
4. Successes.
5. Teamwork.

In preparation of behavioral questions, the following is recommended:

• Create a preparation grid. Your experience vs. important attributes.
• Master some key stories. Substantial, meaty and understandable.
• Highlight the attributes reflected in each story you prepared.
• Don’t forget teamwork. Have a good story with other people.
• Also prepare for follow-up questions. How is going afterwards? What are the effects? What could it be otherwise? What did you learn?

Most importantly, practice.

Estimation Questions

For estimation questions, the answer doesn’t matter. The approach matters, since it reflects how you are building structure to solve a problem.

Follow the recommended approach step by step:

1. Clarify the question. Repeat it, and ask anything that’s ambiguous.
2. Catalog what you wish you knew. The guiding numbers.
3. Make an base equation.
4. Think about the corner cases and alternate sources.
5. Break it down. More sub-equations derived from your base equation.
6. Review and state clearly your assumptions, and why.
7. Do the math. Round numbers can help.
8. Do the sanity check. If the numbers are insane, you find a problem spot.

Here are some tips and tricks that can be helpful:

• Round numbers.
• Rule of 72: how many years to double = 72 / x (in %).
• Figure out the orders of magnitude.
• Be confident in doing math.
• Label your units in case you are confused.
• Consider your sources.
• Keep discrete steps discrete.
• Record intermediate steps.
• Record your assumptions.

Product Questions

There are three basic types of product questions:

1. Design a product.
2. Improve a product.
3. Describe one of your favorite products and why.

The approach of “designing a product” is:

1. Ask questions to understand the problem. Cut ambiguity.
2. Provide a structure before you do analysis.
3. Identify the users and customers. There is subtle difference between users and customers: users use product, customers pay for it. Also, consider the related users.
4. What are the use cases? Why are they using this product? What are their goals?
5. How well is the current product or the competitor doing for their use cases? Are there obvious weak spots?
6. What features or changes would improve those weak spots? List your ideas, and dive deeper if the interviewer would like.
7. Wrap things up.

The approach of “improving a product” is:

1. Figure out what is the goal of the product. What problems are solved?
2. Figure out what problems the product face. Users, or business.
3. How would you solve this problem? List your solutions in the order of risks that are taken.
4. How would you implement these solutions? Concretize your solutions.
5. How would you validate your solutions? Metrics, success standard.

The approach of describing “favorite product” is:

1. Describe what problems the product is solving for the users.
2. Describe how the product accomplish the goals. What makes users fall in love with the product?
3. How does it compare to the alternatives or the competitors?
4. Follow up: how would you improve it?

Remember, in answering these questions, your goal is to show your skills and analytics.

For preparation of these questions, here are recommended steps:

• Select products from different areas or types.
• Understand the key metrics for analysis: user, traffic, conversion, referral rates, engagement, retention, revenue, costs, etc.
• Analyze each product in the following aspects: users, goals, strengths, challenges, why the product excel, priorities, values, competitors, tradeoffs, etc.

Some tips and tricks that would help:

• As a PM, you are expected to have an opinion. Like the owner.
• Impress your interviewer. You need to get a wow.
• Use the whiteboard for better, clearer communication.
• Don’t overbuild.
• Don’t complain that you need more research. Even in reality.
• Think about the business.
• Be open about the tradeoffs. You don’t need the “best” idea.

As always, practice.

Case Questions

Interviewers are looking for PM candidates for the following attributes:

• The ability to structure a problem.
• Show strong instincts about business decisions.
• The ability to drive, not ride.

First, you need to have a framework. Building a structure for solving problems is extremely important in PM case questions. Here we have several useful frameworks that help:

1. Customer Purchase Decision Making Process: Attention-Interest-Desire-Action (AIDA model), or Reach-Engage-Activate-Nurture (REAN model)
2. Market Mix (4 “P”s): Product, Price, Promotion, Place
3. SWOT Analysis: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats
4. Situational Analysis (5 “C”s): Company, Competitors, Customers, Collaborators, Climate
5. Porter’s 5 Forces: Rivalry among existing competitors, Buyer power, Supplier power, Threat of substitutes, Threat of new entrants.

You need to understand the usage of different frameworks:

1. Customer Purchase Decision Making Process helps us understand the customer buying process, which is important for improving sales.
2. Marketing Mix describes the segmentation of marketing plan.
3. SWOT analysis is often used for analyzing a strategic decision.
4. 5 “C”s offers the environmental analysis for product/company.
5. Porter’s 5 Forces is used for industry analysis.

Then, you need to know the product metrics, how you can measure a product.

The types of metrics can be divided into AARRR model based on the customer lifecycle:

• Acquisition: users, growth, channels, user feedbacks
• Activation: define active, active users, popular features, user workflow
• Retention: churn rate
• Referral: referring friends
• Revenue: conversion rate, acquisition cost, support cost, life value, growth rate

There are several options for gathering data and measuring product:

• Usability testing
• Customer feedback
• Traffic analysis
• Internal logs
• A/B testing

Most interview questions can be categorized as the following types:

• Strategy questions
• Marketing questions
• Launching questions
• Brainstorming questions
• Pricing & Profitability questions, especially for online advertising
• Problem solving questions

For strategy questions, there are micro level (customer & product) and macro level (company & market). SWOT and Porter’s 5 Forces can be very useful in analyzing strategy questions. Usually, main strategies for decisions include:

• Diversify revenue sources.
• Build barriers to entry.
• Be the one-stop shop.
• Be the low cost leader.
• Reduce reliance on a key buyer/supplier.
• Test new market.

For marketing questions, the structure of an approach is similar to 5 “C”s like the following:

• Understand the company.
• Understand the competition.
• Understand the customers.
• Understand the landscape.
• Market the product.

For launching questions, the approach is the following:

• Analyze the product: vision, strengths, weaknesses, risks
• Identify launch goals: users-first, revenue-first, test-first
• Design the launch process: how to achieve the goals
• Pre-release: messaging, testing, content, media
• During-release: sales, demos, press, events
• Post-release: analytics, retention, customer feedback, referral

The important aspects when implementing launch are:

• Target market.
• User segmentation.
• MVP vs. Full product.
• Distribution.
• Rollout.
• Buzz.
• Partnerships.
• Risks.

For brainstorming questions, they are testing you being not too far to structured thinking. You need to try the following:

• Suspend disbelief, let your imagination goes wild.
• Think about strengths and key assets.
• One vs. many.
• As-is vs. modified.

For pricing and profitability questions, there are two aspects, pricing methodology and pricing models.

General pricing methods include:

• Cost-plus pricing.
• Value pricing.
• Benchmark pricing.
• Experimental pricing.

The following pricing models are often seen in the business:

• Free Ad-supported.
• Freemium.
• Tiered.
• A la carte.
• Subscriptions.
• Free trial.
• Razor blade model (component sale).

Online Advertising is where the pricing questions are often asked. You need to understand how online ads work before answering. Usually, online advertising is priced in the following ways:

• Pay-per-click
• Pay-per-impression
• Pay-per-action

The common metrics are the following:

• Cost per click (CPC)
• Click through rate (CTR)
• Cost per a thousand times (CPM): CPC*CTR*1000
• Conversion rate, generally 2%-5%
• Profit per conversion

For problem solving questions, the key is to recursively break it down to possible channels both horizontally and vertically:

• Falling profit = decline in revenue + increase in costs
• Falling revenue = decline in sales volume + decline in price
• Falling sales volume = decline in acquisition + decline in retention
• Declining new customers = decline in different traffics
• Increase in costs = decline in fixed costs + decline in marginal costs
• Decline in traffic = decline in new visitors + decline in returning visitors

Coding Questions

You need to know some basic data structures:

• Array
• Hashtable, or hashmap
• Trees & Graphs
• Binary Tree
• Binary Search Tree (BST)
• Linked List
• Stack
• Queue

You need to know some high-frequency algorithms:

• Merge sort
• Quick sort
• Binary search
• Depth-First Search (DFS)
• Breath-First Search (BFS)

You need to know some important concepts:

• Big O notation in run time & space
• Recursion
• Memory usage

The general approach to solve a coding problem is:

1. Clarify the problem. Figure out any ambiguous spots.
2. Write an example on the whiteboard.
3. Think loud. Talk out loud.
4. Think critically about your solution.
5. Code, slowly and methodically. You can’t get confused.
6. Test your code. Go through your code with a few test cases. If any bug is found, fix it.

The common strategies for developing an algorithm include:

• Use an example.
• Start with brute-force, then optimize.
• Solve for the base case first.
• Think about similar problems. Use abstraction.
• Simplify and make adjustment.
• Record your insights during exploration.

Lastly, Some Desserts from PM Veterans

Ian McAllister said the top 1% PMs should have most of the following things:

• Think big
• Communicate
• Simplify
• Prioritize
• Forecast and measure
• Execute
• Understand technical trade-offs
• Understand good design
• Write effective copy

Adam Nash said a great PM should have three major responsibilities:

• Product strategy: What game are we playing? How do we keep score?
• Prioritization: identify game-changers, showstoppers and distractions.
• Execution: product specification, corner case decisions, project management, analytics

Sachin Rekhi shared his thoughts about the inputs to a great product roadmap:

• Analysis of existing usage metrics
• User interviews to understand audience pain points
• Aggregation of customer feedback and support requests
• In-depth look at competition
• Commercialization of internal innovation
• Audience surveys to understand feature prioritization

Ken Norton talked about his experience about hiring a great PM:

• Hire all the smart people.
• PM should have really strong technical background.
• PM should have “spidey-sense” product instincts and creativity
• PM’s leadership is earned from audiences.
• PM should be able to channel multiple points of view.
• Someone who’s really shipped something is wanted.

This note is based on (but might be different from) the original contents of the book Cracking the PM Interview, How to Land a Product Manager Job in Technology by Gayle & Jackie. If you want to become a Product Manager, this book is the bible for you.