Day 1 - PM Interview 101
What happens in PM Interviews...
Hello learners!
Welcome to the Day 1 of our new series 30 Days of PM Interview by Crework!
Today, we start a journey where we will help you prepare for your next product interview and ace it to get that job you want. I am really excited for this journey and hope that you are too!
But before we start, make sure you are subscribed to us. In case you are not, subscribe to us right now and complete the challenge.
What happens in a PM Interview?
For this lesson, I am going to assume that you have no idea what goes on in a PM interview and what questions are asked. I think that will allow me to cater to everyone who wants to learn about the process and the “why” behind it too.
The most basic thing that you should know if you are preparing for PM interviews is this - What does a PM do?
If you have gone through the 30 Days of PM, you would definitely know it. But in case you don’t, here’s a quick read - What is a Product Manager?
In every interview, the goal of the interviewer is the same - To judge if you will be able to do the job well or not. Same is the goal with product interviews.
The interviewer is there to judge you and analyze if you have the right PM skills to do your job well or not. So, let’s start from there. Which skills are these?
What skills do I need as a PM?
In a PM interview, several skills are evaluated that a Product Manager needs to have and use on a daily basis. These include:
Analytical Skills: Your ability to analyze data, solve problems, and make informed decisions.
Communication Skills: How effectively you convey your ideas, collaborate with cross-functional teams, and articulate your thought process.
Product Sense: Your understanding of user needs, market trends, and your ability to think like a product manager.
Behavioral Competencies: Your soft skills, leadership qualities, and how you handle various situations.
Technical Aptitude: How well you understand the technical aspects related to the product or industry.
Product management, overall, is a “soft skills” job — particularly in larger organizations. Product managers don’t write codes or produce pixel perfect designs — their job is predominantly to ensure that the team is moving in the same direction that is aligned with the strategic direction.
However, there are some “harder” skills in the discovery part of the product lifecycle, which this interview is meant to test. Read more about product discovery here - Product Discovery
How do they test these skills?
In PM interviews, you can expect a mix of these types of questions:
Product Design
Guesstimates
Behavioral
Product Strategy
Analytical
Execution
Technical
These questions are pretty open ended and are meant to make you think in order to understand how exactly you approach a problem and come up with solution. The real answer holds much lesser value than the way the candidate reaches that answer.
Now, I know you might be thinking, what exactly do these type of questions mean. Let me give you some examples:
Product Design Questions
Design a meditation app.
How would you improve Spotify as a podcast application?
Guesstimate Questions
How many people in India use 5G network?
How many vehicles cross the Delhi-Gurgaon toll per day? (Yes, this is a real question which was asked to me in an interview)
Behavioral Questions
Tell me about a time you handled a difficult stakeholder.
How would you handle negative user feedback for your product?
Product Strategy Questions
Should Google go into the ridesharing market?
How would you increase the adoption of Microsoft Edge?
Metrics/ Analytics Questions
What metrics would you focus on as the PM for Spotify?
How would you measure the success of Medium?
Execution Questions
Fake news is increasing on social media. How would you reduce its proliferation?
YouTube comments are up, but watch time is down. What do you do?
Technical Questions (not that common in all PM interviews)
Design the architecture for Instagram’s Home Feed.
Tell me about a previous project where your team had to choose between two technologies with trade-offs. Why did you choose what you did?
How do I prepare for it?
All of that seems a lot right? I know, because it is. Whenever you start to prepare for switch to Product Management, it can be very overwhelming.
But, that’s why you have us. We will help you prepare for your next PM interview calmly over the next 30 days with our daily lessons. You just have to commit that you will read the lessons daily and give 30-60 minutes for the preparation. Deal?
Product Management 101 Workshop!
This Saturday, we are collaborating with Manoj Aiyer for a session on Product Management 101.
In this session, we will be discussing:
The role and responsibilities of a Product Manager.
The skills you need to become a Product Manager.
How should you prepare to switch to a PM role?
And most importantly - How to know if it is the right career path for you?
I am sure most of the people struggle with this question, and we will try to answer it by giving a complete perspective on the PM role.
Want to join it? Register for the session - Click to Register
Congratulations! You completed Day 1 🥂
Congratulations on starting your journey of preparing for PM Interview with Crework for the next 30 days. And a bigger congratulations for completing the first lesson. 🎉
If you think there is someone who can benefit from our new initiative, it would mean the world to me if you can invite them to subscribe and learn with us.