How to prepare for a management interview?

How would a new grad with no experience in product management prepare for a PM interview?

• Answer:

  For me, preparing for PM interviews was similar to preparing for tech interviews in some ways and different in others. I interviewed at a couple of different companies for a product management position and did not have any product management experience before my interviews. I decided on a per-company basis and only interviewed for PM positions that required or encouraged technical backgrounds. If the PM position was not technical, I interviewed as an engineer. In my experience, PM interviews vary across different companies - they aren't as standard as tech interviews. Some interviews are more abstract, some ask more product or estimation questions, some require more specific knowledge. So, I tried to prepare skills that would help me in multiple scenarios, rather than focusing on a specific type of question. Different people will prepare in different ways. The majority of my preparation for the PM interviews involved thinking and reflecting more than working out practice problems by hand. When preparing for technical interviews, I almost always work the problems out on a whiteboard if I can. For PM interviews, I found myself jotting down notes on Google Keep or on a Google Doc and reviewing my notes before my interviews. Among all of the various topics I thought about, I found myself constantly asking for the "why". For product related questions, I thought about: My favorite tech products - What are some of my favorite tech products? Why do I like them? Who are the primary users? What would I change? I focused about products that I used every day like my Chromebook Pixel, Glass, Quora, Google Forms, etc Major feature or product decisions - I thought about some of the major feature or product decisions made by various tech companies in the few months before my interviews. Why were those decisions made? What were the possible other choices? Why did they choose that route? What were the trade-offs? How a product is built - I found it helpful to think about my favorite products and how they were built. It would think about a given product and break it down into different parts, from the design elements to the technical aspects. This helped a lot with product questions as well as estimation questions - it made me think about what goes into any given product, service, or process. What makes a product successful? - This was a bit more abstract and reflective. I really thought about products that have been successful in their space, especially those that overtook another major player and why that happened. Common usage patterns - What are common patterns that users are familiar with, especially those across products and companies? This was helpful for questions regarding creating new features or products. It was also important to think about different kinds of users - think about accessibility and designs/interactions that are clear to different kinds of users. Company-specific product thoughts - For each company that I interviewed at as a PM, I took time to think about one of their majors products. Where were they struggling? What's something that bothers me about the product? Why did they make a certain decision about the product? Future of a product - This is also really important. In addition to thinking about what's missing, I also tried to think about where each product or company would go in the next few years. What goals should they be working towards? Which goals are most important? How do you prioritize various goals or features? Design, Engineering, Marketing, and more - When building a product, you're not only thinking about this from a technical standpoint - you also have to think about all of the other people involved in the process. You don't necessarily need to know how to do the others' job, but it's important to at least be able to identify when you'd need to ask someone else for help or for their expertise. When I was interviewing at Quora, I talked with people around me to figure out what were the main pain points, in their minds. I found this to be especially helpful during their interviews, and I definitely recommend doing this if you're interviewing at a startup. I had the chance to talk to people who used the product regularly as well as people who were brand new to the product or didn't use it very often. Regardless of where you interview, I would strongly recommend using the product (or one of the main products) of a company where you are interviewing to be a product manager and maybe some of their competitors, if you get a chance. I also reflected on my experiences as a student leader. Regardless of whether you're going to be an engineer, product manager, designer, etc - I really encourage you to get involved with student organizations on campus. I learned so many valuable lessons from working with people as an officer in a student organization. Being an officer in different organizations also gives you a diverse point of view and experience working in various scenarios. In general, you should also be prepared to answer questions along the lines of: How you would build a product that solves (some problem) How you make decisions when various options are presented How you handle conflict in a decision making setting Example of a product you've built - doesn't necessarily have to be software Lastly, if you get the chance, it's always a good idea to talk to PM's from the company you're interviewing at to get a sense of what they do and expect. It also might give you an idea of what the interviews will be like! All in all, in my experience, I felt like my PM interviews really tested my attention to detail and ability to wear a lot of different hats. In my preparation, I tried to keep that in mind by thinking about how to build products and how existing products were built from various standpoints.