I've interviewed more than 200 people for product management roles.
Less than 15% of them are prepared
The ones that are prepared, always do well
Do this to be in the top 15%
- be well prepared
- understand the role, company, process
- practice
- be confident
A thread 🧵
Conversation
What does it mean to be well prepared
Good candidates:
1. Know about the company
2. Understand the role
3. Understand the industry
Great candidates:
1. Know the interview process and format
2. Have meaningful questions to ask at the end
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Know the company
This one is simple, but takes time.
1 Read company website
2 Read careers page
3 Understand the values they focus on
4 Talk to existing employees to:
a. understand the culture
b. understand the skills that help you do well
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Understand the role
1 Read the job description (again)
2 Talk to the recruiter + hiring manager. Ask specific questions about:
a. team structure
b. team size
c. Reporting heirarchy
d. Current challenges
e. Long term goals
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Understand the industry
- Spend 30 minutes every day, learning about industry
- Read news. Start from to 2 months ago
- Find competitors, read updates about them
- Find industry experts, talk to them - about recent developments, current challenges
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Know the interview process and format
This is critical
1. Get in-depth understanding
-no. of rounds
-duration
-no. of interviewers
-each interviewer’s role
2. Know the format of each round
3. Determine which skill is tested in each
The above will shape your prep strategy
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Have meaningful questions to ask at the end
Most interviewees ignore preparing for this
Ask questions:
- to increase existing knowledge about role/company/industry
- that will help you make your decision
- to cover imp. aspects not covered in interview
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Switching gears now. Let's talk about Product Management Interviews:
Most interviews will have one or more of the below:
1. Product Related questions
1. Product Sense
2. Product Design
3. Execution/Metrics
2. Guesstimates
3. Technical (if applicable)
4. Behavioural
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Product Related Questions (1/2)
Create an overall preparation plan
I recommend having at least 4 weeks to prepare. Include
- Books
- Guided practice
- Unguided practice
- Mock interviews
(More details here: justanotherpm.com/blog/ace-the-n)
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Product Related Questions (2/2)
Read at least 1 of below to understand all question types and frameworks to answer them
- Decode and conquer amzn.to/3DozsR1
- Cracking the PM Interview - amzn.to/3yjPKH6
I like using a modified version of CIRCLES by
Replying to
Guided practice
Read and watch a lot of sample questions and answers.
Critical to understand how to:
1. approach each question
2. apply frameworks
3. structure the actual conversation
4. keep interviewer on the same page
(resources below)
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Unguided practice
1. Find questions, that you haven’t read before
2. Write answers on a piece of paper
3. Compare answers with other's answers
4. It is OK if your answers don’t completely match other answers
At this point, focus on:
- approach
- comprehensiveness
- structure
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Mock Interviews
Now, theory+practice comes together
1. First set of mocks - find friends /peers who understand typical PM question types
2. Second set - find experienced PMs, preferably from your target companies
3. Repeat second set unless highly confident
(resources below)
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Behavioural Questions (1/2)
1. Create a matrix with questions in Column 1 and all past experiences in Row 1
2. Fill cells with relevant stories to match skills vs experience intersection
3. Have at least 2 stories for each row
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Behavioural Questions (1/2)
4. First detail each story on paper
5. Then, condense in STAR format
6. Focus on "why" for every action. That is what interviewers want to know
7. Practice by speaking loud. Then, omit redundancies
8. Mock with friends. Ask them to question everything
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Prepare basics well(1/2)
Hard to win trust if basics are not in place
Why leave current company
Share genuine reasons. Salary is not a good reason, professional growth is
Why new company
Share values that you resonate with, talk about passion to solve the same problem as them
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Prepare basics well(2/2)
Why this role
Similar as above. Also talk about what specifically excites you about role: autonomous culture, product mindset, peer group
What do you look for in a role
Have 2-3 strong reasons.
For me: solve a real problem, high impact role, autonomy
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Resources - Videos
How to get into PM by
1.
youtube.com/watch?v=p9Ubfv
2.
youtube.com/watch?v=VuSfqm
3.
youtube.com/watch?v=tSx8V8
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Resources - Mock Interviewers
1. Slack Community
lewis-lin.com/blog/2016/8/22
2. Community
3. Community
4. Blind App
5. Product Management Subreddit
6. Twitter
7. LinkedIn
8. DM me
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That is it for today
If you enjoyed this thread, please like and RT.
If you'd like to read more on product management, follow me
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TLDR:
To prepare well for PM interviews:
1. Know the company
2. Understand the role
3. Understand the industry
4. Know the interview process
5. Have meaningful questions to ask
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TLDR
6. For product questions:
6.1 Read books to understand frameworks
6.2 Guided practice
6.3 Unguided practice
6.4 Mock interviews
7. Behavioural questions - create a matrix, focus on "why" for each "what"
8. Prepare the basics well
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