Last week, I posted a few of my favorite general interview questions and why I like them. I typically start with a subset of those questions for all of my interviews and then, depending on the role, dive deeper into questions that tell me how you’ll do in that role. Today, I’m going to share the questions I like to ask Product Management candidates.
Product Manager Interview Questions
Good Product Managers are really hard to find. It’s an incredibly tough role to do well but, when you have a great Product Manager, they make the whole organization better. Product Managers, if empowered and given enough autonomy, can act as the CEO of their products, but they can’t accomplish anything by themselves. So, good Product Managers need to be able to both make great decisions given the data they have and be able to collaborate heavily with and influence others. To learn more about Product Managers, check out this quick synopsis or read any number of great books about them including mine (shameless plug alert)!
In a typical interview, I might ask any of these questions, with the ones in bold being my favorites.
Experience & Collaboration Questions for Product Managers
You can’t be an effective Product Manager without being a great collaborator. Good, experienced Product Managers are worth their weight in gold and so I spend a lot of time trying to understand a candidate’s past experiences, how they like to work with teams, and how they like to collaborate.
- What drew you to being a Product Manager? What do you like about the job? What don’t you like?
- What is a product you use every day? What would you do to improve it and why?
This candidate may not know a lot about your company’s product(s) yet, but I like the above question because it allows them to show a bit of their product chops with a product they are already familiar with and enjoy.
- Tell me about the Product Management process that you use (or would like to use) from start to finish. How do you generally work with Agile Software Development teams?
- How do you typically gather data and incorporate it into your decision-making processes?
- What level of autonomy do you expect as a Product Manager?
The above question allows you to ensure your culture matches one in which the Product Manager will be successful.
- Tell me about a time when you disagreed with an executive or other important stakeholder on the direction of the product. How did you resolve this issue?
- Tell me about a time when you really listened to your team or a stakeholder and it resulted in a more successful product.
- Tell me about a time where you had to motivate a team to get some work done.
Disagreements are part of the job. How does this candidate deal with them and how do they help bring everyone onto the same page? Are they good listeners as well as decision-makers?
Prioritization Questions for Product Managers
Since prioritization and saying “no” is such a big part of being an effective Product Manager, I ask a number of questions around this topic alone. I’m looking for real stories from the Product Manager’s past experience showcasing that they’ve not only effectively done some tough prioritization, but also that they’re skilled in convincing the rest of the organization that the current direction is the right one. If you can convince your stakeholders to say no to their own projects (the ones that don’t fit into the current set of priorities), you are well on your way to being an effective Product Manager.
- How do you decide what to build and what not to build?
- How would you prioritize backlog items when you have two important items and only time for one?
- Describe a scenario that required you to say no to an idea or project? How did you do that?
- How do you know when to cut corners to get a product out the door?
That last one is interesting. Of course we’d never like to cut corners, but often must. Knowing when to do it and how to come back and fix the tech debt you’ve created is an important skill too. Product Managers that tell you they never cut corners are likely lying or inexperienced.
Questions About Our Product / Industry
I like to know that the Product Manager has done at least a little bit of homework, so I ask questions about our industry and product (all answers easily available online). Ideally, we’re talking to someone already in our industry, but that’s not always the case.
- What’s your experience with <your industry or a particular technology>?
- Who are our competitors?
- Based on our discussion so far, what is one improvement you would implement for <our product> over the next 6 months to a year?
Note that last question seems like an unfair question to ask in the interview, but this is where I get to find out how much the candidate knows about our product, how well they are listening, or how self-aware they are. Some candidates have done their homework or picked up on some things throughout the interview and have great answers to this question. Some will tell me that they need more information and then describe how they’d go about getting it. Both are great answers.
Do you have any favorite interview questions for Product Managers? Share them below!