5 Types Of Product Manager Interview Questions

Scared of your upcoming product manager interviews? With companies like Google and Facebook having a 1% acceptance rate, it's no wonder you're feeling anxious. You might not know the best way to prepare for your interview, but fortunately, you're not alone. Don't worry, in this video, we will demystify the whole process so that you go into your interview feeling fully confident and prepared. You will learn how to ace every type of product manager interview question. Before we get started, make sure you like and subscribe to our channel. Generally, PM interview questions fall into 5 categories. 1. Estimation questions. These questions test your ability to critically think and deduce answers with little information. These questions are common in case interviews, software engineering interviews, and especially, product management interviews. Some examples of estimation questions that you may see in your interview include: How many self-driving Street View cars does it take to map the U.S.? How much is AirM's annual revenue? How much does the Empire State Building weigh? How many ping pong balls fit into a helicopter? How much laundry detergent is used in the U.S. per year? I know these questions can seem intimidating, but don't worry, the interviewer is not expecting you to come up with the actual correct number. The interviewer is testing you on your logical thinking skills. They are more interested in the process you used to solve the problem. 2. Analytical and execution questions. These questions test your ability to reason about metrics, data, and strategy. Analytical and execution PM interview questions are squarely left-brain type exercises. Can you reason with metrics? Can you think critically about user feedback and bugs? In general, analytical and execution PM questions test your knowledge and comfort with: Metrics, statistics, strategy, execution, debugging. Some sample questions in this category include: What's the most important metric for RM? What metrics would you track upon launching a new e-commerce website? Why? What are the top 3 types of A/B experiments you would run on Facebook ads to increase revenue? How would you experiment with LinkedIn's homepage to drive sign-in rates? Facebook is experiencing a 6% decline in user base this month. What could be causing this decline? How would you investigate? How would you price a new competitor to the Amazon Alexa and Google Home? What factors would be important in your analysis? What experiments would you run on Google's homepage to increase search queries? What are the top 3 types of A/B experiments you would run on Facebook ads to increase revenue? 3. Product design questions. These questions test your product vision and insight. Do you understand how to design a successful product? Product questions are the heart and soul of product manager interviews. They're the most unique to the product management role, and, in my opinion, the most fun. In general, product questions test your: creative ability, understanding of user-centric design, Knowledge of industry trends. Product vision. Strategy. Passion. Here is a non-exhaustive list of question types you may see. 1. Creative brainstorm. 2. What is the future of X? 3. Design a product. 4. Favorite product. Here are some examples of product questions that you can expect. Name 10 different customer segments that might be interested in a new Internet of Things light bulb product. How will we consume books in the future? How would you redesign a high-tech microwave? How would you improve the airport security line with technology? How would you redesign the 911 system? Design a product or feature that addresses toxic trolling on the internet. What is your favorite product, and why? 4. Product strategy questions. These questions test your strategic reasoning on business decisions as they relate to building product. Product strategy questions are very related to the product design questions. In fact, these questions were previously bundled into one category with product design questions. However, product strategy questions assess your ability to understand competitive landscapes and reason about high-level product direction decisions. In general, product strategy PM questions test your knowledge and comfortability with: competitive analysis, Market analysis. Product roadmaps. Business strategy. Here are some sample questions. You own a company that has 1 million flip phones in inventory. Your goal is to sell all the flip phones within a year. What customer segment do you pick, and what cosmetic changes would you make to the product? What are the most important features for a new peer-to-peer payments app to succeed in competition with Venmo, PayPal, Square Cash, etc.? How should Snapchat prioritize which new types of Snap filters to create? Should Google name its Google Assistant? Why or why not? Why did Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon name their assistant? Should Uber allow its passengers to tip? Why or why not? If yes, how should Uber design its tipping page? For instance, what should the default option be? What's the biggest competitive risk for Apple's iPhone right now? 5. Technical questions: These questions test your ability to work with engineering. Technical questions are rarely asked at PM interviews nowadays. That said, depending on the company, you may be asked one or two of these questions. Check with the recruiter and study the job posting to understand what's expected of you. Google is known to require technical experience for PM hires, while Facebook doesn't test technical ability. In general, technical PM questions test your: critical thinking skills, analytical ability, understanding of software, ability to specify features. Technical questions take many forms, and they're usually open-ended. Most often, you'll start with a product design question and then be asked to delve deep into the technical implementation of the design. Some sample questions include: 1. Amazon is developing a machine learning algorithm to better target shoppers who have saved items in their shopping carts. The algorithm will send an email to users to remind them about their shopping carts. What factors would you consider when designing this algorithm? What variables would yield higher shopping cart purchase rates? 2. Why do you think Google Photos decided to allow unlimited photo storage for all users as long as the photo is within a certain size limit? How much does this cost Google? What sorts of image compression techniques could be applied? So, just to recap, we covered the 5 types of product manager interview questions. If you found this video helpful, subscribe to our channel for more awesome content!