PM Interview Questions

My favourite interview questions for (technical) product managers are not about case studies, technology, prioritization, metrics, or customer/market research, but about reading and thinking.

While use cases are a decent litmus test for basic product knowledge, product management is a field where bullshitters can be successful in interviews, especially if they come prepared. Since product management can pay well, it attracts plenty of people that are wholly unqualified but can slip through the cracks.

Two impromptu questions I have found useful for weeding out undesirable candidates are about whether you can think like a product manager and what you have recently learned from reading books.

Think like a product manager, not a consumer

When you ask a cook to assess a dish prepared by someone else, they can comment cogently on its presentation, the flavours, the quality of the ingredients, and whether the spices blend well. Similarly, an audio engineer can listen to an unfamiliar track and talk about whether the mix is suitable for its genre, its spatial image, spectral balance and resonances, FX chains applied, and so on. Cooks and audio engineers must be able to think like professionals, not merely consumers of food and music.

The same logic applies to product managers. Can you think like a product manager, not a consumer? If you have trouble dissecting a product live, what do you do: make stuff up or admit you lack knowledge? And if you are in want of intel, can you demonstrate how to gain it? With tools such as Perplexity and FastGPT, it is a snap to get validated top-down figures on market size and the like. Instead of saying what you would or could do, share your screen and do it. Or can you do a bottom-up estimation without any assistance? And can you poke holes in your own logic?

To figure out whether candidates can think on their feet, I ask them to analyse a product, either physical or digital. Let the person think about the problem it solves, relevant personas, the target market, its size, strengths and weaknesses, user experience, opportunities for new markets or segments, pricing, how it fits in the company’s product portfolio, success metrics, competitors, and whatever might be pertinent.

Have I now ruined the surprise effect of the question by revealing it? Nope! Anyone can prepare a few products and write down the salient bits, but people come in contact with so many products in any given day that it is impossible to be thorough in your preparations: clock, bed, pillow, toothbrush, toilet, showerhead, towels, sanitary products, razors, comb, cosmetics, socks, clothes, espresso machine, styrofoam cups, almost a dozen apps on their phones, mailbox, billboards, headphones, office chair, lift, laptop, carpets, business applications, kitchen equipment, bicycle, car, magazines, sports equipment, shoes, dietary supplements, water bottle, kettle, teacups or mugs, television, sofa, tablet, books, doorbell, dog leash, cat litter box, and so on.

Moreover, I can shove a product under your nose and ask you to adapt it to new markets or segments, such as people with disabilities, women, children, pets, countries, and so on. Or instead of a digital product, I can ask about a physical one you only use once every few days, weeks, or months, say, in an activity in your spare time. The possibilities are nearly endless. Preparation is futile.

I am not interested in your opinion on the design unless it is pertinent to the product’s success, or lack thereof. It is the thought process that counts, and whether you are structured in your approach or bounce from one idea to another without careful examination or conclusions.

Reading like a researcher

Tell me something you learned from a non-fiction book you recently read. It does not have to be about product management, technology, or even business. If you have interests outside of work, even better. It is fairly easy to hear if candidates understood the book or just read the blurb by asking follow-up questions. Why did you pick up that particular book? Can you summarize the book’s main point in one line? Was there anything in the book you disagreed with? Do you think the book’s (lack of) popularity is deserved?

If an experienced product manager only recently read PM 101 books, such as Inspired, Escaping the Build Trap, Continuous Discovery Habits, Measure What Matters, The Mom Test, Sprint (or its much weaker surrogate The Right It), Crossing the Chasm, The Lean Product Playbook, or Swipe to Unlock that is a red flag. If all your expertise comes from company-internal workshops, a few blogs, or PM interview guides, that is a serious concern.

Do podcasts count? In my view, no. Listening to a podcast is a fairly small commitment. A book requires a substantial investment of time and, above all, concentration. PMs must be able to concentrate, so they do not become distracted from what is important to the business. Product managers are also required to write a lot of documents, so their ability to absorb information through reading is essential. Of paramount importance is also the ability to think independently and explain thoughts clearly and concisely. Commenting intelligently on the contents of a book is a way to demonstrate that capability.

Technical product manager

For technical product managers (TPMs), I tend to ask for recent insights from research papers or engineering blogs on new technologies, ideas, use cases, or architectures. A technical product manager needs to be aware of the latest developments in their field. If it is an area where few papers are published (e.g. basic infrastructure that is largely commoditized), I still expect candidates to be aware of the latest technologies in their area of expertise. What I try to assess is whether they have read anything relevant, whether they understood it thoroughly, and whether they can contextualize each contribution.

Another option is to present a recent paper and ask the interviewee to assess whether it is relevant to the role they are applying for, as they currently understand it. Any candidate for a TPM role must be able to skim a paper (or technical blog post) and understand its potential impact on their (future) product with relative ease.

Especially in deep tech, if a technical product manager cannot pick up a paper in their field and understand most of it or assess within a short amount of time if it is worth scrutinizing, they may not know how to read a paper, which probably means they have not done it often. Depending on the candidate’s experience and required seniority of the role, this may only be a concern, not a dealbreaker. If, however, they do not desire to stay informed at all, that is much worse. You cannot make people care. Best to learn whether that is the case before an offer is made.