đź“ŤÂ Interview Guide for PMs
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How to ace your interview
- Tell a story. Concentrate on delivering a concise and engaging story of your past experience. Read the room if you’re going on too long.
- Focus on challenges. When describing your past work, bring up the challenges you faced and decisions you made to resolve them. This is the stuff interviewers want to hear about.
- Not sure? Think — then talk it out. If you're faced with a difficult question, take a moment to think, and then share your thought process. Interviewers are far more interested in your ability to think critically than getting a correct solution right away.
- "I don't know" is a valid answer. If you don't really know how to answer a question, don't try to guess. Better to be honest — and move on to questions you feel more comfortable answering.
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Sample questions for practice
Practice answering these real questions from past mission interviews with PMs:
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- Give me an example of a decision you made that you would change if you were given the chance.
- Tell us about an initiative you took on that wasn’t mandated.
- Have you ever had a hard time explaining something to a teammate? How did you go about it? What was the outcome?
- What excites you the most about where this company is heading?
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- Describe a product that you’re proud to have worked on.
- What, if anything, would you have changed about it?
- What KPIs did you move?
- What’s your approach to working with devs and designers? Can you share examples?
- Tell me about a time you had to sell your team on a vision and how you got them engaged. Did you succeed?
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- You are the CEO of the Yellow Cab taxi service. How do you respond to Uber?
- Explain how Google+ failed where Facebook succeeded? What would you have done differently? What about Blackberry?
- Facebook bought Instagram for 1B dollars, even though Instagram was making no money. Would you have done the same? Why?
- How does LinkedIn make money, and what are its biggest threats?
- Imagine you are considering launching two services which have similar revenues and costs. How would you decide which one to pursue?
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- Can you give a real-life example of a poorly-designed product? How would you fix it?
- What Google product doesn’t make sense to you?
- If a customer refuses to accept a new product you just launched, how would you handle it?
- What are three apps you like?
- What do you like about it?
- What would you change about it?
- How would you prioritize these changes?
- How would you measure success?
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- How many flights fly out of Mexico on an average day?
- How many Uber rides get requested in New York City on an average day?
- If Spotify was launching a new service for music videos, what would the TAM, SAM and SOM be?
Use the STAR framework. It’s a great structure for concise and precise answers:
- Situation:Â Set the scene and give the necessary details of your example.
- Task:Â Describe what your responsibility was in that situation.
- Action:Â Explain exactly what steps you took to address it.
- Result:Â Share what outcomes your actions achieved.
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Best questions to ask your interviewer
Always prepare questions for the end of the interview. The interviewer can learn a lot from what questions you choose to ask. Take a look at our best questions to ask your interviewer:
- What phase of development is the product in?
- What’s the biggest challenge with your product?
- What keeps you up at night?