product-manager.md

Product Manager

Warm Ups

1. Why do you want to work here?
2. Why are you leaving your current job?

Technical

1. Do a basic SQL exercise that involves clauses like WHERE, GROUP BY and HAVING.
2. When you type google.com in the browser and hit enter, what happens?

Product Sense

1. What's a product or website you like? Why do you like it?
2. What problems does the product solve for the user?
3. How does the product accomplish these goals? What makes it "neat"? What makes users fall in love with the product?
4. How would you improve it?
5. Why do we (The Company) exist?
6. What do you like about our business / product?
7. Who is our customer? What problem are we solving for them?
8. Where do you think the company / product should be in 5 years?
9. How do you assess opportunities?
10. How much does the shampoo industry do in sales each year in the US?

Working with Engineering and Design

1. How should projects be managed?
2. Who should manage the backlog?
3. How do you write specs for engineering and design?
4. How do you kick off projects?
5. How do you manage projects across multiple teams?

Personality and Backbone

1. Describe a decision you made that was not popular. How did you handle implementing it?
2. Tell me about a time when you had to sell another person or team on your idea.
3. Tell me about a time when you were not able to reach a deadline.
4. Tell me about a time when you had to deal with changing priorities. How did you handle it?
5. Tell me about a time when you had to make a decision quickly or with insufficient data.
6. Tell me about a time when you handled a risky situation.
7. Tell me about a time when you had a disagreement at work.
8. Tell me about a time when you had to compromise.

Handling Failure

1. Tell me about a time when you made a mistake.
2. Tell me about a time when you failed.
3. Tell me about a time when you were disappointed with yourself.

Success

1. Tell me about your most ambitious project that you're proud of accomplishing.
2. Tell me about a time when you went above and beyond the call of duty.
3. Tell me about a time when you solved a problem in a creative way.

Cast Study

Give them a bit of background on the product and then ask them how they'd launch a new feature.

Questions they should think about:

1. Who are the different users? What are their pros and cons?
2. Which one should the company focus on?
3. What's the MVP?
4. How do they define success?
5. How would they iterate?
6. What if the metrics look bad at launch?
7. What would the "go to market" look like? (Are they thinking about sales training, support and documentation?)
8. How do you get the data?