PM Interview Prep

- Saurav Mishra
# Topic Author Date

1 Product Management Interview Question types Saurav Mishra 17-08-2022

1. Context
The Product Management profile has multiple openings across organizations. These interviews are very
typical in nature but a pattern is specific to these questions. This document details the different types of
questions and a structural approach to handle these questions.

2. Target audience

# Target Groups Objective

1 BTech/ Graduates - want to break into product

2 APMs - want to switch to other product companies for career progression for a
lateral profile
- want to switch to a PM role

3 PMs - want to switch companies in a similar/ different profile

4 IT Consultants/ QA/ Devs/ - want to switch profession to Product profiles

profile candidates

3. Type of Questions

# Q sub category Sample

1 Product Design
a. Thought experiment (TE) - Design a food ecosystem (TE) - OLA PM R1
b. Normal product with a - Design a bicycle management company (TE) -
new cohort (NN) Sixt PM II R2
- Design a digital mirror (TE) - Monster PM R3
- Design Uber for blind (NN)
- Design camera for senior citizens (NN) (OLA
PM R2)
- Design a Spotify for blind (NN)
- Design banking app for Sr citizens (Amit OLA
R2)

2 Metrics related
a. RCA (Root cause - Flipkart’s cart abandonment rate has gone up.
analysis) (RCA) (Sixt R1)
b. Success metrics (for a - GPay High ticket trxns have gone down. (RCA)
specific Product / - Swiggy’s avg cart value/ order has gone down.
feature) (RCA)
- Yotube’s avg daily viewing time has gone
down. (RCA)
- Give me the success metrics for Swiggy (SM)
- Give me the dashboard for BA?
- Give me the success metrics for Whatsapp
status feature (SM)

3 Product Strategy a. Product Launch - Should Netflix get into the gaming industry ?
b. What will a company do - Should Google enter into the OTT market ?
 next ? - What should Google do next ?
- Relaunch UBER EATS in India .
- Should Fb get into the travel industry ?

4 Product - Favorite Product - Why &
Improvement Scope of Improvement
- Generic Product /
Feature - Scope of
Improvement
- Favorite product and reasons, scope of
improvement
- How will you improve the Fb birthday wish
feature?
- How will you improve the Netflix
recommendation engine ?

5 Market sizing - Estimate the number of ACs in Bangalore?

(Guesstimate) - Estimate the number of electric 2-w in India?

6 Technical Qs - Tech stack - Explain to us the tech stack used in your

- System Design previous product experience?
- Technical Qs - Explain to us the system design of your
- Understanding of Agile previous product exp?
- Explain if scaling was needed in your previous
exp? If yes, why and how was it done ?
- What happens when you write a url on a web
browser (How the internet works) ?
- API for 6 yr old
- Cloud computing for a 6 yr old
- Recursion func for a 6 year old
- ML for a 6 yr old kid
- Database for a 6 yr old kid

7 Behavioral Qs - Conflict Qs - Situation of conflict between Engineering

(STAR) - PM behavioral Qs Managers
- Situation of conflict with business
- Situation when you goofed up in a release and
how did you handle it?
- One thing you have learnt in the last few days
- Major KPIs of the product you were handling
(NSM & Guard rail metrics)

4. Steps to approach the Qs

# Q type Steps to approach the Q

1 Product Design CIRCLES framework -

1. C- Clarification questions
2. I - Identify user groups (Supply, Demand & Collaborators)
3. R - Requirements (Problem driven approach)
4. C - Cut through prioritization (Effort v/s Impact)
5. L - List of stories (Only prioritized stories)
6. E - Estimation (AARRR)
7. S - Summarize

2 Metrics related a) Framework for approaching RCA questions -

a) RCA
b) Success metrics of a 1. Clarification question
Product/ feature 2. Define the metrics which is impacted
 a. Feature alignment
b. Eliminate possibilities
c. Trend of drop observed (if any)
d. Clarification on analytics reporting or tool discrepancy
3. Internal to External causation explanation to panelist
4. Internal factor analysis
a. Release cycle clarification
b. Features & functionality impacted by release
c. Bugs are-prioritized
5. External factor analysis (PESTLE)
6. If received clue - go in that direction, else - Map user journey
7. User Journey mapping : Release aspect mapping
8. Identify RCA as per observation

b) Framework for approaching Success metrics of a product/ feature -

1. Clarification questions
a. Feature alignment
b. Why this specific feature and not any other ?
c. Any specific geography for consideration?
d. Any specific platform for consideration ?
e. Any specific demography for consideration ?
2. Metrics need to be identified under which bucket of AARRR?
3. Build the Product and Tech metrics.
4. Discuss and get alignment.

3 Product Strategy 5 -C framework

1. Customer
2. Company
3. Competitor
4. Climate
5. Cost

(Check the PM School, Explainer series 5C Product Strategy question)

4 Product Improvement 1. Feature alignment

2. Objective of Improvement
3. Identify user groups
4. Identify pain points against each user group
5. Eliminate the satisfied user group and realize the user group to
work on from point 3 & 4
6. Reframe the Problem Statement
7. Requirement (Feature list)
8. Cut through Prioritization
9. Launch Pilot
10. Summarize

5 Market sizing (Guesstimate)

6 Technical Qs

7 Behavioral Qs STAR framework -

1. Situation
2. Task
3. Action
4. Result
5. Structure of Interviews

#R Type of Round Type of Question

R1 Product 1 Qs type (1-5)of abv

R2 Product 2 Qs type (1-5) of abv

R3 Technical & Behavioral Qs type (6-7) of abv

R4 VP/ Director - Culture fit

- Product Strategy Qs (type
3)

R5 HR - Culture fit/ HR Round/

Comps