Product Manager

Product Manager Interview Questions:

According to Ben Horowitz, the product manager is the “CEO of the product” which translates over to being the main person with the brain power and capacity when considering the design and the process of building an appealing, user-friendly and commercially successful software product. Furthermore, the prospective candidate for the position should be well versed in regards to business knowledge, technology and user experience. They will utilize their background knowledge and expertise to supervise your teams and orient them efficiently in the process of product development.

When you specify product managers, your prospective candidate should be able to speak about and effectively convey software products which they previously launched in previous companies. Furthermore, they should be able to incorporate their sharp and detail oriented observations regarding their customers and to also include their competitors in their descriptions. It is also extremely important for them to have a strong understanding of engineering terms and can build and maintain strong work relationships with engineers.  Additionally, they should be able to easily speak on the design and architecture of the product that they launched. They should also be well versed and deeply interested in user experience. You could check the strength of your candidates’ expertise by their ability to provide many examples of all the knowledge that they acquired from conversing with product’s users

We advise you to pose questions to your candidates regarding your product after you instructed them to use them prior to the interview. You could elaborate and ask more in-depth questions such as asking them how your product might get developed in one or two years. Analyze their answers to check if they were able to come up with similar conclusions and concerns that you have reached to, or if they’ve completely come up with something new and innovative. Check to see if their vision and road map is relevant to yours and your company’s.

Operational and Situational questions:

• Explain in detail the launch of a product that was your contribution, as well as your clients and competitors.
• Describe the process that you follow for designing product features.
• How do you come to the conclusion not to build an element or aspect of a product?
• Identify some people or products that have influenced your approach and understanding of product design. How is this influence visible in your work?
• How would you mass monetize our products on major social media platforms like Twitter?
• Give us an example of a commercially successful product that appeals to you. Why do you think it reached the level of success it has?
• Explain to us one aspect or characteristic of the product you mentioned earlier in your “engineer speech”
•  You have decided to launch your SaaS product in the market. How do you ask for feedback to develop your product and keep it updated with the market demand?
• Provide us with a description of a time when your fellow engineers were against a decision you made. Tell us about the disagreement? Provide a point of view that supports their stance.
• Explain to us how you’ve written product manuals in the past.
• These are some of the flaws in our product. What would you do to make them better?
• What are some of the tools that you have used in your previous positions? How efficient are these tools and if you could evaluate them to provide feedback, what would you say?
• What do you think you will spend time on, during your first week as our Product Manager?