How to Approach the Problem-Solving Questions in a Product Manager Job Interview
You will be asked a problem question in every product manager job interview. The job interviewer wants to understand how you problem solve. Sometimes, your approach to the question might be more telling than whether you have the right or best answer.
These are some best practices you should consider for your next product manager job interview.
What are the most common product manager job interview questions?
In a product manager job interview, you might be asked bizarre or unsettling questions. The goal is to see if you can get out of your comfort zone. Some common questions include:
- How would you design an alarm clock for people who can’t see?
- How would you build a GPS or navigation app for someone who is blind?
- What is your favorite app? How would you improve it?
Generally, these questions aim to understand how you think, strategize, prioritize and might consider the design.
What is the strategy to answer product manager job interview questions?
Like other technical job interviews, it is essential to be methodical. Don’t rush into the problem and start throwing out potential solutions, especially if you haven’t thought them through.
The features or solutions you suggest should not be incremental features or too design-focused. You want to demonstrate impact with your answers. The solution should move the needle considerably for the product and its users.
A simple solution framework for product manager job interview questions is:
1. Lay out your approach.
Explain in detail what you are going to do before you do it. You might want to say something like:
First, I want to talk through the problem to make sure I understand it correctly. Then, we can discuss the business objective in detail. Next, I will define the target user and brainstorm possible solutions to their likely problems. Finally, I will walk through the solutions for each problem and my recommendations for priotization.
2. Focus on the problem.
You should clarify the problem so that you can start from the first principles. Determine whether you can break the problem into smaller, simpler problems to solve.
3. Don’t make assumptions.
The problem might seem very obvious, but you shouldn’t make assumptions. Ask the job interviewer questions and explain what you are thinking. Give the job interviewer the opportunity to clarify or debunk any assumptions.
4. Define the business and product objective.
A product manager’s primary responsibility is to identify customer needs and business objectives a product or feature can solve. You need to zero in on the objectives so that you can ensure you are solving the right problems.
5. Define the target groups.
Once you have broken down the problem into simpler problems and defined the business objective, focus on the target groups for your solution. You might have multiple target groups, so you might want to prioritize the group with the largest population.
6. Explain the use case of the product.
Clarify how the users will use or interact with your product. A clear definition of the use cases should provide a helpful foundation for your solutions.
Start by explaining in detail how the current product addresses your user’s pain points and the available use cases, and assess whether there are any weaknesses in the current approach.
Next, you should suggest features to address the weak spots. Explain how you will prioritize the work, including the order in which some of these features might be implemented and how you will do so.
7. Assess the first and second-order impacts.
After you suggest features, highlight the metrics that you will analyze. Explain why those metrics demonstrate the impact you expect to make. Don’t forget any second-order impacts of your feature set.
This article was written by Nishit Raj for HackerNoon and was lightly edited and published with permission.