Interview tips for recent graduates and job seekers - product focused roles.

Having been on both sides of the interview table for a while now, I wanted to share a bit of my experience and key nuggets that have helped some of my students that I’ve coached recently who have cleared product manager interviews for Amazon, Walmart and other companies.

Now, these were already talented folks that needed a little direction and a buddy to bounce off ideas with. But what I’ve realised is that my interactions with these candidates can also be leveraged by others to realize their potential and do better.

While I am familiar with and can have opinions on the process for SWE candidates, I don’t see myself as a qualified individual to comment on it. Hence, the focus of my writing will be mostly product-based roles. I will be touching over the interview processes in general for product roles and in the future will be writing more each section.

Interview Structure

The product manager interviews typically start with one or two rounds.

Recruiter Phone Interview:

Remember, the recruiter reached out to you because they already like your profile and are curious to see if there’s an alignment between what you are looking and the scope of the role. Often times the hiring manager directs the recruiter to reach out to candidates - this is a strong signal.

I can think of 3 top things to remember for this round:

1. Have a solid 1-2 min pitch. I’ve seen candidates talk for a good 5 min with almost no key takeaways. One recommendation that has worked for the candidates I helped with is have a structured pitch:

   1. Start with ‘Hi, I am Shounak….’

   2. Talk about your current role

   3. Talk briefly about what you’ve done in the past

   4. Emphasize on why you think this role is a good fit for you.

You can use this pitch for other rounds as well.

Here’s an example (strictly for demonstration purposes! if my team is reading this, don’t worry I am not going anywhere ;-) ):

Hi, I am Shounak Mitra and I am currently a Princpal Product Manager and product lead in the Emerging Tech group at Walmart Labs. Among several initiatives that I lead, one key initiative is to launch a 0-1 product for [confidential] that will impact the way millions of shoppers shop today.

In my previous jobs, I’ve worked mostly in AI-based products in machine learning, reinforcement learning, synthetic data etc and have launched 0-1 products as well as managed growth products working cross-functionally with development, marketing, sales, business, …[if you have not worked with cross-functional teams or have no prior experience, you can add info around the people you worked with for your thesis/ projects etc]

I have Master’s in Math and Statistics and Structural Engineering and in my previous life have worked as a Software Developer and dabbled in technologies like Java-J2EE/ Oracle etc. for a couple of years and this experience often comes handy when I work closely with my engineers.

Over the last decade or so, I’ve worked at the intersection of research, AI and product and I’ve really enjoyed my journey so far. I am looking for an opportunity where I can [this is where your motivation should come in - looking to lead products that creates impact at scale OR looking to grow as a peoples manager OR looking to transition into B2B/B2C etc].

2. What do you say when asked for salary expectations: Never give out numbers, instead ask for the compensation structure & range for the level they are hiring.

3. Don’t forget to ask questions about the interview process, scope of role, team structure.

Phone Screens:

While companies like Google and Meta focus on Product Sense, execution type executions in the screening rounds, Amazon will focus on behavioral questions (will cover 2-3 leadership principles in the first round that’s typically 45 min).

Companies like Zoox, Cruise, Walmart usually conduct 1 initial screening interview asking behavioral questions and is followed by virtual-onsites.

Virtual Onsites

Virtual Onsites are when you get to meet with more folks from the team / company. It’s done a little different in almost every company I have interviewed for. For eg., Meta does 3 rounds that includes Product Sense, execution and leadership [1]. Amazon focuses mostly on behavioral Qs covering their leadership principles with the possibility of a sample case study on pricing/ GTM for a feature or a product [2]. Amazon also has the concept of a bar raiser, the details of which I will cover in another blog. Some companies kick off the virtual onsite with a whiteboarding/ case study round, followed by a series of 30 min 1-1 interviews.

During the interview

Have a framework to think through things, smile, and know that the team interviewing you already likes you and thats why they’re putting in 3-4 additional hours getting to know you more!

Behavioral Qs:

STAR method comes handy when answering behavioral questions and I am sure readers of this blog are somewhat familiar with it. Even if you’ve years of experience, it’s always a good idea to prepare for these questions in depth and have a structure ready. Check out the next blog for a list of detailed behavioral Qs.

There’re3 important things I’d like to share here.

1. Let’s say there’re 50 different behavioral Qs that you’re preparing, you don’t have to have 50 different stories to tell. As a step 1, list out all the stories that you can think of from your past experience eg., where you created an impact, where you managed a conflict, where you had to can a project mid-way etc. Usually, with ~15 stories you can use them to answer several behavioral Qs. I went too far myself and had ~30 stories but I realized later I didn’t need those many.

2. Try and have a couple of stories or variants of stories for each behavioral Q (leadership principle in case of Amazon). They can overlap across Qs but try to stay away from repeating the same story in different interview rounds for similar Qs. During de-brief, this will come up.

3. Once you write out your answer in STAR (I prefer SAR) format, make sure to read it out loud and practice. Time it and you’ll self-critic and self-correct yourself.

Case study (let’s assume product design)

These are fun questions but at times can be very challenging as well. This takes practice, a bit of patience, and some practice!

• Follow a structure:

  • Start with some clarifying Qs,

  • write metric-and-timebound goals ,

  • Users, Pain points,

  • prioritize user segment and pain points,

  • outline user workflows,

  • lay out features for, prioritize features for MVP or as some experts call it - MLP (most lovable product),

  • tie back the prioritized faetures with goals and users identified earlier,

  • [Not always necessary but nice to have if time allows] think of quick metrics and counter metrics, risks Definitely do this if you’re doing a take-home assignment.

• How do you prioritize: Question on prioritization can come up either via a case study or as a direct beahvioral question. In either case, I’ve come across candidates who ace it beautifully but the majority of the candidates who are able to list out features to build and MVP/MLP aren’t able to follow an analytical or a framework-based approach to prioritize. If you are asked to prioritize following a case study, the expectation is not to arrive at the correct solution.The expectation is a little more than saying you’ll prioritize features using a 2x2 impact v/s effort matrix. It’s more around how do you think about trade-offs, do you keep the users in mind while prioritizing, are you tying up the prioritized features to the business goals that you identified at the beginning of the case study.

Smile and be assertive:

You’ll be amazed how many times during a de-brief the topic of a candidate having a pleasant personality comes up (or a lack of it) and is given a lot of weightage. In my experience, there have been a few times where I’ve gone with and rooted for the candidate who’s coachable, assertive over someone who had 2x experience but lacked points on the overall ‘pleasant to work with’ category. Interviews can be stressful but try to keep a smile on, it’ll go a long way.

What is the interviewer looking for:

You’ve made this far in the interview rounds, so know that the team already likes you. You have the benefit of doubt. Now, what the interviewer is looking for depends on the seniority of the role, the role and level of the interviewer (dev/PM/dir/VP) for sure. In general, for a mid-senior level role the expectations can range from- will this candidate be able to lead the product/ area end-to-end with minimum supervision, is this candidate easy to work with, does this candidate have the necessary experience and domain knowledge, will this candidate be able to build consensus, work in ambiguity, bring clarity …. among many others.

After the interview - offer and negotiations

Once you get through the rounds and in comes the offers, it’s definitely a great feeling. This is the home-stretch stage but you need to be a little prepared in order to get the best offer possible, especially if this is your very first offer. Usually, the recruiter will discuss the numbers over a call (almost never over emails).

Again, this is a topic that definitely needs more love and I’ll write more on this in the near future, but for now, here are a few nuggets:

• The more competing offers you have, the better your final offer going to look like.

• Make sure to do your research on levels.fyi or other websites.

• When asked by the recruiter if you’re happy with the numbers, your default answer should be one of the three below:

  • In case you’re not prepared: Thanks for the numbers, let me think and get back to you.

  • If you’re prepared: I was expecting xx more in base and what about sign-on bonus. Base , sign-on bonus, new hire stocks are the areas that have ranges for your level and depending on how much the hiring manager and team likes you, you have the best chance of moving these numbers.I’ve come across so many candidates that don’t ask for sign-on bonuses (lots of companies don’t mention this bonus or the ones that have newly IPO-ed don’t have this in their compensation structure but you should ask for it.

  • I’ve offers from other companies (try to not to give out names unless it’s necessary) that are xx higher than this.

References and Resources

[1] Meta Product Interviews:

[2] Amazon Interviews: There are lots of videos on prepping for Amazon bu this guy takes the cake as far I am concerned.

Behavioral Q set

Here’s a detailed list of all the Qs I gathered and prepped for (almost 90% of them) for Amazon interviews. This exercise took me about 7 days [2-3hrs avg/day] to finish. I cannot share the answers for confidentiality reasons but happy to discuss and help formulate your responses for a few of these questions.

STAR method comes handy when answering behavioral questions and I am sure readers of this blog are somewhat familiar with it. Even if you’ve years of experience, it’s always a good idea to prepare for these questions in depth and have a structure ready. For brevity, I’ve divided the Qs into a few categories as below

• Situations

• Round-based Qs [Round 1….5]]

• 5 Toughest Qs

• Leadership Principles specific Qs [this is where you need to have 1-2 options per LP]

• Failure Qs [We often fail to prepare these Qs]

• Reasons to get rejected

• Additional Qs

There’re 3 important things I’d like to share here.

• Let’s say there’re 50 different behavioral Qs that you’re preparing, you don’t have to have 50 different stories to tell. As a step 1, list out all the stories that you can think of from your past experience eg., where you created an impact, where you managed a conflict, where you had to can a project mid-way etc. Usually, with ~15 stories you can use them to answer several behavioral Qs. I went too far myself and had ~30 stories but I realized later I didn’t need those many.

• Try and have a couple of stories or variants of stories for each behavioral Q (leadership principle in case of Amazon). They can overlap across Qs but try to stay away from repeating the same story in different interview rounds for similar Qs. During de-brief, this will come up.

• Once you write out your answer in STAR (I prefer SAR) format, make sure to read it out loud and practice. Time it and you’ll self-critic and self-correct yourself.

Situations

1. Tell me a time when you managed and resolved conflict

2. Tell me about a time you had to make a decision to make short-term sacrifices for long-term gains.

3. Tell me about a time you handled a difficult stakeholder.

4. Tell me about a time you disagreed with someone and how you resolved it.Video

5. Tell me about a time when you solved a complex problem and how you went about it?

6. Tell me about a time you had a conflict with someone. How did you resolve it and what did you learn?

7. What product that you led are you most proud of and why?

8. Tell me about a time when you worked on a project with a tight deadline.

9. Tell me about a decision you made based on your instincts.

10. What was your biggest failure as a product manager? OR: Tell me about a time you made a mistake

11. Tell me about a time you've solved pain points for customers.

12. Tell me about a time when you raised the bar.

13. Tell me about a time when you had an idea you proposed was not agreed on.

14. Tell me about a time when you had to deal with a very difficult customer.

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15. Describe a time when your project failed.

16. Tell me about a time you convinced someone to change their mind.

17. Tell me about a time you used a specific metric to drive change in your department.

18. Tell me about a skill you recently learned.

19. Describe a situation where you negotiated a win-win situation.

More Amazon Qs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAkkTk9l8es

Round1:

[Deliver Results] When you were 75% through a project and had to pivot strategy to ensure it’s successful completion. [focus on learnings, how you overcame issues etc]

Round 2:

[Earn Trust] Time when you had to help an underperforming colleague:

[Earn Trust] Time when you had to communicate a change in your team. How did you approach it. How did you do it successfully?:

[Ownership] A time when you had to sacrifice short-term goals for long-term values

[Ownership] When you took something outside your area of responsibility but within your company’s best interest

Round 3:

[Disagree and Commit] WHen you had to disagree with your boss but still had to deliver

Option 2: Disagree with manager on Datamaker

[Bias for action] time when you had to take a risk in a fast-paced project

Round 4:

[High Standards] WHen you relentlessly worked on improving quality of a already working product

[Are right a lot] Time when you had to take a complicated decision that required input from multiple sources/ stakeholders

[Are right a lot] A time when you had to work in ambiguity when you didn’t have enough data to make the right decision.

Follow-up: What was the risk if you hadn’t done nothing. Why was this a best decision? Could you have done anything better?

Round 5

[Invent and Simplify] Simple solution to a complex problem.

[Customer Obsession] Time when you were unclear about customer request and how you go by resolving it.

[Hint: Think about a time in terms of excellence]

5 toughest behavioral interview Question: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HfgkKlmcmA

• Tell me about a time you apologized to someone

• Tell me your weakness [don’t say work too much, it’s something you’re expected to do anyway].

• A time when you missed an obvious solution to a problem

• Can you think of a project where you had to pivot strategy after working for over 75% of the project [change due to external factors]. [focus on learnings, how you overcame issues etc]

• Tell me your biggest failure

LP: Amazon Prep:

In the interview, I was asked 3 behavioral Qs:

1. Tell me a time when you got customer feedback

2. Tell me a time when you had to dive deep into complex analysis

3. Tell me a time when you got a lot of pushback and feedback.

1. Customer obsession: Tell me about a time you worked backwards from a customer problem — how did you solve it?

2. Earn Trust: Tell me about a time that you were delivered poor feedback. Tell me about a time that you did not work well with another individual.

3. Have Backbone Disagree & Commit: Describe a time when you disagreed with your manager

4. Dive Deep: Tell me about the most complex analysis you have worked on:

5. Learn and be Curious: Tell me about a time when you used external trends to improve your own company's products or services.

Option 3: Launching Experiment Manager app

6. Think Big: Give a specific example where you drove adoption for your vision and explain how you knew it had been adopted by others

7. Ownership: When was the last time that you sacrificed a long term value to complete a short term task?

8. Are right a lot: Tell me about a time when you had to run a project that was heavily opposed

Option 1: Competitive Assessment for MATLAB vs TF & PyTorch

Option 2: Platform v/s vertical

9. Bias for Action: Tell me about a time you had to make a decision with incomplete information. How did you make it and what was the outcome?

10. Invent and Simplify: Describe the most innovative thing you’ve done and why you thought it was innovative.

Stakeholder Management

Stake Holder Management is key for this role. You will need to show the interviewers how you drive product discussions with key stakeholders and how you discover who those key stakeholders are at the beginning, middle and end of the project/ product.

Example Question:

How often do you communicate effectively with your products and when do you provide communication?

Product Definition/ Design/ Prioritization

Defining a product sets products apart and the design phase of the lifecycle is crucial. Amazon wants to see how you tackle product design, how to prioritize products and having the ability to distill clear requirements from a diverse set of customers and companies.

Example Question:

Walk me through a product design you were passionate about.:

Here I can talk about DND and Framework 2.0.

1. Align on Customer & Biz problem

2. Carry out discovery/ problem definition phase to find out source of the problem

3. Research users, identify common themes, unmet user needs,where biz might have fallen short of addressing the needs

4. Understand the goals of the company, use-case scenarios and best align them to find a solution

5. Reached into their product design toolkit and used wireframes and prototypes (among other things) to explore potential product design solutions.

6. Through user testing, they would have validated ideas and hypotheses focused on obtaining significant business value from the solutions achieved by optimal product design.

Using a case study, a great product designer would demonstrate the understanding that they’re not just designing an interface, a website, or an app, but also a way to solve a business problem. First, they would talk about the discovery/problem definition phase, where they carried out comprehensive research to uncover insights into the source of the problem.

Next, keeping business goals in mind, they would have researched users from the target demographic and identified common themes, unmet user needs, and where the business may have fallen short in serving that demographic. They would demonstrate their skill at evaluating the goals of the company, the use case scenarios, and how to best align them to find a solution.

Lastly, they would have reached into their product design toolkit and used wireframes and prototypes (among other things) to explore potential product design solutions. Through user testing, they would have validated ideas and hypotheses focused on obtaining significant business value from the solutions achieved by optimal product design.

Pricing

At Amazon, our product managers own and drive the pricing strategy. Value, cost, competition, and use cases should all be determined and discussed. Use quantitative analysis and clearly articulate the recommendation of conducting a pricing exercise. Understanding market competition and how similar products are priced by other companies is valuable. Product managers are able to articulate the tradeoffs, discuss market research, and discuss what kind of costs AWS would incur.

Example Question:

Amazon is looking to explore selling puppies, how would you price this product?

Keep in mind the effort I undertook for perception package pricing.

Go To Market Strategy

Creating a clearly defined plan and direction for all stakeholders is key for our Product Managers. They must understand the product and the market itself by conducting market research and moving forward with the plan that suits our customers.

Example Question:

Define a go-to-market plan for Amazon eC2.

Working Backwards

“Leaders start with the customer and work backwards. They work vigorously to earn and keep customer trust. Although leaders pay attention to competitors, they obsess over customers.”

Through asking The Five Customer Questions, and writing a Press Release, it pushes us to think deeply about our customers’ needs and invent on their behalf. As Jeff Bezos put it, “We innovate by starting with the customer and working backwards” and it’s at the core of the Leadership Principle of Customer Obsession.

Example Questions:

Walk me through a product you’ve launched from conception to delivery?

Reinforcement Learning Tbx:

1. Identified RL as a greenfield opportunity for industrial applications. At that time, RL was mostly popular in the academia and research with limited industrial or real-life applications

2. Customer personas, industry segments, applications,

3. Identified 5 customer development partners and made them successful , establishing value hypothesis and willingness to pay and also created case studies out of the engagements.

Tell me about a time you worked backwards from a customer problem — how did you solve it?

Technical Depth

Talk about how you have defined technical requirements (e.g., APIs, algorithms) on past products and programs. Be able to display you are capable of articulating when a new technology is needed (and when it is not) or discuss the differences between two technology offerings.

Example Questions:

Describe how you understand your systems and technologies behind your product. What are their limitations? What scaling factors and boundary conditions do you need to consider?

Talk about how you assess the impact of emerging technologies on feature use cases.

Other PMT Traits

· Balancing the business needs versus technical & operational constraints

· Anticipating bottlenecks, providing escalation management and making tradeoffs; encouraging risk-taking behavior to maximize business benefit while identifying interdependencies between concurrent projects to prevent downstream problems

· Dealing with ambiguity to develop solutions that work for stakeholders from various disciplines to meet aggressive timeline

· Building consensus on decisions and ensure delivery of high quality results

· Evangelizing within and outside Amazon to encourage a fast and smooth adoption of products and programs

· Managing launched programs while identifying opportunities for continuous improvement

Failure Qs:

1. Tell me about a time when you failed 1:25

2. A time when you had to apologize to someone 4:08

3. A time when you missed an obvious solution to a problem 8:06

4. Give me an example of a time when you did not meet a client’s expectation. What happened, and how did you attempt to rectify the situation? 9:39

5. Tell me about a major mistake you made, and what you did to correct it 11:15

6. Tell me about the last time a customer or coworker got upset with you 13:33

7. Tell me about a goal you failed to achieve 15:33

8. Tell me about a decision that you regret 17:29

9. Give me an example of a team project that failed 18:34

10. Tell me about a time you made a mistake at work. How did you deal with it? 21:02

11. Tell me about a time when you were not able to meet a time commitment. What prevented you from meeting it? What was the outcome and what did you learn from it? 22:18

12. Describe an example of when you took a risk and failed 24:41

Reasons to get rejected:

• Didn’t prepare enough failure stories [3-5 failure stories]

• Same stories again and again

• Practice speaking about answer

• Listen [didn’t discuss metrics, excel type approach v.s narrative approach]

• Get blocked when asked by a bar raiser [asked more failure stories - might give anxiety]

• Lack of Energy, curiosity, engaged

Additional Questions

• How do you prepare for roadmap:

  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnPrKRg_H4E

  • https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/six-forces-driving-your-product-roadmap-brad-thielemann/

  • https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-do-you-prioritize-what-build-jens-fabian-goetzmann/

• How do you approach monetization: read book

• How do you approach GTM: https://blog.hubspot.com/sales/gtm-strategy