This talk provides practical tips to both product manager candidates and hiring managers. Covering both perspectives, I outline common challenges and offer ways to feel more confident - both with respect to hiring and getting hired.

1. @markuswinkler*
SEEK AND YOU SHALL FIND

3. PM Candidate Hiring Managers
Not well positioned Not well positioned
Lack of interview preparation
Struggle asking the ‘right’ questions
Lack of recruitment process preparation
Struggle asking the ‘right’ questions
@henrikkedue*

4. CANDIDATE
Unsure what I want from next role
What is important to me
Unsure about how to best
prep for interviews
FEEL MORE CONFIDENT
Consider opportunities and problems
Identify your must haves
Prep your ‘Why, What, Who, How’

6. PM Candidate Hiring Managers
Not well positioned Not well positioned
Lack of interview preparation
Struggle asking the ‘right’ questions
Lack of recruitment process preparation
Struggle asking the ‘right’ questions
@henrikkedue*

7. HIRING MANAGER
Unsure what I need to look out
for in candidates
What is important to me
How do we stand out from
the many other companies
recruiting?
What problem are you looking to
to solve with the role?
Identify your ‘must haves’ -
technical and human skills
Do your homework, all the time
FEEL MORE CONFIDENT

8. CANDIDATE
Unsure what I want from next role(s) Consider opportunities and problems
FEEL MORE CONFIDENT

9. OPPORTUNITY
Problem
Company
Product

10. Problem
Company
Product
What problem does this role need to solve?
What does success look like? Why?
What is the company’s vision?
Where is the company is in its lifecycle?
What problem does the product solve? For whom?
Where is the product in its lifecycle?

11. REMUNERATION
Salary
Bonus
Equity
OPPORTUNITY
Problem
Company
Product
CULTURE
People
Diversity
Safety

12. People
Diversity
Safety
Who will I be working with? What are they about?
What can I learn from them?
Who will I be working with?
What are people’s perspectives and backgrounds?
How do people collaborate and ideate?
When was the last time you were challenged?

13. Ask your interviewer questions that are
harder to prep for and trigger authentic
responses
“What is the most recent or major launch
failure you had and why did it happen?”
Such a question will give you an idea of
blame culture, approach to test and learn
and acceptance of failure
KUDZAI MANUNGO
Product Manager
BlackRock

14. Salary
Bonus
Equity
How critical is the salary for you?
Do you know the industry benchmark?
Is there an annual bonus?
Based on company and individual performance?
(When) Will you be eligible for shares or options?
What are the company’s growth plans? Financials?

15. CANDIDATE
What's important to me? Identify your 'must haves'
FEEL MORE CONFIDENT

16. ARJUN MISTRY
Product Manager
Gousto
Apply your ‘what is non-negotiable to you’
question across each parameter of any role
you apply for
Create a list of must have/should have/nice
to have questions
Answers to these questions you can get from:
• Job description
• Talking to interviewers
• Hiring manager
• Current employees

17. PM Candidate Hiring Managers
Not well positioned Not well positioned
Lack of interview preparation
Struggle asking the ‘right’ questions
Lack of recruitment process preparation
Struggle asking the ‘right’ questions
@henrikkedue*
@saltsup*

18. REMUNERATION
Salary
Bonus
Equity
OPPORTUNITY
Problem
Company
Product
CULTURE
People
Diversity
Safety

19. @vantaymedia*

20. CANDIDATE
Unsure about how to best prepare
for interviews
FEEL MORE CONFIDENT
Prep your ‘Why,What,Who, How’

21. Conflict
Tradeoff
Value
Tell me about a time you disagreed with a
senior stakeholder about product direction?
Tell me about a time where you had to make a hard
tradeoff between business and customer outcomes?
Tell me about a time you delivered customer and
business value. How did you identify and deliver it?

22. DEVARIS BROWN
Co-Founder & CEO
Meroxa
“What is your product process?”
“Tell me about the last thing you shipped?”
Think about the last time you’ve shipped a
product or feature
Diagram this process or simply write it down
before the interview
Explain the steps taken (and rationale)

23. JOHN ROBINSON
Director of Product Management
Expedia
What I love to see when I see candidates:
• Preparation, preparation, preparation. Be
prepared for me to ask how you prepared
for this
• Enthusiasm. Show me you want this job,
not a job or this company
• You. Not the practised you, the actual you.
The you that will turn up each day

24. PM Candidate Hiring Managers
Not well positioned Not well positioned
Lack of interview preparation
Struggle asking the ‘right’ questions
Lack of recruitment process preparation
Struggle asking the ‘right’ questions
@henrikkedue*
@saltsup*
https://www.kateleto.com/
@karlahrnndz

25. Task
Action
Result
I had to make a decision about next steps and
timings redeveloping and launching the feature
Worked through the different options with the team,
identi
fi
ed pros & cons, calculated cost of delay
Situation
Facing a tough tradeoff where we had to weigh up
time, cost and customer impact of a speci
fi
c feature
Presented the options to the exec, and gave my recommendation.
Executed the recommended option in time and delivered the
promised value

26. CANDIDATE
OPPORTUNITIES AND PROBLEMS
‘MUST HAVES’ FOR NEXT ROLE
YOUR ‘WHY, WHAT, WHO, HOW’
@markuswinkler*

27. HIRING MANAGER FEEL MORE CONFIDENT
What problems are you looking to
to solve with the role?
Unsure of what I need to look out
for in candidates

28. PM Candidate Hiring Managers
Not well positioned Not well positioned
Lack of interview preparation
Struggle asking the ‘right’ questions
Lack of recruitment process preparation
Struggle asking the ‘right’ questions
@henrikkedue*
@saltsup*
https://www.kateleto.com/
@karlahrnndz*

29. Market Development
Growth
Maturity
Need to establish product market
fi
t, test and learn often
Make tough tradeoff decisions, say “no”
Safeguard the product experience / value for customers, optimise
Decline Decide whether to terminate a product, transition customers

30. HIRING MANAGER
Identify your ‘must haves’ -
technical and human skills
What is important to me?
FEEL MORE CONFIDENT

31. JOHN ROBINSON
Director of Product Management
Expedia
Emphasise in job spec and to recruiter:
• Personal attributes. The best candidates
demonstrate (e.g. curiosity, grit, humility)
• Types of organisations / industries to
look out for where we’ve found good
people before
• Look beyond the job title; the best product
hires often don’t come from product!
• CVs which emphasise value delivered
over effort invested

32. PM Candidate Hiring Managers
Not well positioned Not well positioned
Lack of interview preparation
Struggle asking the ‘right’ questions
Lack of recruitment process preparation
Struggle asking the ‘right’ questions
@henrikkedue*
@saltsup*
https://www.kateleto.com/

33. What work is done?
Creating a product vision
Driving strategy & roadmap
Writing user stories
Influencing others
Dealing with conflict
Ability to adapt
Creator vs Editor
Cognitive diversity
Strategic mindset
TECHNICAL SKILLS HUMAN SKILLS TEAM MAKEUP
How the work is done? What does the team need?

34. DEBBIE JAMES
VP of Product
Feeld
Consider the skill set and background of team as a
whole and look at areas to complement
Irrespective of PM background or interests, I look
for the following:
• Insights led
• Autonomy
• Problem focus
• Pragmatic approach
• Lean

35. PM Candidate Hiring Managers
Not well positioned Not well positioned
Lack of interview preparation
Struggle asking the ‘right’ questions
Lack of recruitment process preparation
Struggle asking the ‘right’ questions
@henrikkedue*
@saltsup*

36. EMMA VAN DIJKUM
VP Product & Technology
Multiverse
Hiring great candidates starts with being laser
focused on what you're looking for from the CV
Look for people who've succeeded at companies
and who've demonstrated stand-out results
Then when you're interviewing, look out for 4
characteristics of success:
• Character
• Intelligence
• Track Record
• Coach-ability
You want people who have the right mindset and
experience, but who want to learn

37. What work is done?
Creating a product vision
Writing User Stories
Dealing with conflict
Ability to adapt
Creator vs Editor
Strategic mindset
TECHNICAL SKILLS HUMAN SKILLS TEAM MAKEUP
How the work is done? What does the team need?
Driving strategy & roadmap
Influencing others
Cognitive diversity

38. Influencing others
Cognitive
diversity
Dedicate a part of the interview process to a real-life
stakeholder issue and do a role play in a safe space
Start engaging with diverse communities, learn from different
of people, build a talent pool. Use “Applied” for job specs
Strategy & Roadmap
As part of the interview process, ask candidates to
create a product strategy & roadmap for a
fi
ctitious company

39. HIRING MANAGER FEEL MORE CONFIDENT
How do we stand out from the
many other companies recruiting?
Do your homework, all the time!

40. PM Candidate Hiring Managers
Not well positioned Not well positioned
Lack of interview preparation
Struggle asking the ‘right’ questions
Lack of recruitment process preparation
Struggle asking the ‘right’ questions
@henrikkedue*
@lshphoto*

41. PM Candidate Hiring Managers
Not well positioned Not well positioned
Lack of interview preparation
Struggle asking the ‘right’ questions
Lack of recruitment process preparation
Struggle asking the ‘right’ questions
@henrikkedue*
@lshphoto*
@avidrotimi*

42. Hygiene
Clarity about role expectations
Communicate interview process -
stages + timings
Appoint ‘decider’
Public sharing of your org’s
approach to product and people
Develop your personal brand
Build relationships, ‘proactive
recruiting’
HOUSE IN ORDER STAND OUT
Differentiate

43. HIRING MANAGER
PROBLEM TO SOLVE
‘MUST HAVE’ SKILLS
DO YOUR HOMEWORK!
@markuswinkler*

44. PM Candidate Hiring Managers
Not well positioned Not well positioned
Lack of interview preparation
Struggle asking the ‘right’ questions
Lack of recruitment process preparation
Struggle asking the ‘right’ questions
@henrikkedue*
@lshphoto*
@bamin*

45. *all images can be found on https://unsplash.com/
marcabraham.com
@MAA1 on Twitter and Medium