9. Tips to Prep for an Interview
1. Research
2. Study the right content
3. Practice, practice, practice!
10. Research!
● Most PM interviews are a combination of estimation, product design,
strategy and execution questions:
○ Some will be a subset
● You will always get behavioural questions (so nail those!)
● Some companies also have a technical round
● Determine what content is coming
11. Different types of “PM” roles
● Product Manager
● Program Manager
● Technical Program Manager
● Product Owner
● Project Manager
● Product Marketing Manager
12. Study the right content
● Find the right books:
○ Cracking the PM interview
○ Decode and conquer by Lewis Lin
● Google search is your friend
● So are your actual friends:
○ Find people in your network that can introduce you to PMs (preferably folks who currently
works or have worked in the company you're interviewing for)
● Find or create frameworks that work for you
14. Practice, practice, practice
● Practice on your own
● Find a friend to practice with
● Lewis Lin has set up slack channels to find
practice partners
● Practice in the correct environment (phone
interview vs. in-person)
● Practice the standard questions (i.e.
favourite product, favourite product from
company X, etc.)
15. Things to remember during an interview
1. Pause
2. Ask questions
3. Use your framework
4. If you are not already a Product Manager, draw from skills obtained from
your other role to demonstrate why you would make a good product
manager
16. PMs generally come from
other “related” disciplines
Source:
https://productmanagementfestival.com/w
p-content/uploads/2019/08/Trends-
Benchmarks-in-Product-Management-
2019.pdf
17. Once you land the job, now what!
1. Communicate!
2. Build great relationships
3. Keep calm and carry on (even when everything is falling apart)
18. Thanks for your time! Any Questions?
You can reach me on Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/manini-roy-a6832b57/)
If you’re interested to connect with other Product Managers, aspiring PMs, or those within tech, join our Slack community of over 40,000 professionals. It’s a great place to network and to find interesting content. We host a weekly AMA through our Slack channel on Tuesdays from 11:15am - 12pm PST. We have also recently launched the Job Portal where you can find the latest Product Management opportunities! As members of the Product School community, we'd like to provide you with these resources at your disposal.
Product School’s Product Management Certificate Path comprises of 3 part-time courses for professionals with strong technical or business background who want to further explore Product Management at software-based companies.
During Product Management Training you will first learn Product Management fundamentals to understand the software product lifecycle and what it takes to successfully transition into a product management role.
You’ll then be trained to retrieve data, understand its value and make impactful decisions with SQL, data visualization and Tableau. Learn to understand your users to deliver exceptional UX/UI design and develop a robust digital marketing plan. During the Full Stack Product Management Training, you will deep dive into the technical knowledge to enhance your ability to work with agile teams.
Finally, Product Leadership Training will elevate your product knowledge to become an effective Product Leader. You'll do an in-depth analysis on how to implement best PM practices on a strategic level to significantly impact your company’s portfolio and revenue. Learn the soft skills to manage product teams and manage stakeholders to deliver performing products.
As well as individual courses we provide corporate training across the world! If you’d like to upskill your product team this is the best option for you. We have trained employees from multiple companies such as Deloitte, Salesforce, JP Morgan, Bank of America amongst many other companies across all industries.
Tonight's talk is “ [TITLE] ” with [NAME]. Welcome, [NAME].
Feel free to speak with me and I can point you in the right direction (explain where to apply). Or you can visit www.productschool.com
Have a good night!