Audible Software Development Manager interview questions

I was very impressed with the 7 or so individuals who interviewed me. They were all personable and sharp. Audible as a company looks exciting and I loved the atmosphere. One of the positive indicators for me was that they couldn't talk about some of their current projects. I felt this was a solid sign that they are working on innovative, industry leading applications. I did 2 separate phone screenings and an full-day onsite interview. Half the interviews were technical, half were about experience and managerial skills. In each of the interviews where they were asking about management style, past experience and managing methodologies, I felt I did very well. But in the technical sections I did ok, but not fantastic. I was a bit worried about this but the hiring manager assured me that this was a management position, and I would not be coding, and it was much more important to have management experience. Afterwords the onsite interview, I was not extended the offer and was given the following feedback: "We liked your management experience but the technical skills were not strong enough." I understand where they are coming from in this conclusion, but disagree with the criteria. If someone is being hired to manage developers I would expect them to be judged 80% on past experience/personality/methodologies and 20% on technical abilities. However, this did not appear to be the case. I got a in-depth questions about algorithms, design patterns, cloud computing, server architecture, db setups, and overall system architecture (where I had decent, but not the "right" answers) and these are important to ask, but as far as I, and the hiring manager understood the role, I wouldn't ever be doing this type of thing. On the other hand, I did not get asked for referrals, which I think would have been a much more effective indication of ability to lead a team and deliver successful projects. Talking to my previous manager, and people who reported to me would have given a better indication of success than if I knew the specifics of the latest design pattern or how to find the best way to parse a string. It would have been fantastic to get this gig, but it wasn't in the cards. I think with a more accurate criteria, I would have gotten the offer. Anyways, best of luck to Audible and the future candidate! :)