The hiring process was awfully slow. I had to follow up multiple times and the reasons given were pretty awkward as it took more than 45 days after they said they will call me onsite in 2 weeks. I didn't feel like it was a good reason, but went with the flow, giving them a benefit of doubt.
I was interviewed by 4 - 5 different people from Eng., Senior Product people, Business users, and peers in Product management. What was interesting about this company is that - many junior people were promoted too soon and are in the senior roles across the company. May be, this is a very typical Silicon Valley company, where people who has been there barely for a couple of years got promoted too soon without any real experience. This is not a direct critique of anyone, but they need to introspect clearly, whether this is how they want to grow.
Even HR, during the interview, said that many junior folks are in senior positions and they want to preserve the culture of the company.
During the interview process, like a typical Silicon Valley company, a random junior engineer interviewing a senior (not just a normal PM position) Product person and asking vague questions. During the interview, the moment Engineer asked me the question (I am avoiding the question here, on purpose) - I replied "This is too vague and broad of a question and I believe we need to narrow it down or go in a methodical fashion to dissect, understanding what you would like to achieve", but the engineer was very adamant and went in his/her own direction. I am a professional too as I sat on the other side of the table and interviewed hundreds in my career. Its not OK to ask such random/vague questions with no context. I told the eng. that I could answer this qn in 3 minutes or in a very detailed manner. So, to provide a high level overview, I gave a 3 mins answer and then he switched gears after that saying he got what he wants. The feedback I receive was - I don't understand how to build in detail, when in contrast he drove me in a different direction.
On one hand, I am happy that I don't have to work with not so matured junior person as a peer, who does not seem to understand the vision of how to create a product, but on the other hand, this is a direct feedback to HR, recruiters and also to CEO directly all the way how he wants to handle these scenarios. Its not OK for recruiter to say "This person is senior and has to be in interview". My advise to her was - then please coach this engineering manager what/how to ask questions. You will overcome inherent biases and also what/how to interview/question at a minimum. It was very clear to me that this Eng. manager had no experience and it was apparent from LinkedIn profile too.
Other team members were definitely good and respectful and I had good conversations, including the hiring manager. I have no complaints about others.