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Product Manager Interviews

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Product Manager Interview Questions

Often considered the "CEO" of their product area, product managers oversee the strategy, production, and implementation of a particular product. Because product management teams include members from different backgrounds such as engineering, design, and data design, product managers must have strong communication skills and excel in cross-functional work environments. Expect to answer questions about your management abilities, prioritization skills, and experience working in product. Though not required, technical backgrounds are advantageous particularly when applying for roles at tech companies.

Top Product Manager Interview Questions & How to Answer

Question 1

Question #1: What are your preferred management frameworks?

How to answer
How to answer: Describe which management frameworks you prefer to use when managing teams and products and explain why you like them. Outline any limitations of the frameworks and how you overcome them. If possible, research what frameworks the company currently uses and discuss how your own methodology can work within those frameworks.
Question 2

Question #2: How do you prioritize between the different needs of your users?

How to answer
How to answer: Product managers need to make tough decisions that balance the needs of different users while keeping in mind the resources of the team and the general cost-benefit analysis for the company. Explain the process you use to make those decisions, including what research you do. Outline how you communicate your decisions to internal and external stakeholders, how you manage expectations, and how you deal with any negative reactions.
Question 3

Question #3: What is your strategy for onboarding yourself to a new product?

How to answer
How to answer: A product manager is expected to know everything about a product, such as how clients use it, the business model, and the roadmap for further development. Outline who you plan to talk with to learn about the product and its users, how those conversations will happen, and what you hope to learn. This is a good opportunity to show your enthusiasm for the future of the product and its possibilities and any research you have already done.

52,927 product manager interview questions shared by candidates

Suppose there is a smart phone API that can give you a person's mood and that there are 100 different moods. There can be varying level of moods, such as happy, very happy, sad, extremely sad, etc. You can also have more than one mood at a time (such as nervous and excited). What app would you create to take advantage of this API?
avatar

Senior Product Manager

Interviewed at Google

4.4★
Sep 5, 2012

Suppose there is a smart phone API that can give you a person's mood and that there are 100 different moods. There can be varying level of moods, such as happy, very happy, sad, extremely sad, etc. You can also have more than one mood at a time (such as nervous and excited). What app would you create to take advantage of this API?

Given a set of 2D coordinates for the 4 corners of each building in a city skyline (as if in a photograph), how would you determine the outline of the silhouette of all buildings, where buildings may or may not overlap?
avatar

Product Manager

Interviewed at Google

4.4★
Sep 12, 2012

Given a set of 2D coordinates for the 4 corners of each building in a city skyline (as if in a photograph), how would you determine the outline of the silhouette of all buildings, where buildings may or may not overlap?

Asked me how I monetized a mobile app which I had supervised. Kept digging on this issue even though I've plainly stated that I couldn't figure out an effective way to monetize a socialization-based mobile app. The flow of the interview got to a snail's pace.
avatar

Product Manager

Interviewed at Google

4.4★
Dec 2, 2012

Asked me how I monetized a mobile app which I had supervised. Kept digging on this issue even though I've plainly stated that I couldn't figure out an effective way to monetize a socialization-based mobile app. The flow of the interview got to a snail's pace.

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