10 Difficult Decisions

More on the Are Right, A Lot leadership principle. You need to prepare for difficult decisions. I found myself with a number of commone themes. Again, sharing the list in the event it helps unblock you in your own interview preparations.

1. Turning away Customer who is not a good fit

2. Turning off product (sunsetting) because product lacks PMF

3. Limiting Features to Start

4. Refusing a customer a product they love with low usage

5. Pricing Products: High Price vs. Too Low

6. Product Frequency Decisions

7. Giving Feedback to Skip Level

8. Going Against Manager

9. Transitioning Product to Another Person

10. No Data or No Time to Get Data

In my notes, I have at least one story for all of these different situations. Others on the list include for manager specific roles:

1. Firing Someone

2. Telling someone they weren’t a fit for the PM role

3. Encouraging a strong PM to move to another team (bittersweet)

4. Setting a New Strategy

I could continue to think of concepts common in product. Technical debates/disagreements include:

1. Going along with an engineering decision I didn’t agree with

2. Telling a powerful engineering partner no

3. Telling an engineering manager they were too controlling

Once again, I hope these lists help you jog your own memory.