Getting Started with Interview Prep

With tech companies starting to hire again, more people are trying to get back into the mindset required to interview. But many others are overwhelmed. This post is meant to inspire you around the core concepts you need to think about to get started with Product Management interviewing again.

Four Simple Categories are enough to get started:

• Strengths/Weaknesses

• Product - Most Proud

• Favorite Products

• Recently-Fired Products

Strengths & Weaknesses

This typically comes in several forms:

• What is your super power?

• What are your three strengths?

• What are the three most important traits of a PM? Which one is your strength and which is your weakness?

• Strengths

  • natural coach

  • simplify complex issues

  • curiousity > drive to solutions

• Weaknesses

  • direct style

    • vocal confidence / authenticity

  • speak fast

    • voacl confidene / exec confidence

  • get passionate

    • which can overwhelm

  • anxiety

    • impacts public speaking

    • i don't talk about it; but might need to after posting here 🙂

Product(s) I am Proud Of

• Yelp Experimentation

  • Huge Impact

  • Turned Around a Product

  • Built A Team

• BPM Coaching

  • Impact on Individuals

  • Impact on Product

  • Constant Innovation

• Amazon Recommendations

  • Learned from Mistakes

  • $1B Impact

  • Lessons in Dat

Favorite Products

This typically comes in several forms:

• What product did you use this morning? Why do you love it or hate it?

• What product do you hate? How would you improve it.

My Favorite Product List

• Oura Ring

• Red Light Therapy

• OpenSnow

• Reflect

• Substack (recently re-hired)

Products I Fired (Recently)

• Apollo (almost)

• Lumen

• air pods

• Calendly App

Bonus:

Don’t forget a list of the big guys:

Facebook

• Marketplace

• Watch

• Messenger

Google

• Gmail

• Calendar

• Search