TL;DR - Product Design & Insights is the most important question type and Strategic Insights the second most important interview type. Everything else is important for leveling BUT if you don’t do well on the Design & Insights pieces you will not get a Google offer.

Note: Starting in May 2022, I have seen a number of people being skipped past the phone screen. Also, the tech interview is in flux, it is a mixed bag, some people are encountering engineers, others PMs and some don’t get the tech interview at all. Google has realized that the tech interview isn’t as important in the deceision because the lost a good

Your interviewer will be grading you according to the the following flow:

Phone Screen:

You will get rated on all 3 elements in 45 mins. It is a lot in a short time period.

• Product Design & Insights

• Strategic Insights

• Analytics/Craft & Execution

Note: You have a strong likelihood (60-70%) of getting the favorite product question but there are other prompts and combinations.

NEW Onsites

As of June 15, 2022, Google modified its approach to PM interviews. They REMOVED the technical interview. Rejoice!!! They finally realized that overemphasizing on the technical interview was causing them to lose amazing candidates. While there is still some variation, the new set of 5 panels/sessions are as follows: (I have kept the old panels listed for reference for anyone looking to compare and contrast).

I have listed them in the order of importance for your final acceptance, not necessarily in the order you will

• Product Design & Insights + Strategic Insights

  • same as old format & still most important

  • expect ~ 1 to 4 questions

  • compound design + strategy questions rather than separate questions is common but not guaranteed. Be ready for one big design question with a strategy twist as well as standalone questions.

• Strategic Insights + Googleyness/Leadership + Analytical

  • expect ~ 3 to 4 questions

  • typically the hiring manager

• Product Insights + Craft & Execution

  • expect ~ 1 to 4 questions

  • compound strategy + craft& execution question common

  • new format is less about design because of the added execution

  • but still fair game to get a design question from old schoolers

• Craft/Execution & Cross-Functional Collaboration

  • expect ~ 1 to 2 questions

  • format is all over the place until they settle on new format but trade offs and go-to-market (GTM) questions seem common

  • working well with others will be tested

  • If a technical role or team, consider Lewis Lin’s course is pretty good for PMs.

• Analytical & Cross-Functional Collaboration

  • expect ~ 1 to 3 questions

  • Estimation is still fair game but expect some trade offs and prioritization as well

  • working well with others will be tested

Old Onsite (for reference)

There are 5 panels/sessions. I have listed them in the order of importance for your final acceptance, not necessarily the order you will see them in your interview.

• Product Design & Insights + Googleyness & Leadership

  • expect ~ 3 to 4 questions

  • Main focus on design/insights but expect 2 behavior/hypothetical questions

• Product Design & Insights + Strategic Insights

  • expect ~ 1 to 4 questions

  • compound design + strategy question rather than seperate questions is common but not guaranteed. Be ready for one big design question with strategy twist as well as standalone questions.

• Strategic Insights + Analytics

  • expect ~ 1 to 4 questions

  • compound strategy + analytics question rather than seperate questions is common but not guaranteed.

• Analytics

  • expect ~ 1 to 3 questions

  • all about analytics (estimation, metrics, etc.)

• Technical*

  • expect ~ 1 to 2 questions

  • format is all over the place until they settle on new format. If worried, Lewis Lin’s course is pretty good for PMs.

Note: The analytics questions scare many people but they are not as impactful on your final decision. HOWEVER, people’s fear of math in front of someone else

*Google is implimenting the changes. Some interviewers might not be comfortable with the new format just yet.

TL;DR - Nothing is worked out in reality. Still a mess.

The Question Types within Craft & Execution

• Prioritization & Trade Offs

• Product Launch

• Crisis Response

• Teamwork and Communication

• Technical Explainers

I have spoken to folks inside (including interviewers and hiring committee folks) and there is still a lot of confusion inside. Many people who interview don't know about the question types.

For Now

• Different Teams are doing different things

• It is a catchall for a lot of questions types, still a bit of a mess

• Some people are being told to prep for both!

• If interviewers don't know about the change, they can't ask or rate the questions

• There are too many different things going on for the Hiring Committee to block on just this interview type

• I am seeing a lot of people being a second chance on one interview or another, I think more than used to happen just given the spike in clients looking for help before an interview re-do. So don't worry.

With that in mind, here are my early thoughts:

• Prioritization & Trade Offs - If you prep for FB/Meta Execution you should be fine. We are already seeing some of these questions showing up in question banks.

• Product Launch - Seems similar to a cross between strategy and execution

• Crisis Response - A little like Googleyness & Leadership + Strategy

• Teamwork and Communications - Very much like Googleyness & Leadership questions

• Technical Explainers - Lightweight leftover from original technical interview. Likely to come from more technical teams

Updated 7/17

Image Credits: Photo by Susan Q Yin on Unsplash

For questions see our question banks:

• Product Design & Insights

• Strategic Insights

• Analytics

• Behavioral: Googleyness & Leadership