Quick Behavioral Prep
If you only have a day or two to prepare for a behavioral product interview, focus on the following 4 questions:
Tell Me About Yourself
A Product You Are Proud of
A Disagreement with a Cross-Functional Partner (typically engineering)
Strengths/Weaknesses
You will notice the common theme: Know your audience. Know your message. Don’t just start talking. Think before you speak.
Tell Me About Yourself
How you introduce yourself can make or break your interview. If you nail it, the listener spends all their time confirming their belief to hire you, or at least move you to the next round. If you raise red flags, you have to dig yourself out from under for the rest of your time together.
I have written about this prompt many times. I even have a course.
A Product You Are Proud Of
Most people jump to tell their favorite product story without focusing on what the interviewer needs to hear. Your favorite product story is NOT always the same; you will pick different stories based on the role, level, and company you are interviewing with as well as the person you are speaking with. The product you are proud of when talking with an engineer or salesperson might be different than when you are speaking to the hiring manager. The story I pull out for an e-commerce product will be different than for a social media ads role. Know your audience.
A Disagreement
One of the most common pitfalls I see here is picking something without impact or consequence. The second most common problem (or probably a tie) is blaming the person you have a disagreement with.
What you need to do is pick something that is real. Yes, it is a bit risky but less risky than fluff that tells nothing about you. It should be an example of when you learned something or tested out a new methodology based on a learning. For example, active listening.
Strengths/Weaknesses
This question can come at you in many forms:
What is your super power?
What are your 3 strengths?
What are the most important traits of a product manager? Which is your strongest and which is your weakest trait?
What are your 3 weaknesses?
Tell me something you are currently working on to improve yourself.
If I asked your ____ (boss, co-worker, skip, etc.) what your weakness is, what would they tell me.
These questions show self-awareness and a growth mindset. Don’t get caught off guard. A few tricks:
Think of your strengths. Your weaknesses are the flip side of your strengths.
Think of what you are working on to get better.
Think of what you got as feedback in your last 360.
What would your family/best friend say is your greatest weakness.
Here is some grading advice for Strengths & Weaknesses questions.
These are 4 of the most common questions you will get in product management interviews/hiring manager screens. Be ready for them.
