One of the most important traits of great product managers (with strong product sense) is curiousity. They are always asking themselves ‘Why?‘

If you are struggling to build your product sense, or stuggling to better illustrate your strong product sense, try asking and speculating why.

In fact, Google grades product managements candidates on their curiosity when they ask strategy questions like the following:

• Why did Amazon get into the hardware space?

• Why do you think Facebook launched FB Portal?

• Why is Google investing in self driving cars?

• Why do you think Microsoft bought LinkedIn?

• Why did Google invest in Android and Pixel?

• Which Google products or services don’t make sense to you? Why?

• What do you think were the resons why Google Plus failed to gain traction?

• Describe a product you think had a successful launch. Why?

• Describe a product you think launched poorly, despite being a good product. What would you have done differently?

Practice

To hone your product sense (and/or practice for strategy prompts), take any three of the questions above and ask yourself the following questions:

• What were user trends at the time?

• What was going on in the industry at the time?

• What was the company’s position at the time they made the decision?

Don’t worry about being exactly right

While, you may not remember, you can speculate. Based on the assumptions you make, I can judge your answer if your response leverages those assumptions thoughtfully.

Look It Up

These kinds of prompts can be fun because you can look up what was written after the fact. See how your answer compares to the thoughts at the time.

Be curious. Thin critically. Learn.