Ultimate Guide to Clarifying Questions
Introduction
When it comes to product sense interviews, one of the most overlooked yet powerful tools is clarifying questions (or clarifying assumptions). Done well, they show strategic thinking, reduce ambiguity, and set the tone for the entire interview. Done poorly, they can sink you before you’ve even begun.
Many candidates stumbled in a product management interviews long before they get to their solution. The first big place they can stumble is the clarifying questions. The first few minutes — when you’re asking clarifying questions — can make or break your performance.
Why Clarifying Questions Matter
They get you aligned with the interviewer.
They demonstrate thoughtfulness and structure.
They help you scope the problem before diving in.
They signal product maturity: no PM tackles a vague problem without first clarifying.
Strong clarifying questions set you up for success. Weak clarifying questions, on the other hand, make you sound robotic or lost.
“The way you start the interview sets the tone for everything that follows.”
This guide pulls together years of coaching, real interview experience, and practical drills to help you master clarifying questions and start every product sense interview with confidence.
The Goals
Interviewers use product sense prompts to test how you think, not whether you can memorize frameworks. Clarifying questions serve three critical purposes:
Get Aligned with the interviewer before diving in
Demonstrate Strategic Thinking instead of rushing to solve
Set the Tone by showing how you’d approach ambiguity in a real PM job
Handled well, clarifying questions make you sound strategic, confident, and user-focused. Handled poorly, they can sink you before you even get started.
1. Diagram the Prompt
Think back to sentence diagramming in school. The trick is to pull out the keywords in the prompt and build clarifying questions around them.
Example
Prompt: Design a refrigerator for the blind.
Keywords: refrigerator and blind
Strategic Clarifications:
“When you say refrigerator, do you mean a standard kitchen unit with freezer space?”
“When you say blind, should I focus on totally blind vs. partially blind users, or define the segment myself?”
Pro Tip: Start with the keywords, not filler. This keeps your questions crisp and strategic.
2. Avoid Fishing Questions
Fishing questions beg the interviewer to hand you the answer:
“Who are the users?”
“What’s the goal?”
“Why are we doing this?”
“Is this a startup?”
These make you sound lost, uncomfortable with ambiguity, and tone deaf. The whole point of this interview style is to see how you will answer all of these questions. Instead, turn your questions into clarifying assumptions:
“While a group is technically more than one person, when we talk about group travel we typically mean 3+ people, you may or may not know deeply. Does that sound like a fair definition of group? Or did you have a more specific understanding you want me to start with before I jump in?”
“Since you didn’t mention company context, I’ll assume we’re designing this as a new startup, unless you prefer otherwise.”
Framed as assumptions, these show initiative and reduce the interviewer’s cognitive load.
3. Goals of Clarifying Questions
Clarifying questions aren’t just “something to ask” before you start solving. They’re part of your strategic setup. Every clarifying step should do three things:
Show Strategic Thinking – Show how you’re framing the problem.
Provide Context – Start sharing the reasoning behind your thinking.
Get on the Same Page – Provide an interviewer the opportunity to confirm or redirect.
This approach naturally avoids fishing questions and demonstrates ownership of the problem space, comfort with ambiguity, strategic thinking, empathy, and command of general best practices.
4. Focus on Scale and Scope
Great clarifying questions reduce ambiguity without asking the interviewer to solve the problem for you.
Examples:
“Since you didn’t mention a specific company, I will assume I am building for a startup where I am free to set a mission and goal. Does that sound fair, or would you prefer I build for ABC Tech Company and their mission?”
“When I think about doctors, I see them as most broadly falling into two big buckets: physical vs. mental health. I assume I will be narrowing down the choices as we move forward, but just wanted to check and see if you have any preferences?”
If you feel it is helpful to ask about timeline or budget, you can. But tread lightly. For example:
“Would you like me to frame solutions for a six-month launch or a multi-year roadmap?”
“Because budget constraints could change my approach, can I assume I am a well-funded start-up, or should I remain scrappy in my approach?”
NOTE: Unless absolutely necessary, I try not to ask these types of questions so I don’t limit my thinking. I like to provide both MVP vs Stretchy solutions proactively. If I let the interviewer tell me I have a limited budget, it might hinder my creativity. But some people really like to ask these questions. If you are in that camp, when you ask them, just don’t ask it as a fishing question.
5. Ask Clarifying Assumptions
There are two main ways to frame clarifying questions:
Direct: “Do you want me to focus on physical or mental health?”
Assumption: “Given the rise of mental health demand, I’ll focus there unless you’d prefer otherwise.”
I highly recommend asking clarifying assumptions, not direct questions that require the interviewer to basically hand you part of the answer. Most of the time, they will not give anything away; in fact, asking directly can make some interviewers feel exhausted and frustrated. Asking for confirmation that you are thinking about things the right way sets you up for success.
If you prefer the direct question approach and the idea of clarifying assumptions feels uncomfortable, consider gradually incorporating assumptions into your regular practice. It reduces the interviewer’s cognitive load and demonstrates that you’re comfortable making decisions with limited information.
6. Five Rules of Clarifying Questions
Across the years, I have seen a lot of repeated patterns and developed this short list of rules to follow when thinking about clarifying questions.
Start with key concepts. When stuck, try diagramming the prompt.
Ask strategic, not fishing, questions, don’t beg for the answer.
Don’t assume the prompt is about the interviewing company unless explicitly told.
Don’t start with location — and only ever ask if it’s context-critical
Your sharing your thinking, not getting answers — focus on meaningful constraints
7. Intentionally Ambiguous Prompts
Not every case interview is a straightforward design question. Some prompts are intentionally broad, such as:
“Come up with some business ideas using [X technology].” Or “Design a solution for [Y broad category] (think: education, buying a home, etc.).”
In these situations, clarifying questions help you get on the same page about what’s being asked. Examples:
“Education is a broad space, I assume as I work through the problem I will narrow it down a bit, but want to check did you have a preference between say typical academic institutions (i.e.: K-12 or college) vs. less formal continuing education (i.e. Learning a hobby.)”
“I assume it is up to me to narrow the space but do you have a preference between consumer vs commercial solutions, or is it up to me to decide?”
This helps prevent you from going in the wrong direction and gives you a framework to stay focused on strategic thinking, but it will rarely result in the interviewer giving you direction. Your goal is not to get answers but rather to set yourself up for success as you show your thought process and ability to consider tradeoffs early.
8. Practice with Drills
Like any interview skill, your ability to ask good clarifying questions (assumptions) improves with practice. If you feel stuck, try isolating your focus on just the clarifying portion of your framework.
Sample Drill Template
Grab 10 questions from an interview bank bank (Lewis Lin or take a look at mine).
Write 2–5 clarifying questions for each prompt
Focus on: keywords, scope, and scale
Eliminate: fishing, filler, or robotic phrasing
Prompt Example: Design an app to reduce food waste
Poor Question: “Who are the users?”
Stronger Question: “Before I dive in, just want to see if you have a preference for a focus area on households or restaurants, or do I have the freedom to decide?”
Pro Tip: Don’t just read prompts — actually write your clarifying questions or assumptions out and compare them against these rules.
9. Common Mistakes to Avoid
⚠️ Avoid These Pitfalls:
Starting with irrelevant location questions from memorized lists (most ideas are global)
Asking directly for goals or users
Overloading the interviewer with too many direct questions
Asking run-on questions
Why these hurt performance
Irrelevant Questions. Most solutions should be global, asking about location, particularly if it is the first question, sounds memorized. (One exception is healthcare solutions, given that healthcare is very country-specific.) If you do need to ask location questions, even when it is relevant, don’t ask it first; start with core questions about the key concept.
Goals or Users. The whole point of the product sense exercise is to see if you can set a goal and prioritize a key user or use case. Asking for it directly is asking the interviewer to hand you the answer; it makes you sound clueless.
Direct Questions. You are being tested on your ability to handle ambiguity. If you keep asking to be handed the answer, you will be seen as incapable of handling ambiguity.
Run-on Questions. You know how it feels to be asked three questions at once, and you forget half of what you have been asked. The interviewer is likely to (1) just shut down or (2) ask you to repeat your question, and (3) you will lose valuable time.
Example of the dreaded run-on: “Should I assume this is for a startup, and if so does that mean I should limit budget, and which users should I focus on, and should I set goals now or later?”
That single run-on contains four questions jammed into one. Instead, break them apart into clear, concise questions, or better yet, ask one now and save the rest for later.
👉 Best practice: Keep each clarifying question to one clear thought. Short, crisp questions signal structured thinking without asking the interviewer to do the heavy lifting.
Conclusion
Clarifying questions aren’t a checklist — they’re the strategic setup for your entire product sense interview.
By diagramming the prompt, avoiding fishing, focusing on scale and scope, and practicing assumption-based framing, you’ll start every interview from a position of strength.
“The best PM candidates don’t just answer questions — they show how they think.”
And remember: this isn’t just an interview trick. No strong PM would start a real project without clarifying assumptions, users, and constraints. Practicing this in interviews builds the same muscle you’ll use on the job.
Next time you’re in a case interview, remember: the goal isn’t to ask a lot of questions. The goal is to ask the right ones — thoughtful, strategic, and confidence-building.
The Ultimate Guide to Clarifying Questions in Product Management Interviews.
