I have been interviewing for a lot of APM/PM roles & also mentoring candidates who aspire to transition into PM roles. During the last couple of years, we have seen exponential growth in a number of PM aspirants. While a lot of PM-focused programs (and cohorts) have come up, many of them surprisingly still don’t focus a lot on interviewing preparation.

At ProductGurukul, we attempt to deep-dive into the interview evaluation process & what most organisations look for in a Product Manager.

Cracking a PM interview is not the easiest thing to do. Let’s discuss a few of the reasons why this is the case :

1. Broad & Varied role: One of the best things about product management is that it encompasses all boundaries. In short, a PM needs to do anything & everything that anyone can think of. This implies that a PM candidate can be tested on anything.
2. Domain Expertise: A PM has to be an expert in the domain she works in. So, if you are interviewing for a completely new industry, you may find answering questions a bit challenging unlike professions like software developers where most skills are domain agnostic.
3. Evaluation Process: Most companies still don’t have a standard evaluation process when it comes to hiring for product roles. You may be evaluated from right from your problem solving & design skills to even coding skills in certain organisations.

Framework for PM Interviews

Although the interview process may vary from company to company, the core skills tested in a PM interview generally remain the same.

The following framework attempts to map question types with the skills tested to give you a direction on how to approach these problems during the actual interview.

Additional tips to help you during your preparation:

1. Research about the company, its vision, mission & founders before an interview
2. Learn more about the interviewer from LinkedIn or other sources
3. Take mock interviews with your Interview buddies or mentors & work on their feedback
4. Connect with like-minded folks on LinkedIn & interact with them often
5. Read books on each of the skills listed above. I will be sharing some recommendations in my future articles

STAY TUNED FOR MORE!!!!

This is just Part-I of the ProductGurukul series on acing the PM interview. We will be going into each question type, discussing the framework on answering them & common pitfalls to avoid.