Mastering the Product Management Interview
Introduction
Assuming a role in product management reflects a natural career growth path and has nowadays become the prominent stepping stone to executive management positions in the company.
Given that any role in product management is intricate, the product management interview in itself has also become quite intricate.
This review describes the inner workings and structure of the modern strategic product management interview and how to better master it through understanding its components.
Product Management as the Talent Pool
During the 1960s, technical people were primarily considered for executive management positions.
The company's Chief Engineer, Vice President of Engineering, and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) were its top acting executives, and they were often promoted to be the company's next Chief Executive Officer (CEO).
During the 1970s, it was the finance people who were regarded as a good fit for executive management positions, and during those times, the company's Chief Financial Officer (CFO) was viewed as the natural candidate to become the company's CEO.
During the early 1980s, it was the top-grossing salespeople who were promoted to executive management positions, and during the late 1980s, it was the company's strategic marketing people.
But from the 1990s to date, companies overwhelmingly view the product management team as the proper talent pool and management reserve from which their future executives are drawn.
Companies have realized that no other role in the organization, not in engineering, finance, sales, or marketing, prepares a person to successfully hold a top executive position as effectively as a role in product management.
This realization is because product management professionals must be good at many topics, including finance, marketing, product, technology, customer interaction, public addressing, diplomacy, politics, and more. Similar to a company executive.
Therefore, it is product management professionals who are in the best position to assume leadership roles given their accumulated market and customer knowledge, ongoing collaborative work, exposure to a multitude of corporate functions (sales, finance, marketing, engineering, etc.), and intrinsic role duties that develop the multidisciplinary skills that are required of a company executive.
Job Interview Concept
The job interview is a procedure that evaluates a prospective employee (aka candidate) for a position in the company.
An interview is an ongoing exchange of information between company employees (interviewers) and a candidate to determine whether there is a match between the candidate's professional history, skills, and past workplace contributions and the job's description, requirements, and needs.
The interview is a reciprocal exchange during which the candidate is also evaluating the interviewers (the candidate's future team members and peers) and the company.
Seemingly unprofessional and poorly carried out interviews by company interviewers can discourage a suitable candidate from accepting the job if they have more than one job offer to consider.
From the company's perspective, the interviewing process aims to verify if the candidate can successfully perform the job's core functions and to create conversational dynamics that help establish whether the candidate will fit in with their assigned team on a social level.
The interviewers evaluate the candidate's overall fit for the job on three levels: Personal Fit, Team Fit, and Professional Fit.
The impression of personal and team fit is formed during interpersonal interaction with the team members and is done on an emotional and unscientific level.
Establishing professional fit is done in a more structured and rationalistic way through an interactive, in-person questioning process.
Domain Expertise and Functional Expertise
At companies hiring for product management positions, establishing the candidate's professional fit is often done by overwhelmingly focusing on the candidate's Domain Expertise.
The interview questions center on and attempt to expose the candidate's knowledge of the technical and business aspects of the product, industry, market, and technology.
The candidate's industry knowledge, a person's workplace and career experience in a particular field or industry, constitutes domain expertise and is highly valued by companies.
Many companies hire employees primarily for having domain expertise. This hiring practice is the old way of doing things, yet it is still commonly applied.
During product management interviews, employers may overlook or disregard the candidate's Functional Expertise, which is the ability to use tools and execute techniques, processes, and tasks that create winning products.
Functional expertise in product management means correctly using tools, understanding product management methodologies, knowing and managing complete product management processes, and executing core product management tasks, which are all fundamentally required to do a job in product management.
Product management professionals must effectively possess domain and functional expertise and much more.
Companies with mature product management practices have realized the need for domain and functional expertise, reflected in how they do modern product management interviews.
Modern Product Management Interview
Modern product management interviews are more organized, efficient, and successful in screening candidates.
Modern product management interviews query candidates on their domain expertise, functional expertise, and additional key areas.
The questioning process has become considerably more structured, which helps to establish a candidate's level of professional fit.
Those in the field of product management must possess many skills with a cumulative emphasis on strategic thinking and numerical analysis.
Responsibilities may vary from company to company, but the core job function often encompasses formulating market requirements and contributing to the search for the most productive way to build long-term value for a product.
When looking for qualified product managers, hiring managers query and consider candidates on the four business competency components: Domain Expertise, Functional Expertise, Soft Skills, and Strategic Aptitude.
Therefore, the modern product management interview process has been designed to uncover a candidate's capability levels in these four competency areas.
Domain Expertise
Specific industry experience and technological know-how.
◉ Industry experience.
◉ Workplace accomplishments.
◉ Appropriate blend of education, training, and credentials.
Functional Expertise
Knowledge of processes, tools, and techniques to plan and market products.
◉ Writing quality market requirements.
◉ Ability to execute specific product management tasks.
◉ Understanding of relevant terminology and definitions.
◉ Knowledge of product management processes and procedures.
◉ Familiarity with product management team structures.
Soft Skills
Non-technical skills, primarily communicative (written, verbal, and presentation), used in business.
◉ Thought leadership.
◉ Communication skills.
Strategic Aptitude
Long-term planning and decision-making abilities that help achieve corporate objectives.
◉ Professional development.
◉ Executing a product management process.
◉ Product and market strategy formulation.
◉ Selecting and applying a product management methodology.
Modern Product Management Interview Questions
The modern product management interview structure dictates the potential questions relative to the four competency areas.
Domain Expertise
Questions in this area focus on the candidate's work history, industry experience, and technological know-how. For example:
◉ Describe the positions you held and the challenges you overcame in previous roles.
◉ Describe the industry's dominant players, their success, and their mistakes.
◉ Describe the advantages and disadvantages of a particular technology or product.
Functional Expertise
Questions in this area focus on the candidate's knowledge of processes, tools, and techniques to plan and market products. For example:
1. Questions on Product Planning
◉ Describe the structure of an MRD and the methodology for writing quality market requirements.
◉ Describe the process you would follow to create a pricing model.
◉ Describe the overall product planning process.
◉ Describe the structure of a product definition team and its roles.
2. Questions on Product Marketing
◉ Describe the structure of a market plan.
◉ Describe the process you would follow to create a product differentiation or demand.
◉ Describe the overall product marketing process.
◉ Describe the role of a product marketer.
(Visit the free Blackblot Content Retention Tool™ (CRT), which helps product managers and product marketers to further deepen their knowledge.)
3. Soft Skills
Questions in this area focus on the candidate's human interaction skills which relate directly to communicating and managing relationships with others in a professional environment's social structure.
(Visit the Blackblot Career webpage for a list of open-ended soft skills interview questions.)
4. Strategic Aptitude
Questions in this area focus on the candidate's potential to carry broader leadership roles that demand strategic planning and decision-making abilities.
These questions center on managing people, executing overall and broad product management processes, applying a product management methodology, and product and market strategy formulation.
(Visit the Blackblot Career webpage for a list of open-ended strategic aptitude interview questions.)
Summary
Mastering the modern product management interview is done by understanding the interview's fundamental structure and preparing to display knowledge and competence with confidence in all four key areas.
Coupled with being amicable and constantly working towards being an authority in the profession, this is the formula for a solid career in product management.