AMA: ezCater Director of Product, Fulfillment, Brandon Green on Product Management Interviews
November 8 @ 10:00AM PST
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EzCater Director of Product, Fulfillment, Brandon Green on Product Management Interviews
Top Questions
Brandon Green
Buffer Staff Product Manager • November 8
I'll speak to commonalities in IC PMs since I have less experience hiring other product leaders. It's really just 4 things in my view: * A clear ability to break down complex, multi-faceted problems into digestible, actionable chunks, as usually shown via some kind of case interview. * E......Read More
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Brandon Green
Buffer Staff Product Manager • November 8
Talk even less and give the candidate even more time/space than you think to thoroughly respond to your question. You'll learn a ton about a candidate simply by giving them the floor. Also - it's a lot harder than it seems. (There's a 300 character minimum to these responses, so I have to k......Read More
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Brandon Green
Buffer Staff Product Manager • November 9
I've sort of answered this in other questions asked, but to restate: Red Flags usually manifest in candidates who are * Unable to speak to specific impact they (as opposed to their team/org) have had on the business, or point to any specific metric they impacted, and why that metric was i......Read More
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Brandon Green
Buffer Staff Product Manager • November 9
I think going "above and beyond" is a totally subjective thing; it is up to each individual what is above their baseline of preparation for an interview. But - here are a list of things I think are table stakes, that every PM candidate should do at a minimum to prepare: * Know the company you'r......Read More
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Brandon Green
Buffer Staff Product Manager • November 9
I have a few simple ones: 1. Not being able to clearly denote what they (the candidate) did to achieve something of impact, as opposed to the team/partners/etc. they worked with. 2. In a case-style interview, not having conviction behind your ideas. I'm always disappointed when really ......Read More
388 Views
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Brandon Green
Buffer Staff Product Manager • November 8
I like to ask two types of questions: (1) behavioral-style questions, which prompt the candidate to use specific examples from their past experience, rather than hypotheticals, to describe how they handled a particular situation; and (2) exploratory case-style questions, to see how a candidate th......Read More
408 Views
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Brandon Green
Buffer Staff Product Manager • November 9
I've found that the ability to speak clearly to your past experiences and how you've either (a) uniquely added value or (b) learned and grew from a given experience largely is the most important thing when talking to both hiring managers and cross-functional partners. This may manifest in many di......Read More
409 Views
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Brandon Green
Buffer Staff Product Manager • November 8
I personally bias toward PMs (or aspiring PMs) with a creative mind, whether that's shown through actual background experience in a creative field, or a highly creative or unconventional response to a question asked in the interview process. I find creative types (often with liberal arts degrees)......Read More
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