As a product manager, what are the make-or-break things for you when interviewing a potential next product manager for your team?

The candidate must “spike” (“8/10” or higher) in all of these areas, in order of importance:  1. Critical Thinking Given how many decisions and complex problems are thrown at PMs, this the #1 most important attribute I screen for. They don’t need to be a rocket scientist (top 0.5% of population) but they should be exceptional at this (top 5%). Good looks like: Take large ambiguous problems and break them down into smaller pieces Uses logic to convince others Gets to the root of the issue: Think ...Read More

There's a lot written about basic PM competencies (https://a16z.com/2012/06/15/good-product-managerbad-product-manager/), and for any PM on my team, they should be able to do all these things you'd expect from a PM (write specs, understand the customer, communicate upwards and outwards, GSD). I'll focus my answer on a few attributes that I think are really "make-or-break" for me: Good communication skills, both written and verbal, are an absolute must-have for any PM on my team. Whether it's thr ...Read More

I'm lucky in that Google has a really rigorous interview process that I benefit from. Google is also known for taking a long time during that process but I promise you that is largely because of the rigor. Post that process though what I look for are three key signals Grit is my first. Big companies are notoriously slow, process heavy, and plodding. But the way I look at this is that with so much user trust, such a large business, and really a huge opportunity that we have to respect we want to ...Read More

The product manager's job is to identify the most impactful problems to solve, enable their team to build and ship solutions that delight users, learn, and iterate. Product managers need a multitude of skills to be successful. The two most important skills that I view as must-haves no matter the seniority or product they will work on are owner mentality and leadership and influence. The reason for these two things being make-or-break things for me is because one has it or does not have it. It is ...Read More

Here are the top things I would look for in a product manager on my team: Customer-Centric: understanding and serving the needs of the customers/users possibly via user interviews, surveys, or user testing. Good understanding of the domain: Although this is not mandatory, it would be good to have a good understanding of the domain such as Social Networking, Security, Consumer products, Enterprise etc. Communicates their ideas clearly via written and verbal communication at any level from team me ...Read More

Make or break things when I'm interviewing a PM candidate: Clear and concise answers to my questions. If I need to ask the same question again because the candidate didn't address my question, that's a big problem. PMs need to communicate constantly with many teams, so they should always hone their ability to listen to questions, write them down, and answer those questions without being confusing or too verbose. I often ask a candidate to pick a hobby, project or anything else and explain it to ...Read More

The one attribute that is hardest to coach and most likely to be make-or-break is customer centricity. It's essential that PMs always start with the customer and their needs, and are extremely curious about them. This often comes through in case study-style interviews: some candidates can generate interesting solution ideas without being customer centric, but they will likely then find it hard to explain why they made certain choices over others without a foundation in which customer they're ser ...Read More

In the quest to find the right addition to our product management team, I focus on a set of non-negotiable traits that I believe are crucial for success in this role. These traits not only reflect the individual's ability to contribute effectively to our team but also their potential to drive our product forward in a meaningful way. Here's what stands out to me as make-or-break factors: 1. Growth Mindset: Embracing Adaptability The dynamic nature of product management demands a candidate who vie ...Read More

When interviewing potential product managers, my goal is to assess their skills and abilities to determine their potential for success on the team. I also consider the knowledge gaps within the team and whether the candidate can fill those gaps effectively. If I believe that the candidate lacks the necessary strengths to address the team's missing skills, I will not move forward with hiring them. Doing so would only result in having to hire again soon, which would not improve the team's producti ...Read More

Every big problem I've had on a product team traces back to a hiring mistake. The lift from hiring great people is enormous, but so is the drag from a bad hire. Here are my make-or-break signals, in order: 1. Mental horsepower (non-negotiable). The single best predictor of PM success I've seen is raw cognitive ability: the speed at which someone can absorb complexity, build mental models, and connect dots across domains. I've hired PMs with deep domain expertise who struggled because they couldn ...Read More