What is your favorite product management interview question and the best answer you've heard?

The question I love asking every candidate is "tell me the story of the most impactful thing you’ve ever worked on." I like this question for several reasons: It works for every level of experience. For experienced PMs, I’m expecting to hear about a very important product they worked on. For someone with little to no experience, they can tell me a story about something they worked on that was incredibly hard, impactful and meaningful to them without it needing to be related to product work. It a ...Read More

Design a product for drivers driving in rush hour. I am betting every human stuck in traffic has once thought... “Dang this traffic sucks, I wish I could [insert idea].” The best answer I’ve heard is a tablet-sized visual, that is connected to the internet with key apps such as email, song playlist, podcasts, call functionality; along with the capability for partial self-driving in traffic. Once in rush-hour it kicks in, frees your attention to do other things, improves health of the driver by r ...Read More

My favorite interview question was asked by a hiring manager ~8 years ago when I interviewed for an Associate PM position at MuleSoft. I was asked the following: "Imagine humans decided to take the moon and put it through a giant chopper/grinder. The mass that comes out of the chopper is being dumped on the surface of the earth. The question was - do you need an oxygen mask to climb on the top of this mass" This is a quantitative question that is typically asked in the PM interviews, but more fu ...Read More

One question I love to ask is: "Tell me about a time when a conversation with a customer made you realize that your product direction was wrong." I have heard so many great stories about dispelling assumptions by talking to customers. One of my favorite stories was when a PM did generative research about the biggest problems their users faced with their product. They found that the feature that they were planning to spend the greater part of their upcoming capacity on was not mentioned at all! W ...Read More

Will add my favorite question to ask the managers of product managers (GPM, Director and above): "Tell me about a product manager you've worked with, and who's better than you and inspires you. What about them makes you say so?" Best answers usually involve leaders speaking about people on their team (reports etc), or someone more junior than them who they helped grow. If someone has been a people manager for a decade or longer, and they have never had a more junior person on the team who's bett ...Read More

For very role-specific hiring: "Knowing about the role, how does your experience and skillset fit the needs?" The best answer: Reflects the candidate really understands our company, has done research to know what might be top of mind and has taken the time with the recruiter to clarify the role, paid attention to what I explain about the role. Communicate clearly about their skills and have an elevator pitch for past experiences to create a cohesive story. Reflects a true passion for joining the ...Read More

Ooh, so many good ones come to mind, so I'm going to cheat and pick two! "If I went to your Engineers and Designer and asked them what it was like to work with you, what would I learn that I haven't learned in this interview?" As you guessed, I typically ask this as the final question in my initial screen with the candidate, and the goal is to test for self-awareness, willingness to grow, and direct communication. Some of the best answers I've heard are "That I tend to be too prescriptive about ...Read More

'What is a project that you are proud of accomplishing'. I like asking this as one of the first few questions. The reason I like this question is for a few reasons:  When people think of their proudest accomplishment, they typically tend to share more, get into the details organically  By using this question as a jumping off point, you can go deeper into a number of areas like problem-solving, strategic thinking, communication, ability to influence and more Some examples include how do they proa ...Read More

In a product management interview, my favorite question came up: "What is the best product you have ever used, and why?" I took a creative approach and presented myself as the product. I detailed my skills, experiences, and the unique value I could bring to the team, framing my abilities and potential contributions in the context of product features and benefits. This approach wasn't just about showcasing my qualifications; it was about demonstrating my ability to think innovatively and market e ...Read More

My non-negociable PM interview question is "Tell me about a product you love, and why. Now no product is perfect so how would you improve it?".Here is why it is a must-ask question for any PM candidate I have interviewed: it tests storytelling: when PMs love something, they should be able to describe its value in ways that make the audience wanna go try it. If I didn't feel energy after the PMs describe what they love about a product, they were discarded. And to be clear: it's not about presenta ...Read More

"Tell me more about your experience in building a product and your contributions to it. And tell me as you look back now, what are the things that you would do differently or would not do differently and why". As a Leader, the virtue that I value the most is continuous learning and the ability to reflect or introspect on growth and opportunities to improvise. Most often this question leads the person to share variety of ways work getting more effective across all areas of People skills, Process ...Read More