Before preparing for any major test, we ensure that we are adequately prepared for any questions that may appear on the exam paper. The better prepared we are, the more likely we will pass the tests. Similarly, in preparing for the Product Manager interview, you should be ready to answer various interview questions.
As you may be aware, the SaaS product market has risen enormously over the previous decade, with the direction of this expansion pointing towards the Andromeda galaxy. Hiring a product manager is one of a product team’s most challenging and significant tasks. If a firm is looking for a product manager to assist with their entire company and product strategy, they will conduct a rigorous interview process. Although the recruiting process may vary by organization, Hiring Managers will be wanting to understand who you are as a prospectus candidate, your experience as a Product Manager, and what you can add to their team.
But, before we go into the interview questions, let us first define who a product manager is and what are their day-to-day responsibilities.
Who is the Product Manager?
A product manager determines the need a product or feature fills for consumers and the primary corporate goals it will help achieve, defines what constitutes product success, and motivates a team to make that vision a reality. Every product manager is unique because every product has a unique set of stakeholders (consumers, businesses, and developers). Seeing a wide range of product managers at one firm is possible since each product manager deals with unique challenges. They interact with a wide range of clients, corporate stakeholders, and development groups.
The day-to-day responsibilities include –
- Idea Evaluation
- Customer Interaction
- Backlog Management
- Feature Prioritization
- Strategic Planning
- Building and sharing roadmaps
- Cross-Team Meetings ( Product Marketing, Sales, business development, etc)
- Data Analysis
- Documentation
- Defining releases
Now that you know what the PM job includes, let’s look at the materials you’ll need to ace the interview.
Resources – Books
Product Management interviews are likely to be among the most difficult to crack. Regardless of a person’s expertise in product management, preparing for a product management interview is a difficult task for everyone. As a result, it is essential for aspiring or experienced product managers to delve into the depths of literature. Many books on the Product Manager interview process are available. Regardless, time is of the essence when preparing for PM interviews. So, which ones should you go through to increase your chances of landing a job at a top IT firm?
Read these 5 product management books to boost your chances of acing the product manager interview.
Cracking the PM Interview – By Gayle Laakmann McDowell
Cracking the PM Interview is the gold standard for product management interview literature. This book may be considered a bible for all product management interviews. This is an excellent book for getting you to think about structure concerning different challenges addressed in product management interviews. This should be your first book. It instills structural thinking and makes product management interviews much more organized and approach-based. There are chapters dedicated to various sorts of questions, and each chapter has a comprehensive method for dealing with each form of a question. It covers everything from defining a PM to CV writing and earning work experience to genuine interview replies. It will familiarise you with the product management hiring process at multinational corporations.
Swipe to Unlock: The Primer on Technology and Business Strategy – By Neel Mehta, Aditya Agashe & Parth Detroja
You must understand the IT business and its products to get a PM position. This is an excellent book for candidates who want to improve their understanding of how technology works at top tech organizations and better comprehend the strategy utilized to make particular product choices. It simplifies many complex IT industry topics, frequently with valuable images, making them simpler to understand. The book has 12 chapters. The first few address topics such as comprehending how software and the internet function and the business strategies of prominent applications. The following chapters describe important technological ideas that fuel the internet and its various uses, such as cloud computing, security, and big data. The last four chapters analyze patterns important for understanding tech business strategy and where it is headed in the future.
Decode and Conquer: Answers to Product Management Interviews – By Lewis C. Lin
It is critical to practice with real-life questions to succeed in interviews. This book is highly recommended for getting a solid feel of the queries interviewers ask during PM interviews. This book is unquestionably the foundation of PM interview materials. This is an excellent resource for people looking for many practice questions to help them prepare for PM interviews. Lin discusses a few basic frameworks for generating well-structured responses to PM interview questions. There are also extensive example responses to each question to help you understand what a successful dialogue with an interviewer should feel like. It is built on principles such as the CIRCLES technique and other workflow-based methodologies that are simple to memorize and use. In under 200 pages, the book presents several thorough examples of replies to PM interview questions. The 16 chapters address design, estimating, analytical, strategy, and behavioral issues.
Preparing for Product Interviews: A Product-ive Guide to Landing a Job in PM – By Akash Ramdas & Advaith Sridhar
The book goes through the principles of creating a framework for PM interviews. This is a tiny and easy-to-read book with extremely current examples compared to the previous publications. This is also a fairly basic book with a greater emphasis on samples rather than theory. This may not be easy at times, but the technique used to solve the cases makes it extremely simple for users to comprehend the underlying principles. The book includes example interview questions for several sorts of product cases and guidance on how to be considered for PM interviews. Aside from this, the book consists of interviews with seasoned Product Managers in the worldwide technology sector to assist you in better grasping the PM job.
Amazon Product Manager Interview: A Step by Step Approach to Ace the Product Manager Interview at Amazon – By Coursetake
Though the title of this book is Amazon Product Manager Interview, it may also be utilized to prepare for other firms. The book is split into parts, some exclusive to Amazon. The book also explores behavioral issues and provides valuable frameworks for working on them. This book takes the technique of first teaching you a chapter and then assigning you homework to do. This book comprises printable worksheets that blend theory and practice to help you succeed. This book provides helpful information on Amazon’s business, such as infographics, links, and photographs, so read it thoroughly, especially if you are prepared for Amazon. Some of these companies or products may also be used to answer product improvement questions in other interviews. Overall, this book may assist you in preparing questions from parts such as tradeoff, pricing, financial predictions, strategy, customer experience, metrics, design, and many others.
Here are the prices and ordering information for the books listed above
| S.no | Title | Shopping Source | Price |
| 1. | Cracking the PM Interview: How to Land a Product Manager Job in Technology | Amazon | Kindle Price – Rs.460 Paperback Price – Rs.530 |
| 2. | Swipe to Unlock: The Primer on Technology and Business Strategy | Amazon | Kindle Price – Rs.69 Paperback Price- Rs.2725 |
| 3. | Decode and Conquer: Answers to Product Management Interviews | Amazon | Paperback Price – Rs.530 |
| 4 | Preparing for Product Interviews: A Product-ive Guide to Landing a Job in PM | Amazon | Kindle Price – Rs.71.00 |
| 5 | Amazon Product Manager Interview: A Step by Step Approach to Ace the Product Manager Interview at Amazon | Amazon | Kindle Price – Rs.280.84 |
Resources – YouTube Channels and Prep Platform
While reading the books and understanding the major components of product manager interviews, it is necessary to see the literature in visual and practical form to have a better feel of the interview process. We have included 5 YouTube channels where you may get mock interviews and extensive material for your interview preparation.
| S.no | Name | Description | YouTube Subscribers | Link | Platform Pricing |
| 1 | Exponent | Exponent is an online community, training, and coaching platform designed to assist ambitious candidates in mastering their product management tech interviews. Founded by Stephen Cognetta and Jacob Simon, they feature 100+ videos on their YouTube channel with substantial real-world interview scenarios and hiring manager guidance from companies like Google, Facebook, and others. If you need additional practice, go to their official website, where you may get Interview questions and answers, Peer to Peer interviews, and professional coaching. | 193K | YouTube Link Official Website | Monthly- $79 Per Month |
| 2 | Rocketblocks | This YouTube channel offers interview preparation, industry insights, and consulting and product management career advice. Their videos will assist applicants in honing the abilities assessed in consulting and product management interviews with influential organizations such as McKinsey and Google. If you want to join their interview prep, go to their website. | 40.7K | YouTube Link Official Website | Monthly Sub – $35 Per Month Annual Pass- $155 Per Year |
| 3 | Product Management Exercises | Product Management Exercises features a one-of-a-kind video collection to help you prepare for product manager job interviews. These visual tools may help prospective candidates strengthen their PM abilities by extending one-hour films that include real-time talks among professionals. If these materials are insufficient, you may always visit their official website, which has a collection of PM interview exercises and video content. | 5.48K | YouTube Link Official Website | Monthly- $69 |
| 4 | Product Alliance | Product Alliance offers a wealth of video content that an aspirant will need to ace the product management interview at any tech company. They provide a step-by-step walkthrough of how to ace the interviews, as well as sample responses. Their channel is filled with short-form content about product manager interviews for tech companies like Uber, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Meta, and so on. If you like what you see on their channel, go to their official website for in-depth interview preparation. | 13.2K | YouTube Link Official Website | Individual Courses – $489 Each Lifetime Access- $2319 |
| 5 | PM Diego Granados | Diego Granados’ YouTube channel, which he launched after working as a Product Manager at LinkedIn and Microsoft, provides a wealth of PM-related short and long-form material. They provide the best frameworks, deep dives, and suggestions for product management interviews, as well as samples and responses from experienced PMs. Visit his website for in-depth classes, one-on-one mock interviews, and newsletters. | 22.5K | YouTube Link Official Website | Regular Price – $299 |
Conclusion
Interviews are one of the last stages in deciding if an applicant is a good fit for the position. This may not be the end of the recruiting process. However, you should be able to analyze and compare them to the other applicants. Product management may be a roller-coaster trip full of ups and downs. While success may rekindle the desire to accomplish your best, defeat might stop you from progressing. On the other hand, your passion keeps you going in the face of hardship. So, amid tough times, strive to remain motivated and focused by enrolling in various certification classes and reading product management books.
Once you begin the job, it’s time to start onboarding, work on your product management strategy, establish roadmaps, and prioritize using Freshflows. It is a Collaborative Product Management Tool for B2B SaaS Product Teams that assists you in creating exceptional products by ideating, documenting, planning, transitioning, monitoring, and collaborating. This product management system is designed to be constructed around walls and workstations to democratize product management and make it accessible to everyone, even solopreneurs.
