Preparing for product management is a bit tricky. First, you don't get complete content in one place. Second being a relatively new field there isn't much awareness about the role & the process. And Third, Well! you don't know many people who have got their hands dirty in Product.
My aim of making this article is to collate all the useful tools that I used in my preparations for the Product Role. I want to share this knowledge with aspiring Product Manager. I hope this article helps!
In this article you will find exhaustive information covering the types of interview questions, types of case studies and preparation tips one could use for their PM interview prep. Generally you can expect 3 - 4 interview rounds in Indian Startups along with some take-home assignments. Some of the frameworks shared here could also be used to make assignment presentations showcasing your product skills! LET'S DO THIS NOW!
Types of Product Management Case Studies
Root Cause Analysis
New Product Design
Product Market Entry
Improving Existing Product
Root Cause Analysis (RCA)
Root Cause Analysis are among the most common & relatively linear cases to solve. Why I say linear is that the element of unknown is very less here (~90% of the cases can be solved by following this framework & asking the right set of questions.)
Your RCA case study would go something like this:
"You are a PM at XYZ, they have noticed that in last N days, datapoint ABC has gone down/up."
Sometimes the interviewer purposefully tries to be vague even with what they expect, i.e. they won't say what they want you to do, to solve the problem or just figure out what's wrong.
The approach for RCA case study works on the elimination principle, try to ask as many right questions as possible to lead you to the right path. You could use the following sample questions as reference.
Category | Questions |
Geography | Does the problem belong to users of a specific city/state/country? |
Device | Is the problem happening for laptops (Windows/Mac) or mobile phones (Android/iOS) or particular browser (Chrome/Mozilla) |
Age | Does the user group belong to a particular age group? |
Service in use | Among the different product categories (Ex - for e-com electronics vs apparel vs grocery) or subscription categories (Ex - netflix 1 user vs 4 user subscriptions or free trial) |
Traffic Source | Is the redirect traffic source from google or referral links or app |
Time of Activity | Is the problem arising in a particular duration of the day/week/month? |
Internal Factors |
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External Factor |
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Once you have completed with the preliminary clarifying question set, draw out your analysis. Following the analysis this is the approach I would suggest:
Specify the metric related to the change identified in the problem statement & break it into elementary components to be analysed separately
Understand the product & the business model, identify all the stakeholders involved
Follow user journey if required to understand the dropouts, that should conclude the root cause
Generally following the identification of the root cause is proposing solutions to the problems. A good approach is to list all the solutions and then break the solutions further into categories:
short term solutions
long term solutions
Generally coming up with both types of solutions would say that you are thoughtful while being realistic about solving the problem.
Pro tip: Whenever sharing a list, ALWAYS PRIORITIZE!
RICE Framework for Prioritization
Whether it's listing the possible problems or finalising on one of the solutions. Prioritization is always the key. A critical ability for Product Managers is their ability to prioritize and it is also very frequently tested in the cases studies. The following framework provides a backbone to structure your thoughts and present it to the interviewer. Reference article link: RICE scoring model for prioritisation
Vertical | Rationale |
Reach | How many people are affected by the problem/solution you are proposing? |
Impact | To what extent does the solution solve the problem? |
Confidence | How confident are you on the feasibility of the solution? |
Effort | How much effort is estimated to build the solution? |
New Product Design
New product design cases are where the interviewer gives you a problem statement for which they want you to build a product. These cases studies are to test your brainstorming capability & attention to detail. Focus on having a structured approach with realistic solutions. Your New product design case study would go something like this.
"We need you to build a solution for ABC people which will solve their XYZ problem."
These cases offer you to shine by being more innovative in your solution, so also try to think out of the box! Following is the below structure I adopt to solve these cases:
Reiterate on the question in your own sentence framing to align your understanding.
Ask the clarifying questions relevant to the problem, these are the similar set of questions from the above list.
Identify the user groups most relevant to the value proposition associated with the problem.
Pick 1 or 2 user groups which you want to focus on. (Justify the shortlisted user groups basis the size, relevance & other criteria)
Define user personas for these user groups, basically what are the user behaviours and expectations.
For the shortlisted user groups, chart out the user journey for existing situation. Identify use cases & pain points in the user journey.
Prioritise on the use cases you want to solve on first & brainstorm on ideas accordingly.
While proposing solutions also PRIORITISE using RICE framework.
5E Framework for user journey
User Journey is something that came up in the previous list. For the uninitiated user journey is literal, the journey a user takes while using a product or the flow of a user to complete a particular action. User journey helps us pinpoint where the problem could be in user experience (UX) and what could be improved. Below is a flowchart explaining in brief a useful framework to capture any user journey. Categorise your UX in this framework to figure out any scope of improvements. Reference article link: The 5E Experience Design Model
Product Market Entry
Product Market entry cases are rare ones since they are borderline consulting market entry cases which are more contextual to consulting case study.
My advice would be to look at relevant market entry frameworks from consulting. You can find one of these frameworks here. The framework proposed below is one which I have found to be helpful in the context of interviews I have given.
Your question would go something like this -
"You are a PM at ABC startup, you have a product P which you want to launch in region R. Assess the product-market fit & if the opportunity is lucrative explain how would you launch it?"
The first and foremost step to do is to list down all the clarifying questions. Ask why does the company want to launch this product, what is the objective, what is the timeline, the monetary limitations, etc. Post basic clarification, a useful structure to follow would go like this -
Market Sizing - Estimate the Total Addressable Market (TAM) to assess if the opportunity is lucrative
Competitor Analysis - Do a competitor analysis to asses your competitions’ market share, practices, shortcomings, moat, user preferences, etc.
SWOT Analysis - This help you assess your standing against the competitors and which approach should be taken up for entering the space.
User Personas - Identify the user personas & pain points using user journey to highlight what specific moat to build in the product.
Solutions - W.r.to the identified pain points & user needs propose some solutions for the specific target segment.
Go-To Market (GTM) strategy - Once all the details are figured out, focus on the M&A, marketing & first user acquisition strategy you would focus upon.
The structure is exhaustive but I would suggest not to apply it completely, rather discuss with the interviewer on the parts he wants you to focus upon & get into depth of only those verticals.
Improving Existing Product
Sometimes an interviewer would start off with a general discussion on a product and then ask you on any improvisation that could be made to the product. Or the interviewer would simply pick a product which is more or less universally used like - Flipkart or Swiggy or Phonepe, and ask you on the improvements to be made in this product.
There is a trap which interviewer has placed here for you. If you start rambling about specific improvements you would make, then you have fallen into their trap. The key is to patiently analyse the product first. What the interviewer is looking for is your approach. ALWAYS ONLY YOUR APPROACH IS JUDGED!
These types of questions can be handled in similar way as New Product Design case studies. The only change is that you already know the user flows, user groups, and maybe some pain points. Arrive at those pain points methodically and then propose your solutions with prioritization.
EVERYTHING other than product case studies
The major judgement of any candidate's interview happens on the product case study interviews. But there are also a few other questions where your skills are testes. I could broadly categorize all other types into the following list.
Guesstimates
Product Metrics
Favourite Product
Situational Questions
Experience Instances Questions
Guesstimates
Guesstimates are pretty common interview questions to test your aptitude. While there is no bound to the guesstimates questions, since the interviewer could ask you ANYTHING. But the way I see it, there are 3 parts to a guesstimate problem:
Approach (Always the most critical)
Awareness of general datapoints
Math Skills
Approach is THE MOST CRITICAL thing. In my experience, you could screw up on the other 2 factors and still pass the interview if your approach was flawless. I particularly don't have any hacks for guesstimate approach but broadly the approaches are either top-down or bottom-up.
Top down approach is when you start with the super set or high level statistics (Ex - Population of country) and then funnel down step by step to your desired estimation. In the bottom-up approach you start the other way around taking low level statistics and go up the funnel (Ex - per capita income). Refer the links below to understand in detail.
While doing a guesstimate it is important for you to write your calculation formulae. ALWAYS BREAK YOUR FORMULA INTO MOST FUNDAMENTAL FACTORS. This is a practise appreciated by interviewers in general and also is helpful to find any missing pieces.
Ex - Revenue generated in McD between 11 am - 12 pm = No. of seats * % occupancy * avg, meal time * avg meal size * cost of 1 burger (this is just for reference, not exact formula)
To solve some of the guesstimates, you will need to know some general datapoints. It is not expected to know all the stats but it helps if you know them. I've added a list of stats which I found helpful. They are definitely not exact but it'll work for your case study.
General Datapoints
Population of India = 1.3 Billion
Smartphone users in India = 760 Million
Avg. image size = 8 MB
Avg. people per household = 4
Upper Middle Class = 30 Mn ( >4 lakhs monthly household income)
Middle Class = 60 Mn ( >4 lakhs monthly household income)
Lower Middle Class = 140 Mn ( >4 lakhs monthly household income)
Below poverty line = 100 Mn ( <1 lakh monthly household income)
Population worldwide = 8 Billion
Smartphone users worldwide = 3.8 Billion
Practise cases links: Consulting Guesstimate Case Study Training, Product Management Guesstimate Questions
Product Metrics
Sometimes interview would like to test your analytical skills and knowledge which would be specific to product & business roles. The most common way of doing it is to discuss product metrics. Your question would look something like this:
Which are the 5 metrics which you would showcase the CXOs of Ola or Uber?
A good product manager also needs to understand the basics of business and value proposition of the product. Here is where it matters how you choose your metrics.
Pro tip: You need to be mindful of who the target audience for the metric selection is. And what their motivations would be. You can get some brownie points here.
Below is a modified Pirate Framework for categorizing Product Metrics. You can use this framework to cover the spectrum of metrics you would want to cover. Reference article link : AARRR Pirate Funnel
Vertical | Metrics |
Acquisition | CPA (Cost per acq.), CPC (Cost per click), CPM (Cost per impression), CTR (Click Through Rate), App downloads, Mailing list |
Activation | New registrations, App opening, User profile creation, Add to cart, 1st successful purchase, 1st search |
Retention | DAU (Daily Active Users), WAU, MAU, Conversion Rate, Cart size/units, Survey Ratings, Cart Abandonment, etc. |
Revenue / Monetization | CoGS (Cost of goods sold), Revenue per customer, Customer LTV (Life time value), Cost of sales, Purchases/year |
Others | SEO results, Errors/Bugs/Issues, Returns, Stock outs, Shipping costs |
Favourite Product
Favourite products questions are where you can be prepared the most. Since the choice of product is yours. What you talk about the product is in your control. And there is not much of a question as such.
Here the interviewer is judging you on how you look at a product you love and use on a day to day basis from a PM's lens. They are looking for you to wow them with your obsession with the product & the in-depth analysis on product, user bases & the UX of the product.
Use the BUS framework to break your entire monologue into 3 parts which will be easier for the interviewer to process. This will prove your communication skills which is another skill expected to be mastered by a Product Manager. Reference article link: Bus Product Design Framework
Vertical | Rationale |
Business Problem | Identify the business problem (also opportunity) which the product is trying to solve |
User Problem | What are the user problems associated to the current solutions which needs to be solved |
Solution | What is the solution that is being proposed and is it exhaustively solving both the problems |
But I would caution the readers to not be over confident about the product. Sometimes this interview turns into a further case study where the interviewer could ask follow-up questions like what would you improve in this product? What are the key metrics you would track for the product?
Situational Questions
Situational questions are when the interviewer gives you a critical situation and you are supposed to take a call on it. It is more or less a lose-lose situation. Your problem statement would go something like this:
You are PM at Flipkart & tomorrow is launch of Big billion day. Your Engineering Manager is telling you that the product prices for electronics goods is not loading properly. What do you do?
Generally there is no correct answer here and that's why only your judgement is being evaluated. My advice here would be to only mindfully answer the question after extracting all the information. Go with the preliminary question set which we have seen earlier and then decide what you think would be the right thing to do.
Experience Instances Questions
This is a made up name for a set of interview question which I have had in my product interviews. These are similar to the HR questions in normal interviews where they ask you to share an instance which showcases of your strengths. Something like -
Tell us about a time when you went against the odds and succeed at a task which everyone expected you to fail at!
Some of the questions that could be asked you are:
- How do you WOW customers? - When was a time you had to balance the needs of the customer with the needs of the business? How did you approach the situation? What were your actions? What was the end result? - Tell me about a time you handled a difficult customer. What did you do? How did you manage the customer? What was her/his reaction? What was the outcome? - Tell me about a time you had to compromise in order to satisfy a customer. When do you think it’s ok to push back or say no to an unreasonable customer request? - Give me an example of a change you implemented in your current team or organization to meet the needs of your customers. What has been the result? - How do you honestly pursue customer feedback, not just solicit them for compliments? - How do you get to an understanding of what the customer’s needs are? - Tell me about a time when you gave a simple solution to a complex problem.
The best thing to do is prepare your answers for a few of them. At least for the ones which you have heard are common in interviews. The approach to answering these question could be with the STAR framework. Reference article link: Star Interview Method
Vertical | Rationale |
Situation | Start with setting up some context for the interviewer - where you were working, what was your role, the macro picture.... |
Task | Next, get into specifics of what the task & situation at hand were, give a micro picture, highlight the end goal & expectations |
Action | Refer to the actions and initiatives you took to ensure the success of the task to showcase your abilities & skills |
Result | Circle back on the impact created due to the successful execution of the task |
These experience instances questions are generally asked to see how your previous experiences have shaped your aptitude and how well can you articulate things. Also how well can you introspect. LOL!
I have tried to be exhaustive with all the information I had about product interviews. I hope this article helps you in your preparation and would appreciate any feedback and corrections you would suggest to make this article more useful.
To the folks preparing for Product roles, I would say that practising with mock interviews is way more important than knowing all these frameworks. I had made mistake of only learning about the framework and not actually practise to apply them! I would strongly suggest to not be ignorant about practising.
Thanks everyone for showing your support! Ciao!
thanks for sharing will apply these in my next interview!!!
Great article!! Very Informative..