On interviewing
Interviewing, like earthquake preparedness and CPR, is one of those skills I wish I didn’t need. There are a lot of reasons why interviews suck, but the most absurd thing is that I get better at performing them over time. The first interviewers probably thought I was a bumbling idiot, which prompted questions like “wait, did you actually work with engineers?” Eventually, I got my act together, but I certainly didn’t become a better PM in the meantime.
Despite all the flaws that come with product interviews, the process did get me to reflect on what works. Here are the some things I learned.
Escape competition through authenticity
This is a fancy way of saying: no one else is better at being you than you. If you put 10 product managers in a room, feed them acai bowls, and ask them to come up with a roadmap, you will have 10 different approaches and 1 really unproductive meeting. This is a great thing about product management: everyone has a different superpower and it’s a profession that lets you play to your strengths.
Early on, I wasn’t very confident in my interviews and gave a lot of generic answers to product questions. For example, when asked about my product development process, I would say something about writing a spec and working collaboratively with design and engineering to implement the feature. The response is not wrong but it’s uninspiring. A thousand other PMs could have given that same response so it’s hard to stand out. Generally, hiring managers are not just looking to assess basic competency so generic responses don’t add much value. The answers should reflect what you believe as a PM.
Once I realized this, interviews became more fun because I felt like I was truly testing PM-company fit. I would say things like “for a lot of features, it’s not necessary to involve design” or a classic of mine — “yeah, I don’t think it’s always best to let everyone in the company know what I am up to”. I’ve always emphasized speed over process, so the worst thing would be getting an offer at a place that overvalues documentation. This is just like dating — it’s better to be genuine early on than risk a nasty surprise later.
Ask better questions
In identifying PM-company fit, I found that it is helpful to ask interesting questions. After all, do you really want to know what a typical day looks like? (Hint: it starts with sunrise) Generic questions prompt canned responses, which usually reveals nothing about the interviewer or the company. Instead, have fun with your questions and make your interviewers sweat a little bit. Here are some of my favorites.
What’s an opinion you hold that would be controversial to most people in the company?
What is something you wish you knew about the product that you don’t know today? (ex. I don’t know why people are dropping off at the early stages of the funnel)
Let’s play good PM/bad PM. What are some attributes of good PMs and some traits of bad PMs?
What was an assumption that you had early on that was proven wrong?
If user or revenue growth flatlined today, what would you do to jumpstart growth?
If CEO came to you and told you to remove 80% of the features, which ones would you keep?
In asking these questions, I want to know:
Are they afraid to be contrarian? Do they have original thoughts?
How deep is their product understanding? What are the blind spots? How much do they understand growth or is it outsourced to a team outside of product?
What kind of PM are they actually looking for?
For a while, it was fun to show off my cool questions, but I started to notice that my conversations became too disjointed. I would ask a question, they would answer, and I would jump to the next question. Imagine you are on a date and just finished explaining why you think gazpacho is just watery salsa, and your date says “cool, next question…” That’s how it started to feel like, which brings me to my next point…
Making a personal connection
Humans are irrational creatures. Unless you are interviewing at Google or Facebook, which treats candidates like car parts waiting to be examined by different people down the assembly line, you will likely start off by chatting with someone who cares about the process. When I first started interviewing, I would spend most of the time talking about my skills and experience. After a few of these, I got bored. They got bored. No one had any fun.
In attempts to escape my personal boredom, I started every conversation by chatting about what I did on the weekend, the latest trendy diet I’m trying, or my holiday plans. This is how I would talk to a coworker so it only made sense to do it in an interview. It took about 60 seconds, but the initial conversations made me more relaxed and prepared for the barrage of questions. When I was able to make a personal connection with the recruiter or the HM, they are much more likely to go to bat for me. One recruiter even offered to refer me to his previous company when the current position didn’t work out.
I am officially retired from interviewing but hope these tips are helpful for you! I’ve also probably talked to most companies in SF, so I’m happy to help with a referral, do practice interviews, etc. Good luck out there!