28: How to Ace Product Management Interviews

12/08/21 • 51 min

How To Succeed In Product Management | Jeffrey Shulman, Red Russak & Soumeya Benghanem

In this episode of the How to Succeed in Product Management Podcast, marketing professor Jeff Shulman and The Product Management Center advisory board members Red Russak and Soumeya Benghanem welcome Martie K. Burris (Salesforce) to discuss product management interview strategies. To land the best PM role in the best company, you have to master the art of acing any and all product management interviews. Listen in to the techniques experienced PMs use, their strategies that have worked, and their proven and tested frameworks.

Support for How to Succeed in Product Management is brought to you by Apptentive, which enables product managers to measure shifts in customer emotion and gather actionable feedback across the mobile customer journey. To learn more, go to Apptentive.com/UW.

What to Listen For:

00:00 Intro
02:10 The Inclusive Product Management Accelerator program
06:10 PM interviews have evolved over time
09:11 What is the purpose of a PM interview?
13:36 Lead PM interviews focus more on the strategy
14:48 The type of questions to prepare for
17:25 Find resources and practice with other people
20:14 The Do’s and Don’ts of PM interview
24:20 Summarize your answer at the end
26:03 Your framework should be your natural thought process
31:01 How to handle rejection
33:47 Is MBA a necessary requirement?
39:55 Strategies to get into the right interview
45:43 Interview people with empathy and listen more
48:45 Be mindful that people are trying to understand your thought process

What to Listen For:

00:00 Intro
02:10 The Inclusive Product Management Accelerator program
06:10 PM interviews have evolved over time
09:11 What is the purpose of a PM interview?
13:36 Lead PM interviews focus more on the strategy
14:48 The type of questions to prepare for
17:25 Find resources and practice with other people
20:14 The Do’s and Don’ts of PM interview
24:20 Summarize your answer at the end
26:03 Your framework should be your natural thought process
31:01 How to handle rejection
33:47 Is MBA a necessary requirement?
39:55 Strategies to get into the right interview
45:43 Interview people with empathy and listen more
48:45 Be mindful that people are trying to understand your thought process

Previous Episode

27: Transitioning from an Individual Contributor to a Manager

In this episode of the How to Succeed in Product Management Podcast, marketing professor Jeff Shulman and The Product Management Center advisory board members Red Russak and Soumeya Benghanem welcome Poorvi Shrivastav (HubSpot) to talk about how to smoothly transition from being an individual contributor to a leadership role. Aside from the tips and guides one can learn and practice while in transition, never lose focus on putting people first.

What to Listen For:

00:00 Intro
01:29 Transition from an individual contributor (IC) to Manager
07:43 Who directly reports to you?
08:51 The biggest transition from being an IC to a manager
11:02 3 things you need to succeed in the management role
16:20 Be very clear about the credit that belongs to you
20:13 Tips on how to transition in your first few days
25:29 Focus on outcome, but think about the process too
31:11 How to ace an interview for a leadership role
41:20 When you start leading a team that you are part of
47:38 How do you manage delegation?
50:00 Transition from an IC to management course
52:02 Focus on people first

Next Episode

29: What to Expect in the Development Process

In this episode of the How to Succeed in Product Management Podcast, marketing professor Jeff Shulman and The Product Management Center advisory board members Red Russak and Soumeya Benghanem welcome Nora Tan (Color) to talk about product development. For PMs, there are three phases that every product development must go through -- discovery, framing, and iteration. The question is, which phase is the most important?

What to Listen For: