This document summarizes a talk given by Product School instructors on how to crack the PM interview. They discuss gaining experience without work history through side projects, preparing for interviews by understanding job descriptions, and common interview questions. The instructors share their career paths and advice on prioritization, metrics, communication skills, and resources for learning. Upcoming Product School courses and instructor bios are also included.

1. Lead Product School Instructor Talks: How To
Crack The PM Interview
January 25, 2017

2. Jake Strich
Campus Director
jake@productschool.com
Contact for more info about PS courses!

3. Upcoming Courses in Silicon Valley
Mondays and Wednesdays
February 27 - April 19
*1 spot left*
Tuesdays and Thursdays
February 28 - April 20
*1 spot left*
Saturdays
March 4 - April 22
*SOLD OUT*

4. Fred Radford
www.productschool.co
m
Director of Product at 8x8
5-time Product School
Instructor
Feb 27 - April 19
Monday & Wednesday 6:30-
9pm

5. Madhumita Mantri
www.productschool.co
m
Data and Analytics - Technical
Program Manager @ LinkedIn
Product School alum ‘16

6. Q & A

7. How to gain PM experience w/o work experience?
- Side projects
- Tangible, released into the marketplace
- What are product related things you can do
- Blogs
- Side projects
- Website
- ‘Can you get the job done?’
- Meeting with PMs in the workplace, grab coffee

8. Question
- Madhumita: worked in Sales Ops/Productive
- Built app
- Ran campaigns to test market-fit
- Building use cases
- Pitch deck for jobs she was applying for
- PM @ Oracle - presented to VP Product, proving why
she can do the job

9. [Technical background] What kind of opportunities
do you get out of Product School?
- PM Triangle: Intersection of Design, Technology,
Business
- Background of building internal products
- Looking for roles that were specific to her
experience
- Qualified for mid- and senior-level Product roles
- How can you be a closer fit for the job?

10. How do you prepare based on Job descriptions
- Madhumita: CRM background, so looking for
products related to this
- Problems company is facing building their
software
- Understanding how you can help the Product
team with their current problem

11. What are the top 3 questions asked in PM interviews
- Are you going to lessen my workload and solve
my problems?
- Biggest failure, tell me about yourself..doesn’t
matter
- Framework is the same
- Evaluate the problem
- Ask questions
- Bring a solution
- Solve the problems that don’t have the current
definition

12. Question
- How would you go about building an elevator?
- Scope the problem, why are we building it?
- Criteria: Freight or people elevator? Speed of elevator,
number of floors
- Framework: evaluate metrics that define success of
building elevator
- LinkedIn: Like feature, what was going on in PM’s
head when he came up with this feature?
- Asking why they are thinking about building the
elevator…

13. What would a PM consider important when building
an elevator?
- How vs. Why >> acting like a PM
- PM, take a step back
- Number one skill is communication
- Establish persona
- Advocates for end user - PM
- Asking right questions, coming up with the right
problem
- Once we create persona and hypothesis, we can solve
the right problem

14. How do you recover from formulating around
hypothesis after finding the wrong solution?
- Understanding the customer
- Journey, not a snapshot
- Starting over is OK, connecting with customer

15. ‘Rockstar PM’ defined
- Product Market fit
- Mission of company
- Industry specific knowledge
- ‘Get the right sh*t done at the right time’ :)
- Google PM
- E.g. Sundar Pichai, Google CEO. Former VP
Product, led Product for Chrome, Drive, etc.
- Prioritization, proactively attacking the day-to-day
-

16. When’s the wrong time?
- Building something that is indispensable
- E.g. Netflix pricing change to Mail-order DVD

17. What are secret weapons to stand out as a PM?
- Prioritization
- Aha.io , roadmapping software tool
- Understanding core MVP
- Data analytics
- Mixpanel
- Optimizely - A/B testing
- UX
- Sketch
- Zepplin
- Influence w/o authority

18. What are secret weapons to stand out as a PM?
- Chocolate, esp for QA
- Understand your team, keep honing
communication skills
- Empathize with your people
- E.g. Sales, ‘I understand you need this to make your
sale!’
- Soft skills
- Presentation

19. Books, podcasts, resources
- LinkedIn course: Conscious Business
(https://conscious.linkedin.com/)
- This is Product Management - AlphaUX
- Bringing the Donuts >> Ken Norton, Google
Ventures
- Cracking the PM Interview , Gayle Laakman
McDowell
- Decode and Conquer, Lewis Lin
- Hooked by Nir Eyal
- Send Jake a message and he will send you a
comprehensive list! jake@productschool.com

20. Prioritization and Metrics
- Breaking it down by feature, or holistically
- What is the business value?
- Types of priorities:
- Home run
- Big bet
- Junk
- Quick wins
- Success metrics

21. Do I need to know how to code?
- No
- Can you be more of a critic
- Building a website shows initiative
- Legacy knowledge:
- First PM in startup, taking over from CEO
- No domain, not helpful
- Go after roles where you can get stuff done, not
domain expertise

22. How do you work closely with engineering?
- Speaking in their language, empathy
- Review PRD with architect
- ‘It can’t be done’ ‘It’ll take too long’

23. What are the biggest things candidates do wrong?
- Talking about Solution first
- What type of PM are you?
- Surfer guy, resumes that talk a lot about showing
up and results

24. Good at execution, not strong at vision. How to shore
up?
- Who comes up with the solution?
- Leverage experts
- Speak with management, raise your hand
- User focus groups to help understand direction of
product
- Need to be willing to learn

25. What do you think is the most effective way to get
the interview in the first place?
- Inbound hot job opportunity :)
- Resume, Linkedin, Network in order
- Madhumita: reached out to someone in company
that she wants to work at, asking for details
- Tell your story, why should they help you?

26. What makes a good PRD?
- Living document
- E.g. Hospital vs Startup
- Waterfall, 200 page PRD @ hospital
- 1 page Google doc list of requirements @ startup
- Write your press release first, gets team on board
with vision

27. Titles, titles, titles
- Program Manager @ Microsoft is a product
Manager at Google is a Program manager @
Apple
- Technical program/project management
- Product focused vs customer focused
- Solving problem of building product
- Uber - taxi fleet vs driver’s personal car

28. Would PS be beneficial for a program manager?
- Getting acquainted to every aspect of product
- Access to Product Managers on daily basis

29. How do you come up on the recruiter’s radar?
- Key words
- Resume
- Highlight accomplishments, results from projects
- What can we do to find our ways into the org?
- Informational interview, intent isn’t to get a job,
most ambitious is asking for a referral/intro to
someone closer to the job opening
- Google PM’s personal website: Odean.com

30. Upcoming Courses in Silicon Valley
Mondays and Wednesdays
February 27 - April 19
*1 spot left*
Tuesdays and Thursdays
February 28 - April 20
*SOLD OUT*
Saturdays
March 4 - April 22
*SOLD OUT*

31. Upcoming Course Instructors
www.productschool.co
m
Fred Radford
Director of Product at 8x8
5-time Product School
Instructor
Feb 27 - April 19
Monday & Wednesday 6:30-
9pm

32. Upcoming Course Instructors
www.productschool.co
m
Inbal Cohen
Product Manager @ Facebook
Previously Sr. PM @ Amazon
Feb 28 - April 20
Tuesday & Thursday 6:30-9pm
*sold out*

33. Upcoming Course Instructors
www.productschool.co
m
Jamal Eason
Product Manager @ Google
Previously PM @ Intel
March 4 - April 22
Saturdays
9:30am-3:30pm (12-1 lunch)
*sold out*

34. Upcoming Workshops
Feb 8: Growth Explained by Facebook's
Core Product Manager Yaron Fidler