A good answer:

We started by aligning the team on business goals and user needs in order to define the product vision. I collaborated with the engineering and UI/UX design teams to lock down a strategy, then presented the concept to key executive stakeholders. Using their feedback, we narrowed the focus, got buy-in, and began to build our product roadmap, defining and finessing the features and functionality, and triaging must-haves to make the launch date.

What works:

•   Indication that past experience and performance can lead to future success

•    Ability to influence enthusiasm and get buy-in from key colleagues and teams

•    Understanding of task prioritization and trade-off for future phases to maintain momentum

A potential red flag:

Taking inspiration from another successful product in our industry, I felt like we could do the same, but better. I took the idea to the engineers and asked if they could start building preliminary roadmaps to present to the exec team. I also built an inspiration board compiling similar products by other companies to find a way for us to break off a little piece for our own project. It took some time to build and to get buy-in, but it’s now on the market.

What to watch out for:

•    Disregard for early involvement and input from technical team and upper management leaders

•    Reactive plan implementation based on general industry cues, rather than user needs and business goals

•    Lack of focus or clear product vision, resulting in slowed down development and execution

A good answer:

I’ve always loved the elegance and simplicity of the classic watercooler. It operates through pure gravity, requires no electricity or moving parts to function, has red and blue buttons to indicate hot and cold water, respectively, and the bottle itself shows much water is left. Newer models don’t require you to punch the tab before loading the jug. Modern watercoolers overcomplicate the features with bells and whistles that don’t serve the core functionality. The functional design of a watercooler is, I think, highly undervalued.

What works:

•    A thoughtful, detailed approach to commending a product from a user’s perspective

•    Emphasis on function over frills, and insights into other products for contrast

•    Frameworking the thought process around core product principles, rather than listing features

A potential red flag:

I recently bought a couch online. It’s made of material that’s sustainable, stain-proof, and built to last. There’s also a USB charger that’s built into the couch, so I can charge my devices while I’m on it. The company’s customer service reps are quick to respond and always offer detailed advice and articles to address my questions. Overall, they’re a good brand and company.

What to watch out for:

•    Failure to elaborate on a practical solution to a user problem

•    Piecemeal approach to identifying key product features that does not tie back to an overarching methodology

•    Lack of focus in addressing the original question

A good answer:

In my last role, I was product lead at a subscription service e-commerce company in the clothing business. My team got feedback from sales that our customers felt our clothing lacked options. Our merchandising team expanded their style variety, but the complaints kept coming in. So I connected directly with our customers, and discovered that variety wasn’t the real issue – they were looking for more control in managing the styles showing up in their subscriptions. Ever since, I try to meet with key customers quarterly, if not more regularly, to get a direct, in-depth understanding of their needs. I also maintain an open line of communication with account managers to get real-time feedback. Listening is the key to building a more robust product that supports the customers’ needs.

What works:

•   Willingness to empathize with customers’ pain points and to take action on constructive feedback

•    Values transparency and accessibility through dialogue between the customer and company

•    Connects the importance of a strong product to overall business success and customer satisfaction

A potential red flag:

I don’t usually spend a ton of time directly interacting with customers. It gets in the way of creating the product and sticking to our roadmap. To eliminate an extra step in scheduling customer meetings, we have biweekly meetings with our sales and customer teams, who relay product feedback.

What to watch out for:

•    Lacks awareness that cues from consumer feedback can be taken as opportunities to improve

•    Prioritizes sticking to a timeline over working for long-term efficiency and user adoption

•    Over-reliance on internal sources of truth, rather than taking the initiative to verify feedback with qualitative research

A good answer:

Last quarter, the team had to decide between updating an existing feature or adding a new feature, both high-demand customer requests. To decide which initiative would be most valuable to the company, I measured the lifetime value of customers who requested the update and the lifetime value of the customers who requested the new feature. Since the feature update was requested by higher-value customers, we tackled the update first. I monitored each group's usage of the features and found that the update had a better overall impact for the business, increasing the lifetime value of all customers.

What works:

•    Clear vision of goal and definition of metrics to track progress

•    Supplementing qualitative analysis with quantitative research to understand the implications of each option

•    Ability to articulate the impact of data to key stakeholders and provide rationale for focusing on particular success metrics

A potential red flag:

Every quarter, a company I follow publishes a product management report that shares statistics on which processes or functionalities PMs at other organizations are focusing on for the following quarter. That’s a guiding light I use to come up with a hypothesis to test with the team. If my peers are investing their time in it, it’s worth investing my team’s time in it so we can stay on the competitive edge.

What to watch out for:

•    Absolute reliance on external references to generate a hypothesis

•    Lack of facilitation of team collaboration and feedback on objectives

•    Misalignment of personal and team goals to overall business needs

A good answer:

In one of my first PM roles, the company was young and we didn’t have a lot of customers, so there wasn’t much data to back up the team’s various hypotheses for creating new features. We were all pushing for our “great idea,” but no one could agree on which to move forward with. We decided to build lightweight versions of three features, measuring engagement between three segments of our audience against a control group. I tracked the data for eight weeks to understand what was worth our investment. In certain instances, when the team isn’t gelling on a single idea, it helps to let the data drive.

What works:

•    Demonstrates emotional intelligence by acknowledging outlying factors challenging the team’s momentum, rather than personal agendas

•    Embraces difficulty as an opportunity
to address customers’ needs and measure feedback

•    Versatility in adapting approach to problem-solving with team

A potential red flag:

My team was piloting a new tool that would take new users through a quick tutorial of the product when they first signed on. Although it wasn’t completely ready, I wanted to beta test it on our customers to initiate feedback loops. My team disagreed and wanted to wait until the tool went through additional development phases. The project was paused because I didn’t think we had enough data points to validate our direction.

What to watch out for:

•    Decision-making driven by individual objectives and motivation

•    Impulsive determination to execute a premature test campaign to a larger audience

•    Final outcome resulted in negative impact on team productivity