Here are 99 product management interview questions. We really know you want the answers too, we’re working on updating links to relevant conversations. Meanwhile, please pay it forward with any good answers in the comments below. Join our Discord to practice, compare and share answers.
We all despise interviews, and really, these interviews are just a pretentious way of judging people. Knowing what might be asked levels the playing field. We left out the product case study questions since you know, everyone and their mom has been studying those already.
Each section corresponds to a panel interview you will have across different product skills such as data, design, engineering, product, and culture.
Behavioral Product Management Interview Questions
- How do you define the requirements for a solution?
- What is your best skillset as a Product Manager (what is your “PM Superpower” 🙄)?
- If we hired you, what would you do in the first 90 days?
- How would you prioritize different product feature releases?
- What are three products that you’ve used today? Pick one, and how would you improve it?
- How do you describe Product Management to a 5-year-old?
- How do you come up with new product features?
- Was there a time your decision had a negative outcome? How did you handle it?
- What are some current industry trends that you’re most excited about now?
- How do you prioritize resources with multiple priorities and you only time for one?
- What’s one feature you would remove from one of your favorite products?
- What’s your experience with working with remote and international teams?
- What about Product Management do you like the most?
- What do you dislike about Product Management?
- How do you stay customer focused?
- What aspect of product work do you like doing?
- What aspect of Product work do you not like doing?
- How would you improve one of our products?
- What is your favorite product, and how would you improve it?
- What is something that you’re obsessed with currently?
- Do you follow any Product Management blogs or PM influencers?
- What was the hardest decision you had to make, and what was the outcome?
- What do you do for fun in your free time?
Behavioral Questions For Experienced Product Hires
- Tell me about a feature you built recently. What were the target customers, metrics, outcomes, and learnings?
- Name your three top valued principles as a Product Manager?
- What product are you most proud of?
- If you have to re-do a Product that you’ve launched, what would you change?
- Please walk me through an experiment that became a real product.
- Q(4) How did you gain those insights to decide to do this experiment.
- Q(5) How did you kick off that product?
- How do you ensure your customer priorities are met?
- What product have you launched from “0 to 1”?
- What is your current role as a product manager?
- Have you launched a product in an international market? What do you think are some of the nuances?
- Have you had to kill a feature? How did know that was the right thing to do?
- What are some successful products or projects you have launched?
Product Management Leadership Interview Questions
Product Management culture glorifies leadership, that “type-A” persona, and people that are “doers”. There’s nothing wrong with being a follower in our minds. Tbh, some of us just want to be PMs for the salary, but also want an easy paycheck, but let’s not tell your interviewer that. You just need to practice these interview questions to talk as if you are a leader. Understanding the types of “followers” helps to talk about how to lead them.
Product Leadership
- What are the top 3 Product Management qualities that you value?
- What are the qualities that make a strong leader?
- Do you consider the unanimous agreement a good thing?
- Tell me about a time you were able to change the opinions of your cross-functional stakeholders.
- How do you go about building a product roadmap? Who do you involve, and when do you involve them?
- Tell me about a process you have implemented or improved.
- Tell me about when you had to change the product strategy and how you aligned other teams on the new strategy.
- How do you prioritize what products and features to do next?
Team Leadership
- Do you have any experience managing and motivating a team?
- What is your approach to motivating others on your team and adjacent teams?
- Have you had experience with indirect leadership, and how did you navigate it?
- How would you manage teams across time zones?
- Tell me about the time when your team made a critical mistake. How did you handle it?
- How do you communicate your product strategy?
- What is your leadership style, and what have you learned or changed about it in the future.
- Tell me about a time you had to say “no” to someone.
Design Interview Questions for Product Managers
Not all Product Managers work with designers, but they usually are a part of the interview round regardless. Designers will ask interview questions that focus on your customer and the product development process as it relates to design interaction.
- How soon should UI/UX be brought on for input into a new feature?
- How have you partnered with UX designers in the past?
- Describe a time when you had a difficult experience with your UX designer or team.
- How did you interact with customers at your current or previous job?
- How do you usually provide feedback to UX on a product?
- What is the best interaction you’ve had with a UX designer?
- What product do you use that has the best UX design?
- What’s the difference between a UI and UX designer.
- What methods have you used to do customer research?
- Tell me about a time when you had to negotiate between design and engineering. What was the outcome?
Data and Metrics Product Management Interview Questions
Data teams will ask interview questions on how you use data and your attitude towards data analysts. They want to feel that you respect their hours of querying, and maybe actually SQL yourself. For reals though, in most companies, data teams will handle everything questioned below, you just need to set up a meeting and delegate it. Unless you’re interviewing for a start-up, then yeah, you’ll be doing all of that yourself as a PM.
- Tell me about when you used data to make a data-driven decision.
- Tell me about a time when you had to make a decision but didn’t have enough data.
- What does statistical significance mean to you?
- How would you set up an A/B test for a scenario the interviewer will give you?
- Please walk me through an A/B test experiment you have done in your previous job.
- What metrics would you use to measure product success (given a specific product)?
- A metric you were tracking experienced a 20% drop. How would you go about determining the cause?
- What are some data tools you have used?
- Have you done your own querying in the past, or did you rely on a data team?
- How have you interacted with data teams in the past?
Engineering Interview Questions for PM’s
- How “technical” are you?
- Please walk me through a sample architecture design you can talk about from your past job (whiteboard).
- How have you worked with engineering teams in the past?
- What’s your opinion on technical debt?
- How is your current pod structured? How many engineers?
- What is your ideal setup for roles and responsibilities between Product Managers and Engineering Managers?
- Have you made any decisions to build or buy? How did you approach it?
- Tell me about a time you had a conflict with engineering on a decision. What was the result?
- How do you groom backlog and set priority?
- How do you keep engineering in the loop with constantly changing priorities?
- What is your role as a PM during sprint planning?
- As a PM, how do you on board engineers?
- How do you and the engineers agree on what is built?
- What are some of the pros in cons that you’ve experienced with agile?
- Would you describe yourself as more business or technical-oriented?
- We use X technology here. Have you had experience with this in the past?
- Tell me about a time when you had to learn new technology. How did you approach it?
General Behavioral Interview Questions
- Why did you apply to precisely this company and this position?
- How does this position fit in your career path?
- What is one thing you need to improve for your last review cycle? How did you improve it?
- What management style are you looking for in your next manager?
- Tell me about a time you disagreed with a stakeholder, and what was the outcome?
- What are you looking for in your future team?
- Example of a difficult decision you made.
- What would you be doing if you were not working at your current company? What is your dream job?
- Tell me about an unpopular decision you made that others disagreed with. You thought you were right.
- How would your co-workers and team describe you?
Good Luck Interviewing!
That’s a long list of product management interview questions to prepare for. Luckily, there is a lot of overlap in concepts and you already notice some of the questions sound similar across categories. If you messed up to the point of no return, you can always break out the momma jokes at those judgmental interviewers. “What do you do for fun in your free time?” ….
More Interview Questions and Answers
Additional resources for more questions and answers can be found in Lewis lin’s 167 Actual Questions and Answers. The book focuses more specifically on case studies.