There's a lot of product management (PM) interview advice on the Internet.
To help you save time, I've created a map of the most important resources for PM candidates below.
Read on, good luck, and crush those interviews,
Lewis C. Lin 🦊
--
Facebook PM or RPM
Whether you're an RPM candidate or an experienced PM candidate, start with Facebook's official guide to product management candidates*. It'll provide an introduction to the 3 areas of a Facebook PM interview:
Product Sense
Execution
Leadership & Drive
Then, check out the 30-day Facebook PM interview prep plan included in The Product Manager Interview (TPMI). It'll prescribe a step-by-step prep plan, including specific exercises and recommendations.
You'll also want to download my teaching note on Facebook execution questions. Execution questions are a mysterious question type that's gaining popularity, not just at Facebook, but at other companies as well.
* For an alternate description of the Facebook PM interview process, refer my blog post: Facebook Product Manager Interview: What to Expect and How to Prepare.
Google APM, PM or Senior PM
Google APM, PM, and senior PM candidates will benefit from reading this Business Insider article.
Next, check out my 30-day Google PM interview study guide, excerpted from TPMI. Don't miss out on my Google PM interview cheat sheet, displayed here:
For those Google PM candidates who make it to the on-site interviews, Google will ask technical questions focused on either system design, algorithms, or technical trivia.
Google recruiters have hinted to candidates that they should expect non-coding technical questions. That usually means system design questions. If you’ve received that hint, then you should check out The System Design Interview and the PEDALS method.
For those of you who are expecting other types of technical questions like tech trivia or algorithms, refer to the technical topics recommended in my 2-week Product Management Interview Plan.
For those of you who aren't interviewing at Google, Facebook, or Amazon -- you'll also find the 2-week PM interview plan helpful in providing a comprehensive list of study topics and keeping your preparation on track.
Amazon PM
Familiarize yourself with Amazon's leadership principles and read about how they'll come into play at not just the Amazon PM interview but any Amazon interview.
Amazon takes its leadership principles very seriously; it's one of the main reasons why they have the strongest tech culture today**.
**Let's forget, for a moment, about those free Googley snacks and ☀️ rooftop yoga at Facebook.
Use my Amazon interview spreadsheet to organize your responses using my DIGS Method™.
Lastly, jump into the 36-day Amazon interview study guide. There's no shortage of case interview questions including:
Product design
Pricing
Go-to-market.
The good news is, unlike Google PM interviews, you won't have to worry about technical interview prep. Jeff Bezos, after all, came from Wall Street. The only exception is Amazon’s PM-T (PM Technical) roles; you will very likely get technical questions for PM-T, typically around system design.
Do Mock Interviews
It's easy to get familiar with the question types, frameworks, and examples from my books.
But nobody ever won a boxing match by preparing with books only. 🥊
Mock interviews are the only way to master those frameworks and provide perfect responses to questions you've never heard before.
Easily find mock interview PM partners on my Slack channel. Serious candidates will do at least 30 mock interviews before a Google, Facebook, or Amazon interview.
There's one individual who did 100+ mock interviews; he landed a PM offer at Google.
Who to Practice With
Does it matter if you pair up with experienced or inexperienced PM candidates?
According to one community member, who landed a PM job at Facebook, she learned something from everyone she practiced with: young and old.
So don't waste time trying to find the perfect partner.
Just do it.
New to the PM Interview?
If you're new, you might feel more comfortable shadowing someone who's doing a mock interview. The PM interview community is very friendly, so ask if you can listen and observe.
Some folks want privacy, so that's okay too. In that case, simply get a copy of Decode & Conquer. It'll introduce you to question types & provide frameworks on how to answer each one. And reading the sample answers will give you the over-the-shoulder glance of how an interview response might unfold. You can read those sample answers anywhere, anytime. No permission necessary.
Be Courageous
You may feel awkward about doing mock interviews.
You might also find it impossible to conjure interview answers that are on par with the sample answers in Decode and Conquer or The Product Manager Interview.
You wouldn't be the first the feel that way.
So muster that courage 🏋️. Be comfortable with learning & failure.
Who knows? After your 50th or 75th mock interview session, your answers may consistently be on par or even surpass the sample answers in my books. If so, email me. You might be someone I'd like to partner with on my next venture.
Two More Things
If you’ve gotten a PM job offer, congratulations! Don’t miss your opportunity to get more by using my email negotiation examples from my book, 71 Brilliant Salary Negotiation Email Samples.
And once you’ve started your PM job, learn how you can move up from PM to manager of PMs to VP of Product and possibly even CEO with my book, Be the Greatest Product Manager Ever.