Recently, I had the opportunity to carefully analyze my PM question bank, which contains over 1700 questions.
This involved examining interview questions from leading tech firms such as Google, Meta, Amazon, and others spanning from 2022 to early 2024.
Through this analysis, I've identified important trends and focus areas that can help PM candidates better prepare for the hiring process.
Consistent Areas Tested
One key observation across all years is that product design, strategy, and analytical thinking have remained the core skills tested through PM interviews at top tech companies. However, the specific types of questions within these areas have shifted over time.
Product Design: Increasingly Open-Ended
In 2022, I noticed product design questions tended to be more constrained and specific, such as "Design an iOS Smartwatch for Tesla owners." However, in 2023, there was a clear shift towards more open-ended design tasks across various verticals. Examples include "Design a product for gardening" and "Design a fitness product for Meta." This open-ended style has continued into 2024 with prompts like "Design an app for people to find a doctor in a new city."
This trend suggests companies are testing higher-level product thinking abilities rather than familiarity with specific products. Candidates must demonstrate versatile product design skills adaptable to diverse domains.
Strategy: From Growth to Execution
When it comes to strategy questions, I observed a progression from high-level growth strategies in 2022 (e.g., "How would you grow 10x in 3 years?") to more tactical execution priorities in 2023 and 2024. In 2023, questions focused on areas like prioritization, pricing, and go-to-market strategies, such as "How to prioritize a new feature?" and "Give discounts for group bookings?"
In 2024, the strategy questions have become even more specific, delving into granular offering strategies. For instance, "How to pitch white label delivery to restaurants?" The focus clearly shifts from broad strategy to tactical execution details as candidates progress through the interview process.
Analytics: Nuanced Trade-off Analysis
Defining goals and success metrics for products and features has been a consistent theme in analytical thinking questions across all years. However, in 2023, I noticed a concentration of such questions around Meta/Facebook properties specifically.
Moreover, in 2024, the analytical questions have started exploring more nuanced trade-offs between metrics. An example is "How would you define success goals for the Work Chat app at Meta? What metrics would you track? Suppose engagement goes up but adoption goes down, what do you do?" This suggests companies are progressively testing more sophisticated analytical skills beyond just basic metric definitions.
Other Trends and Takeaways
A few other notable observations from my analysis:
Technical and system design questions appeared relatively infrequent across the data.
Some limited behavioral and leadership questions were present, primarily in earlier stages of the process.
Overall, there was a consistent focus on PM interviews, but with an evolving scope and depth as candidates progressed.
In summary, while product design, strategy, and analytics have remained the core areas tested, PM interview questions have evolved to dive deeper into specific execution skills and nuanced trade-off analysis in later stages. This likely reflects the evolving scope of responsibilities as candidates advance through PM roles.
The key takeaway for PM candidates is the importance of developing versatile product thinking abilities, strong prioritization skills, and comfort with ambiguous trade-off analysis. Preparation should extend beyond any specific product area and build broad, transferable PM skills applicable across industries and companies.
By staying attuned to these trends, aspiring product managers can better focus their efforts and position themselves for success in the competitive PM hiring process at top tech firms.
