Key Resources for Product Interview Prep
Taking the past years into account, most of the APM roles have had the following round of
interviews
Deck Round RCA and Product Tech HR/
(Shortlist) Guesstimates Sense/Produc Understandin Behaviour
t Design and g al
Prep for Deck Round
Minimum: Section on making decks in Preparing for Product Interviews (Advaith Sridhar) Link:
Preparing_For_Product_Interviews_compressed.pdf
Additional Reads (These books provide a general overview of how to think about problems and
structuring in general, not all sections need to be read)
Decode and Conquer (Lewis C. Lin)
Cracking the PM Interviews (Gayle Laakmann McDowell)
Prep for RCA and Guesstimates
For Guesstimates
Recommended Approach : Sit with a case partner and practice mock interviews on guesstimates.
(Practice around 10-15 guesstimates at first, keep solving 1-2 cases every week to keep in touch)
(Watch Youtube videos on guesstimates to observe case interview etiquette)
Ex: Guesstimate: No. of washing machines sold in India in a year
Minimum read: Case Interviews Cracked, Sankalp Kelshikar (Author), Saransh Garg (Author)
Question Bank: www.productmanagementexercises.com
For RCA (Root Cause Analysis)
Recommended Approach : Sit with a case partner and practice mock interviews on Problem Solving.
Observe things like, what type of clarifying questions to ask, when to take a pause and how to check in
with the interviewer. After each practice session, spend some time on retrospecting what was good and
what could be improved, which branch of potential root cause was left out and what can you do to avoid
missing it the next time . Keep evolving your clarifying questions and frameworks.
Ex: Flipkart Product Manager Mock Interview: Root Cause Analysis (Razorpay PM)
Recommended Read: Preparing for Product Interviews (Advaith Sridhar) (Section on Problem Solving)
Use this book judiciously, if needed prepare 2-3 cases from other sources before hand and use these
cases for mock interviews.
Question Bank: www.productmanagementexercises.com
Recommended Youtube Channels: Exponent, PM Diego Granados
For Product Thinking/Product sense/Metrics
Recommended Approach : Start by observing cases on Youtube Channels: Exponent, PM Diego
Granados etc. and then sit with a case partner and practice mock interviews. After each practice
session, spend some time on retrospecting what was good and what could be improved. At first these
questions might seem really vague, but try to do everything within a logical MECE structure. Structure
the case, structure the problem, structure the stakeholders, structure the solution, structure the
metrics.
Recommended Read: Preparing for Product Interviews (Advaith Sridhar) (Section on Problem Solving)
Additional Reads
Decode and Conquer (Lewis C. Lin)
Cracking the PM Interviews (Gayle Laakmann McDowell)
Note: You will observe that these books recommends some frameworks on solving such questions, while
these are good for support when you start practicing cases, but with time, try to break away from these
frameworks, keep evolving your own frameworks and try to come up with your own logical structure to
the case. (Don’t worry, this will come naturally with practice)
Question Bank: www.productmanagementexercises.com, try to find other sources as well
Tech Understanding:
Tech understanding differs from knowing how to code. The emphasis is more on plausible
answers over accurate answers, say, try explaining how google search works.
Recommended Approach: Instead of swallowing it all at once, try to develop a general habit of
reading and appreciating tech applications in your day to day products. After you have gone
through 7-8 hours worth of content, you can observe that things start to repeat and you can
almost predict possible approaches to solving tech problems
● Must Read: Swipe to Unlock (Book) (Aditya Agashe, Parth Detroja, Neel Mehta)
● Tech Simplified: Deepak Singh
● Section on Tech Understanding in : Preparing for Product Interviews (Mock Quesitions)
● Videos like these : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9Hrn0oNmJM
Additional Articles and Blogs:
https://medium.com/sequoia-capital/tagged/product-management
https://blog.tryexponent.com/tag/product-management/
● What, exactly, is a Product Manager? : https://www.mindtheproduct.com/what-exactly-
is-a-product-manager/
● Leveraging Data To Build Consumer Products :
https://medium.com/sequoia-capital/leveraging-data-to-build-consumer-products-
fe9ea1a059b8
● The different types of ‘Product Managers: which one am I and which one do I need? :
https://medium.com/@carlosbeneyto/types-of-product-manager-startup-3bb978f50d2f
● Frameworks for Product Success : https://medium.com/sequoia-capital/frameworks-
for-product-success-aff3f29c2c57
● Preparing Use Cases : https://brainmates.com.au/brainrants/how-to-prepare-a-use-
case/
● Define Product Features : https://www.mindtheproduct.com/product-requirements-
using-written-visual-framework/
● Testing : https://www.productschool.com/blog/product-management-2/skills/ab-
testing-product-management/
● How to Identify Metrics : https://www.sequoiacap.com/article/defining-product-
success-metrics-and-goals
● What is the right Metric to use? : https://www.intercom.com/blog/finding-the-metrics-
that-matter-for-your-product/
General:
● Prepare favorite products:
○ Online Product (+ websites)
○ Offline Product
● List down as many popular products around you as you can and analyze them / learn
how they work / what would you like to improve about them
Behavioural Question
- Tell me about yourself (prepare 30 sec and 2 min versions)
- Walk me through your resume
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