This article shares 4 real product management case study examples to help you prepare for a case study interview. These decks are real, were used in product management case study interviews and got their creators jobs.
Many product managers aspire to become senior leaders at the Directors, VP or CPO level. The interview processes are robust and will require multiple rounds of discussions with the CEO, other executives, and often board members.
Often, the process will culminate in one or more case study interviews requiring a presentation for senior leadership.
These usually last around 90 minutes and require you to analyze some internal information and then present back your findings.
Whilst the task set will vary, these real life case study examples shed some light on what this process looks like: and show how far their creators went.
This article sets out how you can prepare to smash product management case study interviews. It includes advice to help you prepare.
If you’re interested in how to answer common product manager interview questions as opposed to case studies, check out questions from product leaders at Uber, Amazon, Meta and more here.
General advice for producing a strong product management case study:
Here are our top tips to help you prepare for a product management case study:
No “right” answer
Beware of simply answering the question: the ‘JTBD‘ (job to be done) here is to demonstrate to CEOs that you can take some mental load off them. The problem that CEOs have is that they want to see a return on their investment in technology, so you need to lay out step-by-step how you can do that by showing you’re a strategic, practical thinker. It’s all about how you think through problems, not the answer to the problem. Beware of answering it, invest time in showing how you would make sure you got to a good answer.
It’s a starting point not a prescription
Take whatever is set as a product management case study as a suggestion, rather than as a strict question that you can only answer within the guidelines. You are positioning yourself as the most experienced, capable person in the company at product. So if the task doesn’t let you demonstrate the experience and capabilities you bring to the table, bend it to cover the areas you need it to.
It’s a discussion not a monologue
Treat the slides and the learning points that you put together for a product management case study as opportunities for discussion, and not a presentation. Encourage questions throughout product management case studies, and get their minds going. The more that the interviewer talks and engages, the better impression they’ll have of you walking away.
Act the part
In the discussion you are role playing a colleague. It can be useful to (diplomatically) challenge the existing team to see how they respond. You’ll often pick up a lot about how they interact from who answers the question, and how. Product management case studies should be seen as a two-way street: it’s not only their opportunity to learn about you, it’s also your best opportunity to learn about them.
Real life product management case study examples
JobandTalent | SVP Product
Jobandtalent is the world’s leading digital temp staffing agency. In December 2021 it raised a $500m Series E round led by Kinnevik and valuing the company at $2.4bn post-money.
Ed Biden presented this product management case study deck in the final round of the interview process for JobandTalent’s SVP Product role. Ed was offered the job and started in January 2022. At the time SVP Product was the most senior product role in the company, reporting direct to one of the co-CEOs, and responsible for the product and design functions.
Listen to more advice on how to nail a CPO interview in The Product Experience interview with Ed Biden.
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Vonto | Chief Product & Growth Officer case study example
Exited to Australia’s largest bank, Vonto is an insights engine for small business owners on their business performance. It connects via APIs into existing cloud-based applications, such as Xero, Google Analytics and Shopify, analyses the data using AI, and provides useful insights on what matters to improve their business.
Faith Forster developed this deck as a case study of the work she did there as Chief Product & Growth Officer. Her remit spanned Strategy, Product Management, UX/ UI Design, Growth Marketing, Product Analytics and Customer Support capabilities. Creating a detailed case study of a time you’ve delivered significant impact for an organisation is a great way to demonstrate your capability as a product leader.
Captify | VP Product management case study example
Captify is the leading Search Intelligence Platform for the open web and the largest independent holder of search data outside of the walled gardens, connecting the real-time searches from over 2 billion devices globally. Its technology powers omnichannel programmatic advertising and real-time insights for some of the world’s biggest brands—without reliance on third-party cookies.
Amelia Waddington presented this deck in the final round of the interview process for Captify’s VP Product role. Amelia was offered the job and started in January 2021. At the time VP Product was the most senior product role in the company, reporting direct to the COO, and responsible for the product and design functions. Amelia is now SVP Product with responsibility for Product, Design, Engineering and Insights.
Giraffe360 | VP Product case study example
Giraffe360 creates HDR photography, virtual tours and floor plans with 98% accuracy for real estate agents. In December 2022 it raised a $16m Series A led by Peter Thiel’s Founders Found.
Ryan Al-Sharieh used this deck during the VP Product recruitment process. Ryan was successful, and started the role in November 2021.
- During the process Ryan spent $2k on shares in a rental property, and then included his notes on the entire experience in the hiring process for Giraffe 360. Part of the task was how he’d explore the potential future use cases of blockchain/crypto and real estate, and this gave him a solid answer.
- He thought it was a “wild risk”, but worth it, as even if other candidates were more experienced or qualified, none would be willing to put their wallet to the test.
Why use product management case study examples to help prepare your case?
Benefits of using product management case study examples
Taking time out after you’ve read through your initial case study task to check out some real product management case study examples can be beneficial:
- Sparks creativity: Starting the process of coming up with new ideas
- Improve presentation skills: Show how others present complex ideas and give you models for how to present topics neatly and succinctly
- Ensure a solid structure: Help you design a coherent structure for your case study
- Double check your content: Make sure you don’t miss steps, like introducing yourself
- Demystifying the process: Take a lot of the anxiety out of prepping for your case
Risks of using product management case study examples
While referring to some publicly available case study examples can help get you on the road to developing your own winning case study, it’s important to be careful how you handle them. Some common pitfalls include:
- Copying content: and failing to answer your own case, or worse still, plagiarism being spotted
- Panicking: some product management case studies are really strong which can create a freeze response.
- Not watching time: the examples you’re looking at might have had more presentation time that you have. A good rule of thumb is 3 mins per slide. That means you won’t be able to get everything in that’s in that stellar product management case study example. That’s ok. Put some more killer info in the appendix and send over after the call, or refer to it live if they ask.
Send us a case study
We’re always on the look out for product case study examples to include in our articles. If you’re keen to help the community, write to us with your presentation and story at contact@hustlebadger.com.
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Disclaimer:
- These product case study examples were prepared for interviews based on publicly available information, and are not an accurate representations of any company’s current or past product strategy.
- Information that is not immediately obvious from public sources has been redacted.
FAQs
How to approach a product management case study interview?
Here’s how to approach a product management case study interview: wait before you start answering, check online for product management case study examples to learn from others, and remember it’s all about how you think through problems, not getting the right answer to the question. The best thing to do is outline the problem, discuss round the problem, and talk about the steps you would take to get to certainty that a strategy you developed would solve the problem.
How to solve a product management case study?
First of all, don’t think of it as how to solve the case or get to the right answer. Think of it as how to analyze the case, and how to take steps that would get you to a robust answer. By detailing out the case and then presenting a framework for how you would tackle its complexities, you demonstrate that you have the skills to tackle many different types of problems. Your goal is to show that you can solve problems independently, in a way which gets to good solutions.
How to write a product management case study?
Top tip: don’t worry about pretty slides, worry about effective slides. Work on an outline and a slide messaging that effectively and quickly conveys what you want to say. You can make it look nice later. Next, pay attention to time. Assume every slide will take 3-5 minutes to present. That might mean you only have 8 slides. Work on getting them to be really good. Finally: check for real life product management case study examples to help understand what others do, and don’t hand the task over to AI. It’s easy to spot an AI generated presentation and if you haven’t done the thinking yourself it will show in your presentation.
