“It all does come down to preparation. When it’s the job that you really want, and you’re not prepared it sounds like you’re wasting people’s time. But it’s not that – you’re going to an interview not match fit and going through the ringer.”
– Miles Cunliffe, Founder of Fresh
Congratulations. You’re invited to an interview for a job. You’ve jumped the biggest hurdle, which is to get in front of the hiring team as a person, not a CV. It’s likely you’ll have multiple meetings with multiple different types and sorts of people, and you will be wondering how to do well in each of them.
It is not only possible to prepare thoroughly and well for interviews, but interview preparation pays off handsomely. We’ll guide you through how to get match fit and present your best self in interview.
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How interviews might be organised
Interview processes will vary from company to company, and you should always ask what the process you are in looks like to be clear on what will happen. That said, it’s common for interviews to follow a pattern like this:
- Screening with recruiter or HR – 30-45 mins: a hygiene run through your CV looking for inconsistencies and holes, and a light cross check on your skills and experience. The HR lead often acts as a ‘what sort of person is this’ cultural check for the hiring manager, so don’t treat this as a formality. If you’ve networked directly into a meeting with the hiring manager, you might skip this, or do it later in the process.
- Meeting with the hiring manager – 30-60 mins: a deeper dive into your CV, your core competencies and some behavioural questions to assess your process and problem solving skills. This is where you meet your future manager, but it’s often a relatively light screen compared to what comes later. This is the surface check the manager does on the person behind the CV.
- Meetings with possible future colleagues – 30-60 mins each: a further series of screenings, with each meeting digging into a concern or competency which either hasn’t been covered, or where you are perceived to be potentially weak. For example, the hiring manager might want to test your ability to work with UX and your product design skills, and hence set up a screening with a UX lead.
- Meeting with a senior figure – 30-45 mins: in some companies the CPO or the founders will sign off on every hire. Make sure you get some advice from the hiring or talent manager on what they look for, as they are often testing for very specific skills or values.
- Project or case study review – 60-90 mins: Most tech companies will set a case or a project as one of the final stages. It’s helpful for interviewers as a tool to see how you respond to a real world problem that you haven’t seen before, and it’s useful for you as well – since it gives you a live run through of how working there might really be day-to-day. Cases might be given out several days in advance to give you a chance to prepare. We’ve compiled some real world examples of responses to CPO / VP level case studies here.
Whilst this is a common pattern for interviews, no guaranteed that your interviews will follow this structure. Smaller start ups might have less formal or shorter process, and big tech companies will often have a very opinionated view of what their hiring process should look like.
Responding to an interview request
When you first get a request for an interview it can feel tempting to squeeze it in as soon as possible. However, you want to make sure that you can be on top form for it.
Schedule it for a time which suits you
Try to optimise your calendar to pick a good day for you and to give yourself a 30 min preparation slot beforehand. If you can add 30 minutes afterwards in case it overruns, and to give yourself time to reflect, send a thank you note and make some notes on how it went that’s even better.
Respond within 24 hours
If you get the request, respond within 24 hours selecting the best of the offered slots for you, or sharing your availability. Don’t feel like you have to take one of the slots you’ve been offered – you can always share multiple options of your own and see what is feasible. But do get back to them within 24 hours.
Make sure your Linkedin and digital profile is up to date and clean
While you might have sent in a CV, the first thing any interviewer who has not been involved in the screening process will do is check your Linkedin or Google you in advance of the call. Make sure your Linkedin profile shows off your experience as well as your CV does – it might be the only thing your interviewer looks at. If you have personal websites or if there’s other digital artefacts out there on the web that an interviewer might find then clean those up too.
Start your interview preparation
If you haven’t already starting preparing for interview, then now is the time to crack on with that. Think about:
- Mapping the role
- Researching questions that might be asked
- Checking out the interviewers
- Getting references
Whilst you don’t need to do everything before the first interview, more prep will undoubtedly give you a much better chance of success. We’ll run through each of these in more detail now before taking a deeper dive look at auditing a company, which is big topic in its own right.
Mapping the role
One question that almost every company will ask you, often multiple times, is: “Why us?”
You need to be super clear why this company fits into your career plan.
One of the biggest turn offs for any interviewer is to hear you complain about your old employer. You may dislike your current job, but you should be running towards something rather than away from something. Being able to explain what you want out of your career, and how this specific role, at this specific company fits coherently into that is key. This doesn’t necessarily mean crafting a long answer: 1-2 killer reasons tend to be good enough.
Example:
I’ve been working at a Head of Level in Series B marketplaces for 3 years. This role would allow me to step up to Director level (in your Series B marketplace company). I’m particularly interested in your company because your green mission aligns closely to my personal values, and I would like to be driving change.
One common mistake is not articulating well why this company in particular meets your goals. Industry, stage, customer base all tie into it, but you need to be able to say why this particular company is special rather than one of it’s competitors. Take a moment to think about what excites you about this company and know why you want to work for them specifically. Even if you are applying to all of them you should know why they are different and what is interesting about their individual approaches.
Prepare your answers to the “why us” question in advance of the interview cycle beginning. This will help cement a credible answer in your head and make it easy for you to answer this question consistently throughout the process.
Job Mapping
Mirroring, or the practice of imitating (consciously or unconsciously) the body language, gestures and language of counterparts has been shown to help building rapport. Similarly, when you’re in an interview you want to make sure that you mirror the company’s requirements, skills and the values they outline in their job description to look like the best fit.
Go through the job description in detail, mapping the experience you have to the requirements of the job. This is a simple exercise taking no longer than an hour:
- Copy paste a screenshot of the job description into a doc
- Go through the role requirements line by line (what sort of person they are looking for, what the role involves) and pull out the key points
- Think about what is being said and what questions they might ask
- Craft an answer using their keywords mapped onto your experience
- Think about what questions are being thrown up for you as you do this – what are you now curious about when it comes to the role?
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The goal isn’t that you’ll be able to recite answers which match the job description word for word, but that you’ll pick up the key requirements and phrasing of the document overall. This will help you demonstrate you’re right for the role by matching what the interviewer is looking for in language they are familiar with.
This is also the moment to mentally reevaluate your enthusiasm for the job: do you really want it? What questions do you have about it? If you sense you’re not actually very keen or you feel like there are red flags, get ready to ask your questions to the hiring manager and the recruiter. If the answers don’t feel like you or you have concerns, it’s ok to discontinue in the process.
A job description with few details is in itself a bad sign, so if there’s nothing to hang your role mapping off, treat it as such.
Research questions that might get asked
If you’re interviewing at a bigger tech company, then it’s worth seeing if you can find out what sort of questions might get asked at interview. Don’t treat this as 100% accurate, but rather an indicator of the types of questions that are likely to come up. There are two ways to do this:
- Check Exponent, Glassdoor and Product Management Exercises for real interview questions which have been asked by tech companies in product manager interviews
- Check Glassdoor for the company specific interview experience
- You can do this by searching for the company on Glassdoor, then selecting the interview filter, and then drilling down by job title
- As an added bonus this will also give you a sense of what interviewing at the company is like
Check out the interviewer
Whilst you should definitely ask the hiring manager or talent manager to brief you on upcoming interviews, you should also do your own research on Linkedin.
It’s helpful for you to see what sorts of backgrounds and experiences are valued at your possible future employer, and you might get some indications of the types of questions they’ll ask and responses they will value (e.g. do they have a strong analytical, design or technical background?).
The interviewer may also post on Linkedin, allowing you to understand their concerns, personality and interests. Finally, since it’s always good to expand your network, connecting with your interviewer after the interview on Linkedin (with a thank you note) is a great way to make new connections for the future.
Getting references
Just as a company will reference you to make sure you’re suitable for the job, so you should reference them if you can. This can uncover a wealth of information to help you through the hiring process, and help you work out if it’s the right role for you:
- What interview questions are likely to come up
- What the company values are
- What the company culture is
- What the PM role looks like at this particular company
- How well it’s doing overall
Check if you have any 1st or 2nd degree connections on Linkedin who have either worked there in the past or who currently work at the company. Reach out to them explaining you’re interviewing there and asking them for a quick chat. Your success rate should be high – people will either be keen to sing the praises of their former employer, or politely warn you off.
If you don’t have any connections who work there, then reaching out to people with similar profiles to yours who used to work there in the last year. Do cold outreach in a similar method to the ones we’ve covered in our sections on finding a mentor and running an active search. This is very common practice, especially as you get more senior, and you should consider it a critical part of your job hunt.
Once you’ve set up calls with former employees, try to understand what the executive concerns are, the company focus, and any business or competitive pressures. This is also a great time to ask what working at the company is like, and anything else which works well or doesn’t work well. It’s worth asking what sort of person would thrive there, and what sort of person would struggle. You should get very candid responses that will help you decide whether it’s the right role for you.
Audit the company
If you’re applying for a role or wondering about accepting an offer, auditing the company in question gives you a lot of valuable context. A thorough audit can uncover information about:
- Culture: What it’s like to work at the company, how senior management respond to employee feedback, and what people think of management strategy and capabilities. It can also give you a view on interviewee experience, what senior management talk about as their top concerns and shed light on internal attitudes to DEI.
- Positioning: How they present themselves online, their value proposition for customers, and their competitive advantage.
- User satisfaction: User feedback on the value they receive from the product, their pain points or moments of delight, and how the product is perceived versus competitor offerings.
- Product: How the product works, it’s main features, UX and onboarding flows. How the company makes money.
- Tech: What the company’s underlying tech stack is.
- Growth: How the company attracts new users and grows. Its Go-To-Market (GTM) strategy, their marketing channel mix, and how it stacks up against competitors.
- Financial health: Whether the company is financially stable. When it last raised money. Who are the investors. Financial results from investor reports and analysis.
You can’t learn everything about a company from this process, but you’ll definitely learn something, should make you comfortable that you’ve done your homework before accepting an offer to join. Check out our full guide on how to audit a company for more details.
Other interview preparation tips
Quora, What as a hiring manager instantly turns you off?
Beforehand
If you’re visiting an office, ask about the dress code and match it – too formal can be as bad as too informal, and noticing that you’re out of step with the rest of the company can be unsettling.
When you’re entering the building or waiting for a call, try to take some deep breaths. Deep breathing has been shown to lower your heart rate thereby promoting calm, and being calm helps you interview well.
Arriving and presenting yourself at an office
In addition, don’t arrive more than 5 minutes in advance of the interview. A lot of start ups don’t have a waiting area, and being in a public place and scrutinised, or waiting alone in a room can disrupt their day to day operations.
Remember that everyone in the building is assessing you – so no matter how flustered or worried you might be, remember to be courteous to everyone you meet.
During the interview
“You’ve got to be in control of yourself. That’s the only thing that you have 100% control of is your reaction to what comes up in the interview. And I think the people that have impressed me the most in interviews and have been those that have managed their own state. So they can get curve balls. Questions that they weren’t anticipating but it’s the people that say, okay, let me just take a couple of moments to think that one through, then embraced the silence without being scared, really thinking about how they’re going to structure their question, and what are they going to say before they spoke. Because to me that shows that when they’re under pressure in another situation, that’s how they’re going to respond. ”
– Caroline Clark, from Caroline Clark Coaching
Pause. Consider the question. Ask for a moment. Then structure your response.
Similarly pay attention to what they are saying to you, the way they present themselves and their concerns. It can be easy to latch onto questions, but you’ll receive many other signals and pieces of information during the interview.
This one is obvious – but try to avoid swearing, or at least, too much swearing. Not everyone is on board.
Equally be true to yourself, and don’t try to disguise or fake your personality. Hopefully you will match the company and the company you.
After the interview
Note down what you noticed and observed – this should only take 5-10 mins but if you continue to progress, these notes will be valuable to you in future rounds. Notice if any red flags came up in the interview and evaluate them clearly if you get an offer.
If interviewing for a US company, thank you notes are almost mandatory, so don’t forget to send one. This should be pretty simple: ‘Thank you for your time today, it was great to meet you. I really enjoyed the chat and found the information you shared on XX insightful. I look forward to hearing about next steps.’
For companies in other geographies it’s much less necessary, but it can create a good impression, and if you’re using interviewing as a networking tool, the note can be your message to them as you connect on Linkedin.
Summary
Preparation for interviews can significantly improve your performance in them. A lack of preparation shines through in interviews and can create the impression that you’re not interested in the role – when really you’re out of practice and have been busy. Make space for your interview prep in advance: what we’ve outlined here should take you no more than 2 hours. Completing job mapping exercises, and ensuring that you audit the company, the product and who you’ll be talking to can mean the difference between a successful and an unsuccessful interview. Good luck!
With thanks to Zach Nicholson at Wave Talent, Miles Cunliffe at Fresh, Caroline Clark at Caroline Clark Coaching for their insights
Hustle Badger Resources
Templates
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* Interview cheatsheet; job mapping; behavioural interview experience
* Common Product Manager Interview Questions Framework Flashcards
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Other Resources
FAQs
How to prepare for an interview generally?
Completing a job mapping exercise and a company audit are two helpful tools to get match fit for interviews. A job mapping exercise is when you go line by line through the job description and role requirements in order to analyse in depth what they are looking for, pull out the keywords or phrases used and map your experience to those keywords or phrases. This also provides you with a rich source of questions you can raise in interview. A company audit is when you search for company news, check out employee and user reviews on popular review sites, and check out management on Linkedin. This can also be useful in giving you a rounded sense of the company and making it clearer in interview where questions might be coming from.
How to prepare for a product manager interview?
The best way to prepare for a product manager interview is to: 1) clean your digital profile, 2) complete a job mapping exercise, 3) reach out to contacts for information on the company, 4) audit the product, 5) audit the company, 6) get comfortable with common frameworks for product skill specific questions, 7) get comfortable with common frameworks to structure behavioural interview questions.
How to ask a recruiter about interview preparation?
Recruiters will be happy to help you prepare and put your best foot forward. Ask them directly about the interview process, what they think will be covered in each stage, and leading questions about your interviewer, the hiring team, company goals and concerns. This will help you gain critical contextual information about the company which will lead to a better interview performance.
What is job mapping?
Job mapping is a practice of mapping your skills and experience directly to a role description and requirements. It’s done by taking a screenshot of the job description, and going line by line through the areas covering required skills and experience, and describing the day to day job to highlight keywords used (such as ‘5 years’ experience, or ‘churn analysis’). By selecting out the keywords, you can then identify which skills or past work experiences closely match those keywords, and link the two together (i.e. I conducted a user churn analysis last year). Free template and example here.
