I have initial interview coming up at FB. Recruiter said targeting L6/L7 depending on interview performance. Similar to this thread: https://www.teamblind.com/post/PM-interview-standout-product-sense-jyQNKQiL, could you share what stands out in an execution interview? What should I make sure I don't miss if I want to check all the boxes to meet expectations for Sr. PM bar? I searched but didn't find a focused thread on this specific question. Thanks! YOE: 16 (6.5 in product), TC: $0 (hopefully changing this soon!) #productmanager #pm #product
You should focus on having very solid product sense narrative (tying together the reason for the vision and strategy you have and eventually connecting it to both user benefits and company success).
Product execution interviews are oddly named. As a candidate I thought they were about project and stakeholder management. They’re not. They’re largely about identifying goal metrics, articulating trade offs, and being able to troubleshoot with your team. Here’s advice about the goal setting part: 1) Before even mentioning any metrics, be clear and specific about what your product goals are. This should be more specific than “engagement” or “acquisition” or any of the high level goals that could apply to basically any product. What is the goal specifically for THIS product and what problems are you trying to solve? 2) Identify a metric that would measure the success of that specific goal. Explain why it’s a good measure of your product goal. You should also be able to explain what it means in numbers, not just something vague and hand wavy. 3) Avoid laundry lists of metrics Sometimes candidates make the mistake of answering with a laundry list of metrics, without ever picking one. You can’t focus your team’s work if you have a dozen goal metrics. Pick one. Brainstorming a bit before narrowing down is fine. Just let your interviewer know you are doing this. 4) Speak to trade offs No metric is perfect. You should be aware of the potential pitfalls of your metric and be able to say why you’re going with it despite that, or how you might mitigate for the known trade offs.
Thanks! Yeah, from all the prep materials I gathered this interview will be more about metrics, etc., like you said. I am wondering if one type of question is more geared for more experienced candidates (?). For example, I get the sense that the diagnosing a problem ones are pretty basic, but that picking a metric to measure success needs more insight, and questions like “how would you grow x” and “what should fb build next” lend themselves for more advanced product insight. But yeah, my plan is to make sure I state my assumptions, explain pros and cons of my possible decisions, talk about the weaknesses in my assumptions, always tie back to company mission and product goals.
I don't think the questions are tied to level. They ask the same questions , they probably rate your seniority based on how deep your answers are. Pysl can add more to what "deep" means
I found this video featuring a Facebook PM answering execution questions extremely helpful for prepping and getting an offer. All of Stephen's videos are great tbh https://youtu.be/3c22-SzoQA8
Cool. Thanks! Yeah, I watched that one a few days ago. Would you say that interview went well? Like “strong hire” well? Felt kinda lacking depth for a senior PM to me, but will make me feel better if the performance in this video meets expectations for hiring :-)
@TI how would you answer it differently?🙂
YOE and TC?
Oops! 16, $0. Updated original post.