I have a Facebook Product Sense interview coming up in a week and wanted to see if I could be doing anything else. I know the usual stuff and have read Cracking the PM interview and Decode and Conquer, but is Facebook looking for a framework like Circles or something else? Would love some fb interviewers perspectives 🙏🙏🙏
No specific framework. The idea is the same as other PM interviews. Talk through your thought process. Ask clarification questions before responding. Start with mission, user segmentation, target audience, pain points & user needs with prioritization, solutions, pros and cons analysis and implementation. In my case, I went ahead and created a wireframe and walked through my ideas which got me some extra points. Good luck!
That's kind of circles though. Isn't it? I agree that mentioning frameworks is a big no no. But in principle, you're still applying the framework.
StellarPeers FB tagged is a good place to go as well
I am the founder of InterviewHelp.io and have successfully helped many candidates with the product design round at FB . I have found a few mock interviews real help my candidates . I will try to get blog out on this topic in a few days .. will update this thread .
If you use a simple model like the one from Cracking the PM interview and have a substantive answer you’ll hit all the important axes by which we’re supposed to evaluate. That framework is honestly pretty close to the axes we’re given and there is a fairly prescriptive rubric—far more than most companies. I don’t know what the other person from Facebook is saying because that is NOT the guidance given to us (somehow demerit you for being explicit about your framework) and just that person’s subjective take. There is absolutely no issue in walking through how you’ll approach or using this or that framework. That’s table stakes and we’re not looking for a particular framework. The substance of what you say needs to be good. Plenty of people have a structured answer that misses the mark. Be thoughtful, don’t ramble, make sure your time yourself and don’t go on a tangent in one area. You need to actually get to a proposed solution. Don’t talk about how you’d need this or that data or marketing or do research. Etc. Some people make this mistake of like meta answers but we want you to speak to the question not in hypotheticals and process. Be clear with your reasoning. Ultimately your answer needs to have creativity and insight. And please follow any cues from your interviewer because most of us, though I’m sure not all, want you to succeed.
Super useful, thanks. Say the interviewer asks you to improve an existing product (vs designing a net new one), is it okay to ask questions to understand why do we want to improve, what signals do we have on what needs to be improved?
Absolutely ask clarifying questions. Sometimes people seem to “ask permission” for their answer, i.e. “Is this okay?” l I don’t ding people for that but it’s not useful and you won’t get much useful feedback. Typically the questions are intentionally somewhat open ended and the whole idea is you make decisions and then explain your reasoning not do it according to narrow constraints defined by the interviewer. But you do want to make sure understand the question and what constraints do or don’t exist for sure if not clear.
Can you Please DM me the notes as well?
I would never work for an employer as corrupt and unethical as Facebook. I have principles which are more important and of higher value to me.
Lol. It’s fair to criticize some of Facebook’s actions but you work at Amazon. I’ve worked there too. They were probably the most unprincipled (from a good of humanity perspective) of any company at which I have worked. Your statement is true of pretty much any major tech company to one degree or another though, it’s just a matter of degrees. If you want to do good go work at a non-profit. I think that’s a fair response but I don’t think you can claim the high ground here if you’re at Amazon.
Lol agree!
“Product sense” seems like a way to insert subjectivity into the process. So fb interviewers can juke the stats for people they like. Kind of like the essay part of college admissions
I thought every engineer aced the essay so it was a non differentiator.
Nope. Sure isn’t. In any event you end up doing a PS phone screen and a second one with another interviewer for the on-site, so a single person can’t subvert the process even if they wanted. Id also say of any interview process FB strives to be the fairest and most objective of anywhere I’ve seen—though obviously there is no way to remove all subjectivity. FB even goes so far as to give people a second chance if they just biff one of PS or execution. You just can’t fail both. I still don’t know how I feel about that (usually the result is the same and it feels like jerking people around a bit to me) but we want to give people the best chance to pass, whether you’re want to believe that or not. All interviews are flawed and a poor lens on actual capability. I think FB does these as well as as anyone.
The approach is important. Important thing is to ask clarifying questions, clarify requirements. Propose multiple solutions, not just1, Then prioritize, pick 1 and go deep into it. Your depth determines your level. If you dont clarify requirements and don't propose multiple solutions, it will be a red flag.
Candor has a good course on this
If you use circles I will definitely not hire you. DM me and I'll forward you a writeup of notes I sent someone else on what your answer needs to hit on to pass product sense rounds and how to prep
Can I get the notes too? I'm curious as well
Sure :)