Hello Everyone, Hope all is well. Had an interview a couple of days ago and was given the question ==> "Given an ambiguous problem and how you solved it as a product mgr?" Was wondering if I can get some feedback from the community in how you would have properly answered this? Also I'm doing a career switch into product mgmt. I have no previous experince in product mgmt. Was previously in investment/asset mgmt. I am able to answer this from a "finance" standpoint. Would like to hear from a "technology" stand point. #interview #pm #product #productmanager #fintech #Google #meta #janestreetcapital #dotdash #stubhub #amazon #salesforce #gopuff #doordash #uber #lyft #zocdoc #bubble #take2games #citadel #block #rokt #grubhub #thetradedesk #crunchyroll #bcg
The answer to this is very service specific. It will apply to your experience. As a pointer. You start from the problem statement. Work with the customer to untangle the details to a place everyone can understand. Then align this to the goal or outcome you want to achieve and fill in the blanks to form a roadmap and features to be delivered.
This is pretty close to how I answered it in conjunction w/ aspects of qDpD02's answer as well. So not sure if this is the correct answer as it seems like other individuals have different answers.
You were supposed to pick a real work situation where you demonstrated this and used critical reasoning to come to a solution. Not sure if you did that or gave a theoretical approach.
Do you think the approaches would be different ? What you're really trying to answer is - here's this complex confusing thing , what would your process be to figuring it out?
What is the goal? North Star? From there you can cut the ambiguity
Quit the job and find a new one with clear problem
This is like the most basic PM question there is, have you never had a problem at work that needed to be more carefully defined / narrowed before solving? That's most of PM work.
You should consider product analyst roles fist then slide in to APM roles a year or two later. You'll have actual product experience
Since you could choose, speak to a past problem you solved and use the PM frameworks to break it down. You could have also asked them to clarify if a theoretical answer would work, you’ll see this in Sense type interviews like “build a gardening app for Facebook.” What scenario did you end up using?
ask clarifying questions first then use the STAR method (situation, task, action, results)
this is a behavioral question that is trying to assess your scope and experience. they expect you to choose a real world example of a time you faced ambiguity in your career, how you managed it and what the results and learnings were. You can mention any situation even if it’s not related to product management. as long as it’s structured and coherent. use the Situation-Task-Action-Result method next time.
1. Ask questions around the ambiguity that exist 2. What information exists 3. What information is needed to provide clarity 4. How do you go about collecting the information 5. If no information is available, how risky is the decision - is it a one-way door or there is a way back?