Decode and Conquer: Answers to Product Management Interviews

by Lewis C. Lin

Decode and Conquer is the world's first book focused exclusively on product management (PM) interview preparation. The author gives an industry insider's perspective on how to conquer the most difficult PM interview questions. Decode and Conquer will reveal:

Frameworks for tackling product design and metrics questions, including the CIRCLES Method™, AARM Method™, and DIGS Method™
Biggest mistakes PM candidates make at the interview
Decode what interviewers are looking for, why they're looking for it, and how to deliver it
Answers to the most important PM interview questions

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Management, Technology, Professional Development, Technical, Entrepreneurship

Kindle Edition

First published November 28, 2013

Reviews

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you're a first time Product Manager, or an inexperienced one, this book might more useful. There was nothing earth shattering as far as I was concerned, it was mildly useful as a quick brush up on items to remember to mention.

The other issue is that this book is more about an interview in which you would be asked to go through your process beginning to end, rather than a behavioral interview. In my experience most companies seem to be moving in favor of more behavioral questions, rather than scenarios for Product Managers.

[Niki Agrawal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book to skim before PM interviews, but not as thorough or comprehensive as "Cracking the PM Interview" by Gayle McDowell, which is a must-have when interviewing.

This book will certainly give you more confidence in answering questions and playing to your strengths. It's a great and fun weekend read, but the best way to make the most of the book is by answering the interview questions yourself before looking at responses. Highly recommend if you need to brush up on PM interviewing, and especially if you are transitioning from a non-PM field to a PM role!

[Lawrence Lam · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reads like an MVP product - gets enough of the job done to be interesting...some of the examples are now amusingly outdated, incomplete explanations, lacking depth in many respects, and plenty of grammar mistakes...it’ll get you started but don’t let it be the only thing you read for any PM interview prep!

[ana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok

I enjoyed this book, I gather ideas and thought about how to respond some questions so it serves its purpose. The thing I didn’t enjoy at times, was the length of some answers some details that only a google search on the specific topic could provide, I get that we should be prepared and do research before an interview but it was too much. I sprinted through a lot of content because of this.

[Ajay Kumar · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book as someone who is hiring product managers (and not someone who's looking for a job). It's a quick and good read for my type of reader. Would recommend.

[Vineet Jain · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s a succinct account of how to approach starting a career in product management.

[Oliver Pecha · Rating 4 out of 5]

The "answers" part of the title says it all. Good to read if you are about to go through structured interviews at Big Tech. A lot of the answers are unimpressive or even weak, yet they follow useful patterns to beef up your own arsenal.

[Newton Piccone · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was recommended to my by a mentor and it worked wonders! The best book to help prep for a PM role interview. Lin breaks it down with examples and easy to understand references. I would recommend this to anyone interviewing in product management.

[Puluck · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good starting point for developing product oriented thinking. Ideal for people looking to break into PM roles

[Gilad · Rating 5 out of 5]

פשוט, ברור ונותן המון כלים וחומר למחשבה. למדתי מכל פרק משהו. 5 חזק

[Pankaj Mamde · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book to understand all aspects of PM interviews.

[Boni Aditya · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the best books written about, the approach and attitude required to crack the product Management Interviews. The author does not give you free fish, but teaches how to fish. Which is the important distinction and the competitive advantage of this book. This book differs from all the other blogs on the internet and from other books which contain 1000+ questions for PM interviews, by establishing a clear framework, required to attack the question, break it up into pieces and then present the pieces before the interviewer to get a finer zoom in on the one piece that the interviewer is actually looking for. The CIRCLES method and the SMART methods are incredible, and will be useful to answer wide varities of interview questions. The author also did not fail to mention the Behavioral interview questions and the questions about VISION, and Stress Testing. The Guesstimates and Imagine that you are CEO questions and answers are also well crafted. After each answer to the question an analysis is presented which adds more value than the answer itself, by telling you how the answer was, good, bad, ugly or weird.

All in all, this is one of the best books, that could help me crack the PM interview.

[Nithesh S · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's an excellent book with crisp frameworks that can be used in a product manager interview. However, it could prove to be useless in the absence of any real-life interview practice.

[between the lines · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of the parts of this book were good, they were either new to me or presented in a way I hadn’t seen before and I definitely appreciated that.

However a lot of examples, such as all the references to Google+ were dated and made no sense. Also hindsight is 20/20 and a lot of those interview answers sound ridiculous now knowing what we know but all that can be forgiven considering it’s an older book.

One thing that was very weird thought was the last part in the behavioural interview, where someone used the phrase “a hissy fit” as part of the story telling and this was applauded as a good answer. Maybe it’s a cultural difference with the author being American and me being from India but it just doesn’t feel like that’s a phrase appropriate of an interview

[Aklesh Padhy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although I have had previous reviews about the book, the book provides a fair analysis of some common PM interview questions. It gives an idea about how to tackle interview questions for first time PMs. But, wait! Don't expect something ground-breaking. This book might have been more useful, had it also shared the day to day responsibilities of a PM and some tricks and bits of handling challenging PM situations.

[Walter Ullon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent, detailed overview of the product management concepts.

It will be especially useful for readers coming from a different background who are either seeking to understand the basics of PM, or those that need to think in PM terms to address Data Science problems.

Lewis Lin makes it easier by providing different frameworks (C.I.R.C.L.E., A.A.R.M.) for thinking about these kinds of problems and providing cogent answers. Plenty of examples to make it stick.

Highly recommended!

[Robert Calangiu · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took my a long time to finally read it through. Although it offers some insights that are useful for day-to-day PM job I think it doesn't have enough consistency, some examples and practice questions/answers are a bit forced and it doesn't offer enough guidance on what would be a really great answer to the questions.

[Ostap Andrusiv · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good book to prepare for general PM interviews. It provides a good way to structure your knowledge. Think of software engineer's certification if you ever passed it.

Most of the methods mentioned in the book are common sense, but can be useful in a stressful time-constrained interview environment.

Bottom line: 5, if you are going through PM interviews.

[Eryn Rasmussen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very very helpful in preparation for interviews. I read this a couple times over and felt very prepared on product design questions. The example interview questions were very helpful in understanding the process, rather than memorizing answers. I'm going to recommend this to all of my current coworkers too to help make current projects more impactful. I wish I read this years ago

[Wesley · Rating 3 out of 5]

D&C is a nice primer for what to expect in a product management interview. The book does not teach the underlying concepts that are needed to get the job, but rather it advises on how to communicate what you already know in a concise format. It is a good source for a few case questions, though I believe there are other LL books out there that are geared more around example questions.

[Anthony · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did enjoy the different frameworks around interviewing outside of the typical STAR / STARE etc....

Examples of questions and answers that have been given, as well as commentary on how effective they are were also useful.

Reviewing these further are careful reminders to put yourself in a comfortable and confident mindset.

[Jeno · Rating 1 out of 5]

Pretty dated and some of things are pure bullshit. If you ever said something like that 😂😂😂

Just read some medium articles and watch the entire startup school playlist on YouTube (Y Combinator);
Be advised, this brochure is for people willing to start their career even though it throws lots of tech jargon at you

[Lisa Haggerty · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit outdated but useful for any product manager gearing up for case-style interviews. The real value comes from having sample questions and sample answers provided in detail. Of course the content is quite old so no one should place too much stock into the actual subject matter of an answer, but it’s very useful to have frameworks to address common questions.

[Eryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very very helpful in preparation for interviews. I read this a couple times over and felt very prepared on product design questions. The example interview questions were very helpful in understanding the process, rather than memorizing answers. I'm going to recommend this to all of my current coworkers too to help make current projects more impactful. I wish I read this years ago

[Monica Ionita · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a new product manager, I find this book a good introduction to the expectations an employer has from a candidate - and I appreciate offering examples of both good and poor (in a less obvious way) answers

[Laura Kaufman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not that useful tbh because it gives too many examples of bad interviews. I get that it's important to know what not to do, but there are way too many bad interviews. I want examples of good interviews!

[Jacky Liang · Rating 5 out of 5]

Because of this book, I was able to successfully transition from engineering to product management in the Bay Area. This + Cracking the PM Interview were bar none the two most important resources for cracking the product management interview.

Thank you Lewis, thank you!

[Li Cai · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book for all PMs who are preparing themselves for an interview OR for interviewers preparing questions for potential candidates.

Good points are showing some good and bad examples of answers.

[Narayana Mukkala · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent read for those who want to understand the framework to use for better product sense or problem-solving.

Also, a great book to read if you are interviewing for Product Management roles irrespective of one being a beginner or advanced.

[Andreas Karampatzakis · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book presents easy-to-follow frameworks to articulate problem solving approaches. A must-read for those applying for a job for the first time. An easy read as a refresher to more experienced product managers.