The Product Manager Interview: 167 Actual Questions and Answers

by Lewis C. Lin, Teng Lu (Contributor)

From the creator of the CIRCLES Method(TM), The Product Manager Interview is a resource you don't want to miss. The world's expert in product management interviews, Lewis C. Lin, gives readers 164 practice questions to gain product management (PM) proficiency to master the interview. This book is ideal for almost all PM roles including:


Google
Facebook
Amazon
Uber
Dropbox
Microsoft
Fully Solved SolutionsThe book contains fully solved solutions so readers can learn, improve and do their best at the PM interview. Here are questions and sample answers you'll find in the book:

Product Design


How would you design an ATM for elderly people?
Should Google build a Comcast-like TV cable service?
Instagram currently supports 3 to 15 second videos. We're considering supporting videos of unlimited length. How would you modify the UX to accommodate this?
Pricing


How would you go about pricing UberX or any other new Uber product?
Let's say Google created a teleporting device: which market segments would you go after? How would you price it?
Metrics


Imagine you are the Amazon Web Services (AWS) PM in Sydney. What are the top three metrics you'd look at?
Facebook users have declined 20 percent week over week. Diagnose the problem. How would you fix the issue?
Ideal Complement to Decode and ConquerMany of you have read the PM interview frameworks revealed in Decode and Conquer, including the CIRCLES(TM), AARM(TM) and DIGS(TM) Methods.

The Product Manager Interview is the perfect complement to Decode and Conquer. With 164 practice questions, you'll see what the best PM interview responses look and feel like.

Brand New Third EditionMany of the sample answers have been re-written from scratch. The answers are now stronger and easier to follow. In total, thousands of changes have made in this brand new 3rd edition of the book.

This is the new edition of the book formerly titled PM Interview Questions.

Preferred by the World's Top UniversitiesHere's what students and staff have to say about Lewis C. Lin:

DUKE UNIVERSITY

I was so touched by your presentation this morning. It was really helpful.

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

I can say your class is the best that I have ever attended. I will definitely use knowledge I learned today for future interviews.

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

I'd like to let you know that your workshop today is super awesome! It's the best workshop I have been to since I came to Columbia Business School. Thank you very much for the tips, frameworks, and the very clear and well-structured instruction!

UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN

Thank you so much for taking time out and teaching us about these much-needed principles and frameworks. I actually plan to print out a few slides and paste them on my walls!

Genres: Business, Reference, Technology

304 pages, Paperback

Published June 25, 2019

Reviews

[Dipika Shrihari · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't want to leave a negative review without an explanation:

I purchased this book on the advice of a friend, when I was doing interview prep to transition product management roles within the Silicon Valley.

I thought they had a solid list of questions to practice against, but I thought the sample answers were very poor. Half the time they didn't answer the question, or missed something crucial. I spent a lot of time wondering if it was me. After practicing with other peers in the PM space, I found other resources much more useful to help me pivot in my career.

[Alexander Snitsarenko · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must-have book for any PM, of any professional level. There is just no such other book on the market.

There is no other way to seriously prepare for a PM interview in a top tech giant, other than to go through this book, by trying to solve each product case, and then compare your answer with the one in the book.

Since a PM field is an enormously vast professional field, each of these 164 product cases greatly teachs you tech, business, user/marketing pecularities, and features/solution ideas at once (and much more)

Practically, only the material that has been put into a strong product case can be of a real value for a PM. No wonder leading business schools assign or use the cases from this book.

Since the book contains plenty of PM material, as an advice - answer each case, analyse the book answer, and make notes being a mix of your answer and the one in the book, so that you can go back to these material in the future, maybe with better ideas than that from the book.

[Dennies Chung · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was incredibly useful in understanding the product manager interview. I used this as my Bible throughout my interviewing process, but of course this shouldn't be used as your sole reference for interviewing. There are definitely different books and articles to be read, and videos to be watched (Exponent is a great Youtube channel!). But this book gets you in the right mental framework for the PM interview.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book can be inconsistent in content and formatting, and also slightly messy in how some of its content is organised.

Putting these annoyances aside, the book still provides a good intro to answering questions on product metrics and market estimation.

[Megan Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Do you want to work in Product in Silicon Valley? You need to read this book. Actually, you need to study this book. Don’t wait.

[Daniel Lynch · Rating 5 out of 5]

The most detailed book when it comes to succeeding in PM interviews!

[Douglas A · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very practical book. It provides the cases to practice the tips and techniques discussed in Decode and Conquer.

Highly recommend for anyone seriously interviewing for top PM roles.