What to Expect in a PM Interview With an Engineering Manager

In some cases, a PM interview with an engineering manager will be part of the hiring process of a company. Product Managers will work closely with the engineering team so this process is necessary to see if the PM can work harmoniously with the rest, especially the Engineering Manager (EM). 

Before anything else, it’s important to take note that an interview with an engineering manager isn’t always necessary. For example, this is not common at FAANG (Meta/Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Alphabet formerly known as Google) companies, but it’s generally part of the process at smaller tech startups. 

As a good measure, if you’re aiming for a Product Manager position at any tech company, you should prepare for this crucial step.

Traits an EM Will be Looking For in a PM

During the interview, several of your skills and competencies will be assessed. However, the EM will hone in on four traits a good PM candidate has:

Communication Across the Organization

The PM isn’t just going to work with the engineering team. He or she will have to work with a slew of other teams to make the product the best that it can be. To do this, the PM has to clearly communicate the benefits of the product or service, why the teams are working on it, how the process will be, and what results can be expected from the investment.

If the Product Manager has weak communication skills, his or her team will likely be deprioritized within the organization which could hinder the product development process and could create roadblocks. 

Project Management Skills

A product roadmap is a general guide for items of work. However, throughout the entire product development process, things won’t always turn out the way it was planned. If a PM doesn’t have strong project management skills, this could spell chaos for everyone involved.

A good PM will know how to pivot – restructure the roadmap according to feedback and the circumstances and reprioritize tasks. 

Communicating these changes to all the teams and stakeholders involved is part of project management. This ensures that the workflow is smooth and consistent.

Planning for Success

PMs are problem solvers. There are going to be a lot of challenges and roadblocks while developing a product so the right candidate for the job will be able to roll with the punches methodically – planning carefully, considering and implementing feedback, and doing continuous improvements.

Work Ownership

The Product Manager position is such an important one because it is on his or her shoulders that the success of the product will rest. 

In terms of feedback, good PMs won’t be swayed by subjective opinions. They do their own research and analyze data to come up with the best path for the product.

Overall, an engineering manager is looking to see if you’re going to fit in with their team in regards to personality, experience, knowledge, and how you work. If you’re confident that you possess all of these traits, what you can focus most of your time on is preparing for the actual interview.

How to Prepare for the PM Interview with an Engineering Manager

Rather than hope for the best, it’s ideal for you to take steps to prepare for a PM interview with an engineering manager with the following suggestions:

Do Your Homework

It’s always advantageous to do your homework before you step into a job interview. Research the company that you are applying to. Find out what the company culture is and what the interview process might be like for Product Managers. Several platforms can help you with your research:

• Glassdoor – current and former employees anonymously review companies on this website.
• Indeed – a worldwide employment website for job listings that also contains company reviews and company guides.
• Linkedin – a business-related social platform that has profiles of the companies you might be applying to.
• Comparably – a platform that showcases a fair and accurate employer brand by getting reviews from verified and current employees.
• Blind – an anonymous community app for the workplace.
• Quora – a social question-and-answer website where you can ask anything (like questions about the company you are applying to).

The more you know about a company, the more confident you will likely feel when you go into your PM interview. Additionally, doing your research gives you the chance to ask more questions about your potential employer. For example:

1. What’s the relationship like between the product team and other departments?
2. What types of challenges have the product team faced when working with engineering?
3. What are your product principles?
4. Can you please tell me how involved the engineering team is in the product development process?
5. How has the company dealt with failures in the past?

A candidate doesn’t have to necessarily ask questions during the interview but it is questions like these that will give you a good idea if the company is a good fit for you.

Sharpen Your Skills

Because you’re going to have an interview with an engineering manager, it’s likely time to sharpen your tech skills. Remember that the goal is to be able to understand the engineering team enough to work with them efficiently. You won’t be able to do that if you don’t have foundational technical knowledge.

The best ways to sharpen your tech skills would be to take up coding courses, read tech blogs and books, and watch videos on YouTube to easily understand key tech concepts. 

We’ve written an article that has listed several FREE resources that you can check today. 

→ Read: Free Product Manager Resources to Sharpen Your Tech Skills

Review and Practice Technical Questions

Expect plenty of technical questions. The engineering manager wants to know if you’re capable of having technical conversations and understanding the basics of the engineering language.

This doesn’t mean you have to be on the same “knowledge level” as the engineering manager. But it does mean you should be able to speak their language enough so things are not lost in translation.

So, what kind of technical questions could be asked during an interview with an engineering manager? We’ve listed a few below:

• How does TinyURL work?
• Imagine you’re the product manager for Facebook Marketplace. Since many sellers don’t mark items as sold, what existing functionality and metrics could you use to determine whether an item has likely sold?
• What happens when you enter a URL in your browser?
• You found that only 10% of the allotted slots for databases are being used by your customers. What would you do?
• How would you implement the sync feature of Google Drive app or Google Docs? How would you design the DB for G-drive?

All of these technical questions can be found in the PM Exercises interview questions database where you can also find more than 2000 Product Manager interview questions with answers given by our PM community.

Note: You would need to upgrade your account to access some of the questions.

Prepare for Behavioral Questions

Behavioral questions are also part of the interview process. These types of questions gauge if you can work with different teams and how well you handle pressure and failure. How did you get along with people at your previous jobs? Do you have experience with cross-departmental collaboration? When was the last time you disagreed with a co-worker and how did you work it out?

Your answers to these basic questions tell the engineering manager a lot about how you operate in the workplace, with an eye toward whether you’re a team player or not.

Here are some examples of behavioral questions that could be asked during an interview with an engineering manager:

• In layman terms, describe your day-to-day activities as a Product Manager.
• How would you keep developers working on a product motivated and turning out quality work?
• What are you looking for in your next role?

In our database, we currently have about 183 behavioral questions commonly asked during PM interviews.

Note: You would need to upgrade your account to access some of the questions.

There are also other more personal questions that you have to practice such as:

• Tell me about a time you had a conflict with a team member or a manager.
• Describe a time you disagreed with a team member.
• Tell me about a time you were trying to understand a problem on your team and you had to go down several layers to figure it out. Who did you talk with and what information proved most valuable? How did you use that information to help solve the problem?

These situational questions may be tough to answer but honesty is always a plus. If you’re asked about a time you failed, it’s best to highlight the lessons you learned through your mistakes and how you overcame them.

Tip: To give you a good idea of the most possible questions that engineering managers or interviewers will be asking, you can try researching the leadership principles of the specific company you are applying to.

Focus on Your Communication Skills

Experience and knowledge mean nothing if you don’t have the skills to communicate your thoughts.

If you don’t communicate well during an interview, you’re giving the company the impression that this could be a problem if you are hired. And nobody wants a Product Manager with poor communication skills.

Can you clearly and efficiently communicate your perspective to the engineering team? Can you articulate technical concepts from a business and user perspective? 

You must be able to answer yes to these questions. That improves your chance of impressing the engineering manager. 

If this is an area you need help with, you might be asking how you’re going to improve your communication skills. Before your interview, one of the best ways to go about this would be to practice with a partner. Do a mock interview with someone who can give you feedback.

You can find a partner today at PM Exercises. There’s a practice feature that lets you schedule a mock interview with another PM candidate who is also preparing for his or her interview. 

Expect Critical Thinking Questions

Critical thinking means something slightly different to every engineering manager, but one thing always holds – they want you to prove that you can be the voice of the business, product, and user. 

With advanced critical thinking skills, you’re more likely to create trust between the engineering and product teams. And with that, you take a lot of work off the engineering manager’s plate. 

During an interview, Execution questions might be asked to assess this skill. Typically, EMs focus on behavioral and technical questions but critical thinking questions might be included to test if you will be able to make logical decisions under pressure. This could be an area the company is struggling with so it’s best to prepare for it.

Some of the questions could include:

• Weekly active users (WAU) for iPhone app dropped. What happened?
• How would you decide between showing more ads on the Facebook Newsfeed vs showing a “People you may know” recommendation widget?
• What would you do if Facebook Stories engagement increased but Newsfeed engagement decreased?
• You are the PM of Instagram stories. What goal would you set and how would you measure success?
• You are the PM of notifications. How would you determine the trade offs between showing your friend’s fundraiser or the event they are going to / created?

You’ll be able to access more Execution Questions on PM Exercises. Take note that the answers provided by the community also have feedback you can refer to. This will be valuable as it gives you a perspective of what is a good answer and what’s not.

Note: You would need to upgrade your account to access some of the questions.

Where do you fit?

There’s no denying that the success of any product manager interview is based largely on your skills, knowledge, and ability to convey them to the other party. 

However, cultural fit hiring is an increasingly common practice. With this, the engineering manager (and company as a whole) isn’t focused exclusively on specific skills and experience. A big part of what they’re seeking is someone who fits into the company culture. 

Nobody wants to hire a product manager that disrupts team chemistry. So, you can expect an engineering manager to keep an eye on this. 

It’s best to go back to the earlier suggestion of doing your homework thoroughly. Company culture should be added to the things that you need to learn about with your potential employer. Remember to make use of websites like Blind and Glassdoor so you have an insider’s perspective of what the culture may be like.

Also, during the interview, remember to ask the questions that will allow you to see if the company culture is something that will allow you to do your job well and nurture your talents and skill.

Summary

There’s a lot that goes on in a Product Manager interview with an engineering manager. You’ll field questions about past behaviors and situations, experience with specific types of projects, and knowledge of particular concepts. The best ways to prepare would be to:

• Do your homework
• Sharpen your tech skills
• Familiarize yourself with interview questions and their answers
• Practice the questions repeatedly
• Find a partner who can practice with you
• Go through a PM Interview prep course

Check out the course available at PM Exercises. The PM Interview Prep Course has more than 100 video hours and online lessons available. You’ll hear from more experienced PMs about how their own interviews went and read company guides that could be beneficial to your preparation.

Repeat the process until you are ready.

Lastly, remember to be consistent and persistent. Preparing for an interview with an Engineering Manager is just one part of the interview process. You’ll also have to master other parts. While that may sound challenging, it is our belief that hard work and perseverance, and the resources found in PM Exercises, will allow you to ace it.