The Most Common Product Manager Interview Mistakes

Hey there! Want to land your dream product manager job? We’ve got you covered.

Check out our 2,500+ product manager interview questions database with answers from expert product managers.

Landing a product manager interview is no simple task. That’s especially true if you’re seeking a position at one of the world’s top tech giants, such as Amazon, Facebook, or Microsoft. So, once you have an interview on the books, you must do whatever it takes to prepare yourself for success. It’s likely that you’ll only have one chance to impress a hiring company. 

In addition to completing a PM interview course, partaking in mock interviews, and reviewing commonly asked questions, there’s one last thing you should do: familiarize yourself with the most common product manager interview mistakes.

When you understand the mistakes of those before you, it’s easier to prevent them when your time comes. Here are five mistakes to protect against:

1. Neglecting to narrow down the scope of the question

This is a common mistake in answering product improvement questions. Neglecting to ask clarification questions is a red flag to the interviewer. Furthermore, it almost always results in making the wrong assumptions and/or giving a general answer.

At the very least, ask two clarification questions to help you better understand what the interviewer is looking for. Examples include:

• Do you have any particular objectives?
• Are there any resource parameters to take into consideration?
• Is there a specific audience to focus on?

For more information and guidance about narrowing the scope of PM interview questions, visit this page of our interview course. 

2. Not asking for a minute to take notes

With so much on your mind during a PM interview, it’s easy to forget that it’s okay to ask for a minute to take notes. In fact, doing this works in your favor. It shows that you’re thoughtful, organized, and unlikely to make decisions without first evaluating all your options.

You don’t have to do this before answering every question, but it’s useful for some. If you’re interviewing remotely  — which is likely for a remote position — you have the option to take notes on paper or your computer. For in-person interviews, it’s best to have a pen and paper available for this exact situation. 

Recording your ideas on paper before sharing them improves the likelihood of taking the right direction while also giving you confidence. 

3. Focusing solely on the basics

If you only speak to the basics and take a generalized approach to questions, you’re unlikely to move to the top of the candidate pool. Your application will likely be set aside and eventually moved to the trash. It’s the harsh, yet true, reality of the competitive product management space. 

Interviewers want to evaluate your ability to think outside the box. So, if you only share obvious answers and solutions, you don’t give the interviewer much confidence that you’d take a different approach on the job. 

In many cases, it’s best to share multiple creative solutions to a problem. This proves your ability to not only think outside the box but to see a problem from several different angles. 

Minimize the risk of this mistake by narrowing down the scope of the question (see point #1 above). Once you have the proper evaluation criteria, you can move your attention past the basics and onto sharing a creative solution.

This mistake often comes to light when answering product design questions, but that’s not the only one that can burn you. Review our list of other product design-related mistakes to protect against. 

4. Listing metrics without an objective

Don’t get ahead of yourself when answering metrics PM interview questions. Doing so can take you so far down the wrong path that there’s no way to gracefully backtrack. Take your time, ask for a minute if necessary, and ask questions about the objective, if applicable. 

Here’s what we have to say about this in our PM interview course:

There are an unlimited number of metrics that can be looked at. One way to help yourself stay focused during the listing metrics that are more relevant to the question is by keeping your objective in mind. Without an objective in mind, you can end up listing many metrics that can not help you measure the success of your product in achieving the objective that you’ve articulated earlier.

This also goes along with neglecting to narrow the scope of the question. If you don’t pinpoint the objective, either on your own or by asking, you can make the wrong assumptions while showing the interviewer that you’re likely to jump to conclusions. 

5. Not considering the user journey

This most commonly comes into play when answering problem solving questions. If you don’t think through the user journey, you lose out on insights that can help you efficiently solve the problem proposed to you. 

Take for example a question about a sharp decrease in the number of new user sign-ups. The interviewer wants you to answer the question of “why” this is happening. But, before you do that, you need to understand the journey that your ideal customer takes. Ask clarifying questions such as:

• What is the first step in the sign-up process? The last step?
• How many steps are included in the sign-up process?
• What are the primary traffic sources of the website? 
• Are there other activities, services, products, or issues that could have affected new sign-ups?

If you’re unprepared, problem-solving PM interview questions have the potential to stop you dead in your tracks. Even if you can come up with an answer, it’s likely to be vague, generic, and/or incomplete.

In our course, we examine many of the most common mistakes in answering problem-solving questions during a product manager interview. 

Summary

While these are among the most common product manager interview mistakes, others can sneak up on you at the worst time. The best way to prevent these mistakes is through proper preparation. 
If you do nothing else, take our product manager interview course in preparation for your big day. With 100+ online lessons and 50+ video hours, you’ll be confident in your ability to avoid mistakes and to perform at a high level.