The Product Manager Interview: 164 Actual Questions and Answers

I haven't read Lewis' other books, but I have found the resources on his website (particularly his CIRCLES method and his cheat sheets for what to expect in FB, Google and Amazon interviews) very helpful. I would liken this book to a kind of supplemental study guide to the main textbook for interviewing at PM jobs. The book doesn't go in depth on the actual frameworks but the beginning of the book does list them out and list out within each of the questions which framework is used. I would use this book when you're focused on practicing for your PM interviews. It provides a really good, broad set of questions you might be asked at any company from product design to behavioral to product metrics. Like the author says, it's best to try and answer the questions on your own first before peeking at the sample answers. But reading the sample answers is a great way to remember what points to focus on in your own interviews, e.g. with a question about customers purchasing Amazon Kindle, remembering to segment customers by those that are Prime vs. non-Prime.The only reasons I didn't give this book 5 stars were:1. as I mentioned above, it superficially covers what the different frameworks are2. An index would be helpful especially if you're interviewing at a specific company (you could look through the Table of Contents and write down all the relevant questions as a workaround)

Interview questions for a product manager position at IT giants sound ridiculously difficult. Some people feel that companies ask such crazy questions to show off their crazy company cultures or select excentric tech guys. However, the author, Lewis C. Lin, who used to be a product manager at Google and Microsoft and is a successful entrepreneur and an interview prep guru, says that those questions are real questions PMs face in daily work. Companies want to see whether candidates are skillful or trained enough to perform PM's responsibilities. Companies have a fair reason to ask tough questions. PM questions are tough because PM job is tough. In this book, Lewis shows readers the way to be a successful PM beyond a successful interviewee. Therefore, this book is NOT easy. It is utterly different from quick learning books. The book requires your devotion and diligence. However, your efforts will pay off. Preparation for a PM interview is worthy of hard work because you'll get brilliant skills through tackling with questions in this book.So, how should we prepare for a PM interview? Interview tests ( and PM role requires), your ability of estimation, product design, metrics, GTM strategy, and technology. Interview technics like the framework is, of course, important (if you want to learn frameworks, refer to Lewis's previous books). That said, practice is essential. This book contains 160 actual PM interview questions in analytics, product design, metrics, hypothetical, strategy, technical, and behavioral categories. Lewis also provides detailed practice plans for Google, Facebook, and Amazon, which you can tailor depending on your experience and timelines. Also, he gives a special Slack community where you can improve your interview skills through a mock interview with others.I imagine many readers still feel the questions are too difficult and get discouraged to see a sample answer which looks way better than your answer. I once practiced case interview for consultant firms and overwhelmed by tough interview questions. (Many of the skills, such as analytics and hypothetical, are also crucial for consultants and many other managerial roles). However, the important thing is not to get a correct answer but acquire and familiarize ways to address problems. So, don't worry about how close your answers are to the sample answers. You need information to give a correct answer, but during the interview or often in real life, you don't have the information. The point is how you analyzed the question and inferred the logic to get an answer. If you practice with the questions with a guide from Lewis, you'll get fantastic analysis and logic building skills. When you are confident of PM interviews, you are ready to be a successful PM.

So you want to be a product manager? This is the book that will help you get your dream job. It includes a list of practice questions and answers to become a great interviewee.Maybe you don’t want to be a product manager. Maybe you just want to improve your interview ability. This book will help for not just product management interviews, but for any interview that requires you to analyze a situation, answer in a structured format, and demonstrate your thought processes as effectively as possible.This book is designed for the candidate who wants to improve. From its excellent suggestions on structuring your answer to evaluating you answer, this book will help you prepare for tough product management interviews. This book gives you a roadmap to the questions you can expect, from the traditional behavioral questions “Why this company, Your most difficult interaction, When did you overcome an obstacle?” to the specific product management discipline questions: Analytics, Product Design, Strategy.It then drills down into each category with deeper examples including Analytics: Pricing New Products; Analytics: Pricing Existing Products; and Strategy. For example, the Product Design section has specific examples of how to answer product improvement questions that will show your forward thinking and problem solving skills. That’s the key to interviews, because the interviewers want to see how you would approach a problem on the job.Practice makes perfect. If you practice answering questions, you will improve. I strongly recommend taking the advice from this book and joining the interview practice community, find an interview practice partner, and then practice, practice, practice.One important point is that while this book mentions the essential interview answer frameworks (CIRCLES™, AARM™ and DIGS™ Methods), the frameworks are not covered in detail and you’ll need to get Decode and Conquer, one of the author’s earlier books, to make sure you understand these frameworks and how to apply them.One last note, this book is intended to be used as a workbook. Don’t just read the questions and then the answers straight through. Go through and read each question, work out your answer, and then compare it to the answer. If you do this, by the end of the book you may be providing better answers than what the book provides! Perfection will take work, and this book will help you reach it.

The book seems to have been printed on a personal printer, with the sheets being of no better quality of those you would probably use at home. This could be ok, if this wasn't one of the most expensive books I have bought lately.Besides that it seems somewhat dishonest to tell buyers to buy all the previous books in order to make the best of the expensive book they have just acquired. Haven't read it, but it gives such a bad experience to start with. When I opened the pacakage and looked at the book disappointement set in.

The book is a must to have if you are giving PM interviews. The author gives a structure to prepare for such interviews