Preparing for a Product Sense Interview: A Framework

So you’ve landed an interview for a software product manager position? Congratulations!

But the recruiter mentioned something about scheduling a “product sense” interview and you have ZERO idea what that is. The goal of this guide is to give you a glimpse into what interviewers are expecting during a product sense interview and a potential framework to use.

Product Sense is like Spider-Sense. But less tingly…

What is a product sense interview?
The goal of a product sense interview is to allow a company to better understand how you think as a product manager. Product managers spend their days understanding users and building features to engage and aid those users, but this process often takes months — not exactly something that fits into a standard interview time slot. So a product sense interview is a kind of condensed version of the feature development lifecycle.

A typical product sense interview lasts 30 to 60 minutes and has the candidate tackle a somewhat open-ended prompt:

• Add a feature to well-known product — “Add a pet sitting service to Instagram”
• Add a special twist to a familiar product line — “allow kids to review restaurants”

Something to keep in mind: A good product sense question will be general enough so that you don’t need any specific knowledge of a field or product to complete the interview. But if you are going to interview with a company that makes generally accessible, ubiquitous products it’s good to have enough familiarity with their products and the general market to talk comfortably.

What is the interviewer listening for?
While the interviewer may not be looking for a specific answer to their prompt, they are looking for you to display certain qualities of a product manager.

They want to know:

• Can you clearly and simply articulate a large ambiguous problem?
• Can you break down that problem in a way that is easy enough for the interviewer to follow?
• Are you able to logically reason your way through the various possible solutions to the problem?
• Is your “solution” to the problem sound? Can you adequately defend your proposal?
• Do you understand the advantages and trade-offs that come with your proposed solution?

Prior to the Interview
Before you head into your interview, here’s a few tips:

1. Bring a notebook and pen. Take notes throughout your interview. Write down the prompt and other details given by the interviewer, as well as your own thoughts. Not only does this help to keep things organized (it’s remarkably easy to forget details when under the pressure of an interview), but the time you spend writing down information actually gives you more time to think and reason.
   And don’t be shy about asking your interviewer for a moment to write things down. Take your time and do the work!
   Some may ask — “Can’t I just take notes on my computer?”. That’s up to you and the interiwer, but in my experience typing while trying to hold a conversation is somewhat distracting for both parties. I prefer traditional pen and paper. But to each their own.
2. Ask questions. A good design sense interview is a two-way conversation. If you don’t know something or need clarification, ask for more information. And use your questions to gauge the reactions of your interviewer — this can help you to determine if you’re on the right path. For example you might say: “I’m thinking of focusing on how we can improve the experience for first time users, does that work for you?”
   And even if you’re not asking a questions, feel free to talk out loud as you brainstorm and take notes. Again, the goal of the product sense interview is to give a company a view into your process — by talking and reasoning out loud you are keeping them involved.
3. Resist the urge to jump straight into solutioning. When we hear about a problem our human brains sometimes jump straight to solving that problem, but this assignment isn’t about the solution to the problem per se. This exercise is about showing how you think and work through a problem. The solution you provide is important but not nearly as important as showing how you got there.
4. Product constraints are your friend. To me there is nothing more terrifying than a vague, open-ended prompt. “Make something! Anything you want!” isn’t an assignment as much as a recipe for anxiety.
   I find it’s when we have limits and requirements in place that we do our most creative and innovative work. Use questions to narrow down the scope of your proposed solution so you can focus your attention. We will come back to this again and again throughout the framework.

Design Sense Interview Framework
The day of the interview is here! The interviewer presents you with a prompt and it’s time to rock this thing. Here’s my framework for tackling these questions.

STEP 1 — Define the Basics
In this step you want to answer all of the basic questions about the prompt and the interviewers expectations. Do not assume anything! As I mentioned above, ask questions and remember that constraints are your friends!

Some of the most common questions I ask:

• Who am I in this situation? Am I in charge of the feature? Am I making a recommendation to someone?
• What are my limits? This will make a HUGE impact on the scope of your proposed solution.
• What is my budget?
• What is the size of my team?
• What is my timeline? It’s no use proposing a solution that will take two years to build if your main objective is short-term oriented.

And don’t be surprised if the interviewer says “Well that’s up to you!”. That’s fine. They are giving you the power to shape the constraints — which leads us to the next step.

And be sure to document all of this with your notebook and paper. You will want to reference this information throughout the process.

STEP 2 — Define Your Goal
In this step you want to take the initial established constraints and define your goals around them. In this case, play to your strengths and your knowledge base.

Are you a monetization maven? Then you probably want to make the conversation about that.

Whereas if your skills are more growth-related, shifting in that direction is probably best.

You are trying to determine:

• What is the main goal for this product? This will help you hone in on solution options.
• Am I trying to increase daily engagement with a specific feature?
• Is this a monetization focus? Am I trying to make more money with this feature?
• Is retention the name of the game? Should I focus on ensuring users keep coming back to my product?

Again, make it conversational with your interviewer “I was thinking of concentrating on maximizing user retention, how does that sound?”. And be prepared to justify this answer — “I think that if we concentrate first on retaining users other key metrics like monetization will fall into place.”

And again, all of this is documented in your notes. Don’t try to keep it all straight in your head. Do yourself a favor and write it down.

Step 3 — Consider Existing Options and Competitors
The prompt you are given will likely have some existing option or competitor. In this step you will want to consider some of those competitors, as their successes and failures may inform your choices.

Example: You are given the prompt to “Integrate a pet-sitting marketplace into Instagram.”

In this example let’s say you have experience with Wag or Rover, both app-based pet sitting and walking services. Talk about (and document in your notes!) what you like about that experience and what you don’t like about those services.
What was it like to create a profile?
Was it easy to find the pet care you needed?
Did you feel comfortable with trusting your pet to the service? Why or why not?
Would you use the service again? Explain why.

Or perhaps you don’t have experience with a digital equivalent to your prompt. You will likely be able to identify non-digital competitors. In the case of our dog walking prompt, you could talk about dog boarding or leaving your pet with a friend or family member.
What was the hardest part about setting up the stay?
What were the steps you had to go through?
Would you do it again? Why or why not?

If you can think of multiple options you could name several, but then concentrate on describing, in detail, one or two at most. In both cases the name of the game is empathy. You want to show that you can thoughtfully analyze an experience — even one you might not have a firsthand account of — and find common ground and empathy for the users and their needs.

Step 4 — Brainstorming Solutions
You’ve defined your goals, now let’s talk about the actual solution! But wait, there are still more things to define. First start with your target audience — who is this product being targeted towards. And remember that “everyone” isn’t a target audience — do yourself a favor and define your specific target audience. Talk out loud as you go and write it all down.

I tend to focus on groups as opposed to age ranges or general demographics (because saying “I am targeting 25 to 35 years olds” isn’t particularly helpful.)

Examples might include:

• “Kids”
• “Teenagers”
• “Young professionals”
• “College Students”
• “Stay at Home Parents”
• “Working Parents”
• “Couples without children”
• “Pet owners”
• “Retirees”
• “Frequent Gym Users”
• “People with Disabilities”

And feel free to mix those groups! What do they have in common? How would you broadly define them?

Looking at our example of the pet-sitting through Instagram service, we might mix a few of the previously mentioned groups and list some of their characteristics.

Example:

Young Professionals/Working Parents/Pet Owners

• Limited Free Time
• Multiple activities throughout the day — leading to a busy schedule
• Digitally fluent
• Willing to spend $$$ for convenience

From here, I would choose the largest group or the group you feel most comfortable talking about. I would then confirm this with the interviewer “So I was thinking of concentrating our efforts on young professionals and working parents with pets, any issue with that?”

With the target audience defined, let’s go back to those previous solutions we talked about and determine how our solution might fix some of the problems. Sometimes called a “Gap Analysis”, the goal of this section is to show your interviewer your ability to observe products and understand their strengths and weaknesses.

Ask yourself:

• What is the gap? What is something about the current solution that is not working?
• What are pain points when using the present solution? I try to identify at least three.

Share your process. “So I am thinking about the pain points when boarding my dog at the kennel, first off making the reservation is pain. Second…”.

With an audience defined and gaps identified, it’s time to brainstorm solutions!! Ideally your solutions should address at least one of the pain points you have identified — but tackling multiple pain points with a single solution is even better. Keeping your constraints in mind — let your mind go into blue sky thinking!

I usually spend five minutes or so coming up with possible solutions and mixing and remixing parts from each option. And don’t be afraid to toss in some solutions that are a “stretch” — we can weed those out later.

With your list of solutions at hand, it’s time to prioritize. I look at the solutions through a few lenses:

• Feasibility — “Is this even possible?”. Customized robots designed to look like a pet’s owner might solve your problem, but is that actually feasible?
• Impact vs Effort — “how big of an impact will this feature or idea make on our users?” vs “how much effort will it take to actually make this feature?”. Ideally you are looking for solutions with high impact and low effort.
• Focus on Objective/Goal — “does this really match up with our earlier stated goals?” Include timeline, company goals, target audience, etc…
• How much pain does this relieve? — “Which of my paint points have I solved?”

And with that, you should have your basic solution to the prompt as well as the rationale behind it ready for the final step.

Step 5 — Metrics for Success
You’ve gone through a feature development process, but how will you know if your product is successful? It’s time to define your key metrics for success.

I usually concentrate on two kinds of metrics: user metrics and product metrics. For each metric type I try to pick a few measurements for success that measure up against the goalsl defined way back in Step 2.

User Metrics — How many users are using product?

• DAU (Daily Active Users) — how many unique users do you have in a day?
• ARPDAU (Average Revenue Per Daily Active User) — how much money on average does each user spend?
• Retention — What percentage of users are coming back to the product?

Product Metrics — How are users using the product?

• Time spent in product — on average, how long does a user spend in the product (app, website, etc…).
• Time to new feature discovered — If you’ve released a new feature, how long does it take (on average) for the users to try the feature?
• Customer Journey Dropout — If you introduce a multi-step process, how many users drop out before the final step? At what steps are users dropping out?

Step 6 — Summarize (If Time)
Give a brief overview of the process.
Start with the prompt.
Define your basics and your goals.
Identify your competitors.
Talk about your brainstorming process — the target audience, the gap analysis and the solution(s).
End with your tools for measuring success.

(That’s a lot to summarize. Aren’t you glad you took notes?)

Summary
Product sense interviews might seem a little overwhelming, but they are a heck of a lot more interesting than stale old questions like “Tell me about your greatest weakness…”.

And like any skill, you get better at product sense questions the more you practice. Look for example questions online. Check out the seemingly endless number of YouTube mock interviews. Or consider having a friend “interview” you.

With some practice, preparation and a bit of luck you’ll be well on your way!