Why you FAIL your Product Management interviews... and how to fix it!

TOP 5 MISTAKES PEOPLE DO IN A PRODUCT MANAGER INTERVIEW!
After 5 years of being a Product Manager at top tech companies, I have interviewed hundreds of aspiring Product Managers and I compiled the top 5 most critical mistakes in this video.

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@00:00 Intro
@00:51 Top 5 Mistake: Suggesting improvements that are too common
@02:00 Top 4 Mistake: Not taking time brainstorm or taking too much time
@03:20 Top 3 Mistake: Not asking clarifying questions and not identifying a goal
@05:08 Top 2 Mistake: Not talking about users when improving the product
@06:09 Top 1 Mistake

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💻 About me 💻
I'm a Senior Product Manager by day and content creator whenever I have a few minutes in the morning, day or night to spare! I have experience working in Product Management at Microsoft in AI & Machine Learning, as well as Cisco in Wireless Technologies. I'm originally from Mexico City and I moved to the U.S. in 2015 to study my MBA at Duke University. I discovered Product Management when I started Business School and since then, it has been my mission and my passion to help others break into this role!

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✅ Disclosure ✅
This video is not sponsored; all opinions shared are my own.
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Top 5 - Improving products
Don't be afraid to show your creative side during these interviews. Many candidates share improvements that end up being far too common or simple in the interview. For companies like Google, you want to make sure that you show your creative side and share some Moonshot ideas!

How can you come up with new ideas?:
1) Stay updated on tech trends to read about new innovations. Techcrunch is a good place to start. You can also check the list of products presented every year at the Consumer Electronic Show (CES), there's a lot of innovation happening.
2) Practice, practice, practice... the more you practice the easier it will be to brainstorm new solutions.

Top 4 - Brainstorming time!
Believe or not, it's very OK to take "breaks" during the interview to brainstorm and put your thoughts together. A LOT of candidates talk non-stop during the interview and this can end up being very, very confusing for you and for the interviewer.

Take a step back, take a few minutes to gather your thoughts (not 5 minutes.. I've seen this happen before, too!), take notes and THEN start solving the case. Don't be afraid to ask for time to brainstorm.

Top 3 - Remove ambiguity
Many... many... maaaaaaany aspiring PMs start solving the question they get asked immediately after the interviewer asks the question. Most of the time, the questions you'll get asked are left very open ended with the intention that you scope down the problem.

Make sure you clarify questions and set a goal for your question, otherwise you'll end up with a huge scope that is going to be hard to solve in 30 minutes (typical time for a PM interview). Even worse, you might be solving something different than what the interviewer is thinking about!

Top 2 - One of the worst mistakes IMO that you can do in a PM interview...
As soon as the interviewee ignores completely talking about users or segments when improving a Product, I know things won't likely go in the right direction. Remember that as a PM it's all about how you solve your customer's or user's pain points... not yours'. ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS talk about users (UNLESS the interviewer asks you to skip that part - may happen because of time constraints)

Top 1 - This is the backbone and central to the case. While everything else can go right, missing this can still make you fail the interview!
@06:09

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