🎧 My Top 5 Tips for Standing Out in PM Interviews
These five tips can be applied to every single interview you may encounter as a PM - the recruiter screen, the hiring manager interview, a panel interview, or even the case. I give this advice so often that I finally wanted to capture it in a podcast so you can apply it in your own job search.
I talk about:
Winning the easy stuff
Being authentically you
Showing your math and thinking aloud
Referencing frameworks, without coming across as rigid
And how to create familiarity and be part of the team even as a candidate
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Whether you’re new to Product Management or looking for your next role, interviewing can be tough. If know you need guidance, strategy, and end-to-end support, learn more about my SPRINT coaching program that helps Product Managers land their first (or next!) role.
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Jess Sherlock (00:00)
In an interview setting, whether you are answering an interview question out loud or maybe you're presenting your case or your take-home assignment, oftentimes, it's less about the specific answer that you get to and it's more about your thought process. It's how does this person critically think through a problem
And how did they get to their answer? Regardless of what the answer is. So whenever you have the opportunity, you want to think out loud and show your
Jess Sherlock (00:27)
Welcome to another episode of AFTER THE CERT the career podcast for product managers who've collected all the certifications and taken all the courses and still feel stuck in their product career. I'm your host, Jess Sherlock, product management career coach. I know firsthand what it feels like to be overwhelmed, lonely, and stuck in your product career. And I'm on a mission to help you feel confident and empowered to take the lead your product career and achieve your unique career goals.
on me for practical and actionable advice, plus relatable stories from PMs navigating the messy middle of their career.
And remember, if you're feeling stuck with your product management job search, worried about making a great impression during your first 90 days in a new product job, or you want to position yourself for a promotion at work, I'm here to help. You can check out my coaching programs at jesssherlock.com/apply.
and book time on my calendar so we can chat.
Let's get into it.
Jess Sherlock (01:23)
Hey everyone, today I wanna share my top five tips for standing out in PM interviews because I think sometimes we can get so consumed with trying to anticipate every question that we might get asked or, managing our nerves. And I wanna offer different mindsets or other tips that often folks...
aren't thinking about that I think can make all of the difference in the world. And remember, I have spent countless hours interviewing product management candidates for various roles from associate PM to PM all the way up to director of PM. And so some of the things I'm going to share with you today, are not necessarily what first come to mind when you think about preparing. But as someone who's been on the other side of the table, these are some of the things that
have in many cases made the difference for candidates and I want to bring them to your attention so that you can more intentionally use these tips that might just give you an edge in an interview. All right, so let's get into it. Tip number one is I want you to make sure that you do the easy stuff. What do I mean by that? So be on time, you know, be early, right? Be prepared. Make sure that if they have sent you a pre-read or there's content in a calendar invite or
They've emailed you with information about an interview and what they're hoping to accomplish. Be familiar with it. Everything that they have told you is essentially them giving you the answers. Good hiring managers and good recruiters are really trying to help candidates that they want to succeed in these interviews. So if they're giving you insider details about people who will be in these interviews or tips about what to make sure you talk about,
Take them seriously. Sometimes that really can make the difference. Other easy stuff that you can focus on doing is being friendly, being likable. If you're a personable person, connect with the human on the other end of the call on maybe where you went to college, where you grew up, mutual connections, right? Make that human connection when you have the time. And the other thing, speaking of time, is...
to manage against the schedule or the agenda that they've given you. So if they have said, hey, we have an hour and we want to use the first 30 minutes for this and the last 30 minutes for that, play an active role in managing against the time and agenda that they have suggested. I can't tell you how many times I've had candidates whiff an interview simply because they lost track of time and it felt like they weren't leading and taking a leadership role in the interview itself. So...
since product management really is a leadership role without authority, you have an opportunity to show that you can manage a room, you can manage a meeting effectively, even though technically the interview is of you you can still make sure that we're running on time or even just check in. Hey, I noticed we're at the halfway point. We said we wanted to shift to topic B. Should we make that shift now or is there something we want to wrap up?
Notice how all of a sudden you're gonna come across so much more confident, so much more like a leader, and it's just such an easy win. So tip number one is do the easy stuff, win the easy stuff. All right, tip number two is be yourself in every way that you reasonably can. often people forget that...
The interview is of course an opportunity for you to get a sense for the team that you might be working with, but it's also an opportunity for the team to see what it would be like to work with you. So I often tell people, what are you known for? So if you've worked with me or if you've spent any time with me, you know that I tend to be sort of self-deprecating in a funny way. I'm usually the one to crack a joke. I don't like when things get really serious. And so there's a lightness about a meeting with me.
And so if there's an interview with me, I'm going to bring that same energy into it. And so I'll ask What is it about working with you that makes you you? And how could you give them like a sampler or a taster of what it's like to work with you? So that can be your personality and how you show up. It could be, I've had clients, for example, who really love to run a meeting with like notes live on screen.
So they might even just prepare a blank document with the agenda and then use that to kind of guide the conversation. When people get to a take-home assignment or a case, sometimes they tell you to pick the platform. So they'll say, you can do a slideshow, you can do a Word doc, however you want to do it, the presentation mode is up to you. Well, I've had clients who really love to facilitate group meetings through tools like Miro or Mural.
So if that's a tool that you're really comfortable in and would give them a taste of what it's like to work with you, then use that tool you're comfortable with. So anyways, I would encourage you to really be genuine and be authentic in whatever way that means to you, because ideally they're gonna be so eager to work with you again, that just by being yourself, you're creating a connection there that they don't wanna break. Okay, tip number three.
And this one gets PMs in general. So this tip definitely applies to when you're interviewing, but it applies really in your day job. So this one you can carry with you throughout your entire product career. If you've spent any time with me, you might've even heard me say this to you, or you've heard me say this about other people, but the tip here is show your math. Show your math. In other words, think aloud.
or document your thoughts out loud or in writing. So what do I mean by this? Well, In an interview setting, whether you are answering an interview question out loud or maybe you're presenting your case or your take-home assignment, oftentimes, it's less about the specific answer that you get to and it's more about your thought process. It's how does this person critically think through a problem and problem solve?
And how did they get to their answer? Regardless of what the answer is. So whenever you have the opportunity, you want to think out loud and show your math. Don't assume that people in the room are following along with you.
So maybe they ask you a question like, how would you go about prioritizing, what we should work on during the next quarter or during the next sprint? Don't, this seems so obvious, but take the opportunity.
to tell them how you think. So instead of jumping right into the answer, like for example, well, based on everything we've talked about, I would probably prioritize this mobile app improvement. That's fine, but you're not getting to highlight how you actually got there. So instead, take a moment and it's really hard, because us PMs, right, our brains go a million miles a minute. I swear we can.
like do this mental math, navigate trade-offs and really like boom boom boom boom boom and get to a conclusion and then we you know the conclusion comes out of our mouth. But that can work against us. So I would encourage you to use phrases like this instead. Well when I'm faced with a prioritization decision these are the things I'm considering. Or if I'm ever in a situation like that maybe they're asking you how do you navigate conflict or trade-off decisions in a team? You might say well that happens often.
here are some of the techniques or considerations that I always think about, right? Maybe you say, I always consider who are the stakeholders involved. I'm always trying to think about what do they have in common or what is their success measured But you're thinking out loud so that if you come out and what I would do is actually set up time for the three of us to get together, talk through the concerns, da, da, da, da, da, that might be the right answer.
But by sharing first your considerations and your thought process, you're giving them much more detail to kind of judge you on. It's just like math. If you think back to your math classes in school or college, how often did you get partial credit? Because you showed your process of getting to the answer. Whereas if you just put in the answer and it was wrong, you're not getting any credit, right? So...
That's a really, really important one in interviews, but definitely just in general as a PM, any opportunity that you have to bring your stakeholders along and think out loud and show your math, the better. All right, next tip. And this is similar to the thinking out loud tip actually, in that it's about frameworks and it's about how you think, but it's a little bit of a different mindset, which is wherever possible.
I would encourage you to reference frameworks that you use because it can illustrate to the hiring manager and the interview team that you're not just winging it, right? You have preferred frameworks or sometimes I refer to it as like these tools in your toolbox that you've curated over the years. So if you can reference frameworks that you use to show that you're not winging it,
your approach to problems and your success is repeatable and your thinking is structured, that is great. But here's the tip. Don't be rigid. Okay. Let me give you an example with prioritization methods. You might get a question in an interview where they say, what is your typical approach to prioritizing features? What you don't want to say is
Well, RICE is the only framework that I use and it is my favorite way to prioritize any features. For those of you that don't know, RICE is just one of the most common prioritization features. It happens to represent what I think is a pretty good lowest common denominator. It's allowing you to prioritize things based on reach and impact and your confidence and also the engineering effort. But my point is...
It's good, I guess, in a way to have an answer, right? So if you can't answer that question at all, then that's not good at all. But a good answer, or I guess a not so good answer, is if you just come out with a single framework and you kind of act like that's the end-all, be-all way, and you're really rigid that that's the only way you will work. I know it sounds, as I'm saying this, you're probably like, who would say that?
People have said this in interviews, trust me, I've been in interviews where I think maybe it's nerves where folks wanna, they're like, gosh, I gotta say something, I wanna sound confident, so I'm gonna pick this framework and that's gonna impress them. But it really quickly backfires because again, I wanna understand how you think.
And not every situation is the same, not every environment is going to be the same. And so what you really want to do when they're asking you these sorts of questions is again, show your math and reference frameworks. But you want to do so in a way that shows that you are adaptable and open to, adapting your tools to the context that you're working in, the team that you're working in, the product that you're working in. So
Here's a better way to answer a question like that where they say, what's your preferred prioritization method? You might say something like this. Well, generally speaking, any prioritization method that I use is going to take into account a few factors. Of course, we want to understand the level of effort it's going to take to build something. We definitely want to have a sense for
how much of our customer base or how many of our customers are going to benefit and of course how big of a benefit, you know, this particular feature is going to offer our customers. maybe like a sense of the level of confidence that any particular feature is going to help us move the needle on a particular business goal. My default is usually RICE or something similar.
the years, I've used a number of tools, including this, this, and this, right? So you might say, I've used WSJF I've used the MoSCoW method. Here are the other frameworks that, sometimes are a better fit for the situation. Just as a simple example, the RICE framework, I tend to do that when I want to evaluate a lot of different things against each other. And I really want to like,
have it calculate the math difference. Whereas MoSCoW is a really nice, if you're not familiar with MoSCoW, it's like must do, could do, should do and won't do. So if you're in like a workshop setting in person and you wanna get a group to prioritize things together, it's a really nice sort of visual way to prioritize. Whereas RICE tends to be more appropriate if you're like in a spreadsheet, maybe working asynchronously or have a really high volume of things to prioritize. So you can see, I hope you can see, right?
The second way that I answered that question illustrates to the people in the room that I have a lot of tools. I do have a preferred tool, right? Or maybe you say a starting place. Like I tend to start with RICE unless the situation requires something different. But again, I'm saying here are the things that I'm thinking about to decide which prioritization approach is really going to be the most useful in this particular situation. with this answer,
I tend to encourage people to really show that adaptability, especially if they're more senior, because I would expect that someone who's more senior, they've been around the block a few times, they are going to be more likely to have a bigger toolbox, And they're going to have developed some sort of point of view or philosophy over the years about which tool is best in which type of situation. So reference frameworks.
show that you have a way that you work through problems or situations so that you can illustrate that your success is repeatable, but don't be rigid to any one tool.
All right, tip number five. This one might be my favorite because it's a bit more subtle and it's actually a lot easier than you might think and can have quite a bit of impact. So tip number five is this, wherever possible, be one of them. Okay, so here's what I mean by that. Here's a really simple example is if you're in an interview,
And let's say this is your like round two or three. So you've already had conversations with the recruiter, maybe the hiring manager, and you have some sense of this team you're going to be placed on, maybe the product you're going to be working on and some of the details about the players involved on that team, or maybe, you know, acronyms about your industry or your customer base or whatever. Wherever possible, use their language. So if they refer to their product organization as let's say, EPD,
That's a common one, engineering product and design. If they refer to the team as EPD, then refer to the team as EPD. If they refer to the product by the acronym, use the acronym. If you know other members of the team, so if you know, for example, hey, I'm gonna be working on this initiative that's really important to the XYZ team, or I had a really interesting conversation with Frank over on the ABC team.
Wherever you can use people's names, team names, acronyms, you can reference maybe goals or initiatives that they have mentioned. Do it because I'll tell you what, humans tend to really like people and things that are familiar to them. So in using their language, you make it very easy for them to see you as a member of the team already. As opposed to being this outsider.
this has stood out to me. Maybe it's one of my own pet peeves, who knows. But maybe you'll notice this about people that have interviewed with your teams. And once I say it, which is I've been in interviews before where I might ask them, to come in and either present their case or work through a problem with us. And they come in and they use words like you and me. So they'll say,
in this situation, I would usually do this or have you thought about doing this? Have you ever worked through a problem like this? There's something really divisive about that language in an interview setting that is so easy to fix. And so when I've had candidates who come in and they just adopt the role of being a member of the team, it's so natural. And it just, I don't know it like,
creates a much more familiar, comfortable conversation. And I've even had situations where I kind of forget the person doesn't already work for us. So it's a really simple way to sort of create that familiarity and this like camaraderie, I guess. So if you're in an interview, wherever possible, say us, say we.
that's a really simple one, but I've found personally that the folks who come in and do that, They feel like they want to be a part of our group. And so I think it speaks volumes, right? Without you even really having to change much
And I can promise you will have a either implicit or maybe even an explicit impact on how folks view you.
All right, so those are my top tips for standing out in PM interviews.
As always, learning is nothing without action. So I will ask you, if you are currently interviewing which of these are you gonna take to heart and how are you gonna actually apply these? Are you going to find a way to do the easy stuff? Are you going to ways to be yourself? Are gonna make sure you show your math and think aloud?
reference frameworks so that you can show that your success is repeatable, your thinking is structured, but you're not rigid, or are you going to try to be one of them somehow and, really use language like us and we can really embed yourself so they kind of forget that you weren't already hired. if you have any other tips or things that you think have helped you stand out, please let me know. Maybe I'll include it on a future episode. And
As always, if you feel like you could use some one-on-one support in your job search, please reach out. I'd love to chat with you about my SPRINT program. It is for end-to-end everything from deciding on your application strategy and building out an effective resume and LinkedIn, all the way out to take home assignment, mock interview prep, and of course, offer and negotiation.
You can check out all of my programs at jesssherlock.com/apply That's jesssherlock.com/apply. And you can book a call so we can chat. You can also connect with me on LinkedIn, send me any questions or comments you have in a DM, I'd love to hear from you. And I'll see you next time on AFTER THE CERT.
