How to interview product managers

“Companies should rely on a structured interview that standardizes the process among candidates, eliminating much subjectivity. These interviews pose the same set of questions in the same order to all candidates, allowing clearer comparisons between them.”—Iris Bohnet, Harvard Business Review

“Many early-stage teams underestimate how many candidates they need to speak to to make one hire. In our data we also saw that only 13% of inbound applicants even make it to the first screen. You will either need a lot of inbound, or more likely, you will have to fill the funnel with sourced candidates and referrals.”—Benji Encz, CEO of Ashby

Sam Corcos (CEO of Levels): “Be prepared to commit ~100 hours for each hire you make. Interview a lot of people. Ask your network for introductions. Reach out to people on LinkedIn. Get creative on how you source candidates. Write excellent job descriptions. There are no shortcuts.”

Good interview questions:Collaboration: Tell me about a time you disagreed with an engineer on your team and how you resolved it.Execution: Pick a project you’re proud of that took 3-9 months. Walk me through it from beginning to end. I’ll ask questions along the way. [Give this ~7-10 minutes]Strategy: Pick a product you worked on in the past year—... See more

Siqi Chen (CEO of Runway): “We treat closing a candidate almost exactly the same as closing an investor. In fact, we’ve found the best candidates will do even more diligence than the average investor. Arguably, candidates are investing something even more valuable than capital: their time. Our pitch and demo for our Series A is pretty much exactly ... See more