Interview Questions
'Describe a time you had a conflict with a coworker, and how you resolved it.
- I worked with someone who regularly mistreated team members. There was a major disconnect in the way we wanted and expected to treat each other, and the way this person behaved towards others, specifically engineering and QA. The conduct was infectious and created tension between the teams. I addressed the issue with the person directly, and worked with the teams to build a sense of community and inclusion, focused on transparency. We modified policies to ensure that any issues requiring a drill down be handled in a dedicated meeting and we made sure to raise issues in a constructive manner in the weekly retros I recommended alternatives to handling situations, ex a bug was identified during testing — reporter is certain it should have been caught and dev is unable to reproduce.
Tell me about a success you're particularly proud of in your career and why it was a success.'
- One success I'm particularly proud of is the UX and Technical knowledge I provided for a large client during a transition from their legacy AS400 system to SAP. The project lasted approximately 2 years. During this time, I worked directly with the client, their vendors and customer groups to develop prototypes and requirements at an exceedingly fast pace. The project took everything I'd learned in product, project and UX. It was a success in that we delivered what was needed, when it was needed, and went above and beyond the customer needs.
Tell me something you had to learn very quickly but knew nothing about before.'
- while working with TMP we experienced an issue with our Google AdWords account. It had been completely shut down and there was an all hands on deck movement to get to the bottom of it. I spent all work and a ton of my own time learning the basics so I could help with the initiative of setting up and configuring new accounts.
Why do you want to work here?
Company develops _________ and is having a major positive impact on the the _________ industry. Your culture shows that you care about your customers and employees, and have a positive company culture.
My questions
How do engineers know what to work on each day? What do you like about working here? What do you use to measure success? How do you find and fix bugs? For engineers How do you prioritize bugs? What project management tool do you use? E.g. Jira, Trello what is the most important thing I could do to help within the first 90 days of employment? What other functions or departments does this team work with most often? What are the characteristics of a successful collaboration?
Tell me about a time when you were faced with a problem that had a number of possible solutions. What was the problem and how did you determine the course of action? What was the outcome of that choice?
I experienced a failed launch for a new ecommerce feauture. In scenarios where user changed their saved address during the checkout process, the transaction would fail. The options were to maintain the release with the bug or roll back, provide an RCA and debug the issue. I instructed dev to rollback the deployment and immediately notified the teams that the launch was pulled back. There was some dialogue with senior management, a root cause analysis was requested, and the immediate outcome was some very unhappy stakeholders. We quickly fixed the issue, retested and scheduled a new deployment within 24 hours. All went well and there wasnt too much of a negative impact.
What's your experience with startups?
I have worked for two startups. Outlook Amusements and Vimware. When I joined outlook, they had just moved into a larger office space. The team occupied only half of one floor of the building. We expanded to a second floor, then moved to a much larger eco friendly building in Burbank. Vimware was also just getting started in consulting and had just acquired their first large client when they brought me onboard.
How many people did you you manage?
I managed a team of 15 people with an additional 5 resources available for overflow
How have you handled conflicting priorities in the past?
I review the information I have about each assignment to help me come to a well informed decision about what to work on first. Items with the least negative customer or business impact may be placed on hold while I focus on high priority initiatives
What are your strengths and weaknesses?
I strive to get things done no mater what it takes. I am customer focused and will always do my best to make sure we put our customer needs first. Weaknesses - I do not have an engineering background or computer science degree. I am actively working to expand my technicals skills via Coursera and Codecademy
Tell me about yourself
I've spent the past few years helping run Vimware, a startup IT consulting company. Vimware hired me full time when they acquired their largest client. My role was to help develop the business, build out the teams and be the product point person for the client. I have been passionate about Product Management since I first learned about it as a field 10 years ago. I learned as much as I could as quickly as possible, and have continued down that path ever since. What I love about it most is that the field is continually evolving and there is always more to learn.
Tell me about a mistake you made during a project or at a certain point in your career.'
In my first few couple of years as a PM I was a control freak. I thought it was my responsibility to control everything from a the feature UX to exactly how it was implemented — even when teammates raised risks. Through training and experience, I've come to understand that great products come from teams. They are a collaborative effort and when you build trust, people are far more likely to openly share expertise and opinions, which helps deliver quality products
'Tell me about a time you had multiple assignments with conflicting goals or deadlines, and how you completed each of them.'
Let me tell you about the time I worked with Jafra. We had two teams dedicated to various markets. One team was responsible for the Mexico and Central European initiatives while the other was focused on the new Brazil website. The first team had a small buffer for the US Market bug fixes. Mexico had updates coming in for 500 products, and we were building the Blog section of the Central European site.
How would you describe yourself in one word?
Motivated - I live to get things done whether at home or in my personal life.
What is your greatest strength?
My ability to sift through the chaos and find the opportunities to create a vision, and ultimately, products that people love. I enjoy working with customers and helping people. I worked with a company that had numerous stakeholders with conflicting ideas. I worked to understand the problem each were trying to solve, reviewed the data and customer feedback, and provided product recommendations with a solid backing. Loyalty Club UX designs for internal and external pages Ecommerce experience New Brazil website
Tell me about a time you had to influence a team
Sure; let me tell you about the time I had to cut scope out of a product. I was working for Ticketmaster at the time. To meet the launch date, I had to cut a key feature that the developers were excited about. A feature with fancy animation that would delight the users, but it didn't actually bring in any revenue. So, I had to prioritize it to a lower part of the backlog. Now if I just told the team, sorry, we can't do it. It would bring down moral and they would feel like their idea wasn't taken into account. Instead of talking to the team, I first talked to the lead developer. We brainstormed and came to the same conclusion that the feature had to be cut. In the end, we told the dev team together. They were disappointed, but receptive and understanding since the lead was involved. I assured them it would be included in the next sprint, and included in the next release. We ended up making the deadline and including it int he next release.
One the key responsibilities for a product manager, is when you have to sell an idea. Tell me about a time when you had to sell an idea.
Sure; let me tell you about the time I had to sell the idea of modifying search logic. I was working for Target Media Partners at the time. They own
How does this position compare to others you are applying for?
There are several organizations with whom I am interviewing for various positions, however, I've not yet decided the best fit for my next career move.
Tell me about your role with Vimware?
Vimware hired me full time to work with our largest client, and to help manage the business. The client revenue was ~60k/month, and I worked directly with stakeholders, analysts and customer data to create product plans.
How many clients did you have?
Vimware hired me to work with one very large client. During the time I was with Vimware, we acquired at least 10 more contracts from our largest client, and 6 new client contracts.
Describe a time you took the lead on a project.
We were going to build a new commerce site. The company wasn't sure of what was needed. I researched best practices, limitations based on legacy logic and UX design. I was able to work closely with the teams to develop a clean and user friendly online purchase experience
Tell me about a challenge you had to overcome at the workplace
When I was with Vimware, we had some challenges with quality. We held backlog grooming sessions, sprint planning and daily check-ins, so it didn't make sense that the output didn't align with the request. When I tried to have an open dialogue with engineering to work through the issues, our developers would shut down. I spent months building their trust, and making sure that if there was an error on my part I highlighted that as well so that it was clear we were all human and not error free. Eventually, I went to India and spent a week working with the team, getting to know them and even going out and shopping. The communication improved and in time, so did our product quality.
What did you do when you needed to motivate a group of individuals or promote collaboration on a particular project?
When teams lack motivation when they are generally overworked and stressed. I work to identify the root cause and address it with transparency. If the team is overworked, I talk with them about possible solutions to alleviate the stress in a "what can we do" to help the situation. Having a plan and keeping people involved in resolving issues goes a long way to boost motivation. I almost always join the team in their efforts. Whether it is helping QA, fielding engineering requests or simply making sure I am available for them when needed, every little bit helps.
When was a time you failed in product management? How did you recover/what did you learn from it?
While developing a new website for a client, dev mentioned that there was a possibility special characters could cause an issue with the forms. This was a fast-paced project with a tight timeline and I figured it was an edge case that we would address later. As soon as we released, there was an issue. The US market had a huge following out of Mexico, many of whom had special characters in their names. The form submissions failed.
When did you take a risk, make a mistake, or fail? How did you respond, and how did you grow from that experience?
While working with the team on requirements for a new online form, a developer mentioned that perhaps special characters could cause an issue. It seemed to be something in passing, I thought nothing of it and proceeded without accounting for this case. The form was for a Spanish site where special characters or used regularly in names. The form submissions continually failed because of an issue that I knew about and allowed to go out. I now always check and double check any engineering concerns no matter how small they seem.
my questions
do you do regular team retrospectives?
My questions
how do you measure individual performance?
my questions
what is your team's biggest challenge right now?
My questions
what qualities does someone need to be successful in this position?
