30-Day Google PM Interview Study Guide
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The document is a 30-day study guide for preparing for Google product manager interviews, detailing daily tasks focused on various interview aspects including product design, metrics, estimation, strategy, pricing, behavioral, and technical questions. It emphasizes practical exercises, frameworks like the circles method, and the importance of user empathy and innovative thinking. The guide also provides tips for adapting preparation strategies for interviews at other companies like Uber and LinkedIn.
30-Day Google PM Interview Study Guide
- 1. 1 30-Day Google PM Study Guide Day 1. Getting familiar with Google’s PM Interview Tasks Read Google’s official preparation note to its PM interview candidates: bit.ly/GOOGPMIntNote Search Google for Lewis’ blog post and read: “Google Product Manager Interview: What to Expect and How to Prepare” Goal Know the scope and nature of the Google PM interview. Day 2. Getting familiar with the product design interview Background Reading Read about the CIRCLES design method in Decode and Conquer. Review the product design examples from Decode and Conquer to see how CIRCLES is applied. Exercises Do the following pain point exercises in The Product Manager Interview: Child’s 1st Birthday Party Best Handyman Job Search Pain Points Finding Someone to Do Taxes Do the following customer journey map exercises in The Product Manager Interview: Expedia Journey Airbnb Journey Job Search Journey Home Improvement Journey Customer Service Journey Online Course Journey Goals Learn about product design questions. Understand the product design framework, CIRCLES. Observe how others answer interview questions with CIRCLES. Practice two parts of the CIRCLES framework: a. Listing (brainstorming) solutions
- 2. 2 b. Reporting customer needs (customer journey map). Day 3. Putting product design questions together with the CIRCLES Method™ Exercise Do the following product design exercises in The Product Manager Interview: Improving Google Hangouts Disney Experience with Your Phone Goals Like a wine connoisseur, detect and deduce how your response differs from the sample. As you become more aware of the differences, your own responses will improve. For now, do not worry about response quality or speed. Getting started, by practicing, is half the battle. Day 4 to 10. Practice one product design question per day Exercise Complete one example a day for the next seven days, choosing from the list of questions from The Product Manager Interview, below. 1. Improving Google Play Store 2. Monetizing Google Maps 3. Mobile App Design for Nest 4. Favorite Product 5. Favorite Website 6. People You May Know 7. Car for the Blind 8. ATM for the Elderly Goals Easily explain why CIRCLES leads to better interview responses. Understand when, how, and why one should adapt CIRCLES. Day 11-13. CIRCLES in Real-life Exercise Improve your product design skills further by applying the CIRCLES Method™ to real-life. For each one of the next three days: 1. Walk around the neighborhood.
- 3. 3 2. As you walk, use the CIRCLES Method™ to improve everyday items. Here are some design problems you can ponder: How to improve sidewalks? How can street lamps be more effective? Build a product to solve the dog poop problem. What new products can prevent flat tires in cars or bikes? What innovation can make gardening less of a chore? What innovative new product can make park gatherings be more social, with strangers? Goal Acculturating a product design mindset 24 hours a day, both at the interview and in your everyday life. Day 14*. Find a practice partner for product design Exercise Sign up for the product management interview practice group on Slack: bit.ly/PMInterviewGroup Post a request for a partner or partners in the #req-practice-ptr channel. Take turns during your practice session. That is, Partner A (interviewer) gives a case to Partner B (interviewee). Then, swap roles. Coordinate in advance which case each person will receive; to simulate the interview environment, the interviewee should do an unfamiliar case. The interviewer should take time to acquaint themselves with the question and the sample answer. * Repeat the partner practice activity as often as you would like. The best candidates will have practiced at least 20 product design cases. Goal Master the product design interview. It is the number one reason why candidates fail the Google PM interview. If you have committed yourself to thoughtful practice, you should be an expert when it comes to tackling product design questions. Use the guidelines below to gauge your product design proficiency: A novice suggests the obvious or copies competitive features. An expert suggests novel and memorable ideas. An expert suggests ideas that make the interviewer go, “Hmm, I wish I thought of that; maybe I should build a company based off of that idea.” A novice mentions shallow user insights. The novice does not take interest in users or their motivations. The novice is deficient in user empathy. The expert is a lifelong learner of human psychology and behavior. An expert continually asks questions about what people do and why they do it. As a result, an expert easily points out insights that are urgent, relevant and surprising.
- 4. 4 A novice follows the CIRCLES Method™ step-by-step, like a home cook trying to make a sophisticated soufflé for the first time. The novice is afraid of making mistakes and clings tightly to a prescribed framework. The novice is so busy trying to recall the different steps of the CIRCLES framework that the novice’s responses sound robotic and textbook. The expert understands that a framework is a checklist, not a recipe. The expert understands that CIRCLES is there to prevent errors of omission. CIRCLES is there to help ensure that the listener’s experience is complete, satisfying and possibly even entertaining. Day 15. Getting familiar with the metrics interview Background Reading Read about the AARM framework in Decode and Conquer. Read metrics examples in Decode and Conquer to get familiar with metrics questions in an interview setting. Exercises Do the following metrics brainstorming exercises in The Product Manager Interview: Metrics for eCommerce Metrics for Two-sided Marketplaces Metrics for SaaS Metrics for Mobile Apps Metrics for Publishers Metrics for User-Generated Website Metrics for Support Tickets Do the following metrics prioritization exercises in The Product Manager Interview: Most Important Metric: eCommerce Most Important Metric: Two-Sided Marketplace Most Important Metric: Mobile App Goal Get more familiarity in coming up with and identifying good metrics. Day 16. Diagnosing metrics problems Exercises Complete the following examples in this book, on your own or with a partner: Shopping Cart Conversions Mobile App Ratings Reddit Posts
- 5. 5 Goals Gain proficiency in brainstorming a complete and exhaustive list of issues when troubleshooting a metric. Day 17 and 18. Putting the metrics problem together Exercises Complete one example a day for the next seven days, both on your own and with your practice partner, from this book. Your Favorite Google Product Drop in Hits Declining Users Metrics for Uber Pick-up Slow Download on Kindle Pinterest Metrics Go-to-Market and Success Goals Build proficiency in identifying, prioritizing and diagnosing metrics issues. Day 19. Getting familiar with the estimation interview Tasks Read about estimation questions in Interview Math. Read the following estimation examples in Interview Math to get familiar. o Women’s Rain Boot Market o Smartphone Case Market o Subway’s Sales o Netflix Subscription Sales Goals 1. Learn about estimation questions. 2. Learn how to setup estimation questions using issue trees. 3. Learn how to make assumptions. 4. Try the following estimation questions: a. Cars in Seattle b. How Many G Suite Users c. Revenue from YouTube Red Day 20. Practice estimation questions
- 6. 6 Tasks Complete one example a day, from this book, for the next seven days. 1. Planes in the Air 2. Gmail Ads Revenue 3. Google Buses 4. Gmail Costs 5. Driverless Car Purchases 2020 6. Storing Google Maps 7. Facebook’s Ad Revenue Goals Master estimation questions. Not only is response quality important, but also you should complete most estimation questions in about 10 to 15 minutes. Day 22. Learn more about strategy questions Tasks Read the following chapters in Decode and Conquer. Strategizing: Tradeoffs Strategizing: New Market Entry Strategizing: CEO-Level Issues Goals Learn about common strategy question types. Figure out how to approach strategy questions using frameworks. See how to apply frameworks to common strategy questions. Day 23. Practice strategy questions Tasks Practice the following strategy questions, in this book, either on your own or with your practice partner: 1. Google’s Cable TV Service 2. iPhone Exclusive Partnership Goals Provide a response that is thoughtful, logical and addresses the company’s objectives. For more examples of thoughtful strategy responses, refer to the popular blog, stratechery.com.
- 7. 7 Day 24. Learn more about pricing questions Tasks Read the “Pricing” chapter in Rise Above the Noise. Goals Learn about pricing questions, including the difference when pricing new vs. existing products. Figure out how to approach pricing questions using frameworks. See how to apply pricing frameworks to popular questions. Day 25. Practice pricing questions Tasks Practice the following pricing questions, either on your own or with your practice partner: Pricing New Products o Google Driverless Car Pricing o Google and Teleportation Pricing Existing Products o Kindle Pricing at Target o AWS Price Reduction Goals 1. Google’s Strategy 2. Google vs. Microsoft 3. Google Moonshot Projects 4. Google Maps in Mongolia 5. Google Store Day 26. Traditional and behavioral questions Tasks Read the “Winning the Behavioral Interview” chapter in Decode and Conquer. Draft and polish your answers for the following questions: o Tell me about yourself. o Why Google? o Influencing your team Practice and get feedback from your practice partner Goals
- 8. 8 While Google has an affinity for case questions, you should spend some time preparing for traditional and behavioral questions. Google interviewers usually ask traditional icebreaker questions like “Tell me about yourself” and “Why Google?” However, behavioral interview questions like “Tell me a time when you influenced a team” are a newer occurrence. Google’s HR department, since 2013, has asked its PM interviewers to ask more behavioral interview questions. Day 27. Getting familiar with technical interview questions Tasks Review the technical topics suggested in: bit.ly/PMPrepPlan Goals Gain familiarity with technical concepts and questions. Google reserves technical interview questions for on-site interview candidates, especially those who answered product design, analytics, and strategy questions well. Day 28. First try at technical interview questions Tasks Attempt the following technical interview questions: Racing 15 Horses Reducing Bandwidth Consumption Goals Try some technical interview questions, with a focus on calming your nerves and approaching questions with open curiosity. “Racing 15 Horses” question is an example of an algorithm question. “Reducing Bandwidth Consumption” is an example of a technical architecture question. Day 29-30*. Second try at technical interview questions Tasks Attempt the following technical interview questions from The Product Manager Interview: Load Balancer for google.com Dictionary for Scrabble Google Search Service Bayesian vs. AI * Repeat the technical interview practice activity, as necessary. Goals
- 9. 9 Build confidence tackling technical interview questions. How to Modify the Google PM Prep Guide for Uber and LinkedIn Unlike Google, most companies do not ask difficult technical interview questions at the PM interview. At most, these companies may ask you to explain a technical concept such as: What happens when you type facebook.com into a Google Chrome browser? Tell me a time when you had to assess a technical tradeoff. At most hiring companies, PM candidates will not be asked whiteboard coding or technical architecture questions. Thus, to modify the Google PM prep guide for Uber and LinkedIn, simply do the following: Cut out technical interview prep Read Lewis’ overviews of Uber and LinkedIn PM interview processes. o Uber Product Manager (PM or APM) Interview: What to Expect and How to Prepare: bit.ly/uber-pm-int-tips o LinkedIn Product Manager Interview: What to Expect and How to Prepare: bit.ly/lnkd-pm-int-tips Instead of Google-centric practice questions, swap in Uber and LinkedIn examples, as appropriate.