Overwhelmed with PM resources? Here's one more?

Curated list of resources to prepare for your PM interviews

This was our mood back in college where we were stressed about meeting college deadlines and anxious about performing well in product interviews.

We were overwhelmed by the number of books and online resources recommended to us to prepare for product management interviews. We too were hit with content fatigue.

We did not know where to start and with the help of college seniors, industry professionals, and trial and error we understood what resources to use. 

This post is a curated list of resources that can act as a directional guide to help you crack PM interviews.  

Videos

• Exponent on Youtube provides you with the basics of different interview questions that are asked in interviews as well as mock interview videos for you to understand how product interviews generally happen.

• Rocketblocks is a highly recommended platform and they provide resources for PM, consulting, etc..Recommend checking out the consulting resources too as they will provide you with different approaches to tackle product problems. 

• Diego Granados provides simple frameworks on how to tackle product interview questions

• Harshi Bar shares her life journey as a product manager and gives you a peek into how a product manager’s day looks like (For folks who are still not sure about Product Management can watch her videos)

• Product Alliance can help you understand what senior PM interviews would look like if you are looking to interview for senior roles.

Books

• Soundarya Balasubramani’s article sums it up really well. Great place to start, this is where both of us started too.

• The Product Manager interview: 167 actual questions that you can practice on your own to build the product intuition muscle

• Decode and conquer is a must read book as it helps you understand how different big tech companies approach product interviews. There are a ton of valuable insights even though some of the info about the interview processes might be outdated

• Cracking the PM interview by Jackie Bavaro and Gayle Laakmann McDowell is the first book that everyone should read to familiarize themselves with the world of product interviewing as he breaks down every type with relevant examples. 

Practice

Building one’s product intuition is like going to the gym and exercising everyday. Our recommendation is to do a lot of mock interviews with your friends, peers and people outside your community to build your confidence. 

Here are some of the platforms you can use to build your PM muscle. 

• Lewis Lins's slack channel 

• Product Buds slack channel 

• Product school’s slack channel 

• Product Management exercises to solve case studies and post your answers 

• Stellarpeers.com for meeting folks across the world and practicing mock interviews.

Bonus tips

•  Get into the habit of thinking like a Product Manager. Question every design (software and hardware) and think about how you would redesign it 

  • Examples - Why did Instagram release the broadcast features / notes feature. How did the PM go about prioritizing and designing this feature? 

  • Check out producthunt.com and go through some of the apps and brainstorm on how you can improve them. 

• Don’t neglect behavioral questions. Behavioral questions also provide interviewers how good of a PM candidate you are by testing your communication skills, what you focus on while sharing your experiences is also very important.

Have fun! Enjoy the grind, especially during these tough times. Here is one of Andy’s favorite quotes by Nietzsche “I know of no better life purpose than to perish in attempting the great and the impossible.”

Hope you liked this article and provided you a direction on how you can prepare for PM interviews, and if you are already using these resources use this article as a sign that you are on the right path!

For more inspiration during your job search process, you can check out Yudi J’s channel where he interviews folks that have cracked the product management interview process and share their journey.

If you liked this post please do subscribe as we send out one article a week where we share tips on how to succeed as an early career product manager. 

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