Thank you everyone for all the positive feedback, comments, and suggestions on this article since I published it back in September 2013.

I’ve updated this article to reflect the latest questions, interview reports, and comments I’ve received about the Google product manager process through Impact Interview’s 1:1 work with clients.

You can find the updated article and tips at this new location:

How to Prepare for the Google Product Manager Interview

Photo Credit: Antonio Manfredonio

During the interview, it’s not just your vocal delivery that matters; the content counts just as much.

When deciding what content or stories to share, McKinsey offers some valuable tips which I’ve paraphrased here:

Behavioral Questions about Leadership

Good examples show that you guided a group to overcome a significant challenge or obstacle. Keep in mind that you did not have to be the official leader for your story to be good.

Bad examples are ones where you were “elected” as the leader but never faced any challenges.

Behavioral Questions about Influencing Others

Good examples share a challenge where you had to convince one or more people, who were initially resistant to your idea, to embrace that idea or proposal.

Bad examples share a situation where an individual or group embrace an idea that they weren’t resistant to in the first place.

Behavioral Questions about Accomplishments

Good examples show that you both set and accomplished a challenging goal.

Bad examples are ones where:

• Someone else set a goal, and you achieved it.
• You set the goal, and someone else achieved it.
• You didn’t set the goal, and you didn’t achieve it.

The Google Cloud TAM phone interview usually lasts about 45 to 60 minutes. Here are the questions you can expect during your interview.

If you’re looking for tips on how to prepare for the TAM case study, refer to this answer here.

Icebreaker Questions

Why Google?

Why Google Cloud?

What’s your current role? What are you looking for your next role?

Role Related Knowledge

Products

Explain what Google Cloud is to a customer.

Who are Google Cloud’s competitors?

What do you know about the cloud market?

Hypothetical questions

How would you measure success of customers?

how do you manage a project schedule from start to finish?

How would you onboard a new customer?

Describe a time you failed to deliver for a customer.

Describe a time you had to deal with unrealistic customer demands.

Describe a time the internal team could not support you.

If you’re a designer interviewing for a new role, you’ll have to get ready for the dreaded design portfolio interview.

The Internet has no shortage of tips on what your design portfolio should look like. However, there are few tips on what your verbal commentary should sound like.

I recommend using the DIGS Method™. Here’s why:

• Provides context about your design task or challenge
• Tells us how you approached it
• Helps us appreciate your innovative approach
• Emphasizes your process, tools, and techniques
• Summarizes with your product or business impact

For a more detailed walkthrough, here’s what your DIGS-influenced design portfolio response should sound like:

Dramatize the situation

Start by helping us appreciate your design challenge.

Here’s what it might sound like:

“My boss told me that our goal was to increase the time spent on Facebook from 1 minute to 2 minutes. That’s a whopping 100% increase. To make it worse, he said that removing that annoying login wall wasn’t up for discussion. I was dumbfounded, especially since we knew that darned login wall was responsible for 94% of all short visits on Facebook.”

You’ll see that this narrative makes the design objective clear. It also dramatizes how impossible the task is; you don’t want to convey a design challenge that’s ordinary and simple. Lastly, it hints at some constraints. In this case, it’s a design constraint, but it could also be time or resource constraints too.

Indicate the Alternatives

Indicate at least three alternatives and talk about the pros and cons of each. If you fail to indicate the alternatives, we have a hard time appreciating why your solution is innovative. We’ll simply conclude that your single solution is obvious and not-so-noteworthy.

Here’s what it might sound like:

“There were three design approaches I considered. Here’s one, here’s a second, and here’s the third. The advantage of the first one is …, but the disadvantage is…”

Go through what you did

Many candidates choose not to talk about what they did. Maybe they feel it’s too obvious. Or they think it’s too boring. Obvious or not, interviewers are looking for evidence that you possess the skills and the techniques that matter. So play along and describe the process, tools, and techniques you used.

Here’s what it might sound like:

“I first built a paper prototype of what I wanted to accomplish. It was quick, easy, and tactile. Then I created a low-fidelity mockup in <tool name>. Then I created a high-fidelity, clickable prototype in <tool name> which we used in our usability sessions.

Summarize the result

It’s not enough to present the designs. You’ll have to explain whether the design realized the main goal. In this example, it’s whether you increased the time spent metric to 2 minutes.

We provide interview coaching services for Amazon interviews. Over the last 10 years, we’ve coached hundreds of candidates on how to prepare for Amazon’s leadership principles interview. We’ve also developed the world-famous Amazon interview stories worksheet.

But don’t just take our word for it. Read what our clients have to say about our Amazon successes below.

If you’ve got an Amazon interview and you’re looking for help crafting your interview responses to their 14 leadership principles, that’s our speciality. We’ll help you through it. Contact us at lewis@impactinterview.com.

Here’s what clients say about us: Amazon Interview Prep

Find more Impact Interview testimonials here

“I just wanted you to know that I was offered the position of area manager at Amazon. I accepted last Friday, and I start in two weeks. Thank you for your guidance. The preparation allowed me to shine int he interview.” – S.O.

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“I have got an offer from Amazon. They told me I beat 3 internal candidates. Thanks for your interview consultation.” – K.V.

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“I just received an offer from Amazon for the Senior Product Manager Technical Products internship! I wanted to take a moment and thank you for all the help you’ve provided me.” – E.O.

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“I’ll be starting at Twitter next week. I got offers from Amazon, Twitter, Groupon, and a couple of startups. I decided to go with Twitter!” – O.J.

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“FYI – I just received the OFFER from AMAZON yesterday evening!!!!! I am beyond excited and wanted to send a note to you to thank you for your help through the process. You were a fantastic interview coach and really helped me think about the best way to frame up my experience and examples. THANK YOU!!!!” – M.I.

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“Lewis, I am a current second year student at [top-tier business school]. If you remember, we had met during your session here last month, and I had mentioned how I had found your workshop and book useful for securing the internship at Amazon and was about to interview with Google. I have gone through the recruiting process with Google as well, and have an offer from them as well now for a full time role. Thanks again for all the help through the process through your material!” – B.E.

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“Good news! I just accepted an offer from Amazon for a Sr.Program Manager role.” – W.K.

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“Amazon plans to extend an offer as a senior manager. Thanks for your help in prepping me. Really appreciate it.” – B.D.

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“I am happy to report that I have received a job offer from Amazon. Your coaching program for Amazon has definitely benefited me!” – M.B.

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“Got the Amazon offer, with an initial package that was ~$100K more than what I currently make at [a top 5 tech company]. It’s a dream job for the role of Principal Product Manager for a [special project]. – Q.K.

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“Thanks Kelly for your interview coaching! I got offers from both Amazon and Apple.” – S.N.

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“I am happy to share the good news with you- Amazon made an offer today and I accepted the position. Thank you for your coaching and guidance.” – I.M.

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“I’m very happy to share the news that I’ve been offered Principal Product Manager with Amazon. Thank you for giving me the confidence to succeed at the interview!! Definitely worth the money!” – I.J.

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“Lewis, I got an offer to join Amazon as Senior PM – Technical products and have a second round for Google PM next week. ” – N.D.

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“My son received an offer last evening from Amazon. He mentioned that the coaching was very beneficial.” – A.I.

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“I’ve landed on an Amazon PM internship + offer last year thanks to your awesome materials.” – I.K.

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“I received and accepted an offer with Amazon.com. All the coaching/practive were a huge part of giving me confidence to go in a “sell, sell, sell” myself. I’ll be passing your name along to those (like me) who need some brushing up on their interview skills!” – B.H.

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“Martins, I just wanted to drop you a note, and thank you for your excellent coaching and guidance. I noticed an immediate change in my interview performance after our sessions and I believe that is what got me from being rejected in Rounds 1-2 to actually seeing what a final round looks like. Unfortunately, I couldn’t make it past Amazon’s final round. I finally forced myself to stop cramming the day before the interview and take it easy. That really helped me relax and my mind finally seemed to work. I received three really great job offers last month. I am really excited! This is what I’ve been praying for, a chance to start fresh and build a new life. From the bottom of my heart, thank you very much for your help. That really was the best use of my money ever and I would do it all over again.” – Y.K.

In the previous blog post, I talked about a strategy for answering the “What animal would you be?” interview question.

As part of a recent team activity, my colleagues shared their choices and reasons why they would be a particular animal.

The team came up with several clever examples including some unique justifications. Hope it helps you brainstorm your own answer to the “What animal would be?” interview question.

Sample Answers for the “What animal would you be?” interview question

• Elephant 🐘: intelligent, social, introverted
• Waterbear: Tolerate extreme conditions, outlast anyone, microscoipc
• Dolphin 🐬: communicative, social
• Lion 🦁: courageous
• Fox 🦊: clever, cunning, cute
• Bird 🐦: fly, be part of a flock
• Cat 🐱: independent, resilient
• Dog 🐶: get attention, play with others
• Flamingo: pink, be fashionable & stand out, travel in groups, and sleep on feet
• Eagle 🦅: be free, troll others

🐶 Answering the “What animal would you be?” Interview Question”

A popular, off-the-wall interview question is:

If you could be any animal, which one would it be?

Interview candidates absolutely dread this question. It seems fun, casual, and harmless. But blurt out a short response like — “Giraffe because I’m tall” or “Fox because I like to plan” — and you’ll disappoint the interviewer.

To help you think through this problem, here are some tips to answer this question, adapted from my recently released book, The Marketing Interview.

What Is the Interviewer Looking For?

Most interviewers would explain that they ask off-the-wall questions to assess a candidate’s ability to think quickly, showcase their personality, and demonstrate creativity. A small handful might admit that they ask off-the-wall questions to lighten up the mood.

Thus, make it fun and make it creative. Present a dull and formal response at your own risk!

How to Approach the Question

Treat this question as a personal brand question. That is, what would you like to be known for? Perhaps you want to be known as someone who is intelligent yet social. In this case, your animal might be an elephant 🐘, an intelligent species that emphasizes social bonding and enrichment. A social yet intelligent personal brand would be ideal for a business development role, where strategic skills and intelligence are prized.

How do you determine your personal brand? You’ll find your personal brand intersecting between where your strengths lie and what the employer is looking for in an ideal candidate. The last part is critical. Your employer has a picture in their mind of what skills and traits an ideal candidate has. To increase your chances of getting the job, synchronize your response with what they’re looking for.

A few more tips

Despite the seemingly inconsequential nature of off-the-wall interview questions, you are still being judged, so take the question seriously.

Details convey credibility. So use the Rule of Three and have three reasons on why you chose a particular animal.

Lastly, it’s very difficult to come up with a creative answer to this question without thinking about your response first. So pre-think your answer in advance. And if you must, take a moment to collect your thoughts before answering.

Conquer those interviews,

Lewis C. Lin 🦊

If you’re getting ready for a Facebook product manager interview, they will ask you questions from three fundamental areas:

• Product Sense
• Execution
• Leadership & Drive

Here’s more information on what you’ll receive from their HR team:

During the on-site interviews, Google product management (PM) candidates will get a technical interview in the afternoon, especially if they’ve performed well during the morning interviews, which consists of product design, analytical, and strategic questions.

To help you prepare for the technical interview, here’s a list of recently reported technical questions for the Google product manager interview, based on our research and work with recent Google PM candidates.

Coding Interview Questions

Write an algorithm that detects meeting conflicts.
Write a Scrabble-like algorithm that finds playable words, given a set of letters.

Technical Architecture Questions

How would you design a messaging app, from a technical perspective?
How would you design the Google search engine, from scratch?
Design a load balancer for google.com.
How would your reduce Google’s bandwidth consumption?
How would you resolve a server bottleneck?
You’re part of the Google Search web spam team. How would you detect duplicate websites?

Technical Trivia Questions

What happens when you type Google.com into a browser?
Explain recursion.
Explain object-oriented programming.

Most financial transactions—stock trades, corporate mergers, new financings— require an exchange of information, either within Morgan Stanley or between the firm and a client. Morgan Stanley’s information technology division makes the collection, exchange, and analysis of this information possible. As one insider says, “You’re not in a support role here; you definitely influence the bottom line.”

As Morgan Stanley continues to expand its use of technology, the IT division’s recruiting goals have increased. The division’s formal career program has a wide range of opportunities for undergraduates, MBAs, and advanced-degree candidates. Some positions require significant programming experience and knowledge of specific languages or platforms, while others are open to candidates with less-technical backgrounds. But in general, a position in this department means your office would work closely with the strategic project management office in determining how to translate client needs into system requirements and designs. Most new trainees join the distributed systems group, the mainframe group, or the technical service group. Within each of these groups, trainees work on projects for one of the six areas within information technology:

• Engineering

• Application development

• Service

• Enterprise risk projects

• E-business technology

• Coverage group (the liaison between IT and the rest of Morgan Stanley)

A Day in the Life of an IT Analyst

• 8:15 Arrive at work with the New York Times in hand. While computer boots up, head to the cafeteria for coffee.
• 9:00 Finish coding that was left over from last night. Want to get this out of the way before the meetings and phone calls start.
• 10:00 Status meeting. Report to manager on progress of new intranet application for research division. She suggests that one of the other new trainees can help plan the user-testing session.
• 11:00 Back at my desk. While morning coffee is still in effect, work on impact analysis for intranet application. If all of the implications for the new program are understood before coding begins, there will be a lot less anxiety during the rollout.
• 1:00 Head out for a quick lunch with two other group members. It’s good to step away from a project sometimes—things seem clearer after a bit of fresh air.
• 1:30 Ten new e-mails arrived while at lunch. Reply, reply, reply.
• 2:00 Brainstorming session with new project team for research delivery system. Everyone is expected to contribute. Sometimes the newest analysts have the best ideas for how to structure the program or write the scripts.
• 4:00 The afternoon’s a good time to code. Put headphones on and turn off e-mail notification. Better to keep focused and concentrate.
• 5:30 Hands are cramped from typing. Decide to find a team member and discuss that user-testing plan for the intranet application. Go looking for a conference room with a white board on which to sketch out the plan.
• 6:30 Productive session. Swing by the VP’s office to see if he wants to shoot some hoops. Plan to meet him at the gym in 15 minutes.

Source: Morgan Stanley WetFeet Insider Guide