The Product

Management Handbook

2022-23
IIM Lucknow Noida Campus
The Product Management Handbook 2022-23

About this Handbook

The Product Management Club at IIM Lucknow Noida Campus is proud to launch the
1st edition of the Product Management Handbook for the year 2022-23

The purpose of curating this Product Management (PM) Handbook is to help

aspirants understand the landscape at various firms and provide them with talking
points, especially on topics featured in most PM interviews. To aid students’
preparation and a general understanding of the PM field, we have included vital
concepts associated with the field and a few critical product design frameworks to
cover essential aspects of popular products through teardowns.

PM as a discipline has caught up in India only in the last decade, and thus, there is
a lack of quality material on product management in the Indian context. The
inspiration for this compendium came from a lack of such relevant material. You can
consider this a cheat sheet, which will assist you in getting a refresher into a lot of
topics quickly, and you can wish to deep dive into the subjects that interest you. We
would request you to go through it if you are preparing for PM roles this placement
season or if you like reading and exploring PM as a field.

We do not claim this book to be a comprehensive, one-stop-shop for anything PM-

related & would urge aspirants to keep using all resources available to them, using
this casebook as a guiding light. We wish all the readers the very best in their future
endeavors and would welcome any suggestions to improve the book!

Thank you & good luck!

- Product Management Club IIMLNC

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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................... 4
The Product Management (PM) role ............................................................ 5
Functions of a PM .................................................................................... 5
What companies look for – the PM of the future ................................... 7
Product management – Basic Concepts & Frameworks .............................. 9
CIRCLES ...................................................................................................... 10
HEART .......................................................................................................... 11
5 Cs of Product Pricing............................................................................... 12
RCA approach ............................................................................................. 12
Sustainability from a Functional Role: Product Management ................... 15
Design for Sustainability ............................................................................ 16
Many faces of sustainable product design ............................................... 17
Closing Thoughts .................................................................................. 19
Tentative Roles offered in Product Management ........................................ 20
Interview Experiences ................................................................................... 25
PeopleStrong ............................................................................................... 26
More Resources ............................................................................................. 28

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INTRODUCTION

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The Product Management (PM) role

While the role of a PM in the software field assumed massive significance since
the advent of the internet & following web-based services, in hindsight, this is a
field that has existed since man conceptualized ideas to solve problems. It is
gratifying that the PM role, at its core, has remained the same – solving problems.
Simply put, product management is a cross-functional role that lies at the
confluence of technology, sales & marketing, and business, making it an appealing
career option. A PM has complete ownership of the product and works directly with
the C-suite and the customers. PMs set the strategy & vision for a product, define
what constitutes success, and make value-oriented decisions. They identify
customer pain points, convert requirements to cohesive problem statements &
ideates solutions to improve customer satisfaction while delivering business value.

What, exactly, is a product manager? [1]

Functions of a PM
The day-to-day functioning of a product manager varies according to the product,
at what stage of its lifecycle the product is in (more on this later), and the firm.
However, here are a few functions a PM is expected to carry out:
• Research & Planning
This is usually the first step in product design, with the PM identifying the
problem to solve. The motivation of this could arise from multiple sources –
customer requests, competitor benchmarking, new technology, market research
or a long-term vision for the product.

Once the problem statement is set, the next critical step is to create a roadmap
for the product & get it approved. A roadmap is a long-term plan for the team,
describing what needs to be completed when & by whom, at least in a rough way.
It is created through exhaustive market research and an understanding of the
team’s level of expertise. It is crucial in identifying the right features and
scenarios.

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This is also the stage where the PM starts defining the success metrics for the
product. Intense collaboration with the engineering & S&M teams is important
to understand limitations and set actionable, measurable goals.

• Design

Product design involves deep-diving into the identified features and refining
them according to the success metrics. The expected functionality of the product
starts to take shape. UI/UX design and drawing up how exactly the product will
look is also part of this stage.

The design stage is also a stage where the PM role varies significantly across
firms. Some firms require PMs to develop functional specification documents
that include details like goals, use cases, requirements, wireframes and
security. This document is then refined over time through iterative discussions
with developers, testers and other PMs. Other firms follow much looser specs
and a faster design process. PMs conduct regular face-to-face talks with
stakeholders & brainstorm on whiteboards with designers. Some ownership is
transferred to engineers who make easier decisions and ask the PM for
clarifications whenever needed.

• Implementation & Testing

During the implementation stage, the engineering team starts coding work of
the product. The primary function of the PM at this stage is prioritizing, keeping
track of the work and making adjustments as necessary. These include
changing features, making them easier to implement & modifying work
schedules to improve efficiency. Another crucial expectation from a PM is to
gather feedback about the product and identify bugs in the product's early
stages. They often do this via usability studies, running experiments and using
the product themselves. In usability studies, participants are provided with a
goal, and they try out the prototype versions of the product to reach that goal.
Carrying out experiments is an excellent way of obtaining quantitative feedback
from users. The acquired data is compared with expected success metrics to
identify further areas of improvement required.

• Release

Upon culmination of the development process, the PM gets ready to launch the
product. This phase involves a few steps like running through a launch checklist
(final approvals, legal matters, etc.) and ensuring teams' readiness to support
the product in the future. Depending on the firm, the PM may hand over the
product to other teams or keep supporting the product.

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Three archetypes of the PM role – how it varies according to firms [2]

What companies look for – the PM of the future

The role of a PM is here to stay as a vital cog connecting customer requirements

with business value. With rapid improvements in technology and consumers
becoming more aware, the PM role is expected to change with a deeper focus on
using the data generated. A PM will be likely to imbibe technological trends in-depth
and have soft skills to strike meaningful conversations with customers and the C-
suite. He/she is likely to spend more than 30% of their time on external activities
like customer engagement. Anticipating the future requirements, many major
universities have now started formally identifying product management as a
specialization.
Organizations of the future will assess a candidate’s fit & product management
capabilities in six major areas – customer experience, market orientation, business
acumen, technical skills, soft skills and presence of organizational enablers.

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Re-defining the product management function [2]

References

[1] https://www.mindtheproduct.com/what-exactly-is-a-product-manager/
[2] https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/technology-media-and-
telecommunications/our-insights/product-managers-for-the-digital-world
[3] McDowell, G. L., & Bavaro, J. (2014). Cracking the PM Interview: How to Land a
Product Manager Job in (p. 364).

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Product management – Basic

Concepts & Frameworks

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CIRCLES
The CIRCLES framework allows product managers to come up with thoughtful and
customer-oriented product designs. This framework is primarily used to identify user
needs and accordingly design a new product, but it can also be adapted to create new
features in an existing product.
CIRCLES is followed sequentially in the following order:
C: Comprehend the situation

Understand the requirements of the customer by asking the right questions. For this,
you can use the 5Ws and H method: What, Why, Where, When, Who and How.
If the interviewer refuses to answer your clarifying questions, make an assumption
based on what you know. Then, give the interviewer an opportunity to correct you, in
the event he thinks differently about whom it is for or how the product works.

I: Identify the Customer

Create a list of user persona that you think would have needs parallel to the situation
that was understood in the above step. For each persona, elaborate on the following
headers: Behaviours, Demographics and Needs & Goals.

R: Reporting the Customer’s Needs

Translate the customer’s needs into user requirements or use cases using the
following format:
As a <role>, I want <goal/desire> so that <benefit>
E.g.: As a travelling reader, I want to write 500 words a day so that I can publish my
memoir

C: Cut, Through Prioritization

The prioritization step mimics the real-world development process. You’ll have a big
backlog of use cases, but you’re limited by time, money, and labour. You have to
decide what you want to do first. This showcases your ability to assess tradeoffs,
prioritize and make decisions that are the most optimal.

This can be done by ranking each use case in terms of Revenue, Customer
Satisfaction and Ease of Implementation. These ranks can be added up to come up
with an overall ranking, through which the cut can be made.
L: List Solutions

In this step, solutions are listed against each of the chosen use cases. A method to
come up with solutions is the “Reversal Method”, wherein you reverse the situation and
it helps uncover new possibilities.

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E.g.:
Question: Create a new car buying experience.
Need: Buyers don’t have time to travel to the car dealership.
Solution based on reversal: Dealership should deliver test drives to the buyer’s home.

E: Evaluate Tradeoffs

The first part of this step is to define your tradeoff criteria. Criteria could include
customer satisfaction, implementation difficulty, and revenue potential. It’s not
necessary, but it’ll keep your response organized and easier to follow.
The next part is analyzing the solution. A pro and cons list is a good way to do this.
By evaluating the tradeoffs of each solution, you come across as thoughtful and
analytical. You’ll also be perceived as objective.

S: Summarize your recommendations

Summarize with this three-step approach:

● Tell the interviewer which product or feature you’d recommend.
● Recap on what it is and why it’s beneficial to the user and/or company.
● Explain why you preferred this solution vs. others.

HEART
This framework is used to find useful and user-centric metrics to assess User
Experience. These metrics, which form the acronym are:
1. Happiness
2. Engagement
3. Adoption
4. Retention
5. Task Success

You now have to identify Goals, Signals and Metrics against each of the above
categories.

Goals: These are broad objectives. For example, under Happiness, increase user
satisfaction could be a goal

Signals: Indicators that may indicate progress towards achieving the goals. For
example, under Engagement, increased screen time on app may be a signal.

Metrics: These are quantifiable measures that indicate success or failure. For
example, for Retention, a reduced churn rate is a metric.

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5 Cs of Product Pricing
This framework helps to determine the optimum pricing for a product.
1. Cost
You need to know the cost of each component of the product to effectively price the
product.
2. Compatibility
The pricing approach should be compatible with the marketing and sales objective or
target.
3. Customer
To determine whether your price delivers maximum value to the customer.
4. Competitor
Think about the buyer’s point of view and use the competitor’s price as the baseline
while determining the price for your product.
5. Channel
This viewpoint would include the middlemen and the price would aim to provide
margins to motivate and consider the value-add that they bring.

RCA approach
The following approach can be used to solve most Root Cause Analysis questions.
It is also flexible enough to adapt to different problem statements and the approach
may be modified accordingly. Questions may be of the form: “The number of cart drops
has increased over the past month. Analyze why.”
1. Scope out the problem
Determine how widespread the problem is in terms of the following aspects:

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● Geographic distribution
● Temporal
● Quality of metric
● Platform error
● Any new changes to the app or product

2. Internal and External factors

Analyzing External Factors:
● Competitive Analysis
○ Change in promotional activities in the industry amongst competitors
● Influence of any external stakeholders

Analyzing Internal Factors:

● User journey
○ Create a single linear journey for a user (no branch offs).
○ Find the point at which the drop off happens
○ Has any part of the layout changed?
● Business aspects affecting product
○ Cost, time taken, operational aspects
● User Behaviour (differences observed)
○ Change in operations
○ Change in marketing activities
○ Change in demographic aspects
● Technical Factors
○ Downtime, Latency, Errors in the app/product

Let’s look at an example where the above framework may come in handy. Consider this
case statement: “Order cancellation on Amazon us up by 10%; identify the root cause”

It is clear that various aspects of the problem are not stated explicitly in the
statement. Hence, the first step is to scope out the issue through clarifying
questions. Here are a few questions that will help shed more light on the
problem:

● How long has this issue been prevalent? Any trends observed?
● Is this issue specific to Amazon or does competitors also suffer from the
same? (Helps decide to focus on internal/external factors going forward)
● Is this issue concentrated on any particular service offered by Amazon
(AWS/E- commerce, etc)?
● Within a particular service, is this seen mostly around a certain type of
order/product (groceries, furniture, etc.)?
● Is this seen across the world or specific to any geographical location?

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● Have orders been cancelled across channels (mobile application, desktop)?

With sufficient context about the problem, we now move to analyze external factors
that might be affecting cancellation rates. Let’s try to list down a few of them:
● Government regulations/policy changes
● Any new direct substitutes in the market
● General sentiments on public platforms (social media, product reviews,
press conferences, etc.)

In understanding the reason for increased cancellations, following the user’s

experience while exploring Amazon would help us analyze internal factors & zero in on
any particular feature that might have disincentivized him/her from going ahead with
the purchase:
● Channels – Google search ads, organic searches, emails, mobile apps, shareable
links, etc. These can be clubbed according to your preference.
● Key actions in the app/web-page – Here are a few queries as a general idea:
○ Search bar – Are we facing cancellations on products discovered through
search bar?
○ Cross-selling section – Any recent changes to the recommendation algorithm?
○ Product category tabs – Any new additions? Any evidence of cannibalization?
● Product selection – Any recent changes to product listing page, how items are
added to cart, address selection, discounts/offers, wishlist design, etc
● Payments – any particular payment mode that is seeing increased failures/recently
removed any heavily preferred payment modes?
● Order confirmation and tracking – delays in confirmation/delivery, any specific
routes/pin codes that are seeing increased cancellations?

References for the RCA framework:

● https://youtu.be/DSV-vuvmIro
● https://ashwinomishri.medium.com/root-cause-analysis-6702f7d76f0d

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Sustainability from a Functional

Role: Product Management

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When we think of careers in corporate responsibility or sustainability, we often think

of a dedicated CSR Manager or Chief Sustainability Officer, spending his or her
working days trying to bring people, planet, and profits together. But when we look
closer at the people who arguably have the most impact on responsible or
sustainable business, a different picture emerges. More and more, we see people in
"regular" functional roles such as operations, strategy, marketing and product
development leveraging sustainability to do their day job. These professionals are
helping to define — and redefine — how their companies do business.
Companies are starting to recognize that addressing social and environmental impacts
during product development can have a substantial impact on both cost savings and
revenue generation. As a result, many companies are placing an emphasis on integrating
sustainability into the product management role, and are looking for individuals skilled in
idea generation, materials analysis, prototype development, testing and deployment, and
pricing analysis.

Design for Sustainability

Design for sustainability (D4S) is fast becoming a a baseline standard for new product
design in several sectors. Construction industry has taken a lead in terms of defining
standards for sustainable buildings and followed it up with certification programs. LEED
Certification for buildings has become mainstream in the US and similar certification
program from IGBC is taking roots in India.

2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference begins in Paris on November 30th
2015. As world leaders talk and negotiate deals on global climate issues, we as product
managers can do few things on developing sustainable products.

A truly sustainable product is one that:

Uses the waste of other processes as its input, and minimizes or eliminates the use of
virgin materials extracted from the earth;

Creates output that can be used by other processes or returned to a natural state, and
eliminates waste that can't be used or returned to a natural state;

Uses the least amount of energy to manufacture the product and to achieve the desired
outcome.

Today, Sustainability can no longer be just a buzz word. Today, Sustainability has to be
the core in companies at a variety of levels starting at the highest levels.

1. Strategy

Some companies decide what to make or do based on sustainable business

ideals. Godrej Group has made environmental sustainability as a key part of its business
strategy. Godrej Properties - the real estate arm of Godrej has been a leader in Green
buildings and is a sponsor of IGBC Green Building Certification program.

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2. Supply Chain

Retail companies such as Walmart requires its suppliers to disclose and evaluate full
environmental impact of their products. Companies are now paying deep attention to
industrial ecology, which analyzes all the material and energy required to create the
product. This often extends beyond the domain of a single business and right to the basic
sources of raw materials. For example, retailers such as Tata Chemicals is promoting
Organic food products under the brand Tata Shaakti, Starbucks is promoting Fair Trade
Coffee etc.

3. Operations

Decisions about how to make and move products increasingly reflect environmental
impacts. Companies are now looking at all levels of operations to lower energy usage and
now have created Environmental Management Systems (EMS), which have
operationalized the tracking, documentation, and reporting of environmental impacts by
day to day operations. The businesses can no longer hide from legal implications of
negative environmental impacts. In case of several industries, there are several legal or
regulatory requirement to adhere to minimum environmental practices.

4. Product Development and Design

Companies have incorporated sustainability into their new product development process
in ways ranging from specifically creating "green" products. Sustainable products are
those products that provide environmental, social and economic benefits while protecting
public health and environment over their whole life cycle, from the extraction of raw
materials until the final disposal.

Many faces of sustainable product design

Now that we have given a bit of background on sustainability, let's talk about sustainable
product design.

Sustainable design is the term we've chosen to represent the intelligent application of
the principles of sustainability to the realm of engineering and design of products.

The term "sustainable design" is just one holistic term used to describe the use of
sustainability principles in the design and development of products. This includes
sustainable engineering, environmentally sustainable design, eco-design, and green
design.

When products are to be designed for sustainability, there are several factors that needs
to considered during the product design stage:
1. Design for Environment
2. Design for Disassembly and Recycling
3. Design for Energy Efficiency
4. Design for Health and Wellness
5. Green Marketing

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Design for Environment

The Objective here is to minimize pollution and thus reduce human and environmental
risks that the product entails. It means designing products that should be safe (both during
operation of the product and after disposal) for human health and the environment. It could
mean use of green chemistry - products that leave no or minimum residues or chemical
that are biodegradable etc.

This starts with identifying industrial & institutional products that are deemed to be safer
for human health and the environment through an evaluation, define best practices and
identify safer chemical alternatives.

At this stage of product design, It also involves identifying use of sustainable raw material
inputs for the product and also use of recycled raw materials.

Design for Disassembly

This design aspect is essentially to address the end-of-life phase of product by designing
the product that is easy to disassemble and enable the easy recovery of parts,
components, and materials from products for recycling at the end of their life.

Recycling and reuse are a good way to create a sustainable world, but it requires products
that can be disassembled cleanly and effectively. Design at this stage is primarily focused
on end-of-life considerations as one means of encouraging more environmentally
conscious design and greater resource conservation.

Design for Energy Efficiency

Environmental impact of product over the lifespan of the product has to be considered.
Products must be designed to minimize the environmental impact. Product must be
designed to use minimize energy usage during its lifetime. Every version of product must
review the energy usage and develop new technologies to reduce energy usage.

Design for Health & Wellness

All products have to be used by people and during its life span, the product must not emit
any hazardous outputs that impact health & wellness of the operators. This includes
chemical vapors, heat, light, noise or electromagnetic radiation which adversely impact
the health & wellness of the operators. For example, design newer cell phones that emit
lesser radiation.

Products that use volatile chemicals in form of adhesives or paints must be designed to
use chemicals that emit less or does not cause any harm.

Green Marketing

Green Products can have a powerful advantage. Companies find that green products and
promoting the environmental responsibility/benefits of their products has a powerful
marketing angle. Touting the "green" aspects of existing products, processes, or systems
has immensely benefit product marketing.

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From product design perspective, it helps product designers and product marketing to
work together to know what benefits of their sustainable design and engineering efforts
can be claimed publicly.

Green Product Leadership

Developing Green Products often requires taking a leadership position for the extended
product supply chain. This requires voluntary partnerships among manufacturers,
retailers, government, and non-government organizations to set up effective green supply
chain systems and practices. For example, in case of cell phone batteries - it will require
working with raw material suppliers and also product recyclers and environmental
agencies.

Taking product leadership means encouraging more environmentally conscious design

and greater resource conservation. Working with various public and private sector
stakeholders, to promote 'greener' design, setting up greener product standards, and
establishing greener purchasing practices.

From Green Product Leadership perspective, there are many ways to create
environmentally sustainable business ecosystems. Sustainable design is just one aspect.
Designing products for a broader purpose by matching user needs with right products that
last for the lifetime of the customer needs, will eventually change customer behavior and
sustainable designs can influence user behavior for a more sustainable use cases.

While designing green products, one must think in terms of whole systems, the ecosystem
context, product service and the supply chain. Only then the product will be really "green"
and help create a sustainable world.

Closing Thoughts

We are now at the start of establishing an ecological civilization. The old thinking of
industrial civilization that sees the relationship between humans and nature as opponents,
and uses technology to tame the wild nature - must go away.

Sustainable products and Green engineering looks at the relationship between humans
and nature as a harmonious symbiotic relationship.

References

• https://netimpact.org/webinars/driving-sustainability-from-a-functional-role-
product-management
• https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/product-management-design-sustainability-arun-
kottolli/

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Tentative Roles offered in Product

Management

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Associate Product Manager

The entry-level position is an associate product manager. Bigger organizations with large
product teams tend to make use of the associate product manager, who tend to be fresh
graduates. Associate product managers may also come from one of the disciplines
mentioned above.

Some of these responsibilities include:

• Assisting product managers with their duties

• Conducting market research

• Gathering product requirements

For more information on the role of an associate product manager, read our guide here.

Junior Product Manager

Next up would be a junior product manager position, although in some cases, this will be
interchangeable with an associate product manager. For those that distinguish between
the two, this role is more hands-on as a member of the product team and involves taking
some minimal ownership of the product.

Some responsibilities for the junior product manager would include the following:

• Collecting feedback from users

• Working with developers to define features, user stories, and user acceptance criteria

• Working with the product team to establish a cohesive product vision

Product Manager
The next major role would be the product manager role, which we’ve talked about at length
in this article. To get to this level, it may take 1-3 years—this depends on your background
and the organization you work for.

As mentioned earlier in the article, here are some responsibilities of a product manager:

• Determining customer needs

• Defining the product vision and roadmap

• Working with the product team and within cross functional teams

Senior Product Manager

Once a product manager has around 3-5 years of experience under their belt, they can
move up to the role of a senior product manager. At this level, you’ll be taking on more
responsibilities in your role, which include the following:

• Managing product managers

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• Managing collaboration across cross functional teams

• Leading the product strategy

Product Leader
Depending on the organization, before you get to a chief product officer or VP of product
role, you may end up in the role of a product leader. One of the key differences between
this role and a senior product manager is that the product leader is much more focused
on the product itself, while a senior product manager takes on more management duties.

Some product leader responsibilities include the following:

• Owning the product vision and direction

• Hiring for product-based roles

• Owning the process for product development

Chief Product Officer/VP Of Product

All the way at the top is the chief product officer, or VP of product. Organizations may have
one or both of these roles, depending on the org structure. For these roles, main
responsibilities might include:

• Owing the overall product strategy of the organization

• Aligning how the product team works with the rest of the organization

Other Product Roles

One thing that causes confusion in the product management field is the difference
between what a product manager does compare to what a technical product manager or
a product owner does.

Again, depending on the organization, what one organization sees as a product manager
may be what another organization sees as a product owner.

Product Owner
We covered the difference between a product owner and product manager in a previous
article, but here’s a quick summary:

In regards to responsibilities, the product owner is in charge of the product backlog. They
keep on top of the list of new features, changes to current features, and bug fixes, in order
to reach the desired outcome of the product and improving its overall functionality.

The product owner has a more specialized focus compared to the product manager who
is with the product from conception to launch.

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Product Manager Product Owner

This role is all about the big picture for a A role that looks at the smaller details
product with the whole long-term project in rather than the big picture. Short-term
mind. focus.

Making product vision into an

The vision of the product.
actionable backlog.

Customer understanding. Advocate for the customer’s needs.

Highlight needs for the development of

Prioritize features.
a team.

Product roadmap. Backlog, epics, and user stories.

Technical Product Manager

There is also a technical product manager—how does that role differ from just a product
management role?

Here are some of the responsibilities that a technical product manager has

• Works with the engineering team to define requirements, user acceptance criteria, and
write user stories.

• Less focused on the customer, and more on how the product will work from a
development standpoint, and how it fits in with the organization’s software ecosystem.

The technical product manager is more likely to come from an engineering or software
development background. They are more focused on the how compared to the why in
comparison to a product manager.

Once again, depending on the organization, what one organization sees as a technical
product manager may be very different compared to how another organization sees this
role.

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Product Manager (Sustainability)

The Product Manager (Sustainability) is responsible for product planning and execution
throughout the Product Lifecycle within one or more of the 8 vertical stacks in One World.
The scope of the role is to create product stack pipelines for One World’s product and
supply chain sustainability and compliance verticals and manage these from definition,
justification, requirements capture, plan, test, and deployment in line with the One World
design principles. A sustainable product manager should has subject matter expertise in
one or more areas concerning product sustainability, such as raw material sourcing,
supply chain, certification, circularity and environmental impact measurement (e.g.
carbon)

The sustainable product manager has the following responsibilities:

• Manage, mentor and develop a team of Product Owners and Associate Product
Owners

• Drive the product vertical aligned to the design principles, project priorities and product
life cycle approach

• Implement/adopt practises to proactively discover, design, build, deliver, execute and

maintain products aligned to the roadmap

• Lead product vertical pipelines and requirements gathering with innovation through
research and market analysis to enhance customer value; understanding the wider
context to the scope of new requirements to support scalability

• Conduct horizon scanning of the market landscape and ensure we are competitive in
vertical offering. Be an expert with respect to the competition, understand customer
needs and contribute to the strategies for product positioning

• Work with third parties to assess partnerships and licensing opportunities; build
relationships with respective SaaS partners and enable their goals and objectives

• Report all product developments to the directors, providing full context around value
realisation, risks and issues

• Be a key player for facilitating synergy between the data and development teams to
build a true product-focussed culture and to drive continuous improvement

• Continuously learn and understand key trends in global trade management

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Interview Experiences

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PeopleStrong

Round 1 – Personal Interview (45 mins)

1) Tell me about yourself

2) What do you understand by a product manager?

3) Have you worked in App development?

4) Which tools you have worked on?

5) Are you a frequent user of the app? Which is your favorite app?

A: I told Amazon, then she asked other than Amazon

6) Which other app do you like

A: My answer was Ola, Uber, Instagram, LinkedIn, BigBasket, etc depends on uses
7) Why do you like Ola App?

A: I told about its feature like security, innovation, etc.

8) Take 5 min and think about feature improvement in Ola app

9) Asked some clarifying questions, identified customer pain points and proceeded with
customer journey

10) Asked about Instagram app and why do you like Instagram?

11) How do you introduce social activity in Instagram app?

Round 2 – Personal Interview (45 mins)

1) Tell me something which is not in your CV

2) What do you want to be a product manager?

3) Lets start with a case: design an app for job

A: Proceeded with lots of clarifying question and assumption like what’s the objective,
geography, segmentation, etc. Also identified customer pain points, customer needs,
customer journey map.

4) Feedback on case solution like what will be the USP of your product? How it will be
different from other players like Naukri, Monster, etc.
5) What are the different languages that you are aware of?
A: Python, Java, MySQL, ReactJS

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6) Do you like reading books? Which book you read last?

A: Think and grow rich

7) What is the last thing you read which is not in your syllabus?

A: Block Chain Technology in Supply Chain

Round 3 – Personal Interview (60 mins)

Interviewer went through my CV and clarified whether he understood it correctly or not

1) He asked,”You completed engineering in ECE, then joined IT, then MBA in Sustainable
Management and now you want to go for a product manager. Why did you change so
many domains?”

2) Asked about Summer Internship project

3) Are you aware of Zepto?

A: My answer was no

4) Are you aware of Grofers?

A: I know Grofers but didn’t see the app

5) Are you aware of Amazon Fresh?

A: Yes, told about its feature, etc.

6) Suppose you are a product manager, design an app for 10 mins delivery of grocery
items

A: Proceeded with lots of clarifying question and assumption like what’s the objective,
geography, segmentation, etc. and also identified customer pain points, customer
needs, customer journey map

7) Interviews revolved around designing app and lots of counter arguments on why retailer
will do this, why customer will do that, etc

For example, I told tha in our app, we will have an option to see the nearest retail shops
and the customers can directly order from those retail stores. Interviewer countered the
argument asking “Why the retailer will take your order online?, Your retailer will be busy
with their offline customer, etc.”

A: Support your answer with logic, mentioned some of the methods like how to do
customer acquisition, customer retention, how to increase economies of scale, etc.

8) How you will increase revenue through this new app feature?

Suggestion: Go through the framework like CIRCLES, HEART, MOSCOW, Kano Method,
etc.

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More Resources

Books
Cracking the PM Interview: How to Land a Product Manager Job in
Technology by Gayle Laakmann McDowell
Decode and Conquer by Lewis Lin

Youtube Playlists

Exponent:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ffLxnKkaJ8&list=PLrtCHH
eadkHr8ro- vTg1CAdDuwrVmXS4y
PM School:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjOeIGWiIhPdKDrDRrVnvRA/playlists

Social Media

Weekly PM challenge on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/school/pmschoolx

For teardowns: https://www.theproductfolks.com/

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