Describe your day-to-day activities as a Product Manager | Behavioral

How would you explain your Product Management lifecycle from ideation to execution to the Hiring Manager?

May 20, 2021

Ask three different product managers to describe their day and you get three different answers. From strategic planning to go-to-market launches, you manage everything that must be done to build, ship, and maintain the product. Each day is dynamic in its own way, which is part of what makes the work so exciting.

Product management roles vary by company and product type too. However, all product managers work at the intersection of business, engineering, and design.

To help you with your Product Manager interview preparations, we have compiled a complete list of the most asked Product Management Interview Questions and Answers at companies like Facebook, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Netflix, etc. answered by PMs at FAANG.

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A Sample Answer would look something like this -

Since I work on multiple products and work with different stakeholders located in different time zone, the day spent differs, to cover how my day looks like I will categorize things I do under different phases - Product Discovery & Research, Product Planning, Product Execution, and Post-Launch Phase.

Product Discovery & Research Phase:

Requirement Gathering - Meeting different Stakeholders to understand their requirements.
User Research - Talking to different Customers to understand the pain points they are facing. Also conducting Surveys, User Interviews, and Usability Testing sessions to confirm and validate hypotheses.
Monitor Product Metrics - Check Product Dashboards and Data to find the next product opportunity or confirm any existing hypothesis.
Market Research - To understand what other players in the industry are working on.
Talking to Support Team - To understand the recent issues that customers are reporting.
Going through Play Store Reviews - To understand the reason for high uninstalls or low customer ratings.

Product Planning Phase:

Plan, Manage and Prioritize Backlog items groom them for the sprint/iterations
Defining the Problem Statement and Product Goals.
Defining Product Vision, Roadmap, Positioning, and Pricing for new Products.
Brainstorm the solution(s) and do a quick whiteboard session or paper prototype (Rapid Prototyping).
Collaborate with UX designer to come up with Personas, Customer Journey, Wireframes, and Designs by collaborating with Design Team.
Writing PRDs and Documentation.
Negotiate with stakeholders on prioritized items and timeline.
Negotiate and work with Management to get all the required resources.
Conduct Sprint Planning session.

Execution Phase:

Collaborate with the Developers to discuss and plan the picked sprint items.
Conduct Daily Standups meetings - To keep track of the progress and blockers.
Collaborate with the QA team to get the product and feature tested before role out.
Go-to-Market Planning for the product or feature.
Collaborate with Sales, Marketing & Content - To plan the promotion of the product developed or built.

Post Launch Phase:

Track product analytics - To measure success (or failure).
Collaborate with the support team to check on customer issues post-launch
Conducting Product Demos to Senior Management and Stakeholders.
Gather feedback and prioritize them in coming iterations.

Note: Depending on your job profile, company, and the product you are working on your answer may vary a bit. You are free to add or remove some points from the above answer.

The interviewer may also ask follow up question like,