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Ultimate List of Product Management Interview Frameworks

A complete list of Product Management Frameworks used in day to day Product Management Activities and Interviews by Senior PMs at FAANG

My PM Interview

Sep 13, 2020

Anyone coming new into this field of product management needs to have a structured way of thinking about things and the best way to do that is by using different frameworks. These frameworks are widely used by every product manager in their day-to-day product activities (sometimes unknowingly) and also during product manager interviews.

Now let‘s go deep and describe the different frameworks that can be used to detail out/structure all these.

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To understand Market -

1. Porters 5s:

A model proposed by Harvard business school professor, Michael Porter, on the competitive forces affecting a product or service. Porter’s Five Forces include the following components:

Threat of New Entry — Is there a barrier to entry?
Threat of Substitute — Are there competitors?
Power of Suppliers — Is the company heavily dependent on its suppliers?
Power of Buyers — Is the company heavily dependent on its buyer?
Market Rivalry — Is there rivalry among the competitors?

2. 5 Cs of Product Pricing:

What is the best price for your products or services? This 5 C’s framework helps you to determine the optimum price tag for your product.

Company — Your’s company’s SWOT Analysis, Strategy, Vision, and Infrastructure.
Competitors — Who are your competitors and what are they doing better?
Customers — Who are your customers and their needs and wants?
Collaborators/Channels — Your suppliers, distributors, partners, or any other enabler of your company.
Climate and Cost — Regulation, Tech Changes, Economic conditions, Cost of your product.

To understand Company:

1. SWOT Analysis:

A structured planning method to evaluate the strategic elements of a business, industry, or product to find its competitive advantage.
Internal Landscape — Strengths and Weaknesses.
External Landscape — Opportunity and Threat.

Strengths - Attributes that provide an advantage over other competitors.
Weaknesses - Attributes that provide a disadvantage relative to other competitors.
Opportunities - Elements that can be utilized to maximize advantages or trends.
Threats - Elements in the environment that can be an obstacle or risk to your business or product.

2. Goals:

Understanding the company’s vision and mission.

3. 4 P’s (Marketing):

4 P’s framework help product manager & marketers in putting the right product in the right place, at the right price, at the right time.

Product — Your actual product.
Price — Create the perfect pricing, check the pricing models.
Promotion — Promote your product using different channels.
Place — Where the product is located → Physical store, online website, App, etc.

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To understand Customers:

1. 5Es:

An acronym and checklist to help brainstorm different stages of the customer experience. The 5Es framework helps you build a customer journey map effortlessly. Here are the 5Es:

Entice — Entice the user to use your product.
Enter — Make them enter and explore your product.
Engage — Engage and hook the user.
Exit — User performs the action.
Extend — Foster a strong relationship with the user so that the user keeps on coming.

2. AIDA:

AIDA framework is popularly used to optimize marketing channel and communication. It describes the effect of advertising media and helps to explain how an advertisement or marketing communications message engages and involves consumers in brand choice,

Attention — Same as Entice.
Interest — Get the customer interested in your product.
Desire — Convince the user that they want your product.
Action — Making the user do the specific action → Sign Up, Purchase or Play.

3. REAN:

What should your digital strategy look like? How should you market your product? Are you using the right channels? The REAN model, popularised by Steve Jackson help product manager or product marketers to answers such questions.

Reach — Activities required to reach users.
Engage — Engage the user with your product.
Activate — Same as action.
Nurture — Same as extend.

Different Pricing Models -

Free or Ads-Supported — Its ad-driven business model similar to Facebook or Google.
Freemium — These are products and services you get it for free but you need to pay for the premium version/services.
Tiered — Different types of prices segmented by volume, customer, or features (SaaS Model).
Ala-Carte — Pricing each feature/service separately (upgrades).
Subscription — You pay out a subscription fee for the product/service.
Free Trial — Short Term trial at the beginning, once the users get hooked you ask for money.
Razor Blade Model — Similar to razors, where razors are cheaper but blades are expensive so that the users have to keep on purchasing the blades.

Product Design Frameworks -

Problem → Company Goals → Compare the existing solution → Customer and Market → Use Cases / Pain Points → Vision and Brainstorm → Prioritize and Trade-off → Summary
CIRCLES

Comprehend — What, Who, Why, How??? → Goals and Metrics.
Identify Customers — Who are your Target Customers?
Report customer needs — List the Pain Points (Create a vision from the pain points).
Cut through prioritization — Prioritize your features/problem statements.
List Solutions — List down your solution, show your creativity.
Evaluate Trade-offs — Discuss the Trade-offs.
Summarise — Give an overall summary of the above.

SCAMPER

A creative thinking framework used to develop innovative ideas for a topic, product, or service.
- Substitute - What components of the topic can be substituted?
- Combine - What ideas, products, or services can be added to the original topic?
- Adjust - How can the topic be altered to be more flexible and adaptable?
- Modify - What components can be enhanced, reduced, or changed?
- Put to other uses - How can the topic, product, or service be used in different scenarios or situations?
- Eliminate - What ideas or components can be removed?
- Reverse, Rearrange - What new approaches can be formed from the original topic?

Product Metrics Frameworks -

AARM:
- Acquisition — Tracking customer signups for a service.
- Activation — Getting users that have completed registration.
- Retention — Getting users to use the service often and behave in a way that helps the user or business.
- Referral — Do they like it enough to tell their friends?.
- Monetization — Collecting revenue from users.

HEART:
- Happiness — By Surveys, Net Promoter Score, ‘Love’ Feedback ratio.
- Engagement — Check DAU/MAU, Sessions, and frequency.
- Adaption — New Users and Usage.
- Retention — Cohort → # users in the cohort [2nd time period]/# users…[1st time period].
- Task Success — Time completed tasks or errors.
Engagement/Retention — Three Loops:
- First Loop — Data Loop → Adding information in the platform.
- Second Loop — Compulsion Loop → Using the product/service again and again.
- Third Loop — Viral Loop → Inviting more friends on the platform.

Product Launch Frameworks -

Market → Users → Features → Distribution → Rollout → Buzz → Partnerships → Risks.
Pre-launch Activities → Launch Activities → Post Launch Activities.
AITP:
An analytical model that tracks the customer journey towards a purchase of a product or service. There are four general steps, indicated by the AITP acronym:
- Awareness - Bring recognition to a product brand.
- Interest - Stir fascination with a product (what it does, how it works, and what benefit it delivers.)
- Trial - Compel a prospective user to try the product.
- Purchase - Get the customer to buy into the product.
MOB:
A marketing framework that evaluates the effectiveness of a product advertisement or commercial.
- Memorable - Does the ad grab your attention? Is it worthy of future discussion with your friends, acquaintances, and social media?
- Oh, Product - Is this product and brand promoted clearly and definitively?
- Benefit - Does the ad explain and provide evidence for the product’s benefit? Is there a clear reason why the consumer should choose this product over a competitor’s?

Feature Prioritization Frameworks -

RICE:
- Reach - How many people you estimate your initiative will reach in a given timeframe.
- Impact - How many new conversions for your project will result in? (Scale of 1-5).
- Confidence - How confident are you about its impact? (in Percentage %).
- Effort - Estimate the total amount of time a project will require from all members of your team: product, design, and engineering.
For more details.

Once you decide the list of features or request which you plan to work, but wondering which one to pick or test first, below prioritization frameworks help you in that:

Impact vs Effort.
Weighted scoring.
Kano Model.

While creating a new product/feature we can take a bottoms-up approach i.e. start will the problems of the end consumers or a top-down approach i.e. start will the goals of the company and use the above frameworks to structure our thought process.

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Decision Making Framework -

How do you take product decisions involving multiple stakeholders with consent?

SPADE -
- Setting - What, When, and Why of the product or its feature.
- People - Identify the people who should consult (give input), approve, and most importantly, a single person who is responsible.
- Alternatives - Brainstorm and come up with a set of alternatives that are feasible and realistic, diverse (they should not all be micro-variants of the same situation), and comprehensive.
- Decide - Once you've laid out all the alternatives—complete with their respective pros and cons and quantitative modelsーit's time to get your consultants to vote. Get feedback privately.
- Explain - Call a meeting, Broadcast your decision, and add it to the S.P.A.D.E. log.

Frameworks used in Interviews:

Behavior Problems -

STAR :
Do you struggle to give concise answers to interview questions? Are you unsure how to share your accomplishments during an interview without sounding boastful? The STAR interview response technique can help.
- Situation - Describe the context.
- Task - Describe the responsibility in that situation.
- Action - Describe how you completed the task or endeavored to meet the challenge.
- Result - Finally, explain the outcomes or results generated by the action taken.

DIGS Method:

To get a job offer, candidates have to do just two things: be likable and show credibility that they can do the job. DIGS Method is a behavioral interview framework that promotes credibility and likability in your response.
- Dramatize the situation - Provide context and details that emphasize the importance of your job, project, or product.
- Indicate the alternatives - Be thoughtful and analytical by listing three different approaches to a problem.
- Go through what you did - Convince the listener that you were the driving force.
- Summarize your impact - Provide numbers and qualitative statements that validate your impact.

Rule of Three:
A communication principle that suggests that responses that are bundled in threes are more effective and satisfying.

Estimation Problems -

Issue or Logical Tree to break the Problem.
Top-Down or Bottom’s Up Approach.

Critiquing Design -

Is the feature/product innovative?
Is it useful?
Is it trustworthy?

5 Why’s -

A technique to determine the cause of a particular situation. It involves asking “Why?” in succession. It is also used in determining the Root Cause of a particular issue.

5W’s & H -

A checklist of questions to get the complete facts on a situation. For example, when understanding a new product, here is what listeners want to know:

What is it?
Who is it for?
Why do they need it?
When is it available?
Where is it available?
How does it work?

Customer Segmentation (RFM)-

One of the best customer segmentation technique based on user behavior. It groups customers based on their history (how recently, how often, and how much) and sends marketing communication accordingly.