Product managers play a major role in the success or failure of companies, which is why it is their top priority to ensure that they hire only the best for this job. If you are preparing for a job interview for your first product management position, you’re probably clueless as to what exactly they’re looking for. Here are some tips to help you present yourself during your job interview as someone with the skills, knowledge, and experience that are needed for the role.
Find out why they are Hiring
Being aware as to why the company is hiring is a great starting point. If you have peers and contacts within the company, make use of your connections to know as much as you can as to the reasons that have led them to post this job vacancy. One reason might be because the company is rapidly growing and is in need of a new product manager to launch a new product.
Another reason could be that someone has resigned and the company needs a replacement as soon as possible. Whatever the reason is, use this to show them that you are the solution to their current needs, and you will be a great asset to their business.
Learn as much as you can about the Company
During your interview, showing them how much information you know about their business will give them the impression how interested you are in their company. So check out their company’s website and try to get a good grasp of their history, culture, values, team composition, and product line.
Signing up for their email newsletters is also a great way to learn how they communicate to their end users. Chances are, they are also present in popular social media channels, so go ahead and follow them on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube.
Know their Product
You need to have a solid understanding of their product, if you want to be a credible source of any improvements that would be made in the near future. So make sure that you avail of their product and test it for a few days. During this time, observe the benefits the product offers while also identifying any issues that need to be solved. Think of ways to improve the product and raise these suggestions during the interview.
Think like their Customer
Every product management training online would teach you how essential it is for product managers to know what their customers think about their product – what they want, what they need, how they would prefer to use the product, and how often. When being interviewed for the product manager role, your future employer would be looking for valuable insights that show your ability to see their product from their target customer’s perspective, offering suggestions that would result to better customer experience.
Research their Competitors
Learn about their market. You can do a keyword search using Google to see where the company is positioned in the market. This can also give you an idea how it is faring against competition. Know the unique selling point of their product, and how this can be further improved.
Preparing for any interview is extremely challenging, and more so for a product manager job interview. But, by doing your research, you get to show your interviewer how much you know about their company and their product that it would be impossible to not consider you for the role.
Michelle Rubio has been writing for SMEs across the United States, Canada, Australia and the UK for the last five years. She is a highly-experienced blogger and SEO copywriter, writing business blogs for various industries such as marketing, law, health and wellness, beauty, and education, particularly on product management training such as those offered by ProductSchool.com.