This Week - #5 Interviewing with a FANG - Google Edition Part 1
Welcome to this week’s (aspirational goal) Product Hustle Stack newsletter. Each week, we try to address a product management topic about interviewing, growth, improving your team, how to create a roadmap, or just getting unstuck. Oh and we also provide an update on what’s new on the site .
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Q: I’m about to hit submit on an application for a Google Product position, what should I expect?
One of our more popular questions and one of the most popular content categories on Product Hustle Stack happens to be on interviewing. And the answer is a bit long so we decided to answer in two parts. Part I will focus on understanding the type of questions you could get, and resources to help you with prep for those tough questions. Part II will be focused on understanding the series of interviews you’ll go through at Google.
Google will ask a number of different types of product, strategy, and technical questions. Let’s go ahead and understand what the different types of questions you may encounter during the numerous interviews could be:
The first set of questions you might encounter might be General or Googlyness Questions. Sample questions range from “Tell me about yourself”, “Why Google?”, to “Tell me about a time…” questions. The goal of the interviewers here is to discover, the candidate’s path to product manager, whether they are a cultural fit, and whether they are a mercenary or missionary. If you were to be interviewing at Apple and owned every Apple product how would you answer “Why chose Apple?”. Google is no different. They want to know you live and breadth Google.
Another set of questions you might get are Product Insight and Design questions. Sample questions range from “Design a better way to find a roommate in a new city”, “How would you improve image search?”, “How would you improve Google Chrome?“, and “Should TikTok build a video scrubber to allow users to skip to certain portions of the video?“ The goal of these is to understand how you think about customers, how you attack and try to understand a problem, and whether you are comfortable in sketching wireframes to explaining your reasoning from a business standpoint.
Strategic Insights questions are asked because, at Google, PMs are business leaders. Sample questions could be “Should TikTok acquire Snapchat?“, “If you had to eliminate one Google product, what would it be and why?“, and “What feature would you build to improve Google Workspace? And what metrics would you track to determine success?“ The expectation is that candidates are not only familiar with business issues but are familiar with Google’s competitive landscape, vision for the future, and their strategy by product family (Cloud, Shopping, Education, Assistant, Search and Pay). Furthermore leveraging a framework (like the STAR framework) to structure your strategy conversation is highly advised.
Technical Questions are a staple at Google and while they may be sprinkled in the product interview, to be hired you will have to go through a dedicated technical interview. Potential questions could be “Design the algorithm to recommend videos on Disney+“, “What is everything that happens when you type Twitter.com in a browser window and hit enter“ and “A vendor swipes a credit card. Describe what happens technically behind the scenes.“ Google’s technical teams have an outsized influence on strategy and product decisions and thus being able to demonstrate that you have a mastery of technical concepts will be key.
Analytical Questions are asked to ensure you are fluent with numbers and have strong problem-solving skills. It goes without saying that as a Product Manager demonstrating that you can and do leverage data to make decisions is a cornerstone. Sample questions could include “How many queries per second does Gmail get?“, “How much does the average Zoom call cost?“ and, “Estimate the revenue of Apple Music subscription in the US“
Leadership Questions seek to understand how you lead and influence effectively. Like many other companies, certain initiatives at Google not only need their PMs to influence their own technical teams and but other teams as well. Questions can include “Tell me the time you didn’t have the resources to do something but you got it done anyways“, “Tell me about a time your team failed“ and, “Imagine a designer on the team wasn’t meeting expectations. How would you proceed?“
The hard truth is that product management is probably one of the hardest ways into Google and Big Tech. Having said that, if that is something you wish to undertake, stay tuned for Part II and check out resources to help you with prepping further 👇
Q: Ok now that I understand what some questions could be, how do I prepare?
The following three resources should help you start to understand the mechanics of the interview process.
Exponent is a great interview prep site. Complete with mock questions, videos, and a slack chan [FEE]
The PM Interview provides a great way to practice for that big tech product manager interview, complete with a great list of product design, insight, and strategy questions.
Product Alliance like Exponent is another great interview prep site. [FEE]
Porter Five Force Analysis is a method for analyzing the competition of a business. While first published in 1929 in Harvard Business Review it still is a must-know in strategy.
Q: What is new on the Product Hustle Stack?
This week we added another new stack. A stack is a mini-collection of resources focused on answering a question and meant to be consumed as a whole. This month’s stack addresses the BigTech Product Manager Interview. It will evolve as we deep-dive into as many of the FAANGs as possible. Along with that stack, we’ve added 6, new resources.
10 Tips for using OKRs Effectively by Rushabh Doshi was recommended by Shreya Doshi (no relation) and is a great way to get a quick refresher on best practices for OKR implementation.
Exponent is a great interview prep site. Complete with mock questions, videos, and a slack chan [FEE]
The PM Interview provides a great way to practice for that big tech product manager interview, complete with a great list of product design, insight, and strategy questions.
Product Alliance like Exponent is another great interview prep site. [FEE]
Porter Five Force Analysis is a method for analyzing the competition of a business. While first published in 1929 in Harvard Business Review it still is a must-know in strategy.
The Product Strategy Stack is a great article that helps demystify the difference between mission, enterprise strategy, and product goals.
Well, it’s great to be back. So until next week!
Sincerely,
Team Product Hustle Stack 👋
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