What to Research Before your PMM Interview
One of the first and most important steps you can take before your interview is to do adequate research on the company that you’re interviewing for. Sufficient prep should take a few hours and will position you to make intelligent, informed decisions about the company.
At the end of your company background prep, you should have a strong understanding of:
- The current environment
- The company
- The company’s products
In addition, there will often be opportunities to incorporate your knowledge of the company in many case questions, as they are likely to be related to the company you’re interviewing with.
The current environment
It’s crucial that you have a broad understanding of the environment in which your company operates. This includes key trends in the space, main competitors, and recent innovations or regulations that may be of note. Start off your research by reviewing articles and news about the space. Looking at tech news, such as TechCrunch, CNET, and The Verge are all good places to get smart on new trends going on in the industry. You can also search the web by typing in terms related to the company you’re interviewing for, such as “Social Media Trends 2020.” Take time to also review the company’s competitors, to see if any competitors have come up with new innovations or features that you could leverage for your interview. While you don’t have to be an expert on all competitors, you should have a broad understanding of the market.
The company
Your interviewer will often try to test your knowledge of the company to ensure that you’re serious about the job. Having a data-driven mindset and a strong business acumen is critical for any Product Marketer and an easy way for your interviewer to evaluate this is to see if you’ve done background research on the company you’re interviewing with! Key areas to focus on here are company fast facts, financial performance, brand strategy, current customers, and threats and opportunities. Fast facts include data points such as the year the company was founded, key innovations, and senior leadership (CEO, CTO, CMO, and CPO are probably as far as you need to go). Financial performance should include annual revenue and profitability (no need for exact numbers). Brand strategy includes the company’s positioning, mission statement, and recent campaigns. Core customers should include the main target customers of the company (as well as who they’re not targeting). Lastly, once you do this research, you should form a point-of-view on the current threats and opportunities for the business. A strong starting point for this is to read the company’s financial statements and recent press releases. Each should have much of the information you’ll need for most of these questions.
The product
Great Product Marketers have a strong understanding of the product! The last step of this process is to research the company’s product portfolio. If the product is B2B with a paywall, your interviewer won’t expect you to be an expert, but if the product is a consumer app, such as Facebook, Snapchat, Google or Amazon, you should be very familiar with the product. Start by going on the company’s website to determine the product portfolio, then click into each business unit to ensure you have a general idea of what they do, then download any relevant apps. Next, zone in on the actual product you’re interviewing for: What do you like about it? How does it compare to competitors? What do you dislike about it? How would you improve it?
Once you can answer these questions, congratulate yourself because you’ve built up a strong foundation for the interview!