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Verily Product Manager Interview Guide

Aakanksha Ahuja
Aakanksha AhujaWriter
Learn how to prepare for the Verily Product Manager interview and get a job at Verily with this in-depth guide.

This guide was written with the help of product manager interviewers at Verily.

tl;dr

Imagine a thousand health data points (of real people) being ingested, and analyzed by ethical AI models, which further leads to the birth of personalized health interventions. Sounds like magic? But this is exactly what Verily offers with its platform.

Verily is remodeling the way life sciences researchers, care providers, and the general public look at and consume health data. An Alphabet-owned company, it’s on a mission to bring precision health to everyone, every day.

The company, which has about 1,500 employees, boasts a culture of simplicity, resourcefulness, and building over talking. Verily employees are called Veeps and often come from different walks of life, including (but not limited to) medicine, science, and technology. Fellow Veeps say they value “people who look out of windows, and not into mirrors.”

🍏 Fun Fact: Verily was born in 2015 as a moonshot to Google X. It was originally known as Google Life Sciences.

What does a Verily PM do?

PMs at Verily operate at this complex intersection of technology, data science, and health care. Currently, Verily has 6 core product offerings, where PMs work:

  • Workbench is built for researchers. The tool catalyzes research and development by simplifying data analytics, enterprise-wide and at scale.
  • Lightpath is a chronic care platform for people with conditions such as type 1 and 2 diabetes, hypertension, clinically overweight, and obesity. The Lightpath AI technology is paired with endocrinologists, pharmacists, primary care physicians, and registered dietitians to offer holistic support.
  • Viewpoint is a software that helps researchers manage clinical research operations and create connections between study participants, sites, and sponsors.
  • Numetric is a precise measurement solution that looks at digital bio-markers to design diverse datasets for fueling medical discoveries. It also focuses on retinal health.
  • Sightline is an initiative that works with communities, scientists, and governments to detect and mitigate population-level diseases like wastewater-led viruses.
  • Verily Study Watch is a clinical-grade watch device with customizable features to collect data in clinical trials.

Prepare for your upcoming interviews with Exponent’s Product Management Interview Course, which features a comprehensive breakdown of popular PM interview question types and tips on how to best connect with interviewers.

Each PM role at Verily varies in its day-to-day tasks, depending on the particular vertical. That said, all PMs research user and market needs, define requirements, and shape the technical product roadmap. They collaborate cross-functionally with designers, engineers, data scientists, and legal teams to launch impactful data products. Additionally, they monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) to evaluate product success.

The users for Verily’s suite of products are vastly different—from clinical researchers, biomedical scientists, and chronic illness patients—to data providers and public health organizations. Familiarize and understand the user when you apply for a particular PM role or vertical.

Let’s dive into a few examples of what different PMs at Verily work on:

  • Numetric (Study Watch) PM:
    • Leads the feature, product design, and development process for Verily’s first-party Numetric devices, like the Verily Study Watch and new sensor-based devices.
    • Works closely with hardware, software, firmware, and data science teams to develop new approaches and tools for extracting insights from sensor data.
    • Manages beta and pilot programs to test and collect feedback for early-stage products.
  • Sightline (Wastewater) PM:
    • Partners with public health companies and B2B partners to gauge customer needs for the Sightline public health platform.
    • Builds pricing strategies that align with market trends, and identifies opportunities for international expansion.
  • Data Governance PM:
    • Designs a data-governance strategy of the Precision Health Platform, including data stored in Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) and other healthcare data modalities.
    • Oversees the integration of data governance solutions within existing systems.

Verily PMs are versatile, smart, and highly autonomous. To excel at Verily, PMs need to balance two core principles: strategic thinking and product execution.

Truth: Verily has a strong team concept, where PMs are expected to be more process-oriented (think— sprints, tracking tickets, SLAs, and goals), and a lot of the structures and frameworks have been borrowed directly from Google.

Before you apply

Interview process

The PM interview loop at Verily involves a total of 6 conversations with different stakeholders. It looks like:

  • Recruiter phone screen
  • Hiring manager phone screen
  • Virtual onsite interview (2 days), including cross-functional, product sense, and technical rounds

The interview process is standard for all PM roles, irrespective of team and seniority.

🍏 Fun Fact: Like its parent company Google, Verily takes its company values seriously. It even has an acronym for its inclusive practices—VIBE, which stands for Verily’s Culture of Inclusion, Belonging, and Equitability.

Round 1: Recruiter phone screen

The round is an introductory 30-minute chat with the HR recruiter. Expect a lot of questions about your previous PM stints, industry experience, and motivation to join the company.

Unlike other recruiter screens, which are only level-setting, these calls aim to get a strong pulse for your PM candidacy. So, be sure to highlight your interests and match them with the job description.

Sample questions:

  • Why Verily?
  • Can you tell me about yourself and your background?
  • What excites you about product management?
  • What’s your goal of being a PM at Verily? What do you hope to achieve?

Round 2: Hiring manager screen

In this 45-minute round, the hiring manager round asks a mix of behavioral, problem-solving, and technical questions. Team matching also happens at this stage.

The conversation usually kicks off with a quick explanation about the product, the role, and the possible challenges a Verily PM faces. Expect a shallow dive into your PM journey, including your interests, learnings, and obstacles as a PM with a few technical follow-ups.

Sample questions:

  • Tell me about your product management experience. What are your learnings from your last role?
  • How do you handle competing priorities?
  • What is your favorite product and what would you spec to make it even better?
  • Select a product that you built and explain why you’re proud of it. Also, describe how you would improve it.
  • Can you explain your understanding of product-market fit?

To shine in this round, research the company and the biomedical health-tech space thoroughly. Use your research insights to offer possible solutions and the larger direction that Verily can take. Hiring managers appreciate pro-activeness and this could be a game changer for you, if it aligns with the company’s overall strategy.

Virtual Onsite: Day I

Round 3: Cross-functional screen (Design)

The round is led by a senior UX Designer. The interviewer wants to evaluate your design sense and cross-functional communication skills. While you wouldn’t be asked to “design X product or feature,” you’d be assessed on your knowledge of design principles like accessibility, localization, and design hierarchy, among others.

Sample questions:

  • How do you work with UX designers? What’s your approach?
  • Would you build one app for 5 different products for X company or one single app?
  • What kind of a PM are you? How do you categorize yourself? Are you process-driven or more scrappy in your methods?
  • Describe a project where you managed cross-functional teams and stakeholders to achieve a common goal.

Cross-functional rounds at Verily are also implicit culture-fit screens. It has 20 company values that they seek in a candidate, and each interviewer is assigned a particular value they will assess you on. Their 3 biggest values are:

  • Innovate healthcare and technology
  • Gain velocity as One Verily
  • Respect individuals

Round 4: Product sense screen

Usually, a senior PM conducts the product sense screen. The scope for this round is both broad and deep. For instance, you’ll have a product and design sense case study, along with a variety of analytical and product strategy questions. The interviewer might ask you questions within the healthcare domain, especially if the job description explicitly outlines it.

Sample questions:

  • You’re a PM at Google for X product. How would you improve the product?
  • How would you define success metrics for Y product?
  • What would be the GTM strategy for a particular feature or product launch?
  • Can you describe a specific instance when you analyzed data to guide a product improvement?
  • How would you build a product to become a unicorn?

🍏 Anecdote from an interviewer at Verily: “The interview rounds at Verily are not as case-study heavy as Google and have a more human aspect to them.”

Round 5: Cross-functional screen (Engineering)

You’ll be interviewed by a principal engineer for this round. It includes surface-level technical questions based on your job role. The interviewer aims to also assess your technical decision-making approach and how well you work with engineers. You will not be asked to code.

Sample questions:

  • What kind of products have you worked on in the past?
  • How do you decide on technical trade-offs on two equally important products/features? Give an example.
  • What motivated you to choose one product over another?
  • How involved are you in technical discussions with the engineering team?
  • What was your rationale behind building a product at your previous organization? How did this align with company goals?

For instance, if you’re interviewing for a PM who primarily works with APIs, expect the following questions:

  • Do you understand why APIs are built?
  • Can you give me a realistic business use case where you built an API product?
  • How did this product solve a real problem?
  • What were the success metrics for this?

Virtual Onsite: Day II

Round 6: Technical screen

This is the final round in the interview loop, where you chat with the technical lead. The questions will be rooted in technical know-how, delving deep into your domain and specific product. The interviewer will also assess you on your collaboration and problem-solving skills. Senior candidates in this round should display product execution prowess compared to more junior candidates.

Sample questions:

  • Why did you decide to choose GraphQL as your language?
  • How do you manage priorities as a PM?
  • What is your approach to addressing challenges backed by data?
  • Walk me through a product roadmap in a typical sprint.
  • How would you build a Netflix with APIs on the frontend?
  • How would you enhance the baseline?

Additional resources

FAQs

How should I prepare for a Verily PM interview?

To excel at the Verily PM interview, make sure you:

How much does a Verily PM earn?

The average total compensation for a Verily PM is:

  • L4: $229K
  • L5: $267K
  • L6: $330K

How long is the Verily PM interview process?

The whole interview loop lasts between 4–6 weeks on average. Sometimes, it can also take up to 2 months.

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