"Thanks for the question! This is one of my favourite topics because it’s at the core of what we do as PMs DAILY: making the complex simple to drive alignment. I’ve got a structured way to approach this, and I’ll use it to explain payment aggregators - like Plaid - and how they enable Open Banking, with a twist about a technical hiccup I’ve seen in practice. Let’s dive in.
I start by assessing the audience. Say I’m talking to a marketing manager at Transak - someone sharp but not techni"
Adarsh S. - "Thanks for the question! This is one of my favourite topics because it’s at the core of what we do as PMs DAILY: making the complex simple to drive alignment. I’ve got a structured way to approach this, and I’ll use it to explain payment aggregators - like Plaid - and how they enable Open Banking, with a twist about a technical hiccup I’ve seen in practice. Let’s dive in.
I start by assessing the audience. Say I’m talking to a marketing manager at Transak - someone sharp but not techni"See full answer
"As a postgraduate student of computer science, one of my weaknesses might be that I sometimes focus too much on theoretical concepts, which can lead to delays in practical implementation. I also find that while I’m strong in certain areas like algorithms and data structures, I need to spend more time refining my skills in newer technologies or languages that aren't part of the core curriculum. Additionally, balancing research, coursework, and any side projects can be challenging, occasionally le"
Vipan K. - "As a postgraduate student of computer science, one of my weaknesses might be that I sometimes focus too much on theoretical concepts, which can lead to delays in practical implementation. I also find that while I’m strong in certain areas like algorithms and data structures, I need to spend more time refining my skills in newer technologies or languages that aren't part of the core curriculum. Additionally, balancing research, coursework, and any side projects can be challenging, occasionally le"See full answer
"While interning at Numerix Analytics, I was working on a campaign analysis project where I used customer engagement data to recommend which email subject lines performed best. Based on open rate data from the past two campaigns, I concluded that short, curiosity-based subject lines were outperforming more direct ones. I recommended using that style for the next major campaign. The marketing team followed my recommendation. However, the open and click-through rates for the next campaign dropped s"
Dhruv M. - "While interning at Numerix Analytics, I was working on a campaign analysis project where I used customer engagement data to recommend which email subject lines performed best. Based on open rate data from the past two campaigns, I concluded that short, curiosity-based subject lines were outperforming more direct ones. I recommended using that style for the next major campaign. The marketing team followed my recommendation. However, the open and click-through rates for the next campaign dropped s"See full answer
"For self achievement, The product manager builds useful products for users and makes the world better.
For the team, The product manager can work with the team, and leverage the team resources to make things happen, which is more impactful.
For the company, Pm are usually problem solvers, help companies to solve problems and grow better
"
Shen W. - "For self achievement, The product manager builds useful products for users and makes the world better.
For the team, The product manager can work with the team, and leverage the team resources to make things happen, which is more impactful.
For the company, Pm are usually problem solvers, help companies to solve problems and grow better
"See full answer
Product Manager
Behavioral
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"The company culture is very supportive and collaborative. Googlers are encouraged to be creative and innovative, and there is a lot of freedom to explore new ideas.
The work is challenging and rewarding. Googlers have the opportunity to work on cutting-edge projects that have a real impact on the world.
The company is committed to diversity and inclusion. Google is a great place to work for people from all backgrounds and with all different perspectives.
I am confident that I would b"
Praful B. - "The company culture is very supportive and collaborative. Googlers are encouraged to be creative and innovative, and there is a lot of freedom to explore new ideas.
The work is challenging and rewarding. Googlers have the opportunity to work on cutting-edge projects that have a real impact on the world.
The company is committed to diversity and inclusion. Google is a great place to work for people from all backgrounds and with all different perspectives.
I am confident that I would b"See full answer
"A daily 10 minute cadence to make a note of the progress and the deliverables for the day, should help ascertain the delivery and to meet schedule the self performing teams need to be on toes to deliver. Time lines need to be revisited end of each day to evalute the impact."
Nilesh S. - "A daily 10 minute cadence to make a note of the progress and the deliverables for the day, should help ascertain the delivery and to meet schedule the self performing teams need to be on toes to deliver. Time lines need to be revisited end of each day to evalute the impact."See full answer
"The key here is a) not to overreact to Sales bypassing me going straight to Engineering (while understanding every team acts according to their incentives), and b) communicate with all parties as much as possible to get everyone on the same page.
1) First, I'd speak to Sales and understand the feature being requested. I consider Sales to be one of the most important primary research funnels - they have direct, regular touchpoints with the client and are finely attuned to the lifeblood o"
Sachin P. - "The key here is a) not to overreact to Sales bypassing me going straight to Engineering (while understanding every team acts according to their incentives), and b) communicate with all parties as much as possible to get everyone on the same page.
1) First, I'd speak to Sales and understand the feature being requested. I consider Sales to be one of the most important primary research funnels - they have direct, regular touchpoints with the client and are finely attuned to the lifeblood o"See full answer
"It's fair to assume a tech lead is an experienced person, especially in bigger organizations like Google. How we shape our thought process is part of our past experiences of default nature.
I will first give it some time before I react/respond. I will try to understand the pattern where the tech lead is being devil's advocate. Eg. If he is being negative about PRD everytime, that means he had past experiences where the PRD was incomplete or scope was change;
if is negative about testing scena"
Dewansh Z. - "It's fair to assume a tech lead is an experienced person, especially in bigger organizations like Google. How we shape our thought process is part of our past experiences of default nature.
I will first give it some time before I react/respond. I will try to understand the pattern where the tech lead is being devil's advocate. Eg. If he is being negative about PRD everytime, that means he had past experiences where the PRD was incomplete or scope was change;
if is negative about testing scena"See full answer
"Background Context
I'm a PM at a venture-backed SaaS in the legal tech space. We provide end-to-end contract management experience for our customers with the following features:
Upload - Contracts signed in DocuSign, etc. automatically uploaded to our system through API integrations.
Data Extraction - Contract terms such as payment terms and key dates are automatically OCRed and extracted using ML.
Analytics - Contract terms are searchable, filter, and customize for reporting.
Work"
Christopher K. - "Background Context
I'm a PM at a venture-backed SaaS in the legal tech space. We provide end-to-end contract management experience for our customers with the following features:
Upload - Contracts signed in DocuSign, etc. automatically uploaded to our system through API integrations.
Data Extraction - Contract terms such as payment terms and key dates are automatically OCRed and extracted using ML.
Analytics - Contract terms are searchable, filter, and customize for reporting.
Work"See full answer
"Is the "idea" I'm trying to sell something new or built off an existing service/product we offer?
Interviewer: Let's assume new.
Assuming it's a proper sit-down meeting with senior management to go over the proposal, here is what the slide deck would contain.
Introduction/Description of the problem I'm trying to solve: Before proposing a solution, it is important to first identify the problem we're trying to solve. This section would contain the description of the problem/pain poi"
Harshita G. - "Is the "idea" I'm trying to sell something new or built off an existing service/product we offer?
Interviewer: Let's assume new.
Assuming it's a proper sit-down meeting with senior management to go over the proposal, here is what the slide deck would contain.
Introduction/Description of the problem I'm trying to solve: Before proposing a solution, it is important to first identify the problem we're trying to solve. This section would contain the description of the problem/pain poi"See full answer
"Since you have indicated that the drop has been from the past few days and it is the sales drop.
Assumption 1: It is not a gradual decrease and something that has been seen in the last few days. My assumption is the e-commerce site is a google store site where google sells all the products.
At a very High-level the decline in sales
could be caused by customers buying less on the site, customer churn, or decline in new customers, higher cart abandonment rate, checkout process.
I would struc"
Dev S. - "Since you have indicated that the drop has been from the past few days and it is the sales drop.
Assumption 1: It is not a gradual decrease and something that has been seen in the last few days. My assumption is the e-commerce site is a google store site where google sells all the products.
At a very High-level the decline in sales
could be caused by customers buying less on the site, customer churn, or decline in new customers, higher cart abandonment rate, checkout process.
I would struc"See full answer
"For a mature product, I would do the following -
Review the list of backlog items
Meet with stakeholders and business owners to verify the relevance (are they still valid? esp. for new feature request)
Break down the backlog list by a. Product improvements b. New features c. Operational Resiliency
Do a 70-30 split with New features+Product Imp =70%, Resiliency =30%
Prioritize by impact/scale and effort (team's capacity) by quarter
Revisit Quarterly
For a new product -
Start"
Amishr - "For a mature product, I would do the following -
Review the list of backlog items
Meet with stakeholders and business owners to verify the relevance (are they still valid? esp. for new feature request)
Break down the backlog list by a. Product improvements b. New features c. Operational Resiliency
Do a 70-30 split with New features+Product Imp =70%, Resiliency =30%
Prioritize by impact/scale and effort (team's capacity) by quarter
Revisit Quarterly
For a new product -
Start"See full answer
"Situation - A time where I had to collaborate with a team member in another department was while I was at Google working on my hotel project and had to work with the legal department for our OOBE flow.
Task - I was tasked to work cross functionally with the legal department to lead the design of the out of box experience for our product to ensure our guest users were sure of policies around data and privacy.
Action - In order to establish cadence and effective relationship building, I set up a t"
Ben G. - "Situation - A time where I had to collaborate with a team member in another department was while I was at Google working on my hotel project and had to work with the legal department for our OOBE flow.
Task - I was tasked to work cross functionally with the legal department to lead the design of the out of box experience for our product to ensure our guest users were sure of policies around data and privacy.
Action - In order to establish cadence and effective relationship building, I set up a t"See full answer
"This is a great question! If you don't mind, I'd love to list 3 strengths and weaknesses then dive a little deeper on one of each of them.
I think my three greatest strengths are:
Empathy
Openness to feedback
Drive
And three weaknesses I have been working to strengthen are:
Sometimes my desire to achieve can put me at risk of overcommitting
Communicating status to the right stakeholders at the appropriate time
Creating detailed and strategic lists of priorities so I can meet th"
Adam M. - "This is a great question! If you don't mind, I'd love to list 3 strengths and weaknesses then dive a little deeper on one of each of them.
I think my three greatest strengths are:
Empathy
Openness to feedback
Drive
And three weaknesses I have been working to strengthen are:
Sometimes my desire to achieve can put me at risk of overcommitting
Communicating status to the right stakeholders at the appropriate time
Creating detailed and strategic lists of priorities so I can meet th"See full answer
"When I transitioned from the Analytics team to the Product team, I faced challenges in gaining the trust of the engineering team. Having previously worked with them in a role where I provided insights rather than defining their priorities, they were initially hesitant to accept my inputs in my new role. This led to some misalignment, as they chose to focus on tasks independently rather than incorporating my recommendations.
Recognizing the need to build credibility, I took a proactive approach."
Shahrukh K. - "When I transitioned from the Analytics team to the Product team, I faced challenges in gaining the trust of the engineering team. Having previously worked with them in a role where I provided insights rather than defining their priorities, they were initially hesitant to accept my inputs in my new role. This led to some misalignment, as they chose to focus on tasks independently rather than incorporating my recommendations.
Recognizing the need to build credibility, I took a proactive approach."See full answer