Top Tips: 1. Say "cool" and "awesome" often 2. Ask clarifying questions 3. Throw stuff on the wall 4. Get buy-in from interviewer 5. Two ideas. One moonshot
When we was asked to improve the product, he did not instantly jump to "fix the product", he asked why do you want to improve? was there any feedback...damn that blowed my mind, i never knew we could do that, i thought just improve the product if they are asking you to
Everything in this video is worth so much learnings. * Explaining the lightweight framework and expanding it gradually. * Mission statement of Company, Product and Business with Key Performance Indicators * Users, Problem, Solution; Have a prioritisation mechanism * Taking a break to organise thoughts. Let the interviewer know once done. Instead of continuous blabbering. Reflects thought-fulness. * Don't argue. Accept feedback. Interviewer's might have fragile ego.
One of the most insightful mock by Exponent. This was really helpful and the approach was so clear which generally in mocks gets complex but this time the approach was crystal clear thoroughly! 🙂
This is such an amazing Product Sense mock. Or is such a great PM, very calm, composed, and structured in thoughts. I have watched this video couple of times and made my notes (treasure trove). At this point, I am echoing the sentiment of most viewers, please do a Product Execution interview with him. We all will learn so much from him. Thank you again.
I'd seen so many of the Facebook/Google/etc mocks - but this interview was fantastic. the segmentation of users, the goal setting, the pain points and the targeted solutions - excellent job by this candidate.
I am very glad I have stumbled upon this video after watching many PM mock interviews and no doubt this is the best of all! I love the way Kevin carried himself with so much ease and confidence, few amazing points: structure, user segmentation, painpoints (and keeping it so relatable) and I really wish how his take would have been on "skeptics". Thank you Or, I have learnt a lot from you and I hope your structure and thought process will help me crack Google final round. Thank you Kevin, love your content and keep it coming!
Amazing confidence and structure. No moonshots, no complex framework, no bs answer. Infact simple solutions, he did have an integration idea "calendar integration" [usually they say no to this for interviews, broke all the interview need stereotype] and it was so natural and organic. I wish interviewers calibrate candidates for this kinda answer than text book and moon shots etc
This is the by far best product video I have watched in the last months. I am already following Kevin's great content but this time I give the credits to the great PM Or. Thank you. We need more videos with him!
This is a great video from Exponent. It has helped me crack two rounds of the Microsoft PM hiring process. The body language and executive presence of the interviewee just inspires me to do the same and has fairly made me a better candidate for the role. Thank you so much, Exponent!
Brilliant work in segmentation. Completely changed the entire game and resonated very well with 'Improve' Headspace. This is the best mock I have seen by a PM. Would love to see more coming from him. Thanks
one of the best answers and approaches i’ve seen. a lot of useful models that can be applied to almost any problem - the before, during, and after for pain points was my favorite.
This is a great interview simulation. But the part I don’t get is that the question is “what would you IMPROVE”. So don’t you need to have a sense of what’s already available? The interviewee came up with Reminders. But this may already exist. So how is this answer addressing the question? 🤨🧐
I would like to address it differently if I am trageting "Rookies", if Rookies are the people who are not seeing the value in the product then figure what are other values we can add. As the main Goal of the company is to improve life and bring happiness, then based on that Goal can headspace offer other than just "meditation" which can make rookies to stay. May be we some of the other space headpace can explore to add is : Breathwork, first time users: Offering one month free app access if they finish the goal
One of the best PM interviews I've ever come across so far. Exponent thank you for this. Or Sivan you are simply brilliant. Tomorrow is my PM interview and this is just so helpful, thank you again :)
Very clean way to segment the users based on frequency! The host did a better job at summarizing different user segments and the reason for choosing rookies though (as in most Exponent videos), IMO. One area I think Or could improve on is he didn't really walk through how he prioritized user segments and pain points using the criteria he established. I mean those are all great criteria, but I'd expect him to rationalize how he drew the conclusion leveraging these criteria.
Super slick product design approach. Really liked the user segmentation and pain-point articulation. Also, the fact that Or could explain a very simple looking solution such as "reminders" and put forth a very convincing argument, establishes his credibility as a PM. Kudos Or and thanks for sharing your approach. It easy to copy the methodology or structure but you cannot copy one's thinking style and thats what differentiates a great PM from a good PM
Solution 1: If approaching this case, I would try incentives for users by creating a reward program that gives them access to the top meditation and reiki practitioners or experts that partner up with google and headspace to provide this exclusive content. Goa: Get users to mediate for a longer duration and reward them with exclusive content when they come back daily, or when they mediate for longer durations each time they visit the app, or both. Please let me know what you guys think? Thanks
Great mock interview by Kelvin and Or Sivan , love this mockup. I've been actively looking for the mock interview to mentally prepare for my future interview as PM , this is one of the great video / content . Thanks for sharing
Watching these videos, it feels great if some of the ideas align with what you were initially thinking of as a solution to a pain point. Thanks for sharing these videos!
Love the video. Thank you! Question here - what if you're asked about an app you've never used but only heard about? The insights you can provide are going to be limited in that case right ? I had never used headspace, but I'd used a similar app like Calm so I could still answer this question. But what if it was a completely unrelated app? Thanks again!
What is the rationale behind asking the clarification question "should I assume I am a PM at headspace or is there a different company I should be thinking about?"
I wonder why engagement is considered as Business goal in the initial framework. When it comes to business aspect, shouldn't it be something like revenue, profit, cac,..etc? Even # of min meditated is something more on product side to me. Does anyone have any thoughts about this?
I would never lie cause you're going to look really dumb if you make the wrong assumptions. Be honest & they will give you a summary or a similar app. This is more to test your thought process and reasoning so it's ok not to know, but you want to start with accurate info.
Question: After segmenting the users the first time, I segmented the rookies further by age group (youth, adults, elderly) and I’d go down to the youth. Would this be an okay route? I can see how I would need to segment further within the youth after that, such as children, teens, and young adults, then tackle one of these and their pain points. Thoughts? 8:44
Hey Himayat! While segmentation allows you to cater more specifically to different users, it may not make sense to segment your users to such granularity if there are no big differences between them or if you find that the segment is too niche e.g. how big is the "youth rookie" user base and given its size, does it make sense to cater to this segment?
Question: while presenting the solutions if the interviewer says that all the solutions suggested are already present. How to tackle that as we might not come up with something new at that point of time? (This happened to me and my whole interview was ruined as it got me panicked) it would be really helpful if you could answer.
Hey Yogendra! Sorry to hear that you had a difficult experience during your interview. Encountering such scenarios can be discouraging. However, it's important to remember that not every problem has a unique solution, and it's possible that the interviewer may have been testing your ability to think critically and creatively about existing solutions. In this situation, you can try to approach the question from a different perspective, such as considering the limitations or drawbacks of the existing solutions and proposing ways to improve or refine them. It's also important to stay calm and composed during the interview, even if you encounter unexpected challenges or setbacks. Take a deep breath and try to focus on your thought process and communication skills. Remember, the interviewer is not looking for a perfect solution, but rather an understanding of your problem-solving approach and ability to think on your feet. Finally, if you feel that you could benefit from additional practice or guidance in preparing for interviews, consider seeking out resources such as mock interviews or career coaching services. Good luck with your future interviews! Also, if you're interested in exploring more interview questions and practicing your problem-solving skills, you may find it helpful to visit www.tryexponent.com/questions.
Am I the only one who doesn't see this as a great interview? Full marks for body language, structure and calmness but the user segmentation is way too generic. You can segment any product into non-users, light users and power users. The segments should be relatable and needs should demonstrate user empathy. My user segmentation would be: 1. Perennially stressed: people having stress related ailments high bp, diabetes etc. 2. Mental wellbeing enthusiasts: those who are healthy but believe in building healthy lifestyle 3. Physical fitness freaks: those who are into physical fitness but ignoring the mental fitness 4. Occasionally stressed: knowledge workers, students etc. I would choose to focus on the 3rd segment as that is a large TAM, already motivated about health but low on mental health awareness
PM interviews typically are 45 minutes long and focus on one case/question for the majority of that time so this is in line with how long it should take
The candidate's thought process is being evaluated which includes business, technology, vision, product life cycle, going through priorities etc and not so much on the final solution.
Don't leave your product management career to chance. Sign up for Exponent's PM interview course today: bit.ly/3JUbQX3
Or is a brillant pm. He is so calm and collected while conducting this interview. Would love to see more from him
Top Tips:
1. Say "cool" and "awesome" often
2. Ask clarifying questions
3. Throw stuff on the wall
4. Get buy-in from interviewer
5. Two ideas. One moonshot
When we was asked to improve the product, he did not instantly jump to "fix the product", he asked why do you want to improve? was there any feedback...damn that blowed my mind, i never knew we could do that, i thought just improve the product if they are asking you to
Everything in this video is worth so much learnings.
* Explaining the lightweight framework and expanding it gradually.
* Mission statement of Company, Product and Business with Key Performance Indicators
* Users, Problem, Solution; Have a prioritisation mechanism
* Taking a break to organise thoughts. Let the interviewer know once done. Instead of continuous blabbering. Reflects thought-fulness.
* Don't argue. Accept feedback. Interviewer's might have fragile ego.
Great job, Akshat! I'm thrilled to see how much you've learned from this video. Keep up the great work and never stop learning!
One of the most insightful mock by Exponent. This was really helpful and the approach was so clear which generally in mocks gets complex but this time the approach was crystal clear thoroughly! 🙂
Absolutely amazed by the customer segmentation. So carefully done wrt the company’s user base, instead of simply using the traditional segments.
This is such an amazing Product Sense mock. Or is such a great PM, very calm, composed, and structured in thoughts. I have watched this video couple of times and made my notes (treasure trove).
At this point, I am echoing the sentiment of most viewers, please do a Product Execution interview with him. We all will learn so much from him.
Thank you again.
I'd seen so many of the Facebook/Google/etc mocks - but this interview was fantastic. the segmentation of users, the goal setting, the pain points and the targeted solutions - excellent job by this candidate.
I am very glad I have stumbled upon this video after watching many PM mock interviews and no doubt this is the best of all! I love the way Kevin carried himself with so much ease and confidence, few amazing points: structure, user segmentation, painpoints (and keeping it so relatable) and I really wish how his take would have been on "skeptics". Thank you Or, I have learnt a lot from you and I hope your structure and thought process will help me crack Google final round. Thank you Kevin, love your content and keep it coming!
I like being able to see the Interviewer's write out their framework. As a visual person, listening to the mock interview makes it harder to learn.
Amazing confidence and structure. No moonshots, no complex framework, no bs answer. Infact simple solutions, he did have an integration idea "calendar integration" [usually they say no to this for interviews, broke all the interview need stereotype] and it was so natural and organic. I wish interviewers calibrate candidates for this kinda answer than text book and moon shots etc
It was so smooth, it felt rehearsed. Amazing stuff from Or. Well structured, right transition and the right amount of delving into the details.
To add onto the support group idea, you could create a streak system similar to snapchat to keep people meditating daily.
nice! 🤘
This is the by far best product video I have watched in the last months. I am already following Kevin's great content but this time I give the credits to the great PM Or. Thank you. We need more videos with him!
This is a great video from Exponent. It has helped me crack two rounds of the Microsoft PM hiring process. The body language and executive presence of the interviewee just inspires me to do the same and has fairly made me a better candidate for the role. Thank you so much, Exponent!
you must be entry level
I think its one of the best product interviews I have seen..
Amazing mix of structure thinking, so fluent..
Brilliant work in segmentation. Completely changed the entire game and resonated very well with 'Improve' Headspace. This is the best mock I have seen by a PM. Would love to see more coming from him. Thanks
1:14 Why did he ask this question? "Is it okay to assume I'm the PM of Headspace or is there a different company I should be thinking about?"
Because he's about to waste your time talking out of his az
one of the best answers and approaches i’ve seen. a lot of useful models that can be applied to almost any problem - the before, during, and after for pain points was my favorite.
This is a great interview simulation. But the part I don’t get is that the question is “what would you IMPROVE”. So don’t you need to have a sense of what’s already available? The interviewee came up with Reminders. But this may already exist. So how is this answer addressing the question? 🤨🧐
I am glad I stumbled upon this video. This video is a great PM resource. Thanks Or and Kevin for this mock-up :)
Perhaps one of the best. Very methodical & insightful. Also visual breakdown is really good.
One of the best mock interviews out there for PMs.
I would like to address it differently if I am trageting "Rookies", if Rookies are the people who are not seeing the value in the product then figure what are other values we can add. As the main Goal of the company is to improve life and bring happiness, then based on that Goal can headspace offer other than just "meditation" which can make rookies to stay. May be we some of the other space headpace can explore to add is : Breathwork, first time users: Offering one month free app access if they finish the goal
One of the best PM interviews I've ever come across so far. Exponent thank you for this. Or Sivan you are simply brilliant. Tomorrow is my PM interview and this is just so helpful, thank you again :)
This was so clear and accessible. I would love to see Or do a Product Execution question.
Love these mock interviews with Exponent! It’s great to see how skilled engineers and PMs go about these.
Very clean way to segment the users based on frequency! The host did a better job at summarizing different user segments and the reason for choosing rookies though (as in most Exponent videos), IMO.
One area I think Or could improve on is he didn't really walk through how he prioritized user segments and pain points using the criteria he established. I mean those are all great criteria, but I'd expect him to rationalize how he drew the conclusion leveraging these criteria.
Hey eisgavajs, thanks for following along and leaving your thoughts and feedback! Appreciate it 💪
This guy is great! And I would also love to hear from a Duolingo PM!
this is one of the most well executed mocks in my opinion! bravo Or, this is super helpful!
Super slick product design approach. Really liked the user segmentation and pain-point articulation. Also, the fact that Or could explain a very simple looking solution such as "reminders" and put forth a very convincing argument, establishes his credibility as a PM. Kudos Or and thanks for sharing your approach.
It easy to copy the methodology or structure but you cannot copy one's thinking style and thats what differentiates a great PM from a good PM
it's called being a salesman
Solution 1:
If approaching this case, I would try incentives for users by creating a reward program that gives them access to the top meditation and reiki practitioners or experts that partner up with google and headspace to provide this exclusive content.
Goa: Get users to mediate for a longer duration and reward them with exclusive content when they come back daily, or when they mediate for longer durations each time they visit the app, or both.
Please let me know what you guys think?
Thanks
Great mock interview by Kelvin and Or Sivan , love this mockup. I've been actively looking for the mock interview to mentally prepare for my future interview as PM , this is one of the great video / content . Thanks for sharing
Watching these videos, it feels great if some of the ideas align with what you were initially thinking of as a solution to a pain point. Thanks for sharing these videos!
Another awesome Google product manager mock interview. Lots of great and valuable insights. Thanks Kevin and Or 👏😀
Love the video. Thank you! Question here - what if you're asked about an app you've never used but only heard about?
The insights you can provide are going to be limited in that case right ?
I had never used headspace, but I'd used a similar app like Calm so I could still answer this question. But what if it was a completely unrelated app?
Thanks again!
This was SOOO good. How does he segment the users and identify users so well? That's the part I have the most issue with.
I like the plan that he showed
Well done by this interviewee. It was helpful to see the doc and hear his explanations
great video, one of the best PM interviews I have ever seen
This was a exceptional response. Well done and thanks for sharing
Excellent interview. What software does he use to jot down the information while presenting?
Not 100% sure but I think its Google docs
What is the rationale behind asking the clarification question "should I assume I am a PM at headspace or is there a different company I should be thinking about?"
point of view to answer the question
Hi Exponent team!
Great video as always, can you do a mock with a Duolingo PM?
Yesssssssss
amazing, the best one so far
What an amazing PM!
I wonder why engagement is considered as Business goal in the initial framework. When it comes to business aspect, shouldn't it be something like revenue, profit, cac,..etc? Even # of min meditated is something more on product side to me. Does anyone have any thoughts about this?
Or is super great!
Good for mock interview but what if PM you are interviewing have no idea what Headspace is?
Or was excellent! Israelis are such an original and creative people.. as if they were born to be product managers.
Lol what
Great interview, loved it
thank you, this is mind-blowing
Insightful. Thanks
in the very beginning, when you ask 'are you familiar with headspace?' , is it bad to be honest and say no if we aren't or should we still say yes
Can say no to get a better understanding of the product imo. Since entire question based on that and can’t have a wrong idea
I would never lie cause you're going to look really dumb if you make the wrong assumptions. Be honest & they will give you a summary or a similar app. This is more to test your thought process and reasoning so it's ok not to know, but you want to start with accurate info.
solid
welp, OR is now my idol
Question: After segmenting the users the first time, I segmented the rookies further by age group (youth, adults, elderly) and I’d go down to the youth. Would this be an okay route?
I can see how I would need to segment further within the youth after that, such as children, teens, and young adults, then tackle one of these and their pain points.
Thoughts?
8:44
Hey Himayat! While segmentation allows you to cater more specifically to different users, it may not make sense to segment your users to such granularity if there are no big differences between them or if you find that the segment is too niche e.g. how big is the "youth rookie" user base and given its size, does it make sense to cater to this segment?
@@tryexponent I see, I am assuming my breakdown wasn’t MECE either…?
Really good one _/\_
Thanks!
Question: while presenting the solutions if the interviewer says that all the solutions suggested are already present. How to tackle that as we might not come up with something new at that point of time?
(This happened to me and my whole interview was ruined as it got me panicked) it would be really helpful if you could answer.
Hey Yogendra! Sorry to hear that you had a difficult experience during your interview. Encountering such scenarios can be discouraging.
However, it's important to remember that not every problem has a unique solution, and it's possible that the interviewer may have been testing your ability to think critically and creatively about existing solutions. In this situation, you can try to approach the question from a different perspective, such as considering the limitations or drawbacks of the existing solutions and proposing ways to improve or refine them.
It's also important to stay calm and composed during the interview, even if you encounter unexpected challenges or setbacks. Take a deep breath and try to focus on your thought process and communication skills. Remember, the interviewer is not looking for a perfect solution, but rather an understanding of your problem-solving approach and ability to think on your feet.
Finally, if you feel that you could benefit from additional practice or guidance in preparing for interviews, consider seeking out resources such as mock interviews or career coaching services. Good luck with your future interviews!
Also, if you're interested in exploring more interview questions and practicing your problem-solving skills, you may find it helpful to visit www.tryexponent.com/questions.
@@tryexponent thank you very much for your reply… will keep in mind your suggestion and practice the same. 🙏🏻
Thanks!
Great 👍
too good👏
Am I the only one who doesn't see this as a great interview?
Full marks for body language, structure and calmness but the user segmentation is way too generic. You can segment any product into non-users, light users and power users. The segments should be relatable and needs should demonstrate user empathy.
My user segmentation would be:
1. Perennially stressed: people having stress related ailments high bp, diabetes etc.
2. Mental wellbeing enthusiasts: those who are healthy but believe in building healthy lifestyle
3. Physical fitness freaks: those who are into physical fitness but ignoring the mental fitness
4. Occasionally stressed: knowledge workers, students etc.
I would choose to focus on the 3rd segment as that is a large TAM, already motivated about health but low on mental health awareness
Then ,how would you define pain points of the 3rd user segment in that case and address the solutions through your product??
Helpful.
Hey I'm preparing for APM roles, is there anyone who wants to join to take interview of eachother.
Kevin aint no Wei
The guy had good ideas, but this was too long. If I am the interviewer I'd be really irritated to discuss one question for so long.
PM interviews typically are 45 minutes long and focus on one case/question for the majority of that time so this is in line with how long it should take
The candidate's thought process is being evaluated which includes business, technology, vision, product life cycle, going through priorities etc and not so much on the final solution.