Product Management Interview Questions to Ask The Interviewer

TLDR: Every interviewee should have meaningful product management interview questions to ask the interviewer at the end. I recommend preparing 2-3 questions related to each of the below categories.

1. Company
2. Role
3. Team
4. Product
5. Engineering
6. Culture
7. Career growth

One of the most overlooked product management interview preparation tactics is to prepare meaningful questions to ask the interviewer at the end.

Don't know what to ask?

Start here!

A list of 40 product management interview questions to ask the interviewer

Company related questions

1. What are some of the bigger challenges the company's working on?
2. How are you solving the challenges?
3. What is the 2-5-10 year vision of the company?
4. Given the recent announcement about XYZ, what is the company now doing?
5. Can you talk about the high level hiring plans of the company/team? How many people are you looking to hire in the next 6 months?

Role related questions

1. What will be the main responsibilities in this role?
2. Can you define what will make a person successful in this role?
3. What experience or knowledge will make me a better fit for this role?
4. Who are the most important stakeholders for this role?
5. What are the challenges associated with this role?
6. Can you describe some of the goals that this person will be responsible for?

Team related questions

1. 12. What is the team size and structure?
2. What are the team goals? How do they translate to company level goals?
3. Are there any plans on changing the team structure?
4. Other than meeting KPIs, what are some qualities needed for the team to be successful?

Product related questions

1. Can you tell me more about ABC product? What goals do you have?
2. Can you talk about how the product has grown in the last 3 years, and what are the plans for the next 1-2-5 years?
3. What is the biggest challenge you're facing with growing the product?

Engineering related questions

1. How do product managers typically work with engineers?
2. How are the responsibilities divided?
3. What is a typical PM-EM relation look like?
4. What is a typical engineering team size and team composition?
5. Can you talk about some of the biggest challenges/advantages of the way you setup pm-engineering relationships?
6. What is the hierarchy of the engineering team, and how does it merge with product hierarchy?
7. How do engineering teams contribute to the larger team goals?
8. What process and frameworks does the engineering team use to set goals and measure success?
9. How does the team typically think of and handle tech debt? Can you share some examples from the past?

Culture related questions

1. Can you walk me through the yearly goal setting process, and help me understand how product manager is a part of it?
2. How do PMs typically share their ideas with senior leaders?
3. How would a PM typically pitch an innovative idea and get investment?
4. What are the most important values that the entire company holds very close to their heart?
5. What initiatives does the company/team take to help product managers learn in/outside of work?
6. Can you describe a typical PM-Sales team relationship?
7. What is the typical mode of communication in the team/company? Do you prefer emails/docs/face to face meetings?
8. How many meetings does a PM have in a typical week?
9. Who typically talks to customers/users? How often does that happen?
10. How are issues/delays typically reported?
11. Which stakeholders are usually involved? Who has the final say?

Career growth related questions

1. Can employees speak at/attend conferences?
2. Can you walk me through what a typical career ladder looks like for this role?

That's all for the day. Don't forget to follow me on Twitter for more product management knowledge.