Hacking the Case Interview
Have an upcoming new product case interview and don’t know how to prepare? Don’t worry because we have you covered!
In this article, we’ll cover:
- What is a new product case interview?
- How to solve any new product case interview
- Essential new product case interview frameworks
- New product case interview example
If you’re looking for a step-by-step shortcut to learn case interviews quickly, enroll in our case interview course . These insider strategies from a former Bain interviewer helped 30,000+ land consulting offers while saving hundreds of hours of prep time.
What is a New Product Case Interview?
A new product case interview is a type of interview commonly used by consulting firms, particularly those that specialize in management consulting and strategy. This interview format assesses a candidate's ability to analyze and solve complex business problems related to the development and launch of a new product or service.
During a new product case interview, the candidate is presented with a hypothetical scenario involving a company that is considering introducing a new product or service to the market.
The candidate's task is to work through the case by asking relevant questions, gathering information, conducting analysis, and ultimately providing recommendations or solutions to the challenges posed in the case.
The interview is designed to evaluate several key skills and competencies:
Problem-solving: Candidates must demonstrate their ability to break down complex problems into manageable components and develop a structured approach to finding solutions.
- Business acumen : The interview assesses a candidate's understanding of business concepts, such as market analysis, competitive landscape, financial considerations, and customer needs
- Analytical thinking : Candidates are expected to analyze data and information to draw insights, identify trends, and make informed decisions
- Creativity and innovation : Since the case involves a new product or service, candidates are often required to think creatively and propose innovative ideas that can set the product apart in the market
- Communication skills : Effective communication is crucial as candidates need to explain their thought processes, assumptions, and conclusions clearly and succinctly to the interviewer
- Structured thinking : The interview evaluates how well candidates can structure their approach to problem-solving, often using frameworks to organize their analysis and recommendations
New product case interviews may cover a wide range of topics, including market research, pricing strategy, competitive analysis, distribution channels, financial projections, and risk assessment.
Candidates are encouraged to ask thoughtful questions to gather relevant information and make informed decisions.
How to Solve a New Product Case Interview
There are five steps to solve a new product case interview.
1. Understand the case
At the beginning of the case, thoroughly comprehend the details presented in the case prompt. You should be familiar with the context of the company, its industry, and the challenge it faces with the new product.
Pay attention to any data, numbers, or specific information provided. This initial understanding will serve as the foundation for your analysis and recommendations. Jot down key points to ensure you remember crucial details as you progress.
2. Clarify the objectives
If any aspect of the case is ambiguous or unclear, seek clarification from the interviewer. Make sure you have a crystal-clear understanding of what the company aims to achieve with the new product launch.
This clarification is essential to focus your analysis and ensure you're addressing the right issues.
3. Structure your approach
Develop a well-organized framework to guide your analysis.
Develop an appropriate framework that suits the case. Your chosen framework provides a structured roadmap that helps you break down the complexity of the case and ensures you cover all critical areas.
Some common elements that you may want to include in your framework are:
- Market : Who are the customers? How large is the market? How quickly is the market growing?
- Competition : What are competitors’ products? What are the strengths and weaknesses of competitors’ products?
- Product : What are the differentiating features of the product?
- Pricing : How should the new product be priced? (e.g., what is the price point, subscription pricing, freemium model)
- Distribution channels : Through which channels should the new product be sold through? (e.g., online, retailers, direct-to-consumer)
- Promotion and marketing : How will you market the new product? (e.g., advertising, word of mouth, referrals)
For a complete guide on how to create tailored and unique frameworks for each case, check out our article on case interview frameworks .
4. Gather and analyze information
Begin by asking thoughtful and probing questions to gather essential information. Seek insights about the target audience, their needs and preferences, the market dynamics, and the competitive landscape.
This information gathering phase is crucial, as the quality of your analysis depends on the data you collect.
In your new product case interview, you’ll likely cover a few of the topics below:
Analyze the market : Dive into a comprehensive analysis of the market. Examine its size, growth potential, and trends. Uncover data on customer behavior, preferences, and purchasing patterns. Assess how the new product aligns with these trends and whether there's a viable market for it.
Assess the competition : Conduct a thorough assessment of the competitive landscape. Identify key competitors in the market, their strengths, weaknesses, and market positioning. Analyze their product offerings, pricing strategies, and marketing tactics. This analysis will help you understand the competitive challenges the company might face and how the new product could differentiate itself.
Evaluate the product : Delve deeply into understanding the new product. Analyze its features, functionalities, and unique value proposition. Consider how it addresses customer pain points and stands out from existing solutions. This evaluation will help you determine the product's potential attractiveness to the target audience.
Develop a pricing strategy : Formulate a sound pricing strategy for the new product. Take into account production costs, competitor pricing, and perceived value by customers. Strive to find the optimal balance between affordability and the product's perceived worth.
Consider distribution channels : Devise a strategic approach to distribution. Determine which channels are best suited to reach the target customers effectively. Evaluate the pros and cons of options like direct sales, partnerships, online platforms, and retail outlets. Your choice of distribution channels should align with the company's resources and the preferences of your target audience.
Think through promotion and marketing : Craft a comprehensive marketing strategy that encompasses various tactics. Consider advertising, social media campaigns, influencer collaborations, and content marketing. Tailor your approach to create buzz, generate interest, and engage potential customers.
Project financials : Develop realistic financial projections for the new product. Estimate potential revenues based on market size and pricing, while considering associated costs such as production, marketing, and distribution. Calculate the expected return on investment (ROI) and determine when the product is likely to break even.
5. Propose a recommendation
Synthesize your analysis into clear and actionable recommendations. Based on your insights, propose strategies that address the challenges highlighted and leverage the opportunities identified. Your recommendations should align with the company's goals and be practical to implement.
Summarize the key takeaways from your analysis and recommendations. Emphasize the potential benefits of your proposed strategies and how they align with the company's objectives. Conclude by highlighting the value of your approach in successfully tackling the challenges of introducing the new product to the market.
In addition to new product case interviews, we also have additional step-by-step guides to: market entry case interviews , growth strategy case interviews , M&A case interviews , pricing case interviews , operations case interviews , and marketing case interviews .
Essential New Product Case Interview Frameworks
There are three new product case interview frameworks you should be familiar with. These are essential marketing concepts that go hand-in-hand with new product case interviews.
However, we do not recommend using these frameworks verbatim. You want to demonstrate to the interviewer that you can think critically for yourself instead of relying on memorized frameworks.
You should instead be creating your own unique and tailored framework for each new product case interview scenario.
Therefore, your framework may include parts and pieces of the frameworks below, but you should not just copy them.
The 5 C’s Framework
The 5 C's framework is a comprehensive approach used in strategic analysis and planning. It takes into account various internal and external factors that influence a company's success.
Here's a brief explanation of each of the 5 C's:
This refers to the internal assessment of the company itself. It involves analyzing the company's strengths, weaknesses, resources, capabilities, and overall strategic direction.
Understanding the company's core competencies and areas needing improvement is essential for effective strategic planning.
2. Collaborators (Partners)
Collaborators encompass the external entities that a company works with to achieve its goals. These can include suppliers, distributors, strategic partners, and other stakeholders.
Building strong relationships with collaborators can contribute to a company's competitive advantage by enhancing its capabilities and expanding its reach.
3. Customers
Understanding the needs, preferences, behaviors, and expectations of customers is crucial for success. Analyzing the customer segment, their demographics, psychographics, and buying patterns helps tailor products and services to their requirements.
A customer-focused approach ensures that offerings are relevant and appealing.
4. Competitors
Evaluating competitors involves understanding their strengths, weaknesses, strategies, and market positioning. A thorough analysis of the competitive landscape helps identify opportunities for differentiation and highlights potential threats.
By understanding competitors, a company can make informed decisions to gain a competitive edge.
5. Context:
Context refers to the broader external environment in which the company operates. This includes economic, political, social, technological, and legal factors that impact business operations.
A clear understanding of the context helps anticipate trends, opportunities, and challenges that could influence the company's success.
The STP Framework
The STP framework, which stands for Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning, is a strategic approach used by businesses to effectively identify and address the needs and preferences of specific customer segments in the market.
Here's a brief explanation of each component of the framework:
1. Segmentation
Segmentation involves dividing a heterogeneous market into smaller, more homogeneous groups called segments. These segments share common characteristics, needs, and behaviors.
By segmenting the market, companies can better understand the diversity of their customer base and tailor their marketing efforts to cater to the unique preferences of each segment. Market segmentation can be based on factors such as demographics, psychographics, behaviors, and geographic locations.
2. Targeting
Targeting is the process of selecting one or more segments from the segmented market to focus the company's marketing efforts on. Not all segments may be equally attractive or viable for a business to target.
Companies analyze the potential of each segment, considering factors such as size, growth potential, profitability, and alignment with the company's resources and capabilities.
Targeting enables companies to allocate resources more efficiently and create tailored marketing strategies for the chosen segments.
3. Positioning
Positioning involves defining how a company's product or service is perceived by the target customers in comparison to competitors' offerings. It's about creating a unique and compelling brand image in the minds of consumers.
Companies use positioning strategies to highlight their products' distinctive features, benefits, and value propositions that address the specific needs and preferences of the chosen target segments.
Effective positioning helps differentiate a company's offerings and establishes a competitive advantage in the market.
The Four P’s Framework
The 4 Ps, also known as the Marketing Mix, are a set of key elements that businesses use to formulate their marketing strategies. These elements represent different aspects of a product or service that a company offers.
Here's a brief explanation of each of the 4 Ps:
This refers to the tangible good or intangible service that a company offers to meet customer needs or wants. It includes features, design, quality, branding, and packaging.
Companies must carefully consider what features and benefits their product provides to differentiate it from competitors and address customer needs effectively.
Price refers to the amount of money customers need to pay to acquire the product or service.
Pricing strategies can vary widely, including options like cost-plus pricing, value-based pricing, and competitive pricing.
The price needs to align with the perceived value of the product, the target market's willingness to pay, and the company's overall financial goals.
3. Place (Distribution)
Place involves decisions related to how the product will be distributed and made available to customers. This includes selecting distribution channels such as direct sales, retail stores, online platforms, or partnerships with other businesses.
The goal is to ensure that the product reaches the target customers in the most efficient and convenient way.
4. Promotion
Promotion encompasses all the activities a company undertakes to communicate and market its product to the target audience. This includes advertising, public relations, sales promotions, social media marketing, and other promotional strategies.
The objective is to create awareness, generate interest, and persuade potential customers to choose the company's product over competitors'.
New Product Case Interview Example
Case Background
You are a consultant working with a leading technology company that is considering launching a new product – a smart fitness tracker.
The company believes there's a growing market for wearable fitness devices that can track health metrics and provide personalized insights. They want to assess the feasibility and potential success of this new product in the market.
How to Solve
Write down and summarize the major case details about launching a smart fitness tracker. The main point of the case is that the company wants to assess the feasibility of introducing this new product to the market.
Confirm your understanding with the interviewer. Make sure you're clear on what the company is looking to achieve with the smart fitness tracker launch.
Develop a framework. This will help you systematically analyze the situation.
A potential framework may look like the following:
What is the attractiveness of the smart fitness tracker market?
- What is the market size?
- What is the market growth rate?
- What are average profit margins in the market?
How strong is our product?
- How do customers like our product?
- Does our product solve a pain point for customers?
- What is our product’s differentiating features?
How does our product compare to competitors’ products?
- What are some competing products?
- What are the strengths and weaknesses of these competing products?
What are the financial implications?
- How much market share can we capture?
- What are expected revenues?
- What are expected costs?
4. Gather and analyze Information
Start by asking questions to gather information. This new product case interview may dive deeper into any of the following topics:
Analyze the market
- Determine the size and growth rate of the wearable fitness device market
- Identify trends, such as increasing interest in health monitoring
- Analyze demographics of potential users (age, fitness levels, etc.)
Assess the competition
- Identify existing players in the smart fitness tracker market
- Evaluate their strengths, weaknesses, and product offerings
- Determine if there's a gap in the market that the new product could fill
Evaluate the product
- Examine its features and capabilities
- Identify its unique selling points (water resistance, advanced tracking, etc.)
- Consider how these features address customer needs better than existing trackers
Set a pricing strategy
- Analyze the cost of production and technology
- Research the pricing of similar products in the market
- Decide on a pricing strategy that reflects the product's value proposition
Consider distribution channels
- Consider online sales, retail partnerships, and direct sales
- Assess which channels would reach the target audience most effectively
Think through promotion and marketing
- Identify potential channels for promotion (social media, health magazines, etc.)
- Create an advertising plan to highlight unique features
- Develop partnerships with fitness influencers for endorsements
Project financials
- Calculate potential revenue based on pricing and market size
- Factor in production costs, marketing expenses, and distribution expenses
- Calculate the expected return on investment and break-even point
Based on your analysis, summarize your findings and recommendations. Highlight how the proposed strategies leverage market trends, address customer needs, and differentiate the smart fitness tracker in a competitive market.
Another New Product Case Interview Example
Below is another new product case interview. This case focuses on pricing and comes from BCG.
For more practice, check out our article on 23 MBA consulting casebooks with 700+ free practice cases .
Land Your Dream Consulting Job
Here are the resources we recommend to land your dream consulting job:
For help landing consulting interviews
- Resume Review & Editing : Transform your resume into one that will get you multiple consulting interviews
For help passing case interviews
- Comprehensive Case Interview Course (our #1 recommendation): The only resource you need. Whether you have no business background, rusty math skills, or are short on time, this step-by-step course will transform you into a top 1% caser that lands multiple consulting offers.
- Case Interview Coaching : Personalized, one-on-one coaching with a former Bain interviewer.
- Hacking the Case Interview Book (available on Amazon): Perfect for beginners that are short on time. Transform yourself from a stressed-out case interview newbie to a confident intermediate in under a week. Some readers finish this book in a day and can already tackle tough cases.
- The Ultimate Case Interview Workbook (available on Amazon): Perfect for intermediates struggling with frameworks, case math, or generating business insights. No need to find a case partner – these drills, practice problems, and full-length cases can all be done by yourself.
For help passing consulting behavioral & fit interviews
- Behavioral & Fit Interview Course : Be prepared for 98% of behavioral and fit questions in just a few hours. We'll teach you exactly how to draft answers that will impress your interviewer.
Land Multiple Consulting Offers
Complete, step-by-step case interview course. 30,000+ happy customers.
15 Questions You Should Be Ready to Answer in a Product Marketing Interview
So you’ve landed an interview for a product marketing role—congrats! Now, it’s time to prepare. But where do you start? And how can you ensure you’ll be successful in the interview and land that product marketing job?
If you’re wondering these things, know that you are not alone! I experienced this myself when I was preparing for my very first product marketing interview. But now, not only am I an experienced product marketer, but I’ve also hired product marketers and coached aspiring product marketers through the interview process. With the right understanding of the role and the right preparation for the interview, you too can be successful in landing your first product marketing job.
What Are Companies Looking for When Hiring Product Marketers?
Product marketing can look slightly different at every company, but it often sits at the intersection of a number of disciplines and functions, including, but not limited to, customer success, marketing, product management, and sales. If you’re thinking of switching into a career in product marketing, experience working with these teams or serving in these roles can be extremely valuable and marketable.
Regardless of where you’re coming from, there are certain skills and competencies that can make you a great product marketer:
- Communication skills : Product marketers must be effective communicators. Whether it’s preparing launch communications, writing a great new blog post, putting together a customer presentation, or working with a cross-functional team, product marketers must know their audience and communicate with them in a way that resonates. Product marketers also need to know how to create tight, clear, and compelling messages that sell products or communicate a vision to stakeholders.
- Customer insight and empathy : Product marketers must know the customer inside and out. They must use empathy to deeply understand what their customers do, what they care about, and what challenges they face. And they must use this research and knowledge of the customer to work with product and development teams to build products that solve these customers’ challenges and craft messaging that resonates. They also must understand the market or industry as well as the competitive landscape, so they can help the team stay one step ahead. While you’ll develop customer insight over time, you can bring empathy to the table even as an entry-level candidate.
- Collaboration skills: Product marketers are constantly working with stakeholders across organizations and must be effective at collaborating with diverse groups of people to achieve a goal or objective. To do this, they must have a working knowledge of what different roles entail.
- Process and project management skills: PMMs must be good at managing processes and projects. During a product launch, there are lots of different activities and deadlines to hit. Having good project management skills—including organization, time management, and leadership—ensures you can stay on track and help others do the same.
- Prioritization skills : Product marketers often have multiple projects and demands on their hands. Whether it’s launching a product, conducting customer research, or working on sales training, there are always going to be multiple competing priorities. Knowing what’s most important and how to focus your efforts is critical to success.
If you have these skills, or can develop them, and have a desire to be a product marketer, how can you nail your interview and land that first product marketing role? As the saying goes, “failing to prepare is preparing to fail,” which means you’ll need to start with all the important aspects of interview preparation such as:
- Conducting thorough research on the company
- Conducting informational interviews with employees to learn about the company culture and the team
- Reviewing your past experiences and skills, and developing some stories to bring to the interview
And finally, you’ll want to make sure you prepare to answer common interview questions , but also product marketing–specific ones. To help with this, I’ve come up with some questions that you might expect in a product marketing interview as well as advice on how to answer them and example answers.
1. What Good Product Do You Believe Is Marketed Poorly?
This is a classic marketing question often asked in interviews. The purpose of this question is to get a sense of your marketing knowledge as well as your creativity and thought process.
How to Answer
The goal here is not to try to be “right,” but to have a point of view that you can back up with supporting details or insights in order to demonstrate your understanding of a company or product and its marketing, messaging, and positioning of products. Think about why the product is marketed poorly. Maybe its messaging is wrong for the target customer, or maybe you think it doesn’t tie to the brand’s overall promise. As a rule of thumb, it’s important to come with a few ideas of different products or companies to talk about, as these questions can often lead to further discussions or conversations where more examples will be helpful.
You Might Say:
“I’m a big fan of Debbie’s Delicious Sandwiches. I love how it’s gone from a mom-and-pop shop to a country-wide brand and the sandwiches are delicious, especially the bread. However, I think the brand is missing a huge opportunity with its messaging. The ‘sandwiches delivered fast’ tagline doesn’t speak to the high-quality nature of the bread and other ingredients, which I believe differentiates Debbie’s from the competition. I associate ‘speed’ with fast food, which isn’t typically high-quality food. I think that if Debbie’s reevaluated their messaging and updated it, speaking more to the high-quality nature of the ingredients, they could be viewed in a different and more premier category, which would pull even more people in to taste their delicious sandwiches.”
2. What’s the Last Marketing Campaign That Caught Your Eye?
“I love asking this question because I want to understand their intellectual curiosity. What kinds of campaigns spark their interest? What do they pay attention to? What does ‘good’ look like for them?” says Shyna Zhang, a product marketing consultant who has built PMM teams at enterprise technology companies and high-growth startups and taught product marketers through Real World Product Marketing . For this question, there isn’t a right or wrong answer, there is only your answer.
Make sure to focus your answer on the why. There are lots of marketing campaigns out there, so be sure to talk about why this one stood out to you and why it’s different from the others.
“Recently, I saw an ad on TV from my local energy company. I was caught by surprise because energy companies don’t typically strike me as doing a ton of marketing or engagement with their customers. The campaign was creative and effective because it made the company feel human. In the ads, they featured actual field technicians who spoke about why they liked their jobs and how they felt like a part of the fabric of our community. I think that any time a company or a brand can find ways to connect with customers in a way that feels personal, people-driven, and relatable, it’s effective and memorable. And this was one ad that did that and it really hit home for me.”
3. Can You Walk Me Through Your Last Product Launch?
Product launches are a critical responsibility of a product marketer. Whether you’re launching an entirely new product or perhaps a new feature, they require a combination of strategy, process management, and strong execution. So hiring managers will want to know about your past experience with launches, including what your role was and what the results of the launch were.
The key here is to talk about both process and outcomes: Provide an overview of the process, the key milestones, and your specific role in the launch, and then make sure you talk about the results as well as any important learnings. Finally, while there are lots of steps in a product launch, remember that another key skill for product marketers is delivering succinct messages. So you don’t need to spell out every single detail—make sure you get to the point!
For all behavioral interview questions , using the STAR method to structure your answer will help you provide a concise and relevant response. STAR stands for situation (what the context was), task (what you were responsible for), action (what you actually did), and result (what the outcome was and what you learned). Hit on each of these in order as you tell your story.
“Last year, we had an idea to launch a new collaboration software product aimed at our small- and medium-sized business [SMB] segment. My job was to work with a cross-functional team with colleagues from product management, sales, and other departments to execute a timely launch and to hit our goals surrounding pipeline generation for new revenue and opportunities. My specific responsibilities included creating the messaging and positioning of the new product and then testing it with customers. From there, I also led the creation of internal and external content for key stakeholders such as our account executives. Finally, I was the point person for training and enabling our entire 50-person sales team on the product. The launch was a success, in that it was on time and we exceeded our opportunity pipeline and marketing qualified leads [MQL] goals. I’d be happy to dive in deeper to any of the specifics of my work if it’d be helpful.”
4. What Did Product Marketing Look Like Where You Previously Worked?
Product marketing roles can look different from company to company. This question is meant to help the interviewer understand how you have previously done product marketing and what you’re hoping to get out of your next role. It’s also your chance to demonstrate your abilities as a product marketer.
You should be sure to highlight the specific aspects of your previous role that are relevant to the one you are applying for. This is also your chance to speak to the specific aspects of the job description that you’re excited about or feel you’re a great fit for.
If you’re interviewing for your first product marketing role, you can start by talking about how product marketing worked at your previous company or how you yourself engaged with product marketers (if you held a different kind of role at another company or even if you had a chance to see product marketers at work during an internship you did). And if nothing else, you should speak to what parts of the job description resonate with you.
“I recognize that product marketing is a little different at each company, but in my previous role, we separated product marketing into two areas: inbound product marketing, or building, validating, and launching the product, and outbound product marketing, or getting the product in the hands of customers. As a product marketer that was outbound and market-facing, I had three responsibilities: The first was go-to-market planning, working with a cross-functional team to create marketing qualified leads that turned into opportunities and drove pipeline. The second was sales enablement, ensuring that all of our sales teams got the training and resources they needed to properly position and sell our products. And the third was competitive analysis, understanding our competitors and industry. Given that this job description talks about responsibilities including leading sales enablement and launching new products or features, I think this job aligns well with some of the past experiences I’ve had, but I would love to learn more about some of the projects you had in mind for someone taking on this role.”
5. How Do You Measure the Success of Product Marketing?
Without measuring your impact, it’s hard to know how effective you are as a product marketer. This question gets at your understanding of how to A) identify the right metrics to measure your work and B) drive results.
Metrics and measurement are important for understanding what outcomes or goals you’re working toward and whether you’re on track to achieve them, so be sure to talk about which ones you’ve focused on in the past and why. “Since product marketing can also look different at different companies, it’s important to share how you’ve previously measured the impact and outcomes of your work. That way, the hiring manager can understand the skills and experiences you would bring to the role,” Zhang says, and how you might approach measuring success at their company. So make sure you also articulate enough details about your past roles that it’s clear why certain metrics were important to your specific position.
“In my most recent role, I measured my success by the adoption of new features. Each quarter, we’d launch a set of new features and my goal was to create campaigns to drive adoption of those features with our customers. We specifically looked at metrics like overall adoption, feature usage, and feature adoption over time. These campaigns used content—such as videos, knowledge articles, and FAQ documentation—so we also measured the reach of and engagement with that content. In addition to evaluating and reporting on these quantitative metrics, we conducted surveys and focus groups with our customers and took that insight into consideration, especially when thinking about future releases of new features or updates to existing features.”
6. What Are Some Ways You Build Relationships With Fellow Employees?
Building relationships at work is critical for many jobs, but it’s even more critical for product marketers because they regularly work on projects with team members from other parts of the company. “The best product marketers spend time building relationships with their peers, so when they work together, there is a sense of trust and credibility,” Zhang says.
For this question you should talk about what you think makes a good professional relationship and how you’ve built strong relationships in the past. If you’re an entry-level candidate, you might draw on experiences from projects, internships, volunteer work, or even extracurricular activities. This is also a chance to provide some specific ways that you would build relationships with your coworkers, if you were to get the job.
“From my experience, good working relationships with your peers are based on trust, which takes time and effort to build up. A tactic that I’ve previously used that I think could help me in this role is reaching out to people to learn about their roles or about a specific topic that they have domain expertise in. In my last job, I was able to learn all about customer success by getting coffee and speaking to customer success managers who were more than happy to tell me about what they did each day. This gave me a great understanding of their job, as well as their challenges, before we had any reason to collaborate on any specific launch or product. And this allowed me to build a rapport with some folks I could later go to for guidance or feedback on future projects. I can see myself using a similar approach in this role.”
7. Can You Talk About a Cross-Functional Project That You Worked On? What Was Your Role and How Did You Contribute to the Impact and/or Success of the Project?
Jason Perocho, a senior director of product marketing who has hired and built product marketing teams (and, full disclosure, a colleague of mine), likes to ask this question to better understand how a candidate works with other people and how they’re able to make an impact on a large team. “When you are working on a cross-functional project like a product launch, oftentimes it requires a lot of people to make it successful,” Perocho says. “I want to learn not only what the team did to achieve success, but specifically, what the candidate did to contribute to the success of the project.”
When you answer this question, make sure to mention the nature of the project, the key stakeholders, and the end objective. But you also need to talk about the role you had and the part you played in helping achieve the team’s ultimate outcome. A common mistake in answering this question is talking about the project, but failing to get into the specifics of what you did. You can use the STAR method to help ensure you include all the relevant information in your answer.
“During the early days of COVID-19, we recognized that our customers were looking for help as they began to predominantly work from home. We realized that this could be a great opportunity for us to provide value to them in a time of crisis, as our company’s product is a digital collaboration software, which helps companies communicate from anywhere. We decided to create a resource hub and to provide content and best practices for how to use our products in order to drive productivity and effectiveness, especially in an environment where teams were newly remote. However, we’d never dealt with a pandemic before either, so we needed a cross-functional team of top product experts to work together to create something fast.
“My job was to identify the types of content to create based on data and strategic direction, and then to work with the SMEs [subject matter experts] to gather their insight and help turn it into content by providing messaging and storytelling direction to our content team. The result was a website with more than 20 different assets—such as videos, blog posts, podcast interviews, and recorded demos—breaking down how to use our products to collaborate better in a virtual environment during COVID-19. We multiplied our monthly website traffic by 10 and got hundreds of requests from our sales teams to have our experts do live virtual demos for our customers because they were interested in learning more.”
8. Tell Me What You Think About the Messaging on Our Website.
An interviewer asks this to hear what you think as well as to understand how you think about messaging. Since creating good messaging is a core tenet of product marketing, it’s important to have a good answer to this question. Furthermore, implied in this question is that you’ve taken the time to actually research the company and to review the products they sell.
Before your interview, spend time reviewing the company website and information on its products, so that you can base your response to this question on your analysis. “Nothing is worse than asking this question and having a candidate stumble over an answer because they didn’t take the time to do the research, especially since this is preventable,” Perocho says.
Make sure to articulate a clear point of view on the company’s messaging based on your own analysis. It also helps to come with ideas or suggestions for how you would make it better or other ideas which demonstrate your creativity. This can feel difficult because you might be afraid to criticize the company you want to work for—a very fair concern. Rather than being negative about the company in your response, you can frame your suggestions as opportunities to be even more creative or to consider new possibilities. Good phrases to use might be ones like “ another idea could be to …” or “ what would make this even stronger …”
“What stands out most about your website is that you speak directly to your buyer and their pain points. You talk a lot about privacy, security, and protecting employee technology so it is very clear to me that you are targeting an IT security leader or professional. One thing I noticed was that you often reference the awards your product has won. This is a good way to show customers that your product is in fact a great product. But another idea might be to have users speak directly to how great you are by featuring a customer testimonial saying how much they love your product or how it helped improve their business. This way possible customers aren’t just seeing messaging from your perspective or learning what the organizations that have given you awards think, they’re seeing what people like them think.”
9. Tell Me About a Time When You Were Able to Influence a Decision Made by Another Leader.
One of the challenging parts of being a product marketer is that you don’t always have the authority to make a decision even though you are responsible for achieving a goal, which means you will need to influence a decision maker or leader within your company. For example, as a product marketer, you might not be in charge of developing the product, as that is the product manager’s job, but you may need to influence the product manager on the features that resonate with a customer. Your interviewer wants to see if you can articulate your point of view in a persuasive way and accurately represent the voice of the customer to advocate for their specific needs.
Explain how you influenced another key leader to drive a decision or outcome in your favor. Influence can come in many forms. Perhaps you had a good relationship with the leader and used data you knew would speak to them. Make sure to highlight the specific way you were able to get someone else to see your point of view that led them to listen to your perspective. This is another question where you can lean on the STAR method.
“ The sales team needed a new training program around products they were being asked to sell this year. They wanted to use the same training format as for a past product we launched in a previous quarter and asked me to create it. I knew the format we’d used the year before was very time- and resource-intensive to execute. Furthermore, some of the materials I’d created lived on our sales training portal and when I looked at the usage statistics, they were very low, which led me to believe that it was not effective.
“Knowing that it would be a huge effort to create the same type of program and that evidence suggested it wasn’t as helpful as it could be to the sales team, I offered a different solution. I proposed a shorter training program of bite-sized, engaging videos as opposed to a live workshop and numerous additional PowerPoint presentations, data sheets, and training materials. The sales leader pushed back, but we compromised and agreed to try it out this new way and, if it didn’t work, I promised to provide training materials in the previous format.
“But the new approach worked. In addition to receiving high scores on the feedback surveys from the training, the metrics around usage were significantly higher—a 30% increase in the number of views and downloads. While the sales leaders were initially skeptical, after they saw the feedback and the usage results, they were pleased we had reimagined the training and agreed to scale out the new version for future products.”
10. What Do You Know About Our Company’s Target Audience?
“As a product marketer, part of your job is to accurately represent the voice of the customer, which means product marketers need to know the customer very well,” Zhang says. Interviewers ask this question to make sure you’ve taken the time to research this company and as an indication that you’d take the time and have the insight needed to get to know the market if you were to land the role.
Make sure to take the time to get to know the company, its products, and the customers that it serves. You can do great research by taking the time to conduct informational interviews with employees at this company or even interviewing people who have used the product that the company makes. You can also read through the company’s website, social media feeds, or anything else they put out themselves as well as research reports and product reviews.
Share what you’ve learned from the research that you’ve done and tell the interviewer what that research was to show what you might do as a product marketer. “Anytime someone in an interview can share with me specific research they read, reviews they found, or that they spoke to a handful of our customers and can provide specific feedback, it’s a signal that they grasp a critical component of the role,” Zhang said.
If you have transferable experience or knowledge related to the company’s product or market, this is also a great chance to share it and show that you already have relevant expertise.
“Since you sell customer relationship management software, it’s clear your target audience is salespeople and those in the departments that manage the technology, such as a VP of IT. Sales leaders need to be productive and they need to drive revenue. IT buyers want something that is going to generate ROI, but also implements quickly and integrates with their existing infrastructure. In fact, based on research my previous company conducted on buying preferences, integration is one of the key criteria for CRM software buyers. And considering that all of the customer success stories on your website are from financial services and healthcare companies, I think that you probably have a strong presence and are specifically targeting customers in those industries. Finally, after reading through reviews on G2Crowd and the App Store, it’s clear your users love how easy your product is to set up and use while they are on the go, but it also sounds like they want more functionality, especially around the dashboards and reporting features.”
11. What Markets or Industries Have You Focused on, and in What Ways Are Those Similar to or Different From Ours?
This is a chance to share your experience, expertise, and knowledge of your past roles’ customers and industry and to show that you’ve thought about how you’ll make the transition to a new company or industry.
In your answer, demonstrate your knowledge of the industry that you’re in by highlighting key trends or interesting insights from your experience. But you’ll also want to make sure that you speak to the specific industry trends and insights relevant to the company you are interviewing with—and make a connection and draw parallels between your previous role or industry and the one you are transitioning into. Perhaps the industries are facing similar challenges. Or perhaps the buyers of the product have similar needs.
“Currently, I work in the HR technology sector, selling HR compliance solutions to HR leaders who are looking to drive productivity and cost savings. Over the course of my time in this role, what’s been interesting to me is just how much HR leaders are using technology in their business, as this is a shift from when I started a few years ago. Since your company sells training and development software to businesses, I think this is an interesting time to join your organization. As companies face pressure in their respective industries to get ahead or stay competitive, they need their employees to learn and grow their skills to keep up. From my current role, I know that many HR leaders are increasingly looking for tech-based solutions for compliance, and would extrapolate that they’d do the same for training and learning solutions as they look to find unique ways to upskill their employees, which puts your company in a good position. So I’m excited about the opportunity to join your company as the market shifts.”
12. What’s the Project You’re Most Proud of and Why?
“I like asking this question because it gives the candidate a chance to differentiate themselves from other candidates,” Perocho said. What you choose to talk about can give the interview a glimpse into what you’re most passionate about. And this question also gives you the chance to show off something that you’ve done that made a significant impact and share what you did to drive that outcome.
This is your opportunity to get personal and to brag a little! Identify the project you worked on that you’re most proud of and make sure to share the outcome and impact. To make it personal and help differentiate you and show what you value, you can also share why you chose it.
“At my last company, one of our core values was championing the customer. However, I felt like we were missing something in our external marketing messaging and content because we only featured a limited number of customers. I brought this up to my manager, who encouraged me to find a solution and gave me a two-month deadline to make it happen in order to coincide with a big company-wide revamp of the website. I proposed a customer heroes program, for which we would find customers who were having success with our products and basically make them the ‘hero’ in our marketing content, whether that meant quoting them in a blog post, featuring them on our website or in our webinars, or telling the entire story of how they were using our product in email communications.
“The launch was a huge success across numerous key metrics in terms of increased downloads and visits. Furthermore, the customers we featured were very excited to see their faces on our website, in our blogs, in our webinars, and in our newsletters—over 90% of those featured are still customers. I’m proud of this because I was able to launch a program that was not only successful, but also truly aligned with our core values, and because other teams within our company adopted the same approach to their own marketing materials, demonstrating the true impact and value that it had added.”
13. You Launch a New Feature and There Is Low Adoption by your Customers. What Data Would You Evaluate and How Would You Respond?
While launching products is important, if nobody ends up using them, all is for naught. This question tests a product marketer’s ability to understand key metrics and goals around adoption of a feature or product. This question also tests your problem solving and data gathering and analysis skills.
Ideally, if this problem arose in your job, you would go out and identify the data to evaluate, analyze the data, and come up with a set of recommendations for a workable solution. Make sure to highlight some of the aspects of a launch you would want to review and to include the types of data you think are important to evaluate. In your answer, you’ll also want to explain why you think it's important to review that data and what kinds of clues it might provide.
“ The first thing I would do is to reevaluate the launch plan, goals, and metrics to see if there are any signals or indicators of potential causes for concern such as misalignment. Next, I would review the launch communications and the efficacy of those communications, especially around content we sent to our customers. For example, did our open rates on the email communication seem in line with our typical open rates for email launch communications? Perhaps when we take a look at the launch emails we might uncover that the email was too long and we lost users’ interest. I would also look at other launch content that is critical to driving adoption, such as our instructional videos and knowledge articles. If people aren’t viewing them at all, perhaps they don’t know that they exist. But if they’re finding them and viewing or reading only the first 25% on average, maybe they’re not engaging or helpful. I would also talk to our customer support agents—is there a pattern to the questions customers are calling to ask about the new feature? This information could help us realize that customers are not understanding how the feature works and pick up on exactly what they’re confused about. Finally, I would also want to speak to customers directly to ask if they heard about the new feature, if they were using it, and if not, why not.
“I would also want to convene the launch team to do a post-mortem, where we all get the chance to share our own insights and come up with solutions for how to move forward. As a product marketer, I would be thinking about additional ways to reach customers and educate them about the feature based on all of my findings about where the sticking points were. I would also want to come up with some communications that we could share with our customer-facing teams, such as sales and customer success, so they could help us recommunicate the value and benefits of the new feature and how to use it.”
14. Tell Me About a Project You Worked on That Failed or Didn’t Meet Expectations. What Happened and What Did You Learn?
Nobody is perfect, including product marketers! This question is meant to understand some of the challenging experiences from your past. More than that, it’s also meant to uncover how you respond to difficult situations.
Using the STAR method, articulate the goal of the project, why it failed, and what you learned from the process. In addition to acknowledging the failure, you should also speak to how you responded and what you learned. We all fall down, but it’s about how we get back up.
“In my last role, we wanted to launch a new sales program where some of our customer success managers would help us identify upsell opportunities with customers who had purchased a specific product. We felt this made sense as the CSMs had built incredible trust with these customers and deeply understood their business needs, so they could position the right products that would help the customer and drive revenue.
“Before rolling out the program, we talked to a few of our customer success managers, but in hindsight, we did not spend enough time getting their feedback—as well as their buy-in and support. Ultimately the program failed, as many of the success managers refused to participate. We learned afterward that while customers appreciated the help they were getting from the customer success managers, many of them weren’t thrilled to be asked to purchase more products while they were struggling to use what they had. Furthermore, customer success managers understood the importance of revenue, but did not feel comfortable trying to push a product onto a customer in the very same call where they were clearly frustrated with another product. Overall, it was a good lesson about the importance of not only asking for feedback but also actually taking the time to truly involve all stakeholders in the creation of a program.”
15. Tell Me About a Time You Explained Something Really Difficult (Technically and/or Logically Difficult). What Was Your Approach and How Did It Go?
Product marketers must communicate effectively and create messaging that resonates with their audience. This often requires meeting with stakeholders, gathering a bunch of important information, and distilling it down to the most important points.
Give an example of a time when you needed to explain something difficult, including how you made sure you fully understand the concepts yourself and how you broke it down while taking your audience into consideration. Once again, you can use the STAR method here to help you organize your answer.
“ Last year, we launched a new set of features that were technically complex even for the product marketing team to understand. We knew if it was confusing to us, it was going to be confusing to our users, unless we had clear, succinct messaging that was easy to grasp.
“As the point person for the launch messaging and communications, I met with the technical experts to understand the intricate details of the new features. I would often say, ‘Explain this to me like I’m a 5 year old,’ and, ‘Tell me how this makes it better for our users,’ to get them to use simple language and phrases. Once I fully understood the features, I wrote up a few basic explainers with our core audience in mind and I showed them to the tech team to check for accuracy. I referred back to these basic explainers while crafting the messaging we’d use for the launch. I also turned to our customer advisory board to get feedback on my early drafts of the communications around the launch—to find out what was working and what wasn’t—and tweaked them accordingly.
“The end result was a launch communications kit, including a demo video and FAQs. We ended up exceeding our adoption metric by 20% and the FAQ document in our customer knowledge portal had the highest rating of any of our documents last quarter.”
How to prepare for (and crush!) a product marketing interview
Ready to dive into the role of a Product Marketing Manager with two feet? Then you’re probably wondering how to ace your next interview. But before we get stuck into the nitty-gritty, for anyone who’s new to the role, let’s take things right back to basics.
What’s product marketing?
Simply put, product marketing can be summed up as the driving force behind getting products to market - and keeping them there. Product marketers are the overarching voices of the customer, masterminds of messaging, enablers of sales, and accelerators of adoption. All at the same time.
For the finer details of product marketing check out the guide .
What do you do in product marketing?
The details of a product marketing role will vary from company-to-company, but to give you a flavor, here are a handful of the role’s most common responsibilities:
- Product messaging and positioning
- Managing product launches
- Creating sales collateral
- Customer and market research
- Reporting on product marketing success
- Content marketing
- Managing the website
- Product roadmap planning
- O nboarding customers
Sound like your cup of tea? Then let’s delve a little deeper into how to prepare for your next interview.
What are companies looking for when hiring product marketers?
Knowing what skills are required for a product marketing role can be tricky. So here are a few things companies tend to look for when hiring PMMs.
1. Communication skills
The key tasks as a product marketer involve communicating clearly with your team and customers. PMMs need to create impactful but clear messaging to communicate the value of their products.
PMMs need to really feel for the customers and understand their problems with the product. This will allow you to target your customers and drive an emotional response to your product.
3. Collaboration skills
A product marketer works with all sorts of departments and importantly, individuals! Being able to seamlessly collaborate with product development, sales, executive management, and external stakeholders is an essential part of bringing products to market.
4. Process and project management skills
Product marketers work on a wide range of campaigns at once, so managing processes and projects is a key skill as a PMM.
5. Prioritization skills
There’s a lot to balance as a product marketer and that means being the master of priorities! There are only so many hours in the day, so you need to prioritize the tasks and campaigns which will make the biggest impact.
Preparation before your interview
Scrutinize the job description.
Unfortunately, in 2023, the role of a PMM is still largely ambiguous and misunderstood, meaning what’s expected of you in one company could be vastly different from another. So, to ace your interview, you need to get to grips with the business in question and what they want in their next PMM.
How? Go through the job advert with a fine toothcomb and look at the responsibilities the company’s listed. It’ll give you a better idea of exactly what you’re walking into and how you can ensure you not only meet the criteria, but the role is what you’re after.
Tip #1: check out our jobs board to compare the variety involved in product marketing descriptions.
Tip #2: sign up to our Slack channel . Everyone’s super friendly and we’ve had tons of PMMs jumping on a call to help each other prep for an interview.
Investigate the company
Gauri Mathu , Product Marketer and PMA Ambassador, shares ways to understand the organization you are interviewing at.
“Probably the most obvious first step but also the most important, so important that almost everything relies on this. But doing research on the company can also be a very vague activity. Here are a few things you should definitely do.
“A very basic idea of how long the company has been in the market, if there were any crucial product pivots, their ‘pie’ of the market share, key competitors, latest product/feature launches and of course the investments the company has raised up until now (if applicable) will give you a good idea of where the company stands today.”
1. Competitor research
“Now that you have done your primary and secondary research on the product, some original ideas on how to solve their problems should be brewing. Do a thorough competition analysis - who are their direct and indirect competitors? Where do they stand on the market share pie? Go back to the product reviews you read and make a list of other products your product was compared to.
“Since you also know the problems you need to solve, you will start figuring out what the competition is doing to solve the same problem. Demo some of these rival products as well, build a quick feature grid. Having answers to this will make you well versed in the industry/domain.”
2. CEO interviews
“One very reliable source of information on how the company is doing, what their vision and roadmaps, strategies and results look like - is actually the CEO himself/herself. It’s a great idea to dig up blogs/articles or interviews from the CEO and make notes. This will also give you an overall sentiment of how the company is doing and how futuristic their products or visions are.”
3. Collect inside intel
“Try reaching out to a peer in the company you are interviewing for and have an informal one-on-one chat. Learn about the marketing tech infrastructure that's already setup, the fundamental issues they are facing and the core reason for hiring an APMM.
This will give you some first-hand perspective of what the real problems are and what your challenges will look like once you join. Discuss your understanding of the job description with the person. S/he will be able to give more insight on the issues or more context of the market or give a clearer picture in case you have doubts. This not only makes you look more proactive about the role, you’ll also get a quick sneak-peak into their work culture!”
Immerse yourself
A good PMM will know their product inside out. Adopt this methodology in your interview.
We just talked about doing your research into the organization, but take things one step further and do your homework on their products - old and new. Once you’ve got your hands on them you can test them out and make notes on your favorite features as well as what you think could be improved.
Tip: if they’ve got a freemium version, download it and have a nosey around and feed your findings into your prep.
Don’t fall into the trap of being a yes man either - that’s not what hirers are looking for. If they walk away from your interview with an idea on how to improve X, Y or Z, you’re guaranteed to be in their good books. So, with that said, go into the interview armed with positives and areas that could be enhanced.
Tip: be mindful of how you frame the negatives. Saying “I didn’t think this was very good” can come across as arrogant, saying something like “I noticed ____ and had an idea of how it could perhaps be improved by doing ____ instead.”
1. Know the industry
To get a competitive edge, it’s a good idea to do some research on the sector you want to work in as a whole. Who’s the main competitor? What’s their rival product? What issues is the industry facing in today’s market?
Get to grips with this and you’ll be able to have an informed discussion, demonstrate a concrete interest and even discuss ideas for future strategies.
In the run-up to your interview, our top tip is to set up news alerts for industry-related articles so you’re up-to-date and in the loop on all the most relevant info. You might also glean some interesting insights on social media.
2. Product trials & reviews
Gauri Mathu shares some extra ways to immerse yourself such as product trials and customer reviews.
“After you have an overall idea of what exactly you are being hired for, you should try the product yourself. If this is a B2B software with a freemium model, sign up for the free version, test it out, play around with the features and note down your experience from it.
“Try to focus on the objective you are being hired for. For example, if the company wants you to work on optimizing the ‘Request Demo to Buy’ funnel, concentrate on how you as a user are being nudged to buy - the emails received, the cadence and quality of communications, etc. Become as familiar as possible with the whole product experience so you have an informed opinion during the interview.”
3. Customer reviews
“Really getting into the skin of the different types of product users will give you considerable headway in your interview. Read reviews from App store or Play store (in case of a B2C app product) or some crowd-sourced review sites like G2 Crowd, Capterra, Gartner. These tools are usually a gold mine in helping to identify what works and what doesn't.”
Understand OKRs/current goals
Gauri Mathu also shares the importance of understanding the company’s goals.
“If possible try finding out what OKRs the current PMMs are working towards. This will give you a good idea of what kind of work you will be doing on a day-to-day basis. Additionally, you will now be able to backtrack from OKRs to jot down 1 or 2 action items or ideas that you can present in your interview.”
Plan your questions
There’s a time in every interview when you’ll be asked if you have any questions of your own. This is the perfect opportunity to:
- Demonstrate a genuine interest in the role and business, and
- Get a better idea of the role.
So, do your research into the organization and write down anything you’d like clarifying. Hiring managers love a candidate who shows initiative, so you’ll be earning some brownie points and probably discovering something about the company you didn’t already know which’ll help you answer other questions fired your way, win-win.
If you’re struggling, here are some broad questions you could start with:
- What’s the size and structure of your product marketing team?
- How long has your company had a product marketing function?
- What do your interactions with sales and product teams look like?
- How do you measure the product marketing team’s success?
Don’t ask questions you could and should know the answer to yourself though - like “What’s your main customer market?” A bit of online research gives you this answer and just highlights a lack of preparation on your part.
P.S. we recently saw an interesting thread in our Slack channel around what questions you, as an interviewee, should look to get answered during the process, and these suggestions came in:
- What’s the breakdown of responsibilities within the product marketing and wider marketing team?
- Where’s the emphasis in the short term (product <> sales or marketing <> product, etc.)?
- What are the deliverables in the first 30/60/90 days ? And which KPIs would be used to measure those deliverables?
- How often do you launch? Are those broken down by t-shirt size today?
- What’s the current communication cadence between Sales/CS/Marketing/Product?
Practice makes perfect
Unfortunately, there isn’t a set guide to the questions you’ll get asked (although how sweet would that be?), but there are always some pretty standard questions you can expect nine times out of 10.
Generally, during interviews, you’ll be faced with two types of questions: behavioural and role-specific. Here’s a couple of examples to set you on the right track:
Behavioural
- What would you say are your strengths?
- Can you tell us about a time you managed a cross-departmental team?
- How would you say you cope working in pressurised environments?
Role-specific
- Can you walk us through your last product launch?
- What went well and what would you do differently?
- What were your main responsibilities in your last job?
It’s a good idea to practice answering some common questions so you develop a comfortable flow when the time comes and boost your own confidence.
Remember, your answers should highlight how your skills are relevant and add value to the business, and always keep your responses structured.
Tip: plan a few answers that you can mould to generic questions and conclude your response by bringing it back to the question asked so it doesn’t seem like you’re just reciting a script.
During your Interview
Link to your experience
For each of the responsibilities listed, think about all your previous work experience and pair specific examples to each - ideally, with some bottom-line business metrics, too. For example, if you’re talking about a new product launch, what were the data-driven results of that? How many leads did it bring in? How many of those leads converted? And what was the monetary value of those conversions?
Or even if it’s something on a smaller scale, like a customer case study, who utilized that asset? How often was it used? And what level of influence did it have in the buyer’s journey?
If you’ve got a project or initiative in mind for each responsibility, when it comes to the interview, you’ll be ready to easily link your experiences and skills to the job. Not only that but you’ll be demonstrating an understanding of the role in question.
For example, if you’re talking about your collaboration skills, don’t just limit your response to “I think I’m really good at collaborating with other teams.” Think about a testing situation you overcame thanks to smashing the collaboration side of things and talk the interviewer through it from start to finish - it’s all about showing, not telling.
Don’t forget the customer
The ultimate goal of a good PMM should be to put the customer at the core - after all, they represent the consumer’s voice at every stage of a product launch. So, with that in mind, it’s a good idea to dig a little into the company’s existing customer base.
Read as many reviews as you can find to get an idea of the customer perspective - Product Hunt and G2 Crowd might be good places to start, but you’ll find feedback in loads of places depending on the nature of the organization, like:
- Trust Pilot,
- TechRadar, and
- Social media.
Doing your research will open up the door for a well-informed and rich discussion about the future goals of the business and where you think you can add value.
Abdul Rastagar , GTM Lead at Benchling, shares his top tips for acing your product marketing interview.
Focus on outcomes, not activities
“The most common mistake product marketers make during their interview is to recite a laundry list of activities they have undertaken in their current/past job without ever tying anything back to tangible business outcomes.
“If you have several years of work experience, I’m going to assume that you have already done messaging or sales enablement or even a product launch. But marketers tend to forget that the launch itself is not the end goal. In the interview, I want to know about the outcome. What was the adoption of the new product or capability? What was the impact on revenue? How much did you increase market share or reduce churn? Tell me specifically the goal you were trying to achieve and how you drove the business towards that end.”
Be data-driven
“Examples of tangible business outcomes will vary depending on your goal. But you should quantify them and your metrics may include:
- Impact on revenue (ARR, MRR, etc.)
- Market share growth
- Product adoption by customer type or new penetration in key market segments
- Winning a key customer target (or getting them to commit to staying with you)
- Reducing overall churn rate
- Increasing loyalty or satisfaction (and how it leads to reduced churn)
- Nurturing referenceable customers that led to new opportunities
“Not all of the above may be relevant to what you worked on but if you are data-driven, you will make a far stronger impression.”
Paint a before and after picture
“I once interviewed a candidate who really impressed me with her ability to provide a clear ‘before and after’ picture. For each part of her resume I probed into, she was able to articulate in straightforward terms what the situation was beforehand and how she changed it for the better. All the while, she also indirectly related how she could apply that experience to the product marketing role for which she was interviewing.”
Articulate your unique value proposition
“As product marketing professionals, we spend a fair amount of our time thinking about how to differentiate our offerings from the competition. So that logic should also extend to ourselves as candidates. The best product marketers clearly articulate three specific skills or experiences that make them uniquely suited to the job. Simply stating that you are a dynamic self-starter or a master storyteller is not good enough - give me something far more tangible.
“(I presented a methodology at Product Marketing World in London in December for developing differentiated value propositions. The principles of that framework can also be applied to positioning yourself as a unique candidate. Check with PMA if they will provide you with a recording of that presentation.)”
Ask strategic questions
“The types of questions a candidate asks me are a major insight for me into your capabilities as a product marketer. The vast majority tend to ask tactical and low-level questions. If you want to stand out, ask strategic questions that require critical thinking and a higher-level response from me. Don’t be afraid to challenge your interviewer. What is the vision for your products and what are the main obstacles to achieving it? Tell me about a key customer you have lost and why they left. How has your go-to-market strategy changed over time? How has the competition compelled you to evolve?
“If you ask strategic questions, you signal that you possess a deeper level of thinking and understand how to take ownership of your products.
“One caveat: if you simply respond with “OK” to each answer and then move on to the next question, you communicate that you are asking questions merely as part of the process. This will count against you. The purpose of asking questions is to engage the hiring manager into a two-way discussion that provides you with insight into the role while also impressing the interviewer with your knowledge. My recommendation is to arrive at your interview with at least three strategic discussion points.”
Be ready to demonstrate experience
Gauri Mathu also shares advice for nailing your interview.
“Any company will ask you how your previous experience can be leveraged in the new role. Especially if you are looking to make a transition from a completely different role to APMM. It would be beneficial to list out responsibilities, projects or tasks from your previous stint that will directly relate to the qualities, skills & experience that this job demands.
“For example, if you have been a sales professional, you can talk about your customer-facing skills and being empathetic towards their problems. If you have been a technical professional - you can highlight how you helped scope out important features and how you will be able to effectively derive and communicate product benefits to customers from complex technical specs.
“Irrespective of the company’s goal or growth stage, there are at least 5 crucial skills that most companies look out for in a APMM:
- Clear & effective communication
- Analytical thought process
- Problem-solving skills
- Marketing know-how”
Frequently Asked Interview Questions
To help you prep as best you can, here are eight relatively common PMM interview questions to prepare for so you can walk into your next interview brimming with confidence.
Can you tell us a bit about yourself?
Despite the fact it’s one of the most common interview questions, it’s surprisingly easy to draw a blank. Do I tell them my favorite color? (No) The idea here is that they get to see something that maybe isn’t on your resume, or a little way to break the ice. Don’t give your life story, have a little run-through of your name, where you’re from, some things you enjoy and a little bit about your interest in the role.
This is where doing your homework pays off. Having good knowledge of the company’s values, their business model and customer base will get you through this early question with flying colors. Make your answer as recent and up-to-date as possible, using examples of products and campaigns to really convince the interviewer you’re ready for this role.
When doing your research, here’s a bit of a checklist of things to look out for:
- We’ll start with the obvious...what product(s) do they sell?
- Who’s their target market?
- What pricing strategy do they use?
- How do they position themselves?
- Who are their main competitors?
- Which acquisition channels are they using?
- What are customers saying about them? (Check out reviews for this one)
- What’s the latest product or feature they publicly launched?
Could you explain your role at your previous company?
Employers will want to know what experience you have in this role, so be prepared to give examples of projects you worked on and what successes and failures you had at your previous job. This one might sound simple, after all, you obviously know what you spend your working days doing, right? But without a bit of prep, it’s really easy to start fumbling, rambling and not focusing on the right parts of your role, so doing the pre-work can help you do yourself justice.
Tip: Be sure to explain the value you personally added to that company - having statistics and clear, unique examples to back up these claims can help easily show this.
What product marketing campaign do you think worked well recently? Can you think of any that haven’t?
These types of questions are to establish your broader understanding of the market, so have some examples ready to show you have an interest in the world of product marketing. Interviewers usually follow this up by asking what you’d have changed about the unsuccessful campaign, so have good reasons for why you did and didn’t resonate with the examples you have chosen, too.
For example:
“I really liked Awesome Company Ltd’s new feature launch and going off vanity metrics like their social engagement. It looks like it was well-received by the market, however, it struck me as odd that they didn’t create a dedicated landing page to take prospects to. I think this would have taken their launch to the next level and enabled them to personalize their approach much better.”
This not only shows you’re hot on the pulse of market trends, but that you understand product marketing fundamentals and how to optimize campaigns for success.
We’re about to launch this feature, how would you go about it?
Case study time. Once again your research into the company should help you here, but this is the time to show off your creativity and understanding of the demands of the role. Maybe reference a similar product you’ve launched in the past (if it was a success) or a strategy you think worked well.
Remember, hirers don’t just want ‘yes’ people, so don’t feel like you have to mirror activities you’ve seen them pull off in the past. If you think they could do a better job of launching features in the future, tell them (politely, of course) and arm them with ideas for the next one.
If the person who interviews you walks away with a new idea they have every intention of implementing, you can bet your bottom dollar they’re going to remember you - and for the right reasons, too.
What metrics would you use to determine your success in this role?
This question is their way of asking you what makes a good product marketer. Use methods you were measured on in the past, or if you think you have something new to bring to the table then lay it out and explain why you should be targeting these specific areas as measurements for success.
Tip: be specific. Saying something along the lines of “I’d probably measure success against the number of new sign-ups” sounds a bit wishy-washy. Instead, go in with something like:
“Success would largely depend on the type of project we’re working on, but I think a fundamental metric to monitor is the number of churned users, and we measured this using tools like X, Y and Z in my last company, and by doing so, we were able to reduce churn by X% and save the company $XX,XXX a quarter in recurring revenue, with very little outlay.”
Let’s be honest, the latter leaves you sounding much, much more credible, right?
Who would you work most closely with in this role?
Not a trick question as such, but the answer will, of course, be multiple people. A product marketer’s work encompasses several teams including sales, support, marketing, product and more. Not only is this question further teasing out your understanding of the role, but it’s a good time to give examples of when you’ve worked well in a team - so go in armed with lots of practical examples.
If you were an animal…
Now, this question is one you can’t rehearse but you can prepare for. Some kind of curveball is going to be thrown your way. Whether they ask you to tell a joke, what kind of animal you are or who your ideal dinner guest is, there’s going to be something unpredictable asked at some point.
Don’t cram your head with too much information so you stutter and stall at something a bit off topic. Stay cool, be genuine and you’ll nail this answer just as well as the others.
Gauri Mathu shares some bonus questions that you can use to practice your interview skills.
What is your favorite marketing campaign and why?
“This question is one of the favorites! The way you communicate about why you picked a particular campaign and what you liked about it the most gives the interviewer a sense of how well you articulate your thoughts. Highlighting points that show original thinking will also be key here.”
Can you give an example of a great product currently in the market that you think is being marketed poorly?
“Eventually this question will boil down to ‘how do you think this product should be marketed?’ And that’s where your creativity will be tested. Be ready with an answer to this in advance. Having proper reasoning, with supporting data as to why your marketing idea is better will be important.”
The Spotify marketing team is experiencing considerable drop-off in their sales funnel for Spotify Premium. What are the key metrics you’d track to identify issues in the funnel? How would you identify these metrics?
“Here’s where your analytical mindset and problem-solving skills can be put to the test. The product mentioned here is Spotify but it could be any other tech product as well. When you answer these types of questions you should focus on identifying the problem at each stage, building a hypothesis and building relevant experiments/tests.Talking about the primary metric you will capture for each stage, your testing process and then defining what ‘success’ will mean for each metric will be key.”
How would you change your marketing mix if you were selling a software or hardware product? What about if it was B2C or B2B?
“This is a question that generally tests your marketing knowledge. A ‘marketing mix’ usually refers to the 4Ps of Marketing which are Price, Product, Promotion and Place. All the elements of the marketing mix influence each other. They make up the business plan for a company. If you are able to describe how the 4Ps differentiate between a software product or hardware product, or in the B2B and B2C domains, you are good to go.”
The takeaway
Ultimately, to give yourself the best chance of success you want to approach the job interview like you would the role of a PMM. A PMM knows their customer inside and out and uses this information to deliver a solution or product that meets their needs and solves their problems.
So, do your homework and get to know the business you want to work for in detail, and then work out how you and your skillset will add value, meet their requirements and help solve their problems. You are the solution and the employer is the customer.
All that’s left for us to say is good luck!
Want to help out other aspiring product marketers? Share some interview questions that you’ve been asked to support other PMMs interview prep!
Product marketing insider
Thank you for subscribing
Level up your product marketing career & network with product marketing experts.
An email has been successfully sent to confirm your subscription.
Ops! Something went wrong!
- Media Guide
- Ambassadors
- Privacy Policy
- Terms of Service
- Help Centre
- PMM Certification
Related Topics
- Product Marketing Manager Overview
- Product Marketing Manager Resume
- Product Marketing Manager Interview Questions
- Product Manager vs Product Marketing Manager
- Product Marketing Manager Salary
- Product Manager MBA
- Product Manager Work Life Balance
- Product Manager Goals
- Product Manager Portfolio Examples
- Product Manager vs Program Manager
- Product Manager vs Project Manager
- New Product Manager Job
- Product Manager Cover Template
- Do PMs Need an MBA?
- De-Risking the PM Journey
- Partnering on Sales Calls as a PM
- When to Help Sales as a PM
- Product Manager Career Path
- How to Shadow Your Sales Team
- Product Managers are Products
- Objection Handling for Product Managers
- Professional Development as a Product Manager
- Product Manager Salary
- Product Manager Resume
- Product Manager and Customer Support
- How to Find a Product Manager Job
- Value Propositions for Product Managers
- Product Manager Analytics
- Product Manager Jokes
- Product Manager Education Requirements
- Product Manager LinkedIn Profile
- Product Manager Skills
- How to Become a Product Manager
- Product Owner Overview
- Product Owner Skills
- Product Owner Career Path
- Product Owner Salary
- Product Owner vs Project Manager
- Product Owner Interview Questions
- Product Owner vs Product Manager
- Product Owner Resume
- Agile Transformation
- Agile Overview
- Agile Mindset
- Agile Testing Practices
- How to Become an Agile Developer
- Long-Term Agile Planning
- How to Manage an Agile Portfolio
- How Agile Teams Use Feature Branching
- How to Incorporate GIT into Your Workflow
- How to Use Improvement Kata
- Agile vs DevOps
- How to Merge Business Strategy with Agile Development
- How to Build Rockstar Agile Teams
- How Rosetta Stone Manages Complex Agile Projects
- How to Build Successful Agile Marketing Teams
- How to Use Collaborative Design
- What is SAFe?
- How to Map the Iron Triangle Model
- How to Scale Agile in Large Organizations
- Agile vs Waterfall
- Sprint Planning
- Agile Roadmap
- Agile Epics
- Stand-Ups for Agile Teams
- Agile Project Management Overview
- Stories, Epics, and Initiatives
- Agile Values
- Agile Metrics
- Agile Project Management Workflow
- Project Management vs Program Management
- Strategies to Manage Remote Teams
- How to Think Big and Small
- Release Ready Teams
- How to Work with Agile Specialists
- Kanban Overview
- Kanban Boards
- Kanban Cards
- Kanplan vs Kanban
- Scrum Overview
- Scrum@Scale
- Large-Scale Scrum (LeSS) Framework
- Jira vs Confluence
- How to Execute Scrum Sprints
- Agile Manifesto
- How to Manage a Remote Team
- Scrum Metrics
- Scrum Artifacts
- Scrum of Scrums
- Product Owner Daily Scrum
- Sprint Best Practices
- How to Conduct Product Releases
- Code Reviews
- How to Reduce Technical Debt
- Customer Interview Pyramid
- Software Releases
- Incident Response Plan
- Lean Portfolio Management
- Remote Product Management
- Prioritize Using NPS
- Product Roadmap Tips
- Gantt Chart
- Feature Parity
- Waterfall Model
- Product Management Books
- Product Review Meetings
- Internal Release Notes
- Maintaining Backlogs
- Empathizing with Engineers
- How to Prevent Context Switching
- Testing Best Practices
- Retrospectives
- Value Propositions
- User Retention
- Configuration vs Customization
- Switching Costs
- Validating Value Propositions
- How to Sunset a Feature
- Stakeholder Empathy
- Task Management Best Practices
- Roadmap Overview
- Product Synergies
- Product Ops
- Coordination Costs
- Effective Altruism
- Interviewing with Engineering Managers
- How to Manage Uncertainty
- Product Management Podcasts
- Effective Meetings
- How to Build a Product Roadmap
- Revisiting Decisions
- DevOps Overview
- Continuous Integration vs Continuous Delivery
- Product Development Overview
- Data Science Product Management
- Product Development Strategy
- Remote Development
- Best Practices
- Product Development in 7 Steps
- Product Development Method
- New Technologies
- How to Write an Effective Product Requirements Doc
- Product Led Growth Overview
- Growth Product Management
- Customer Research Tips
- Customer Experience
- Marketing Agility Overview
- Product Analytics Overview
- Data Driven vs Data Informed
- Bounce Rate
- Cohort Analysis
- B2B Cohort Analysis
- Product Distribution Models
- Blended Metrics
- Counter Metrics
- North Star Metrics
- Net Promoter Score
- Product Design Interview Question
- Pre-Interview Research
- Weakness Question
- Create a Product Roadmap
- Analyze a Metric Change
- Product Experts Overview
- Product Manager Interview Overview
- Associate Product Manager Overview
- Technical Product Manager Overview
- Technical Product Manager Career Path
- How to Become a Technical Product Manager
- Technical Product Manager Interview Questions
- Technical Product Manager Salary
- Technical Product Manager Skills
- Technical Product Manager vs Scrum Manager
- Technical PM vs Program Manager
- Technical Product Manager Resume
- Senior Product Manager Overview
- Senior Product Manager Salary
- Senior Technical Product Manager Overview
- Lead Product Manager Overview
- Product Lead Skills
- Product Lead Salary
- How to Become a Product Lead
- Group Product Manager Overview
- Group Product Manager Salary
- How to Become a Group Product Manager
- Group Product Manager Cover Letter
- Group Product Manager Job Description
- Group Product Manager Interview Questions
- Group Product Manager Skills
- Group Product Manager Resume
- Director of Product Overview
- Product Director Salary
- Director of Product Job Description
- Director of Product vs Product Manager
- Director of Product Interview Questions
- Director of Product Resume
- Director of Product Salary
- Chief Product Officer Overview
- B2B Product Manager Overview
- B2B Product Process
- Day in the Life of a B2B Product Manager
- Shipping B2B Products
- B2B Product Manager Resume
- B2B Product Manager Salary
- B2B Product Manager Cover Letter
- Data Product Manager Overview
- How to Become a Data Product Manager
- Data Product Manager Salary
- Data Product Manager vs Product Manager
- Data Product Manager Skills
- Data Product Manager Resume
- Finance Product Manager Overview
- Finance Product Manager Skills
- Data Science Product Manager Overview
- Data Science Product Manager Career Path
- Data Science Product Management Interview Questions
- Data Science Product Manager Salary
- Data Science Product Manager Skills
- How to Become a Data Science Product Manager
- Machine Learning Product Manager Overview
- How to Become a Machine Learning Product Manager
- AI Product Manager Overview
- AI Product Manager Salary
- AI Product Manager Skills
- How to Become an AI Product Manager
- API Product Manager Overview
- How to Become an API Product Manager
- SaaS Product Manager Overview
- How to Become a SaaS Product Manager
- SaaS Product Manager Skills
- SaaS Product Manager Salary
- Ecommerce Product Manager Overview
- How to Become an Ecommerce Product Manager
- Ecommerce Product Manager Salary
- Ecommerce Product Manager Skills
- Principal Product Manager Overview
- Principal Product Manager Interview Questions
- Principal Product Manager Skills
- How to Become a Principal Product Manager
- Principal Product Manger Resume
- Platform Product Manager Overview
- How to Become a Platform Product Manager
- Platform Product Manager Salary
- Day in the Life of a Platform Product Manager
- Startup Product Manager Overview
- Startup Product Manager Salary
- How to Become a Startup Product Manager
- Startup Product Manager Skills
- Agile Product Owner Overview
- Technical Product Owner Overview
- Scrum Manager Overview
- Scrum Manager Resume
- Scrum Manager Salary
- Scrum Manager Skills
- Scrum Manager Cover Letter
- Scrum Master Overview
- Scrum Master vs Product Owner
- Technical Program Manager Overview
- Technical Program Manager vs Product Manager
- Technical Program Manager vs Scrum Manager
- Technical Program Manager Job Description
- Technical Program Manager Cover Letter
- Technical Program Manager Resume
- Technical Program Manager Salary
- Facebook Rotational Product Manager Overview
- Facebook Product Manager Overview
- Facebook Product Manager Interview Questions
- Facebook Product Manager Salary
- Google Associate Product Manager Overview
- Google Product Manager Overview
- Google Product Manager Interview Questions
- Google Product Manager Salary
- Google Technical Product Manager Overview
- Google Product Marketing Manager Overview
- Microsoft Product Manager Overview
- Microsoft Principal Product Manager Overview
- Microsoft Principal Product Manager Salary
- Salesforce Product Manager Overview
- Amazon Product Manager Overview
- Amazon Product Manager Interview Questions
- Justin Watt
- Product Management Software Tools
- Product Roadmap Software
- Product Management Tools
- Project Management Software
- Jira and Confluence for Sprint Planning
- Jira for Project Management
- Jira Burndown Charts
- Jira for Scrum
- Product Management Rules for Using Jira
- Advanced Roadmaps in Jira
- Versions in Jira Tutorial
- Learn SCRUM using Jira
- Use Epics in Jira Software
- Create Kanban with Jira Software
- Work with Issues in Jira
- Jira Rules for Subtasks
- User Interface vs User Experience
- Product Strategy Overview
- Circles Method Overview
- Burndown Chart
Home › Product Career › What Does a Product Marketing Manager Do? › 12 Product Marketing Interview Questions and Answers
12 Product Marketing Interview Questions and Answers
TABLE OF CONTENTS
One of the most critical components of product management is product marketing. Product marketers play a crucial role in new product development and product launches. Their efforts can be the difference between a successful product launch and a failed product. Therefore, it’s essential to hire the right person. To do that, you need to have the right product marketing interview questions.
Product marketing managers and marketers usually work at the same level. As a result, you can use product marketing interview questions as product marketing manager interview questions and vice versa.
In this article, we’ll dive into the most common product marketing interview questions. If you’re an aspiring product marketer, you can use this article to prepare for your upcoming interview.
Let’s check them out.
Product Marketing Interview Questions and Answers
Asking the right questions during a job interview will help to set the best candidates apart from the other ones. This doesn’t only make the interview process more efficient but it also affects the entire hiring process, including onboarding.
Product marketing interview questions tend to be the same for most companies. Even larger companies such as Google , HubSpot, and Glassdoor tend to ask the following questions. More importantly, these questions can also be a part of the product marketing manager’s (PMM) interview.
Here are the common product marketing interview questions you can expect, in no particular order. Each question is followed by the best way to answer them.
Situation-Based Questions
Here are situation-based questions that hiring managers ask:
1. Describe one product that you think is marketed poorly. Also, explain what you would do differently, and why.
Every new product needs an excellent marketing campaign that’s derived from inspiration from multiple sources. Alternatively, bad or failed marketing campaigns and efforts can be equally inspiring. They provide insight into what works, what doesn’t, and what could have been done differently. The question above is a test to see how aware the candidate is and how creatively they can fix a bad situation.
The best way to answer this question is to figure out one product that has enormous potential but its marketing efforts failed to take them far. Keep in mind that for this question, candidates don’t necessarily need to avoid bad personal experiences.
Acknowledging an unsuccessful previous experience shows that the candidate learned from their work experience. They can also evaluate a product from a customer’s point of view and provide a strategy that would help improve the campaign. Include real-world applications and creative solutions to sell your answer.
The key to a strong answer is to answer the second part of the question in detail.
2. How would you inform customers of new product feature launches?
About 80% of new products fail because teams are often too focused on the development side of the product and end up failing to communicate effectively with customers about the upcoming changes.
Candidates must show that they understand the importance of having processes in place to inform customers of the new product or feature that’s coming. That can be through email announcements, mass media, social media, and any other platform that works for the company’s specific clients.
The best way to boost this answer is to give an example of a product marketing strategy used to launch a new product or feature.
3. How would you justify any price changes to old customers?
With new product features, there is often a price change involved. Although product improvements are beneficial to users, the price change can lead to negative reactions and churn.
A question like this helps hiring managers see how much aspiring product marketers understand the customers and how they would handle these difficult situations. Typically, the answer should be given in steps. It’s important to understand where to and to know what the customers want to hear.
It’s also best to list down some potential marketing tactics or promotions that could work.
4. You believe the market is too saturated to profit with a new product. What would you do in this case?
The customer perspective is often overshadowed by excessive research and development. Many organizations move forward with a product because they’ve invested so much time and money into it. They often overlook how the customer would perceive it and end up suffering a sales crunch.
It’s a product marketer’s job to make sure the right product reaches the customer with the right message. It’s also their job to explain the market situation to them on time.
Product decisions are very time-sensitive, and that makes it a priority to explain any unwanted circumstances to internal stakeholders. Candidates should be able to outline a complete strategy to deal with internal management; and explain to them potential market shares, profits, and sales using hard data.
Furthermore, in case the product needs to be released, they should be able to provide a marketing plan under those circumstances.
Looking to become a product marketing manager? Enroll in our top-rated product management certification courses to do just that:
Product Marketing Role-Based Questions
Here are the role-based questions that hiring managers ask:
5. What does your PM background look like?
Many good product marketers have work experience with several marketing jobs. Many of them have been a part of the sales team, the customer success team, or even the product development team. Their combined experience makes them an excellent product marketing candidate.
Furthermore, product marketers are responsible for increasing brand/product awareness. They use email campaigns, pricing adjustments, and targeted product positioning to achieve their goals. Therefore, product marketers require an extensive skill set and excellent analytical project management skills.
The product marketing career can be with any of the marketing positions. After years of working with several products, marketers often end up specializing in product marketing.
6. What do you expect from this PM role?
This question allows candidates to show hiring managers how much they understand about the product marketing job in general but also about how in-depth they went about the role for the specific they are interviewing for.
Aspiring PMs must understand that there’s a clear difference between product managers and product marketing managers (or product marketers, in general). The product marketing role can be very dynamic, depending on the organization.
Their job description can also require them to be good with digital marketing, conversion rates, go-to-market strategies, churn reduction strategies, and other marketing efforts.
7. What products have you previously marketed, and how?
Such questions are purely there to gauge how well candidates understand product marketing, and how much they have been involved in it. An active ability to recall all the products and projects they have worked on is a positive sign. It shows that they were always involved, provided substantial input, and followed through.
Furthermore, it’s also a chance for them to sell themselves by mentioning successful products and their contributions to their success.
The best way to answer such a question is to prepare beforehand. Pre-interview research and preparedness help to recall situations faster during the interview. As an interviewee, it’s a good idea to list down all the products you’ve worked on, so you remember them.
When you’re answering the question, explain what marketing tactics, strategies, and successful marketing campaigns were used for marketing the products. After that, explain how you contributed at every step. Answering such questions is a great way to showcase your product marketing prowess.
8. What’s the best way to measure the success of a product launch?
Every interview has its share of technical questions, and this is one of them. While talking about past product experiences gives insight into how well you, as a potential PM, can articulate yourself, such questions show how much you know.
These questions show how much marketing and product knowledge you have. It also shows how up-to-date you are with current marketing and industry trends.
To answer this question, candidates need to be aware of the latest marketing and project management tools. They have to be able to list down the KPIs and metrics that need tracking to assess the success of a product launch.
That includes launch campaign metrics such as lead generated, page views, news coverage, and promotional channel metrics. They should also mention product adoption metrics, such as product trials, user retention, and customer usage. Furthermore, market impact metrics such as revenue, market share, and competitive win rate may seem like a given, but they need a mention. Lastly, they should also explain why qualitative internal and external feedback is important in determining product launch success.
9. How do you make sure that the sales team understands how to present the product engagingly?
Product marketers should understand that the product marketing team and sales teams need to work together. Product marketers have to help sales teams understand the product and marketing positions to make sure the right sales approach is adopted. Since product marketers are responsible for how a product is perceived in the market, it’s their job to convey that to the sales team. They have to validate value propositions and explain them forward.
The best way to answer such a question is by mentioning previous experience. As a product marketing candidate, you should detail and explain how you collaborated with sales teams in the past to ensure product success. You should also mention how the sales team used your information and how successful they were. Your answer should include communication and collaboration methods and tools. You should mention things like weekly meetings, daily discussions, two-way feedback sessions, and more.
Behavior-Based Questions
Here are behavioral questions that hiring managers ask:
10. Have you been involved in a failed product marketing campaign? If yes, what do you think went wrong, and what was your lesson from it?
Such questions are the perfect opportunity to talk about previous product marketing interviews and failures in a prosperous way. Every product marketer has been a part of a failed product marketing campaign. If not, then the campaign didn’t do as well as it was supposed to do. Those experiences help you understand what to do and what not to do. They’re valuable and help you grow, and become more aware.
Preparation is the best way to answer such questions. Interviewees should try to recall any failed product marketing campaigns they were a part of previously. You should already know what went wrong and why it failed; you just have to explain it in a concise yet complete manner. Most importantly, you should focus on what you learned from that failure. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a direct or indirect failure, talk about what you learned as a result of it.
If you haven’t been part of a failed campaign, you can always give an example of someone else’s case study.
11. How do you make sure you and your team members communicate effectively?
A large part of why products succeed is effective communication among teams. Interdepartmental communication and collaboration are vital to every product’s success. Everyone has to be on the same page to avoid any issues and discrepancies. Product marketers are the most crucial team players because they’re responsible for communicating effectively with customers and a company’s target audience.
To answer the question correctly, candidates must demonstrate knowledge of communication tools. More importantly, they should understand the proper flow of information. They should explain how to set up communication channels, two-way feedback systems, and reminders, and what tools are best for communication. They should also mention the difference between personal information, public information, and research information. Explain when each kind of information should be and can be communicated.
12. How do you keep up-to-date with the latest industry and market trends?
Such a question aims to check how involved you are with your industry. It helps paint a picture of how much you know, how much effort you make to be on top, and how aware you are of your surroundings generally. It’s also an opportunity to portray your understanding of product marketing, the industry, and the market.
The best way to answer such questions is to talk about industry changes, unique market trends, and updates. After that, you can mention how you came across that information. Mention any blogs, books, or sessions you have attended or read. Furthermore, you should mention any courses or certifications you completed recently. For market trends, you can site activities such as effective user interviews as your source.
Acing Product Marketing Interview Questions
Most product marketing interview questions tend to be more marketing-oriented rather than product-oriented. Therefore, you should brush up on your product marketing skills and knowledge.
Furthermore, product marketing is more about how a product is perceived and identifying the reasons behind that perception. Eventually, those reasons are utilized for effective marketing efforts. True product marketers use that perspective to tackle product marketing challenges.
Recruiters should adjust their product marketing interview questions to reflect that. Alternatively, product marketers should commit to product marketing from a user’s perspective; that would automatically help you ace your product marketing interview questions.
Here are answers to questions about product marketing:
What are the interview questions for product marketing?
Expect questions about your experience with market research and customer segmentation. Prepare to explain how you’ve successfully launched or marketed products in the past. Be ready to discuss your ability to create compelling messaging and positioning strategies.
How to stand out in a product marketing interview?
Showcase your understanding of the target market and competitive analysis landscape. Highlight your ability to collaborate cross-functionally with sales, product teams, and external agencies. Demonstrate creativity in proposing innovative marketing strategies.
What questions are asked in a marketing interview?
Be prepared to discuss your experience with marketing campaigns and their outcomes. Anticipate inquiries on your understanding of digital marketing channels and tools. Expect questions about your approach to measuring marketing effectiveness and ROI.
How do you nail a product marketing manager interview?
Articulate a clear understanding of the product lifecycle and go-to-market strategies. Be ready to discuss how you’ve influenced product direction and market positioning in your previous product marketing manager role. Showcase your skills in crafting messaging that resonates with target audiences.
If you are new to product management and are looking to break into your first product role, we recommend taking our Product Manager Certification Courses , where you will learn the fundamentals of product management, launch your product, and get on the fast track toward landing your first product marketing job.
We offer a wide variety of programs and courses built on adaptive curriculum and led by leading industry experts.
- Work on projects in a collaborative setting
- Take advantage of our flexible plans and community
- Get access to experts, templates, and exclusive events
Become a Certified Product Manager. Our Product Manager Certification Program teaches you the skills, strategies, and frameworks you need to tackle the challenges of product development and succeed in your role as a product leader.
Become a Certified Data Product Manager. The Data Product Manager Certification Course solves the core need of a PM by helping them gain data fluency.
Become a Certified Product Owner. Our Product Owner Certification Program equips you with the strategies, frameworks, techniques, and skills needed to tackle the challenges of one of the most in-demand roles in the tech industry head-on and come out on top.
We just sent you our syllabus to your email
Join 5000+ Technical Writers
Get our #1 industry rated weekly technical writing reads newsletter.
Your syllabus has been sent to your email
The PMM Guide
- The PMM Basics
- I. Overview
- II. The PMM role
- III. B2B overview
- IV. B2C overview
- V. PMM career path
- PMM Role Details
- I. Collaborating w/ product
- II. Collaborating w/ sales
- III. Day in the life (B2B)
- IV. Traits of great PMMs
- PMM Interviews
- I. PMM interviews
- II. Hard skills
- III. Soft skills
- IV. Interview prep
Product marketing management interview questions
An overview of the types of product marketing management (pmm) interviews at tech companies and sample questions.
IMAGES
VIDEO
COMMENTS
Learn to solve product manager case study interviews, including product manager case study frameworks, examples, and tips.
Learn what marketing case interviews are, explore steps for answering these interview questions and discover example questions and answers to help you prepare.
Marketing Case Interview: Step-By-Step Guide If you are interviewing for a consulting firm or marketing firm, expect to be given several case interviews or case study interviews during your interview process. You'll need to ace every one of your case interviews in order to land a job offer.
What is a New Product Case Interview? A new product case interview is a type of interview commonly used by consulting firms, particularly those that specialize in management consulting and strategy. This interview format assesses a candidate's ability to analyze and solve complex business problems related to the development and launch of a new product or service.
The Marketing Case Study Interview—like others—presents an opportunity for a candidate to demonstrate their well-rounded knowledge and framing of the launch, sale, design, or growth of a product. These cases often involve leveraging marketing data to develop solutions for client challenges which can include but is not limited to: marketing ...
Introduction to Product Management Case Study Interviews Product management case study interviews are an important part of the interview process for aspiring product managers. In these interviews, candidates are presented with a business case scenario and asked to analyze the situation, identify key issues, and propose data-driven solutions.
Prepare for your next product marketing interview with these common questions, including why they get asked and how to answer them—plus sample answers.
Discover some product manager case study interview questions and reference sample answers you can review when preparing for your product manager interview.
Wondering how to ace your next product marketing interview? Give yourself the best chance of success with our guide as we provide advice on how to prepare and answer common questions.
Have an upcoming product marketing interview? Here are some of the most common product marketing interview questions and their potential answers.
Tips and advice on how to prepare for product marketing management (PMM) interviews at leading tech companies. Written by a product marketing leader at Uber and filled with relevant examples and advice.
A deep dive on the three key types of product marketing management (PMM) interviews at big tech companies, including details on each type, context and example questions asked.
Cody Chang The case study round carries more and more weight in the Product Manager interview process. Your case study interview is your opportunity to show the hiring team how you solve problems and how you will respond to the company's needs. To make sure you knock this round out of the park, you need to set yourself up with the right case study interview prep.
Uncover the secrets of hiring the ideal product manager with a comprehensive guide demystifying the case study interview approach. Learn key questions, examples, and evaluation techniques to assess strategic thinking, supported by real-world examples and templates for crafting impactful product manager case studies.
Your product sense, in addition to your other decision-making skills, are typically tested in the product management case study interview, which may take place in-person or through a take-home ...
What is a product management case study interview? A case study interview, also known as a case interview, is a tool used by many companies to assess a candidate's analytical, creative, and problem-solving skills. Similar to coding interviews for engineers, they allow the interviewers to simulate a situation that allows your skills to be put into practice.
Aspiring product marketers - are you worried about nailing your product marketing manager job interview? In this post, we break down 16 common questions!
The case study is a crucial part of the interview. Follow these four steps to successfully complete your next Product Manager case study.
Common Product Marketing Manager interview questions, how to answer them, and example answers from a certified career coach.
Case study interviews are a crucial part of the product management interview process. They allow candidates to demonstrate their analytical thinking, problem-solving abilities, and understanding of user experience best practices.
A case study is a wonderful inbound marketing opportunity for your organization. Ask these questions, and use the answers to write a case study that helps your product and your company shine in the eyes of leads.
Here are some product marketing interview questions with sample answers to help you develop better responses: 1. Discuss your previous work experience in product marketing and the products you have worked on. Employers often explore a candidate's direct product marketing experience by asking about specific projects or products.
In Agile product development, a product owner is responsible for connecting business strategy with development execution.With over 6,000 POs influencing tech and business in the US, this position is in high demand to guide and drive development in organizations. Understanding the importance of this role will help tech recruiters structure interviews better and drive growth.
This study examines the determinants influencing clean food purchasing decisions among consumers in the lower northeastern region of Thailand. It addresses the significant research gap in understanding the interplay between product attributes, cultural background, and healthy eating behaviors. Using the Theory of Planned Behavior, this study employs a questionnaire survey with 392 valid ...