Behavioral

Tell me about a time you screwed up or failed as a product manager. What did you learn from it?

Product Manager

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Expert Answer

Anonymous

4.2Exceptional
One time I failed as a product manager was when I was unable to convince our Portfolio Manager to choose an alternative tool over Pendo for user guidance and tooltips. This experience taught me valuable lessons about influencing stakeholders, aligning on goals, and proactively addressing user pain points.
The situation arose when: The Portfolio Manager proposed adopting Pendo, a tool that provides in-app guidance and tooltips, as he had seen it successfully implemented by peers in other industries. However, Pendo came with a hefty price tag of $15,000 annually for just 2,200 users. I conducted thorough research and identified several alternative tools that were equally robust, significantly more cost-effective, and offered higher user counts. For example, one tool was priced at $6,000 annually for 5,000 users and had strong endorsements from well-known companies in our domain.
My thought process and actions:
  1. Problem Identification: I saw this as a critical decision that impacted both our budget and our ability to deliver user-centric solutions. I also recognized the potential risk of over-relying on a third-party tool for core user experience elements.
  2. Evaluation of Alternatives: I created a comparative analysis, outlining the features, pricing, and user capacity of Pendo and the alternatives. I also included testimonials and case studies to validate the credibility of these alternatives.
  3. Presentation to Stakeholders: I shared my findings with the Portfolio Manager, explaining how we could achieve the same outcomes at a lower cost, allocate savings to other product priorities, and maintain scalability.
Outcome: Despite my efforts, the Portfolio Manager remained firm in his preference for Pendo, and we proceeded with his choice.
What I learned and how I adapted: Though I failed to influence this decision, I used this experience to improve our processes and reduce dependency on external tools for user experience.
  • I analyzed user feedback and workflow data to identify areas where users struggled.
  • I collaborated with the design team to incorporate tooltips and guidance directly into our product’s UI during feature development, ensuring seamless user assistance without relying on third-party tools.
  • I also refined my stakeholder management skills, learning to better understand and align with the underlying motivations behind their preferences. For instance, in this case, I could have emphasized how an alternative tool could still meet the desired outcomes while addressing budget concerns.
Result: The proactive changes we implemented led to an improved user experience, as validated by a reduction in support tickets for complex workflows. Additionally, incorporating in-house solutions positioned us to maintain greater control over our product’s usability.
This experience taught me the importance of combining data-driven decision-making with a deeper understanding of stakeholder perspectives, ultimately shaping my ability to influence and align with diverse viewpoints in future scenarios.

Anonymous

4.2Exceptional
I was leading an online store platform for SMBS and noticed that the many of the small sellers were struggling to complete all the steps required to get the online store launched. This hurt the plan subscription and hence our SaaS revenue.

So, I proposed to streamline the online store setup by incorporating the best practices of eCommerce and default enabling certain features including 'Free Shipping' rule on all orders. The shortned setup process would lead to more stores launched quickly. We made this change and included a notification in the onboarding step.  We assumed that sellers would turn off the Free Shipping' option, if they were not planning to offer. 
After we launched the change, the online store setup rate indeed moved up and we were happy about it.  But, we started to hear from few sellers that they were surprised about "Free Shipping' being turned on and now they are loosing money on orders.
I realized the mistake we made with our assumption. We were quickly turned off default enablement of the 'Free Shipping' , but made it super easy for sellers to discover this option during store setup process and turn it on with a single click.
I learnt a lesson to do further user research or A/B testing to mitigate such issues in the future.
 

Anonymous

3.8Strong
At the beginning of my career when I began as a Product Owner, I was asked to make the case as to why we should/should not build a mobile banking watch app (we were working on a full Front End redesign and a full BE restructuring, we were keeping scope and timelines pretty tight). It was my first time presenting to the leadership team, I  quickly prepared a spreadsheet looking at what would have to be scoped out, specific feature list for the watch app, and sizing for each feature. I had my math wrong in my excel sheet calc and leadership noticed. I definitely learned to check my work, share it with 1 or 2 people who helped me gather the data to double check my numbers. Now even when I pull my own data, I like to discuss with either my manager or prefereably someone from the analytics team. 

Anonymous

3.4Strong
At my previous job, the development process moving slower than expected at my first project since I was not familiar with the development progress.
When I realize this situation, I tackle this problems with some actions: (I took proper action afterwards:
1.First, I start by thorough understanding the development process and test plan, which associate the function test case, requirement and criteria for each phase. Those could let me planning the design schedule accurately, andarrange the test resource more efficiency.
2.On the other hand, to set the check point for project review
3.For issue management, provide the issue summary which include isolation result, impact and mitigation plan for risk assessment for further control. Take partial review with team members in order to ensure could meet target performance in tight schedule.
Both give me the precise control for development and test area, and could identify potential risk in advance, be able to have recommendations for improvements as well.
After that, I have in charge for more than 15 projects and achieve 94% timely delivery of high-quality results.
Alsoability to manage multiple projects simultaneously.
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Interview question asked to Product Managers interviewing at Reddit, Aurora, thredUP and others: Tell me about a time you screwed up or failed as a product manager. What did you learn from it?.