Prioritization Framework in Product Management Interviews

One of the key responsibilities of a Product Manager is to prioritize — deciding which requests/features/product ideas require immediate attention, which deadlines take precedence,  whether it is input from engineers, stakeholders, or analysts that needs to be addressed first, and so on. The end goal is to eradicate wasteful practices, and determine the quickest route to delivering customer value by adopting a disciplined approach towards prioritization. 

Given the wide range of constraints product managers are faced with on a day-to-day basis, it is important to determine that someone in the position is able to develop an objective process to identify what different teams should be directing their efforts on. 

So, if you have a product management interview coming up, you can be sure that your interviewers will ask you a series of prioritization questions to get insight into your prioritization framework.

How do you prioritize product features? How do you decide what to build next? How do you measure the success of a product launch?

In this article, we'll familiarize you with some highly-effective, goal-first prioritization frameworks so you can tackle prioritization questions in product management interviews with ease. So let's dive right in!

There are plenty of ways to address prioritization questions in product management interviews. Product managers deal with a bunch of unprioritized features, and have disparate opinions from customers, engineering and sales teams, stakeholders, executives to consider. It can be daunting to objectively examine any data when you are being pulled in so many directions.

Your aim should be to demonstrate that you have a methodical and measurable approach to solving prioritization concerns in the workplace.

Once you tactically explain your prioritization framework, take your interviewer through the various inputs you would consider to assign scores to each criteria. 

Do you conduct regular meetings to analyze the needs of cross-functional teams and ensure they are taken care of? Do you track stockholders' opinions, take into account customer feedback, and suggestions from product teams? Do you regularly communicate with upper management and have a clear picture of the themes or goals your company is concentrating on?

Consider incorporating quantifiable metrics to analyse user impact, and business value. It helps PMs choose a priority easily, and allows them to launch a feature or product that brings a company closer to their goals.

Factor in trade offs, if any, and perform sanity checks at every stage to explain your decisions adequately. 

That is how you will convince your interviewer that you qualitatively assess different criteria for a product release, and have a methodical technique to prioritize product ideas. 

Hopefully, you now have an idea of how to answer prioritization questions in product management interviews. Regardless of which prioritization frameworks you choose to answer prioritization questions, make sure to back them up with relevant examples and data. 

Let us know if we can help with anything else!