Product management is a career that involves creating and marketing products with the main aim of raising revenue, earnings, and profit margins. A PM is in charge of evaluating business conditions, supervising product creation, and deciding the functionality of their product. One factor that makes a PM's work more complex is the amount of decision-making involved in the process. The interviews are challenging as they explore a broad range of topics and have a variety of questions.

Spotify is an audio streaming service that allows users to listen to music, podcasts, radio shows, news, and other content. The company operates on a "freemium" business strategy. Throughout its history, the company has made substantial expenditures in improving the user experience of its products. Customer loyalty and product "stickiness" have been driven by features such as personalized playlists, recommended songs and artists, enhanced sound quality, and social networking capabilities. And these efforts have paid off.

The interview guide below will take you through the process of interviewing for a Product Manager at Spotify, presenting you with a range of tips and practice questions to help you stand out.

The interview procedure begins with an online application to the firm's career page or with the assistance of a recruiter via LinkedIn. Typically the process takes about 4-5 weeks but can take longer. The following steps are included:

On-site interview (held virtually in special cases)

A Technical Program Manager(TPM) plays a critical role in helping drive company strategy, aligning teams, collaborating with cross-functional stakeholders, and delivering on multiple complex projects for the company. Given the rapid expansion of companies in the digital space, it has become imperative for companies, especially ones with a large digital footprint, to hire TPMs.

Google is a technology giant with products across the hardware and software domain. Google needs TPMs who can lead and manage technical projects and help achieve its product development and growth targets

Google TPMs put on different hats depending upon the teams/programs they are assigned to. Some of the different teams at Google where TPMs have to lend their services are:

Here's a generic description of the roles and responsibilities of a TPM at Google

Provide the required hands-on software development and project management, cross-functional coordination, and inter/intra team communications to deliver outstanding program outcomes.

Work closely with software engineers, QA, product managers and other engineering teams to get high-quality products and features through the software project lifecycle (build, test and release on time).

Manage project schedules, identify possible issues and clearly communicate them to project stakeholders.

Take responsibility for release schedules and milestones, keeping up a high velocity in a fast-paced environment.

 Lead several technical programs for the Google Cloud Business, setting priorities for products and engineering, leading cross-functional teams to take products to market, ensuring success metrics are informing future efforts, and quickly fine tuning the program as needed.

Bachelor’s degree in a technical field or equivalent practical experience.

Experience in software program management and/or engineering management.

Experience in Software Engineering, Software Infrastructure Engineering, Security, Big Data and Analytics, or Cloud Networking.

Experience in problem solving within fast-paced and constantly changing environments.

Experience working cross-functionally in a highly integrated team composed of both technical and non-technical members.

Experience in communicating technical concepts to non-technical audiences.

Strong spoken and written communication skills.

Google Technical Program Manager(TPM) salary

Median salary      :USD 233,000 with base component being USD 143,000, stock component being USD 64,000 and bonus being USD 25,000.

The interview process for the Google Technical Program Manager role consists of 3 stages as under:

Here's a detailed look at the entire interview process, starting with the initial screen

The data scientist role at Facebook combines strong analytical and technical skills with sharp product sense. Compared to other big tech companies, the data scientist role here is a broad one and involves setting team goals, finding opportunities in the data to shift product focus, modeling predictions, and setting a culture of rigorous experimental testing. The role focuses more on deploying your data science understanding and quantitative skills to optimize Facebook's products and adding business value to them. Here's the role in a little more detail.

Applying your knowledge and skills in quantitative analysis, data mining, and the presentation of data to get a clear idea of how Facebook’s users interact with both their consumer and business products.

Using quantitative tools to see through opportunities, set team goals, and work with cross-functional partners to guide the product development/improvement roadmap.

Informing, influencing, supporting, and executing their product decisions and product launches

Forecasting and setting the product team’s goals

Exploring, analyzing and aggregating large data sets to provide actionable information, and creating intuitive visualizations to convey those results to a broad audience.

Designing informative experiments considering statistical significance, sources of bias, target 
populations, and potential for positive results.

Collaborating with engineers on logging, product health monitoring, and experimenting with design/analysis

Working in Hadoop and Hive primarily, sometimes MySQL, Oracle, and Vertica.

Skills/Qualifications required/preferred for Facebook data scientist 

2+ years of experience doing quantitative analysis within a large-scale company or fast-paced environment

Experience in SQL or other programming languages

Development experience in any scripting language (PHP, Python, Perl, etc.)

Experience communicating the results of analyses with product and leadership teams to influence the strategy of the product

Knowledge of statistics (e.g. hypothesis testing, regressions)

Experience manipulating data sets through statistical software (ex. R, SAS) or other methods

The interview process for the Facebook data scientist role consists of 2 stages:

The initial interview will be a 45-minute video conference with a Facebook data scientist. The interview will include these sections:

An end-to-end guide for Facebook Data Science Interview. Initial Screening round (including analytical and technical sections) and onsite rounds exhaustively covered.

Microsoft is a technology giant and has always been in the forefront of digital innovation and excellence. The Technical Program Management role at Microsoft demands a perfect mix of an individual's technical acumen and a passion for leading teams and products from the conceptual stage to the market.

Focus on improving the company's technology solutions.

Working collaboratively with teammates to ensure the company's products exceed customer expectations.

Communicating throughout the process to understand progress towards delivery, technical challenges, and to provide clarity on customer needs using a data-driven approach. 

Demonstrating an ability to learn and adopt relevant new technologies, tools, methods and processes to leverage in your solutions. 

Dedicating yourself to building software to empower every person and organization on the planet to achieve more.

A bachelor's or master's degree in engineering, computer science or related field and/or 2+ years related experience in relevant fields eg: engineering, business, marketing, information technology, operations, finance

2+  years of professional experience in leading and delivering end to end customer solutions.

3+ years program management or equivalent experience.

Experience working on applications that involve Data Science, Machine Learning, or Artificial Intelligence.

2 years of experience programming in C++, Java or other computer programming languages.

Ability to work and build strong relationships with senior managers, leaders, partners and customers.

The aptitude to engage a wide range of internal and external stakeholders; from end-users to senior management/executives.

Display skills in planning and project management.

Demonstrated ability in discerning and addressing relevant challenges to delivery

Must be able to work independently, handle multiple projects in a fast-paced environment, and negotiate and collaborate effectively.

Highly analytical - ability to understand business metrics, customer and market trends.

Ability to demonstrate understanding of computer science fundamentals that affect code implementation and customer experience.

Great communication, interpersonal, and cross-group collaboration skills; the ability to build and deliver effective presentations.

Microsoft Technical Program Manager salary 

Median salary      :USD 245,000 with base component being USD 179,000, stock component being USD 33,000 and bonus being USD 33,000.

The Technical Program manager interview at Microsoft is a 3 stage process, comprising the initial screen, technical screen, and the onsite round.

Microsoft Technical Program Manager Interview Guide

Program managers typically handle a set of projects (and in some situations, a team of project managers) that are related by a common aspect, such as a single company aim. They are also responsible for strategy, making certain that everything is moving in the right direction and on time.

An effective program manager will aid in the formation of a more cohesive and successful team. Therefore, when organizations seek candidates to manage various projects and teams, they go through a thorough screening process to ensure that the candidate has a good impact on individuals as well as the company.

This guide will walk you through the Facebook Program Manager interview process, including useful tips and tricks to help you ace the interview.

The interview process at Facebook normally takes 4 to 6 weeks, although it can easily take longer if there are a large number of people applying for the post. You will go through the following steps:

Product management is a job role that entails working on product creation and marketing with the primary goal of increasing sales, profits, and profit margins. A PM is in charge of assessing market dynamics, supervising product development, and determining their product's features. The amount of decision-making involved in the process is one aspect that makes a PM's job more difficult. This is one of the reasons the interviews are complicated, since they cover a wide range of subjects and contain a variety of questions.

The following interview guide will walk you through the process of interviewing for a Product Manager at Zalando, providing you with a number of tips and sample questions to give you an advantage.

The application is generally done online and involves submitting a resume and cover letter.. If you are shortlisted, the process usually takes about three to five weeks, but it can sometimes take longer. You’ll go through the following interview stages:

To be considered for the above measures, you must first have a well-written resume and cover letter that highlights your PM experience. Within a week of being shortlisted, you will be contacted for the interviews listed above.

Get a complete Zalando Product Manager interview guide with interview questions, process and tips. Book your mock interviews with Zalando PMs at Prepfully now.

Detailed Zalando Product Manager guide for 2021

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Recent interviews. Reviewed by experts and recruiters.

Spotify Product Manager Interview Guide

Google Technical Program Manager

Facebook Data Scientist Interview guide

Microsoft Technical Program Manager Interview Guide

Facebook Program Manager Interview Guide

Zalando Product Manager Interview Guide