Design a new product for the events space. - Facebook Product Manager Mock Interview
Mock Interview Product Manager 21st September, 2020
Product SenseLeaning towards Hire
This is a Facebook Product Manager mock interview. The expert takes a product sense interview and asks "Facebook wants to enter the events space, design a product for this." as an interview question to assess the candidate's product skills.
What went well?
- Excellent structure. Explained upfront in a casual way, made it easy to track where this interview would go - and allowed interviewer to modify direction if necessary.
- Proactive prioritization - when picking a focus, always led with “here’s why”. Good approach to prio, covering relative advantages (when compared to other ideas) as well as absolute ones.
- Tying topics into Facebook’s mission. Both the explanation of why events are a relevant space, and especially liked how TC tied priorities into FB’s mission (eg. the planning of event logistics, figuring out which seats to place where etc, is neither very well aligned to our mission nor is our forte).
- Building out “Janet” as a persona was an effective tactic, helped demonstrate principles consistently throughout the interview.
- Well handled scenario when unexpected priorities forced by interviewer
Where is the room for improvement?
- Goal prioritization
Was adequate, but when questioned on why engagement should be a focus, there was a limited explanation of what alternative goals might be viable. In this question, the interviewer is trying to gauge your strategic awareness of what matters most for different products and at different stages of their lifecycle. Some possible alternative goals to talk about/compare against:
- Transactions. Selling of tickets
- Monetization - Revenues.
- Penetration/Adoption
This is particularly important given how a different goal would mean totally different customer targeting and solutions. - Creator segmentation
Could have been done in a more relevant way. High/low usage makes sense in a lot of scenarios - but in this one, it didn’t have too much nuance.. Some possible segmentation options which could have helped narrow down on more targeted pain points/solutions could be
- By type? Sports Concert Wedding etc
- By profile? Personal/intimate vs monetized/for-profit
- By event size? Big vs small.
- By event complexity? 100 moving parts or a simple birthday party.
Each will have unique pain points and gaps, which can then be filled through solutions - Dealing with unexpected results
TC came up with some possible ideas to investigate, which was good - but would recommend a more comprehensive perspective on evaluating what could potentially be happening - and try to distill the underlying behavioral drivers to narrow down on the factors which might be reacting unexpectedly. Some angles to think about
- Users often need to time to get used to a new product
- Some users will often use a functionality just to try it out
- Seasonality might play a big role in influencing product metrics
How was your experience with Prepfully ?
5/5How useful was the session?
5 / 5Tell us how it went
The expert arrived on time
YesThe expert asked relevant questions
YesIt felt like a real interview
YesI enjoyed the process
YesHow would you rate your expert's communication skills?
5 / 5How would you rate the expert's expertise on the topic?
5 / 5How likely would you be to refer your friends to Prepfully?
10 / 10Do you have any message for your expert?
Thanks so much for spending time. It was great experience, and a chance to learn some of my shortcomings. Definitely helps me to know what to focus on next.