Top interview questions for Senior Product Manager
A Senior Product Manager is someone who leads product managers while coordinating with engineering, marketing, sales, and other teams. They are responsible for the development of the product requirements and roadmaps, and to incorporate feedback from customers into the product strategy.
According to numbers, there has been a 51% growth in senior-level product management roles.
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Hard Skills
Use these questions to identify a candidate’s technical knowledge and abilities
Soft Skills
Use these questions to assess a candidate’s personality traits and cognitive skills
What to look for while interviewing for a Senior Product Manager?
Since the required skills for a senior product manager are market research skills, wireframing among others. Therefore, look for a candidate who has knowledge of all these.
Here are some skills to look out for when hiring a Senior Product Manager,
Role-specific skills to look for: product lifecycle, market research, marketing techniques, web technologies, knowledge of productivity tools like Jira or Trello, and understanding of APIs.
Soft skills to look for communication, organization, management skills, decision-making skills, and end-user empathy.
Pro Tip: Always screen before you interview. Use Online Assessment to screen applicants before blocking your time for an in-person interview.
Questions to ask while interviewing a Senior Product Manager
We have compiled a set of questions with the help of 70+ hiring managers at different organizations.
Top Role-based interview questions for Senior Product Manager
Why is it important to build a wireframe?
Purpose of this interview question:
As wireframes help in the flow of product development between teams, therefore a candidate must explain its importance.
What to listen for:
- An ideal candidate would explain their take based on their personal experiences.
How would you introduce new product features to customers?
Purpose of this interview question:
This question is designed to measure the marketing strategies of the candidate and whether they propose appropriate steps.
What to listen for:
- Listen for the specific steps that would be required to introduce new product features to customers.
How do you know a product is designed well?
Purpose of this interview question:
Understanding what are elements need to be prioritized and planning to work on them accordingly is crucial to this job position.
What to listen for:
- Top candidates would show sensitivity to the specific requirements of a business’s product.
How to screen Senior Product Manager for soft skills?
Are you capable of compiling data for reports?
Purpose of this interview question:
By asking this question the interviewer can get to know how detail-oriented a candidate is and if they have the necessary computer skills.
What to listen for:
- The top candidate would connect to their past experiences on working with reports.
As a senior product manager, you would be working with a team, so how would you explain your management skills?
Purpose of this interview question:
This question is designed to understand how the candidate applies their teamwork and other skills to direct effective processes in a team.
What to listen for:
- Top candidates would describe their experience with effective workflow, effective communication, and other roles as a team player.
How would you respond to a customer who is not fully satisfied with a new product feature?
Purpose of this interview question:
This question is designed to test the candidate’s problem-solving and communication skills.
What to listen for:
- Look for evidence of end-user empathy-related.
Start Optimizing your Senior Product Manager Hiring today
Find and hire talent with confidence. If your candidate doesn’t know the answer to the above questions and you’re hiring for a Sr. Product Manager position, then they’re probably not a great fit.
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