Top Interview Questions for Technical Product Manager
A Technical Product Manager is a product manager with a strong technical background, they are typically focused on the technical aspects of products. They work more closely with the engineering team, compared to the others.
According to statistics, Senior product management roles are held by Men while women earn 7% less than men in these job 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 Technical Product Manager?
Since the required skills for this manager are product and project management, web development, and quality assurance. Therefore, look for a candidate who has knowledge of all these.
Here are some skills to look out for when hiring a Technical Product Manager,
Role-specific skills to look for: Technical Product, User Interface, Product Management, Cloud, Project Management
Soft skills to look for critical thinking, leadership, flexibility, problem-solving, 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 Technical 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 Technical Product Manager
If we ask you to design a new social networking application, how would you make sure it has something new in it?
Purpose of this interview question:
This question is designed to understand the general process for a candidate’s approach towards such a task.
What to listen for:
- An ideal candidate would demonstrate the main tenets of product design, such as usability and maximizing customer value.
What is one of the most successful assignments that you have worked on?
Purpose of this interview question:
This question is designed to test the candidate’s experience and understanding of their projects. It allows the candidate to boost a little about a successful project they have worked on.
What to listen for:
- Top candidates would explain what was something they did that helped in the success of the particular product.
How would you explain a product’s design which you have previously worked on, to a 5-year-old?
Purpose of this interview question:
An experienced professional must be able to share a substantially shorter description of every project they are working on without using any industry jargon. Hence, this question is designed to test the candidate’s ability to explain the technical topic to anyone in the simplest words.
What to listen for:
- Look if the candidate truly understands the technical nature of their work.
How to screen Technical Product Manager for soft skills?
What challenges are you looking for in this Technical Product Manager position?
Purpose of this interview question:
The question is designed to understand and determine what the candidates are looking for in their next job and whether they would be a good fit for the position being hired for.
What to listen for:
- Top candidates would discuss how they would like to be able to effectively utilize their skills and experience if they were hired for the job.
Has there been any instance where a member of your disagreed with you? How did you handle that?
Purpose of this interview question:
This question is designed to understand how the candidate applied their teamwork and other skills to direct effective processes between the disagreements.
What to listen for:
- Top candidates would describe their experience with effective workflow, effective communication, and other roles as a team player.
What have you learned from your previous mistakes as a Technical Product Manager?
Purpose of this interview question:
This question is designed to learn about the collaboration, dedication, and other skills of a candidate.
What to listen for:
- Pay attention to the answer and look if the examples shared, are fairly inconsequential, unintentional, and a learned lesson should be gleaned from it.
Start Optimizing your Technical 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 Technical Product Manager position, then they’re probably not a great fit.
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