 Hi everyone, my name is Saru Sharma and I'm excited to be here to talk about our webinar Async the Product Execution Interview. Yeah, so let's get started and see like how we can tackle that. Yeah, first, yeah, just a little bit of my background. I did my undergrad from back in India in MIT Jebber MBA from Boots School of Business. I've got eight years of product experience across Amazon, eBay, and Surah Monkey, five plus years of consulting experience with DCS, with leading giants like G-Capital, G-Healthcare, and Charles Schwab. And just a fun fact, I worked across three different continents, India, US, Stanford, and Centransco, and now in Canada and Toronto. Yeah, that's just a little bit of my background and now we can kind of like dive right in. Okay, yeah, here's our agenda for today. So we're going to talk about, firstly, broadly about what are the different PM interview types, then what does typical product execution questions look like, some key insights before we get started, and then I'm going to give you a good structure of how you answer product execution questions, and then we're going to conclude that. Okay, so let's see. So first of all, here's like what the typical product management interviews look like. You could have a product sense and design, product execution and analytical product strategy, and then finally, leadership, product leadership and behavioral kind of thing, right? So those are the four main interview types that we can have, and what exactly are you going to have for your interview? It kind of depends on the company and what all things they have incorporated into their interview styles. It kind of like depends on that. It's highly unlikely that all four are injured. I mean, at best, I've seen at least three are injured mostly, but it might be possible that some company might do all four, but at least I have not seen that. I've seen at max three of them being used, and most common ones are product sense and design, product execution and analytical, and then leadership and behavioral drive. I mean, those are the three main ones, but some companies do ask product strategy, but then they might not ask something else. Okay, let's talk about our session today. We are going to talk about product execution, right? So we're in this world of all metrics and analytical and what not you can talk about, right? So let's just dive in. Okay, so even in product execution questions, there could be different kind of questions which can be asked, right? So you can have, you know, like the type one, which is how do you set goals and major success of Facebook news feed, right? Or you can have like Facebook groups users drop by 10%, what do you do, right? Which is the type two is more about root cause analysis kind of a question. And the third one, which are kind of like tricky, but kind of talks about how do you think about different tradeoffs as a PM is third time, which is like, you're the PM for physical reactions, reactions are up 20%, but comments are down 10%, right? What do you do? How do you kind of go about seeing like, is this good or is this not so great? Like, how do you go about debugging that, right? So those are pretty much three main question types that you can get in your product execution interviews. For our session today, we're going to just focus mainly on the type one, which is, you know, like, how do you set goals and major success? Okay, so now that we understand, like, where does this product execution fits in in PM interviews and what we're going to talk about in our today's session. So let's just get started. Hi. So let's talk about some key insights before we start. So the first one you need to know is, like, where exactly does product execution come up in the life of a PM, right? So this actually comes up is, like, say, once you define your product, what it is and, you know, like, what do you want to build? And the next question, which would be is, like, okay, how are you going to make a success after its launch? What are some of the key metrics you're going to use to determine that your product is going to be successful or not, right? So that's where this kind of, like, comes up. And if you saw that kind of, like, different PM interview types, so, like, if defining what your product is product sense, you know, the next part is, like, this is product execution, which is kind of like a fast follow. After that. Yeah, the second one is price execution question. They're not about, like, listing all possible metrics, right? So that's definitely not the intent of the question. It's about, like, how best do you understand product metrics? Like, whether it's ARM or ARR, you know, whichever you want to use. But, like, which of that is applicable and why, right? That is the kind of, like, the main thing. And it's best to have discussion about four to five main metrics than going into a, like, laundry list of metrics. The third most important thing is that remember that you are co-creating your answer with your interviewer. So, mostly this product manager interviews are all about how can you bring your interviewer along with the line of thinking about the question. And for that, what you can do is you can take pauses, periodically check with them to see, like, how you're doing and whether they have any questions or, you know, like, they don't. Sometimes they might have some extra plotting. They might ask you some questions of why you think this is the case or why you think that is the case. And that is kind of, like, important, right? Because you don't want this to be a monologue where you are kind of, like, just going about it, right? So just, you know, kind of keep that in mind as you're progressing, you know, and practicing your answers to just, like, remember to pause to take breaks and then answer. Okay. Now that enough of that said, let's look into the actual framework now. Okay. Now, let's talk about how what does the anatomy of good answer for a product execution question look like. Say your question is, how would you set goals and major success of Facebook news feed? Right. So, here's a like a five step process to best answer this PM execution type question. I just like to mention that, you know, in an actual interview, this is something which is, you know, it's kind of in your mind, and then you're kind of like using this as a mind map to, you know, just go over these and kind of like, you know, make sure that you touch upon all of that. And, you know, like, kind of get your interviewer aligned with your line of thinking, right? So this is not like, you know, you'll say like, you know, step one, this step to this, this is not something like that, right? So this is just for your kind of like knowledge and so that you are better organized when you're answering this question, right? So just kind of like keep that in mind. And second thing I would say is, you know, like, when somebody asks you this question, it's okay to take, you know, like maybe like five minutes to just think about it, you know, jot down some points regarding this kind of like framework like what are you going to talk about in each of them and think about some kind of ideas before you get started, right? It's totally fine. I mean, it doesn't have to be that you kind of like just jump in right away when somebody asks you, like, that's not like, you know, if you can, sure. But that's totally fine to if you want to take a pause for like, you know, like five minutes just to note down some ideas and then get started, that's like totally fine as well. Okay, let's go to the next one. Okay, so step one is all about making sure that it's called clarifications and alignment. So this is all about to make sure that you understand, you know, what the product is and how it works before you, you know, take a stab at defining its success metrics and whatnot, right? So if you like kind of like, don't know about the product, it's totally okay to kind of ask that question and say like, Hey, can you please explain how this product works? I'm not that much familiar with it. That's a totally a fair thing. I mean, like usually interviews don't expect you to know everything like all products out there, right? So if you're familiar, great, you can, you know, then you already know about it. But if you don't know about the product, it's totally okay to start to just kind of like ask, you know, what this is and how it works. Because the flip side is that if you make some rough assumptions and you get started and then later on, you know, if your interviewer realizes that you don't even understand the product, I mean, that's a bigger problem than, you know, at the start of it. So just kind of keep that in mind. And I think this is also a good time to, you know, make sure that if you have any assumptions that you're making, you know, like, Nextop, that product exists only as an app and no desktop version is available in only in the US and not internationally. You know, whatever those assumptions might be, it's better to kind of like clarify that and say like, This is what I'm assuming. Is this sound okay? Or, you know, do I need to assume something else? Right? So it's just better to clarify that when you get you're getting started. Yeah, so let's look at step two. The step two is really important as well. And I think I would say this is the, like in step two is the one where, you know, I've seen, you know, many potential candidates stumble is like, you know, when you ask them, they're gonna just like, you know, talk about, you know, how you define success, you know, I just directly jump into metrics and what they're going to use and how are you going to do it and they totally kind of like miss this thing, this step. And I think if you were to miss the step and it shows that, you know, you are, you know, like, you don't are not thinking it right, right? Because let's say about this one, right? So we're talking about Facebook newsfeed, right? Like, what is the goal of the product, right? And how does it align with, you know, company's mission, right? That's the first thing you need to nail, right? Because, you know, your product, you know, depending on the state of the product, it could be that your goal is around acquisition or activation, right? If it's in a newer product, when it's like a little bit mature product, you know, you talk about more about engagement and retention, right? And then finally, even, you know, when you have, you know, like, you have nail your acquisition and activation, you nail your engagement and retention, the next step could be, you know, like, be a monetization, right? That could be the goal. But unless you kind of like align on as to what the goal is and, you know, what you're tackling it, you know, like, just saying what metrics are, you know, kind of like, it's not, you know, kind of like a line, right? So it's very important that you take the time to understand, like, what goal are you assuming and clarify that with your interviewer and show that why it's a good fit, right? That your goal you're having. For example, you take the example here of Newsfeed. Newsfeed has several use cases, right? It's doing engaging users, generating ad revenue and testing new personal and features, right? It's like, stay healthy, Facebook needs strong user engagement. So I would assume that this is a primary goal, right? It may not be. You interviewer might come back and say, like, hey, by the way, we are focusing more on acquisition and activation, right? So that's good, because you have kind of like clarified with him, like, what your primary goal is, and then you can focus on your metrics as per that goal, right? Because that's the whole thing why, you know, we are doing this in the first place. On the other hand, if the interviewer says, like, yeah, engagement signs good, like, you know, it's a mature product right now. And I think Facebook's main focus for the products is engagement, because engagement finally leads to monetization. So that might be a totally, you know, fair goal to kind of assume and move forward. So great. You have, you're aligning, you have shared your line of thinking with the interviewer and then it's, you know, okay, for you to now get started and you know, solve the other things, right? So, and then you might say, like, okay, how does this align with community mission, right? So what's Facebook mission? Facebook's mission is to, you know, create, is to bring people around the world closer together and help build communities, right? And news feed is where you come to know about what your friend or family members are doing, you know, kind of like comment there, you like it, you share it, you know, so it's kind of like bringing those communities together, right? All your friends and family may not be in the same place, you know, the same city, or even same continent, right? But with this new suite, you're able to stay connected and, you know, you're able to get these, this bunch of users closer together. So it's kind of like aligned with what Facebook mission is. So it's kind of like, you know, makes sense that your product goal and companies missions are aligned. Okay, let's move forward to the next one. Okay, so let's talk about now step three, which is use and actions. The key step here is to, you know, kind of like identify the users of your product and what actions they can perform, right? Because ultimately those actions will help you identify the right kind of metrics to focus on. Now let's look at users of new suite, right? So there's, I think, broadly two different types of users here, which are creators and viewers, right? And like if you think about, you know, like what kind of actions they can take, you know, you can essentially think about what it means for a user to be engaged, right? So creators, what they'll do is mostly in new suite, create those new suite posts, right? Whether it's through just, you know, some kind of like status updates or photo sharing or some kind of videos, you can do like a lot of this new suite posts, right? And viewers mostly like engage with those posts, either by viewing, commenting, liking and sharing the post, right? I would say that, you know, it's a good idea that to avoid going into like too much details, when you're talking about certain actions, like, you know, in talking about liking as a category of action, instead of saying liking your friend's post, liking your group's post, liking an event or liking, liking a comment, you know, you can just leave it at, you know, liking as one kind of action that the users can perform, right? You don't need to go into too much details, especially as part of the interview. Next is, I think, which is, you know, key part of PM's job is to think about how you're going to prioritize your actions, right? So for all the actions that, you know, kind of reflect engagement, if you really think about it, what are the ones which signal, you know, high level of engagement, right? It would be posting, commenting and sharing. You know, you may say like, oh, what about liking, you know, liking is that I do pretty often, right? But if you think about it, liking is kind of like a shallow form of engagement, right? You see something, you just like it without even reading it, right? So it is engaging, but it's not a very high engagement, right? It's more of a shallow engagement. So if you have to prioritize and your goal, product goal is about making sure that you're driving engagement and that to, you know, like high level of engagement, what you're going to focus on is as actions will be the ones which lead to that, you know, goal of your engagement. And in this case, that's why we prioritize posting, commenting and sharing. Okay. Now that you have, you know, done all the step one to step three, now comes the most important step, you know, this is like, kind of like your main crux of your this production interview. But, you know, how you get to this is as important as, you know, what do you do, you know, in this step, right? So just keep in mind that you have to explain your thinking as to how you kind of get to this point as well before, you know, diving into the actual metrics and talking about that. Okay. Now let's talk about metrics and evaluation, right? So as I was mentioning before, the idea is not to kind of like list all kind of metrics, right? But you should focus your discussion on kind of like the key metrics that you want to focus on as per your product goal and kind of like discuss the pros and cons of each metric, right? Because discussing the pros and cons kind of like gives the interviewer a feeling that you understand that, you know, like metrics, if a particular metric may not be perfect, right? So I mean, there is always like pros and cons of it. So and you're kind of like aware of that. So it's kind of like gives a good impression of you that you understand, you know, how the metrics are and how they work. So let's look at like so, you know, in this case, I've just given some examples here for our discussion. So like, first one is top line metrics, right? So top line metrics are mostly important, you know, as kind of like a guardrail. This may not be tied to your, you know, actual like say engagement per se for new Facebook newsfeed, but it's equally important in the sense that, you know, whatever changes you are doing as part of say, newsfeed, you want to make sure that this top line metric is not impacted, right? So for example, for newsfeed, average revenue per active user, you know, might be one of the key metrics because newsfeed is all about being sure that people are engaged and then finally, you know, they are able to see ads and that's how, you know, Facebook makes money from newsfeed, right? So whatever you do, you know, as, you know, like as your PM, whatever changes you're doing, you know, this is one thing which, you know, senior leadership might care about that, you know, just let's make sure that this doesn't get impacted, right? So, you know, this is just as a kind of like a guardrail there to make sure that you're not accidentally bringing something. Now, talking about your key metrics, right? Your key tracking or engagement metrics, right? You know, I've seen in some of the interviews, you know, people just saying, oh, engagement and engagement means like, okay, let's use common ones, right? Have I spent DAU, MAU, daily active user, monthly active users, you know, just let's talk about them or there could be, you know, like, special and so number of sessions. I think the problem with these, I mean, these are good ones, but you know, these might be good to track at like, say, Facebook level, right? Yeah, Facebook might be more interested, you know, like overall, what is the daily active users, monthly active users and how much time they are spending and those kind of things, right? But it may not like give you as such specific things that you're looking for from newsfeed product, right? Because your focus here right now is on newsfeed and these are like pretty generic metrics, right? So for example, I may be like logged into the Facebook and may not be doing anything on newsfeed, but I'm just logged in and I'm just doing some Facebook groups or Facebook events, right? But I'm still counted as a daily active user. So that's why, you know, when you use this metrics, these are like pretty generic ones and, you know, not pretty specific to the product goal that you plan to solve, right? Same thing for even average time spent, right? I might spend time on Facebook, may not do anything on newsfeed, you know, just go in somewhere else and watch some groups, events or I might do something there or I might just like, you know, just leave it open and keep browsing somewhere else, right? That's why these are like pretty generic metrics and, you know, like these don't kind of like help put you in good life. You're just like talking about generic metrics. So, and the next one is, you know, like not talking about deep engagement, right? So comments and sharing as we have kind of like discussed in our previous thing, our examples of deep engagement because, you know, the easiest one to do is like, if you see part of shell engagement is like likes per day or likes per user. That's easy, right? You see something you just click like button and you kind of like done, right? But for you to comment and to share, you know, it shows that you kind of like have read through the post and you understand what it is and that's why you're kind of like doing that, right? So, so our focus here should be on deep engagement and shallow engagement. Now, you know, you can definitely clarify with you, you know, in your interviewer that what kind of engagement they're interested in and then accordingly focus on one or the other, right? So that's totally fine. But at least, you know, showing that you kind of like understand this is kind of like puts you in good light that you know that okay, what is deep engagement, what is shallow engagement and then accordingly you can prioritize, right? Okay, so then comes and then let's park not star metric for a minute and then let's start with countermetrics. Countermetrics are something which are important because, you know, although, you know, because you might think like every metric is just like trending in the right direction, this might be, you know, you're something to kind of like watch out for, right? For example, if you're saying comments and sharing is something important and that's a metric you want to use. But what about the sentiment of comments and sharing, right? We have all have heard like lots of news about Facebook newsfeed where, you know, all the comments and sharing can get pretty nasty and you know, all kind of like negative comments are being put in. So you just want to make sure that you watch out for that, right? Like Facebook doesn't want too much of this negative comments and sharing to increase, right? They want to keep Facebook newsfeed healthy and positive and make sure that it's like all kind of users can come in there and engage, right? So they don't want it to become like a pretty nasty and abusive kind of a place, right? So that's why this countermetrics is kind of like important. And now let's talk about North Star metric, right? So North Star metric, you know, as the name says is like a shining light, right? For your product, like, there you go, that okay, this is where my product is going. Let's kind of like keep a, you know, this metric in light so that we can all review, right? What's going on? If you think about North Star metric and the way you can think about it is like, what is that one metric where, you know, like your both the users types, like both the creators and viewers are going to benefit as well as, you know, Facebook is going to benefit, right? So what is that one metric going to be which tells me about how my product is doing and also which, you know, where the users, which is the creators and viewers and Facebook, all of them get value, right? That's how you can think about a North Star metric. In this case, I've used like comment to share ratio, right? People are commenting, I know that people are most likely to comment than to share, right? So like using that commenting to share ratio, you know, that might be a good way for us to kind of monitor as to how that North Star metric is progressing, right? You know, there might be, you know, depending on and in this North Star metric is not like kind of like dependent, you know, like for a product, it always stays the same, right? Dependent depending on your, you know, like stage your product is whether it's in early stages or it's a mature stage or it's, you know, like now it's a growing stage, you know, the North Star metric can also vary, right? So this is just like, you know, it's important, like, for example, in this case, if you use like comment to share ratio, you know, you can just keep in mind, like, you know, how many people off of the, of the people that have commented, how many people are actually sharing it, you know, and the sharing is increasing that So this ratio is going to kind of like keep going up and that shows that, you know, like overall the newsfeed engagement is healthy, right? So that's why kind of like I choose this metric here. But in general, you know, you know, just focusing on North Star is not what I would kind of advise. It's also important to keep like, you know, all the different kind of metrics that I have here. You know, those kind of categories of metrics, you know, you should kind of keep those in mind and keep monitoring. Because, you know, like there's so many things as you can see here, you know, which are important. North Star metric is just like, you know, like, is there one metric you can use to kind of track your products progress or how healthy it is. So it's just for that purpose. I would say like, don't dwell too much on it, you know, overall, you know, your key ones would be, you know, like, like, there should be at least one in each of those categories that you should keep monitoring for you to see like, you know, the benefit of like, whether your product is moving the right direction or not. Okay. Okay, now for the final step, summarize. I have seen, again, like many candidates wouldn't do this. As you can see here, like, you have discussed a lot of things and there might be confusing or puzzling as to, you know, nobody have discussed. So it's very important that in the end you take a moment to just like, kind of like summarize what we have kind of like discussed and kind of like, make sure that you kind of put a summarize view, right. This is just to make sure that you're kind of ending your interview well and, you know, like you're not really, you know, assuming that, oh, I discussed so much and interview should have got an answer of what I was meaning, right. You don't kind of like leave it at that and, you know, you try to like close it out in a good note, right. So that's why this step is important. So you can say like, so in order to increase the news feeds engagement, I would, you know, first look at comments and shares for 1000 sessions, this metrics would give us an idea of meaningful engagement for the average user, right. This is just kind of like puts it all in a very natural way, like, you know, what, what your problem statement was and how did you go about solving it and finally what you're kind of like somebody is. Yeah. That's it. That's the end of this webinar. Hope you guys kind of like enjoyed it. And until next time, you know, take care. Have a good rest of the day. Bye.