your PM Interview take-home is measuring all the wrong things
The infamous “Product Manager Take-Home Assignment” has gotten on my last nerve. I’ve been asked to do them in the past, and my clients now are often tasked with them as well. Every time I look at one, I’m appalled at what I see—because what’s being asked is not remotely what it’s like to be a PM in real life.
Why you should ditch your PM take-home assignment
It doesn’t even remotely simulate what it’s like to be a product manager
Sure, the take-home is testing something, but it definitely isn’t testing your day-to-day product management skills.
You may inadvertently be measuring how much time the candidate has, not how qualified the candidate is.
Product managers are high in demand, and often are interviewing at more than one place at a time. With these assignments, interviewing itself can be a full-time job.
You may miss-out on great candidates simply because they don’t have the time to do homework. Maybe because they already have jobs. Maybe because they have families to take care of. No matter how you look at this practice, it is not inclusive. So stop it already.
The first step of being a great product manager is to know your customer.
Without that knowledge, no exercise in the world can make use of a PM’s best asset. Instead, you’re testing a PMs ability to make assumptions about things they have little to no context for.
Your candidates are not unpaid interns.
Homework assignments that involve “real-world examples” from your company are nothing more than free work. Have some respect.
A poorly-structured take-home assignment can actually reflect badly on your product organization.
Why would I want to work at a place that doesn’t fundamentally understand what my role is?
Determined to have a take-home assignment? Here’s how to have a decent one
Do not make your candidates make assumptions about the customers.
If you’re going to give a take-home, you’d better include a treasure trove of (anonymized) customer quotes.
Don’t be stingy—to simulate real life for a PM, they must have access to your knowledge about your customer.
If you can’t share qualitative or quantitative data for some reason, make it up. Make sure every candidate gets the same packet of info.
Do not make your candidates make assumptions about the goals of your company.
Contrary to (apparent) popular belief, individual contributor (IC) product managers are not responsible for setting high-level company goals
While PMs may help define company strategy, it’s critical to give them a little top-down guidance to aim them in the right direction
If you don’t know what the goals of your company are, perhaps you are not ready to hire an IC product manager.
Do not ask a product manager to develop a go to market
A go to market strategy is not the sole responsibility of a product manager
A product manager certainly contributes to this strategy, but relies heavily on other roles (like marketing) to do this
Also… asking anyone to do a go to market in a take home assignment is absolutely inane. Sounds like a great way to have a candidate spin themselves in circles.
Frame the assignment around identifying key customer problems
If a PM knows some customer information and understands the high-level goals of a company, they should be able to dig through said information and identify the main problems that both address customer needs and work toward company goals
They should be able to articulate:
The top pain-points of the customer base
Their recommended prioritization (without any additional inputs)
Next steps for prioritization (e.g. how technical limitations, timelines, etc. might alter their recommendations and prioritization)
Under no circumstances should the assignment be around designing a solution
Wait, let me say that again.
Under no circumstances should the assignment be around designing a solution
“WHY?” you ask. “I WANT TEH WIREFRAMES,” you say. Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn. Product managers should not design solutions in isolation. Ever. Ever ever*.
SAY IT WITH ME: Product managers should not design solutions in isolation.
*Exception: You’re a 10-woman startup and everybody’s gotta be scrappy. Ok fine. Move along. This blog in general is not for you.
But back to not assigning a take-home
Behavioral-based interviewing techniques are a gold-standard for a reason. Past performance indicates future behavior. And so goes product. You’ll get a much better sense of how a product manager works and thinks by having them walk you through a past project or two.
Stop wasting your time and the candidates’ time—and stop assigning take-homes.
Are you trying to hire a product manager? Want some help
structuring your interviews? Reach out for some expert assistance.
