Production Manager Interview Preparation Guide

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Most companies do a first round of 3-4 interviews, but each interview is similar in structure and focus. The interview questions asked are largely up to each interviewer, and there is little or no coordination between interviewers.

It is simply not possible to address everything needed to excel in a product management role in one 45-60 minute interview. It's also not realistic to subject candidates to extremely long interview processes. In a tight job market for top talent, great candidates won't have the patience.
The coordinated team approach we recommend allows each candidate decision to be made with up to 4 times as much data. It also ensures balanced coverage across all key areas.
In the alternative/classic approach, each interviewer decides individually using only his or her 45-60 minutes of data. And since interview questions are not coordinated, there is a high risk that some key areas are never addressed.

☛ Confidence: Assured coverage of all areas critical to the job.
☛ Objectivity: Information sharing and group assessment increases quality of decisions.
☛ Decision Speed: Coordination means less need for many rounds of interviews.
☛ Transparency: How else do you know if people on your team are good interviewers?
☛ Recruitment: A comprehensive approach gives top talent confidence in your company.

Specify stages such as market research, development, documentation, mass production, launching, marketing, branding, services, etc.

Go through its value proposition, target customers, and competitive analysis, to the product's positioning strategy.

I learn/understand quickly the functional/technical aspects of a complex system.

I learn/understand the market needs through performing market analysis.

☛ Ask A Good Product Manager is going on hiatus?
☛ Should I study product design or economics?
☛ Is a good product or a good management team more important?
☛ How do I set up customer interviews?
☛ Should I just focus on my product or the supporting services too?
☛ How can I translate needs of an industry into portfolio requirements?
☛ Are product managers always just developing new products?

☛ Should my requirements documents include all requirements or just new ones?
☛ How can I establish product management within a company?
☛ How technical should a product manager be?
☛ What is the difference between a good product manager and a great product manager?
☛ If product managers are CEOs of their products, why aren't more of them CEOs?
☛ How can I create a product which customers love?
☛ How do I position a new version of an existing product and avoid cannibalization?

☛ What goes in to a product strategy besides goals, objectives, and tactics?
☛ How can I avoid cannibalization with a new product?
☛ How to go from sales engineer to product manager?
☛ How can I determine the sales ability of an innovative new product?
☛ What are my career options after product management?
☛ How can product management weather the recession?
☛ How is a product manager different from a brand manager?