LinkedIn Product Manager Interview Review
I had an interview for product manager position at LinkedIn recently. The following is the job description of the position.
We're looking for dynamic, entrepreneurial leaders who can lead a cross-functional team to design, implement, and ship game changing product features that help connect the world's professionals and make them more productive & successful. Come join us and make an impact!
Description
* Understand and lead the analysis of the competitive environment, customers, and product metrics to determine the right feature set to drive engagement and usage on LinkedIn
* Drive global product requirements definition, product planning and product design (including writing PRDs) of new product features and enhancements
* Develop a comprehensive product & marketing roadmap to deliver on the business goals for LinkedIn in 2012 & beyond
* Work with the product development team and other cross-functional team members to bring features live to the site
* Clearly communicate product benefits to our users and internal stakeholders
Required Skills
* BS degree in a technology-related field
* Must be passionate about the internet, emerging web technologies, and community building with demonstrated track record of visionary execution
* At least 1-2 years experience in a product management or equivalent role preferably in building web products, with a demonstrated ability to drive product planning, development, and launch
* Development experience with REST-based API platforms, XML, JSON, and modern development environments
* Keen understanding of the most recent trends around consumer web usage including experience with social media
* Able to manage and lead across highly cross-functional teams
* Must have excellent oral and written communication skills and be able to interact with and understand technical subjects/emerging technologies and their relevance to the marketplace
* Must be able to interact with diverse groups of technical and non-technical people
The interview lasted 45 minutes and 8 selected candidates were 4th year students, recent grads and masters students. I was being interviewed by a senior product manager who managers several other product managers.
After a brief greeting, the interviewer asked me what is the most interesting product that's out there right now on web. I made my first mistake here and answered, Facebook. I had prepared for interviewing about LinkedIn product and set myself up to be interviewed about Facebook for next 40 minutes.
The interview progressed in a conversational style. The interviewer asked me about things like the following.
- Why do people use Facebook?
- How does Facebook increase its pageviews?
- How does Facebook increase the number of users?
- What are mechanisms which Facebook uses to keep people coming back to their website?
- How would you improve Facebook to get people to share more photos?
The interview was fast paced and quite demanding in articulating my answers to be coherent and well reasoned. He would raise objections to unfounded reasoning and assumptions frequently, but in a respectful manner.
The interview wrapped up with him asking me to estimate the annual revenue of McDonalds. He said he wasn't really interested in the correctness of the figure, but the process of reasoning I employed to get the final number.
This was the first initial screening for the product manager position. If I am selected, I will undergoe phone screening with a person from a team that I am most suited to join. After I pass that, I will be flown to California for a day where I will undergoe 4 more interviews in person which will be of more technical in nature. If I am selected for more interviews, I will definately write about them.