CIRCLES Method™ featured in Business Insider
Let me start with good news. Decode and Conquer (D&C) sales have been scorching 🔥 this month!
If you’ve been following who gets job offers from Facebook 👥 and Google, you know that candidates prefer D&C over other PM interview prep books.
Google’s recruiters are also big fans of D&C.
Business Insider revealed that Google’s recruiters prescribe my CIRCLES Method™ as the #1 method when preparing for product design questions.
Google recruiters also recommend my on-demand, coding interview prep materials too.
Brand New Google Product Manager Interview Cheat Sheet
Speaking of Google, I’m honored to share a brand new Google PM interview cheat sheet with all of you.
It’s fun, colorful, and Googley. More importantly, it covers all the different question types you’d encounter at the interview including product design, technical, analytical, and strategy.
This cheat sheet is based on my latest book, Secrets of the Product Manager Interview.
The Biggest Mistake Google PM Candidates Make
Google PM candidates erroneously believe that they the reason they didn’t get a Google PM offer is because they failed the whiteboard coding interview.
That’s incorrect.
#1 reason why candidates fail: poor responses to product design questions.
What are product design questions? Here are two examples from actual Google interviews:
- How would you design a better smoke detector?
- Design an new iPad app for Google spreadsheet.
Product design questions aren’t covered by the standard MBA curriculum nor consulting case interview prep.
There are a few reasons why product design questions are so challenging:
- Suffocating time pressure. Great products, such as the iPhone are not built in a day, let alone a 45-minute interview.
- Limited domain knowledge. How can candidates suggest smoke detector innovations if they don’t know how they work?
- No support. Real-life innovation happens in teams; team members can build on each other’s ideas. No such support system exists in a solitary closet-sized interview room.
To do well requires lots of practice. And the best place to start is the CIRCLES Method™.
How to Download the Google PM Interview Cheat Sheet
If I had a Google PM interview, and I could only bring one cheat sheet…this would be it.
Print out the high-resolution version of this cheat sheet, available in both JPG and PDF.
Conquer those interviews,
Lewis C. Lin