Product Sense

Product Sense is tested throughout the Google interview process to see if you can turn a big ambiguous problem space into a great product that solves user problems and creates value. Google interviews are trained to pay particular to the creativity, scalability, and user empathy depicted in candidate’s responses.

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Pro tip: Google doesn't actually ask questions about Google very often because the interviewer knows way more about the company then you do, so it's unfair.

Your Product Sense Interviewer is looking to see:

• Can you clearly articulate who you are building for, why, and how it fits into the bigger picture company strategy?
• Can you provide a thorough vision for your desired MVP experience to test your hypotheses as well as your desired end state for this product, say 3 years out? This comes down to concretely defining priorities and goals.
• Can you zoom out from your personal user needs and think about how your product could scale and provide maximum value to Google’s Next Billion Users (NBU)?

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Example Google Product Sense Questions:

• Design a product that helps improve work-from-home productivity.
• What's the biggest pain you have with sharing photos today? How would you fix it?
• How would you improve Spotify?
• Re-imagine a ride-sharing product like Uber that’s specifically optimized for blind passengers.

Analytical

As a company that owns a search engine, Google PMs have access to an unprecedented amount of data. Analytical questions are used to assess whether candidates can accurately choose data, analyze it, and utilize it to drive forward successful products.    

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Pro tip: Estimation questions are way more common than metrics questions at Google.

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Your Analytical interviewer will be looking for:

• Can you measure what matters and make data driven decisions?
• Can you use your analytical skills to make estimations and market size in the face of imperfect information? 
• Are you able to identify what metrics enable you to most aptly measure success for a given product or feature?

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Example Google Analytical Questions:

• Estimate how many Zoom meetings take place over the course of the average week.
• Estimate Amazon’s revenue on Prime Day.
• Estimate the storage cost of all the videos on Youtube. 
• How would you measure the success of Apple's WWDC event?
• What three quantitative Netflix metrics would you want to see each day if you were Reed Hastings.

Strategy

Product managers are often touted as “mini-CEOs.” That is partially true in that PMs get considerable influence in shaping the product vision. Strategy interview questions are meant to assess if candidates are able to zoom out from the micro level product details and think big picture business strategy. 

Your Strategy interviewer will be looking for:

• Are you well-read on Google’s portfolio of products and investments as well as that of its competitors? Can you utilize the historic actions of other companies to inform your own decision making?
• Are you able to creatively imagine and build novel zero to one product innovations?
• Do you understand how to make product decisions which can help shape a larger company level strategy?

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Example Google Strategy Questions:

• Why does Starbucks sometimes have coffee shops on both sides of the road?
• Google has invented a technology that can let you go back in time up to one minute. Once used, there is a recharge time of 24 hours from when you last time traveled before you can this technology again. Assume there is no way to further improve this technology to overcome the aforementioned restrictions on time traveled or recharge time. What can Google do with this technology? 
• Groupon stock is trading at less than a tenth of its all-time-high. What do you think went wrong with the company and how would you turn it around?
• Pitch a company that you think Amazon should acquire.

Behavioral

Google’s behavioral interview questions are designed to not only make sure candidates are good product managers, but are a cultural fit for the “Googley-ness” the company prides itself on. Google wants employees that are multi-talented and able to add to the company in different ways, have a clear vision for where they hope to drive the company, and cognizant of their faults despite their accomplishments. Google’s behavioral questions are arguably the easiest part of the interview but far from the least important. Take them as a chance to stand out by having memorable stories prepared beforehand.

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Pro tip: Google asks behavioral questions less than most companies, but all interviewers are asked to evaluate you on googleyness. When answering these questions, put your team first, empathize with users, and communicate respectfully.

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Your Behavioral interviewer will be looking for:

• Are you passionate about building products for a global community of users?
• Are you self-aware?
• Do you have the emotional intelligence necessary to inspire and lead a product team?
• Are you able to take responsibility for your past mistakes and shortcomings?

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Example Google Behavioral Questions:

• Why Google?
• What’s your greatest strength as a PM?
• Tell me about a time your product vision conflicted with that of your manager or team.
• What is the most valuable advice you’ve received in your career?
• What do you do when what’s best for the user is at odds with what’s best for the company?

Technical

Google has the highest technical bar for PMs in FAANG. Unlike Facebook and Amazon, the search giant specifically screens for technical aptitude, especially for lower level hires where they expect PMs to be able to get in the weeds with engineers to help guide the more granular technical details of the product. These technical requirements ease up a bit for more senior product leadership roles as then the more micro-level technical issues will likely be delegated to an APM or Project/Program Manager. 

Your Technical Interviewer is looking to see:

• Can you fluently converse with your engineering team?
• Do you understand how to utilize the latest technology to craft novel solutions to hard user problems?
• Are you able to make sound technical decisions to build products quickly, efficiently, and scalably without massive tech debt?

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Example Google Technical Interview Questions:

• What is happening on the back-end every time you click search on Google?
• Explain what an SDK is to a 7 year old. 
• How would you build a solution to help identify and remove any and all child pornogrpahy from Google images?
• How do you think Shazam can identify just about any song in seconds?