Hey, I know interviewing is quite challenging and a long process, but keep going, don’t
give up, and we are here to help!
Hey Fam, welcome back!
If you are interested in becoming a Product Specialist then this video is for you.
In today’s video, I will cover what kinds of questions you can expect to be asked in
Product Specialist interviews, and share advice on how to best prepare.
We will go over sample questions that I’ve been asked in the past, and I will share four
areas that you should focus on during your interview prep to set yourself up for success.
My hope is that this advice will help you get through all the interview rounds, and
ultimately, get you that offer!
The following advice is based on my experience working as a Product Specialist at Facebook
and Airbnb.
Before we start, I’d like to welcome those who are new to our channel
My name is Dante, I’m a Product Manager and I have experience working at Facebook
Airbnb, Accenture, and WePay.
In this channel, Itzel and I share practical advice and knowledge to help you enter and
thrive in the tech industry.
Now, let’s jump right in!
What are interviewers looking for during Product Specialist interviews?
Here are the top three things interviewers are looking for in candidates
#1:Can they communicate effectively?
#2:Do they have strong analytical skills? and
#3: Will they be a good cultural fit for the team and company?
It is important that you can communicate effectively because you will be working with several cross-functional
product teams
Which includes engineers, researchers, designers, content strategists, data scientists, and
product managers
so you need to be structured in your responses and be able to showcase good storytelling
skills when asked behavioral questions about past work experiences
With regards to analytical skills:
As a Product specialist, one of your main responsibilities will be to conduct in-depth
analysis of data, specifically customer support tickets, identify trends and provide recommendations
to product teams on the top issues.
During your interviews you may also be asked to write SQL queries or analyze charts
so be ready to share your interpretations of the data, and what actionable insights
you can infer by looking at a given graph or chart.
#3.
Are you a good fit for the team and company?
Lastly, interviewers want to see that you have a genuine interest in the company and
that you are passionate about its mission.
Before your interview make sure to do lots of research about the company
Such as reading about its mission statement and company values,
Reviewing recent news about the company, And preparing thoughtful questions to ask
your interviewer at the end.
By mentioning all that you read about the company throughout your interview it will
demonstrate your interest.
Now, let’s talk about how you can best prepare for Product Specialist interviews, and go
over some sample questions that you should expect to be asked.
The types of questions you may be asked can be broken down into four main categories:
Familiarity with the Company’s Products Company Culture and Values
Behavioral Questions Technical and Analytical Questions
Let’s dive into the first category
#1: Familiarity with the Company’s Products
One of the core responsibilities of a Product Specialist is to become a subject matter expert
(SME) on the feature or product that you are assigned to as we covered in this video
In your interviews, you want to show that have a good understanding about the company’s
products, so read up on the company’s products
this will demonstrate to your interviewer that you are someone who is diligent in their
work because you did your research beforehand and came prepared.
If you really want to stand out, it is quite impressive to interview candidates that go
the extra mile and connect with current employees as part of their interview preparation.
I’ve met candidates who contact sales and request product demos so that they can gain
familiarity with the company’s product.
During my time as an interviewer for Product Specialist and PM roles, these are the types
of candidates who have left a lasting impression, till this day.
Now here are a few guiding questions and tips to help you best prepare for product familiarity
questions:
You should focus on understanding the following: Does the company offer a single product?
Or do they have multiple products?
If so, what does each product do?
What problem does it address and solve?
Who is the target user for the product?
Think about the customer journey: Is it easy to sign up and onboard?
What are the main features?
Are there any new features that were launched recently?
Pro Tip: To have a solid answer for these questions visit the company’s website or
app and spend some time getting familiar with it
By trying out the product and contacting support you will be putting yourself in the customer's
shoes, and this will show your interviewer that you care and can empathize with your
user's pain points.
What are some ideas for improving the product?
Does the company offer customer support in case users have an issue?
If yes, how does one go about contacting support or reporting a bug in the product?
(via phone call, live chat, filling out a form, sending an email, etc.)
Is it an easy flow to follow? or is the process cumbersome and time-consuming?
What is the user sentiment on the product?
Pro Tip: To have a solid answer for these questions refer to app store reviews, social
media posts, blogs, or videos talking about people’s experience using the product
If it is a newer product or one that is not well-known, try it out and share what your
personal experience has been with your interviewer
The second category of Product Specialist interview questions is about Company Culture
and Values
Here are some questions you can expect to be asked and tips on how to best answer them:
Why do you want to work here?
Pro Tip: To prepare a solid answer for this question, talk about the company’s mission
statement and how it relates to your personal and professional experiences.
Read up on recent news about the company and mention them in your response, as this will
show that you are well informed and genuinely interested in the company's products and up
to date with what is happening in the industry.
In your response, you can also add how the company’s products have benefitted you or
have had an impact on your life.
As a good practice, you can also mention 2-3 company values that resonate with you in your
answer, and explain why.
If you feel comfortable, reach out to current employees at the company that you can relate
to or look up to, and that you can make a connection with via LinkedIn.
While you are building the relationship with them, ask to see if they are available to
connect with you before your interview.
If you are able to meet with them, ask them about what they are working on and why they
joined the company, and then you can share their names and what you learned from them
in your response.
You may already know this, but as a good reminder: after you meet with someone make sure to show
your appreciation and thank them for their time in providing you with their advice and
perspective on the company.
This leads me to the next question that you may be asked:
Tell me about a time when you exhibited one of the company values.
To prepare for this question, read through each company value
You can find the company values under the About Us section of the company’s website
or on their careers page
Reflect on what work or life experiences you have been part of that exemplify how you have
showcased those values
Write your reflections in bullet points in a document and practice out loud your answers
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Moving on to the next category behavioral questions
This category consists of questions about your prior job experiences and hypothetical
scenarios around how you would do X or handle Y that are specific to the job responsibilities.
I will cover a few example questions in a bit, but first, here are a few tips on how
to best approach any behavioral question:
#1: Be as structured as possible in your answers, look into the STAR framework which stands
for Situation, Task, Action, Result as this is a great method to organize your responses
into a compelling story.
#2: If you are providing multiple reasons or examples in your response, number them
as you speak to make it easier for the interviewer to follow along, and you can use words like
first, second, and third.
#3: Summarize your answer at the end in one sentence, especially if you have provided
a long answer to your interviewer since they will most likely be taking notes.
To make their job easier by restating the key points of your answer.
You can use the following phrases to do this, “To recap” or “To summarize”
Now let’s go over a list of behavioral questions that we have compiled based on my personal
experience, past interviews, as well as research:
#1:Tell me about a time when you improved a process or workflow?
#2: How do you go about solving a bug or debugging an issue?
#3: What process do you follow to differentiate between an actual bug vs. product confusion?
#4: Tell me about a time when you worked cross-functionally with several teams to achieve something.
#5: How do you go about developing insights on a product?
#6: Tell me about a time when you failed.
#7: How do you illustrate things that need to be fixed in a product?
#8: What is the most challenging project you’ve worked on?
#9: How do you go about prioritizing issues?
#10: What metrics would you use to measure the impact of a fix made to a product?
To best prepare, start a document and write your answers to these sample questions.
Then share the document with close friends or mentors so they can provide you with feedback.
Use their feedback to finalize your responses.
And lastly, practice your answers out loud as much as you can.
From personal experience, following these steps will help build your confidence for
upcoming interviews.
Moving on to the last category, which is Technical and Analytical Questions.
The types of questions that you will be asked here will involve writing SQL queries and
analyzing data.
In past interviews, I’ve been asked to write SQL queries on the spot.
How this works is that the interviewer will provide you with sample data tables and ask
you to write SQL queries in a shared document or on a whiteboard
The types of SQL operations you can expect to be asked about include:
Joining tables Finding the total count or sum
How to remove duplicates from a data set or getting unique records, you can do this by
using the distinct keyword in SQL) Filtering data using the WHERE clause in SQL
and Getting data for a given time period
In terms of analytical questions, you will most likely be presented with a bar chart
showing product confusions, issues, or bugs in a given period of time and you will be
asked several questions about how you interpret the data.
To best prepare for these analytical questions, read up on common customer support metrics,
such as:
Ticket volume, also known as bug reports volume Total Resolution Time (TRT)
Average handling time First Contact Resolution Rate
Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) Net Promoter Score (NPS)
To wrap it up, here are a few resources I highly recommend you check out to review common
interview questions and responses
If I could go back in time, these are the tips and questions I wish I would have known
as I was prepping for product specialist interviews.
I’d love to hear what you learned from today’s video, so please let us know in the comments!
If you found this video helpful, please give it a thumbs-up, and share it with someone
whom you think can benefit from it.
If you know of other resources to help folks prepare for Product Specialist interviews,
or if you have any additional questions, please share them in the comments below.
Thank you so much for watching, I wish you all the best in your interviews, and we’ll
see you in our next video!