Main Takeaways: -Leveraging your existing experience, or acquiring new experience, through a product lens -Treating your resume like a product - effective story & resume building to stand out from the crowd -Interview strategy, step-by-step question walkthroughs, and problem-solving frameworks

1. www.productschool.com
Breaking Into Product and Tech
by Microsoft Product Leader

2. CERTIFICATES
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5. Product Management: A-Z
Build the Skills, Nail the
Interview, Land the Job

6. Agenda
1. What is a PM?
2. Building skills
3. Résumé design
4. Interview deep dive
a. Behavioural
b. Product
c. Technical
d. Analytical
5. Your elevator pitch
6. Playing to your strengths

7. What is a‘PM’?
Typically, product roles align to one or more of the responsibilities below:
Project Manager or Technical Product Manager
● Planning, designing, and execution of projects or products
● “How do we turn this vision into reality?”
Product Manager
● End-to-end product design, requirements, road-mapping, implementation, risk-analysis, user
adoption
● “What should we build and why?”
Program Manager
● Process optimization & improving business performance - or a blend of both Project and Product
● “How do we make this better?’

8. What is a‘PM’-Beyond the Buzzwords
As a PM, your job is going to be to identify the best problems to solve, to solve
those problems, and to make the business money.
You will interface with, and empower customers, developers, designers, upper
management, compliance teams, and your peers to ensure that you’re building &
delivering the best possible solution.
You are the primary instrument to make sure that everyone gets what they want.
Product Vision & Strategy - Driving Execution - Cross Functional Collaboration -
Communication - Risk Management and Unblocking

9. What skills do you need?
The name of the game is ‘interdisciplinary’
If you’re managing the design of a product, should be well-versed in how
different aspects of that product should come together.

10. Valuable PM skills
Customer Empathy
What should we build? Why should we build it? Who are the users? What are their
needs? Is this the real problem? How will we measure success?
Design (more than just looks!)
User-Centered Design, Human Factors, Mock-up Design, Lifecycle Design, study UI
Breakdowns, take a Design Course
Business
Stay current (TechCrunch, Y-Combinator), create SWOTs and build strategies
Technical & Data
Software Architecture, familiarity with programming concepts (1-2 high-level
languages), hackathons, basic statistics - trends, analysis, significance
Relationships & Communication

11. Where should you build skills?
Growth Mindset: Learn, Adapt, Apply
1. Build something! Analyze & strategize!
2. Do a product tear-down with friends. Identify opportunities to improve or
own something in your day-to-day
3. Study Great Products
4. Shadow a PM
5. Participate in a hackathon (non-technical participants are still valued!)
6. Build your website from the perspective of a PM
7. Take a free design course or boot camp
8. Join student design teams or volunteer

12. How technical should a PM be?
● Myth: You need to have a Computer Science degree to be a PM.
● Being “Technical” != Knowing how to code
● Being Technical can mean...
○ Ability to breakdown complex technical concepts
○ Desire to learn and adapt to new technologies
○ Asking the dumb questions
○ Being enthusiastic and curious

13. Your
Bread and Butter
1) Get good at breaking a big
problem down into smaller
problems
2) Always, always, always ask
questions
3) Try it out - don’t let perfect
stand in the way of good

14. What is a résumé really?
A promise that describes what you can deliver, based on what you’ve already
done
Like an essay, a résumé should craft your story - what you’ve achieved and
what you stand to achieve
A résumé should deliver a blend between the skills you possess, and the
impact you’ve created

15. What goes into a résumé?
1. Name & Title
2. Basic Contact Information
3. Skills (Technical & Non-Technical)
4. Education
5. Work Experience (Paid or Unpaid)
6. Volunteer Experience
7. Side Projects & Leadership
8. Accomplishments & Awards
9. Interests, Objectives, & Summary

16. Résumé Do’s and Don’ts
Do
● Lead each bullet with a unique, relevant action word
● Ensure each bullet has an associated skill and/or an impact
● Align your content & titles to the job to which you’re applying
● Be concise, keep your sentences short (ideally 2 lines max)
● Experiment with sans-serif fonts (instead of serif fonts)
● Look at the résumés of others, learn, iterate - and ask for feedback!

17. Résumé Do’s and Don’ts
Don’t
● Don’t go over 1-2 pages (typically 2 pages is for >10 years of experience)
● Don’t use qualifiers/adverbs without associated impact
○ E.g. “Greatly enhanced the product” vs. “Improved revenue by 67%”
○ E.g. “Massively decreased spending vs. “Reduced costs by 56%”
● Be careful with industry-specific acronyms & jargon - your résumé could
be screened by anyone
● Don’t include content you can’t speak to
● Don’t spend too long on cover letters
○ Cover letters typically go unread, unless the company is <50-100 people

18. Résumés -Metrics.Metrics.Metrics.

19. Résumés -But I don’t have metrics!
1) You can seek out your former employer or coworkers to solicit metrics
2) You are allowed to estimate your impact
Don’t write down anything you’re not comfortable getting called out on, but
you are the expert on whatever you worked on. If you can walk me through
the justification, that’s just about good as having the raw data.
In fact, that walkthrough demonstrates a good analytics mindset.

20. Résumés -The F-Pattern
Research indicates that people read in an “F-pattern”. Consider structuring
your résumé content accordingly, especially if you’re using two-columns

21. Résumés -Additional Tips
● You can adjust your job title to better suit the role you delivered (within
reason)
● You can use color to highlight your impact, increasing recruiter readability
by 54 %
● Lead with impactful action words, but avoid words that minimize your
responsibility/leadership: e.g. Facilitated Communication
● Adjust your resume based on the job for which you’re applying
● Don’t have direct work experience? Projects count!

22. Résumé FAQ: To include old experience or not?
We’ve all been there.
If you have ‘old’ experience, or are early in University/College and only have
High School experience, it is fine to include it - until you don’t have to anymore
1) Pivot the experience to best reflect the skills & impact required to land
your desired position
2) Work (via the tips in this talk) to gain new, relevant experience

23. Résumé FAQ: Grades or Experience?
This will vary from company to company, but on average:
1. High grades + extracurriculars/experience/projects = awesome
2. Low grades + extracurriculars/experience/projects = great
3. High grades + no extracurriculars/experience/projects = alright
4. Low grades + no extracurriculars/experience/projects = not so great
Your grades are just one part of a complete picture that employers look at.

24. Résumés
☑ Are my skills coming across in this
bullet or section? Which skills?
☑ Is my résumé telling a story? What
story is my résumé telling?
☑ What impact have I delivered?
☑ Are my action words relevant and
unique?
☑ Is my résumé concise, easy to read,
and easy to understand?
Check Yourself

25. Interview-Types of questions
1. Behavioral: Tell me about your experiences and your personality.
○ Tell me about a time you had to influence someone.
○ Tell me about a project or team that you led at work.
2. Product and Design: Show me your product sense and decision making.
○ What is your favorite product and how would you improve it?
○ How would you design an ATM for a blind person?
3. Technical: Can you understand and communicate technical challenges?
○ Explain how the YouTube recommendation algorithm works.
○ Can you compare pros/cons of X different sorting algorithms?
4. Analytical: Can you leverage data to solve a problem?
○ Our user sign-offs dropped by 50%. Tell us how you would approach this?

26. [1] Behavioural
Questions you should always be ready for:
1. Tell me about yourself
2. Tell me about a project you’ve worked on
3. Why are you leaving your job?
4. What do you want in your next role?
5. Why do you want to work here?

27. [2] Product Interview Guide
1. Scope the problem
a. Ask clarifying questions
b. Identify potential customers, competition, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats
2. Know your customer(s)
a. Build personas (demographics, behaviors, needs and wants)
b. Identify customer cohorts and problem hypotheses
3. Product ideation
a. List potential ideas
b. Select and justify an idea by tying back to needs
4. Go to market and measure success
a. Describe risks, explore ways to bring idea to audience
b. Create metrics

28. Sample Question Review
How would you improve Google Maps?

29. 1. Scope the problem
When you say ‘improve’ do you mean: Revenue, Retention, # of users, # of reviews, …?
Do we have any deadlines or targets that we’re trying to reach? No
Let’s identify the current (main) product scope of Google Maps:
● Search for destinations
● Share custom maps
● Plat routes, add stops
● Review locations
● Google street view

30. 1. Scope the problem (con’t)
Who are the current (or targeted) set of users for our improvements?
● People visiting places
● People planning trips
● People planning a visit to a business
● Business owners
You can ask which user we should focus on, or suggest which user to focus on by
analyzing the opportunity.
E.g. We have a dominant market share for the destinations & routes aspect of our
product, but we are currently undeserving the trip planning demographic. Look at Total
Addressable Market, Competition (next slide), Cost/Barrier to Entry etc.

31. 1. Scope the problem (con’t)
Market Analysis - for our set of users, what does the existing space look like?
Strengths Weaknesses/Opportunities
Maps: Bing Maps Trending things to do
Integrates with TripAdvisor
Low # of users, integrations
Social: Yelp, Foursquare, Instagram Massive user count
Social - images, influencers
Many reviews/ratings
Very little booking integration
No itineraries
Booking: AirBnB, TripAdvisor Ubiquitous (AirBnB)
Overseas presence (TA)
Little in the way of itineraries
Not much of a social aspect

32. 2. Know your customer(s)
Generate a persona(s) for your main customers (don’t forget to justify and summarize)
Hannah
● 27-35 years old
● Based in North America &
Europe
Behaviours
● Uses Google maps on her phone
● Goes on trips with friends
● Usually uses IG & TA to figure out where to go
● Books things via BnB
Needs & Wants
● Wants to know the best places to go/see/eat/do
● Share things to go/see/eat/do w. friends and vice versa
● Needs consensus from friends before booking
● Book things easily based on wants & consensus

33. 3. Product ideation
Start coming up with ideas! Don’t be afraid to think crazy/outside the box
1. Places to go/itinerary collections & community
2. Places suggestion bot (personalized, collects data from previous trips)
3. Concierge (we’ll plan your trips for you)
4. Trip assembler (you set your criteria, we’ll plan the trip)
5. Google places blog, feature, YouTube channel
Product Useful Innovative Inexpensive to Build Time to Market Score
1 3 3 2 2 10
2 2 3 1 3 9
3 2 1 3 2 8
4 3 3 1 2 9
5 1 1 1 3 6

34. 4. Go to market & success
What metrics would you look at to evaluate success?
● # of users
● # of collections, ratings, shares
● Demographics of distribution
● Revenue growth associated with ratings, traffic, and upsell
Who do we target first? How do we target them?
● Google flights, custom maps, show collections under restaurants
● Add a new tab to google homepage
● Add incentives for segments (power users, influencers, first time users)

35. 4. Go to market & success
What are the risks and potential improvements of your proposed solution?
Risks
● Adoption
● Quality & staleness
● Safety/abuse
Improvements
● Safety & moderation teams
● Featured things to do
● Curation & customization

36. Product Interview Guide
Clarify
Ask clarifying questions to
narrow down the problem
space
Improve
Finish with the gaps or
risks of the solution you
proposed
Assumptions &
Requirements
Acknowledge the assumptions
you’ve made about the problem or
the customer
Measure
Specify metrics of
success for your MVP
Design
Outline an MVP solution
that touches on the
problems you prioritized
Problem Solving
Stages

37. [3] Technical Interview Guide
Similar to Product - break a big problem into smaller problems.
1. Ask clarifying questions
2. Identify:
a. Users
b. System Considerations
c. Functions & Requirements
d. Components
e. Assumptions
3. Draw a system diagram
4. Identify algorithms, data structures, trade offs, efficiency and
improvements

38. Technical Sample Question (Systems Design)
How would you design and implement Twitter?

39. Technical Sample -Clarifying Questions
Clarifying questions & features
1. Twitter has a number of features (list them). Which features would you
like me to address?
a. Sending a tweet
b. The timeline
i. User timeline: Your tweets
ii. Home timeline: People you follow, Reactions of people you follow
c. Following users

40. Technical Sample -Naive Solution (At Runtime)
Components
Tweet ID Content User ID User ID Name ...
Tweet Table User Table
Drawbacks
- Tweet table would get huge
- Massive Computational spike every time you open a timeline

41. Technical Sample -System Characteristics
Considerations
● Is the system more read heavy or write heavy?
● Does every need to receive the tweet at the same time?
○ How do we ensure reactions don’t show up before the tweet?
● How do we ensure tweets sent from one region can get read globally?
● Should the timeline be pushed, pulled or both?
● How do we ensure consistency between databases?

42. Technical Sample -Diagram (Tweeting & Following)
Alice’s tweet
Send
Alice - 100 Followers
Load Balancer
REDIS Tweet ID Sender ...
User: Bob
PUT Bob’s Timeline
Trade-offs
1. Pre-computed, replicated for quick load
2. Spending resources up front to boost user load times
3. Tweets are short, relatively low-cost
4. People with many followers may load slowly, how to address?
5. Extra logic: Spend more for users who visit more
Alice’s Followers

43. Technical Interview Guide
Similar to Product - break a big problem into smaller problems.
1. Ask clarifying questions
2. Identify:
a. Users
b. System Considerations
c. Functions & Requirements
d. Components
e. Assumptions
3. Draw a system diagram
4. Identify algorithms, data structures, trade offs, efficiency and
improvements

44. Technical Sample -Diagram (Accessing)
Browser
Load Balancer
REDIS Tweet ID Sender ...
Bob’s Timeline
Fastest Machine
1. Load Balancer needs to know which machine to query - hash look-up
2. Hybrid solution at runtime load solution for huge tweets
Extra Topics
1. Searching for tweets?
2. Text notifications?
3. Advertisement funnel?
GET

45. [4] Analytical Interview Guide
Framework is very similar to the Product Design question (re: clarifying
questions, users, requirements)
1. Be aware of and define funnels & timelines
2. Generate and test hypotheses
3. Propose a solution

46. Analytical Sample Question
Our user sign-ups have decreased by 50%. How would you approach this?

47. Analytical Sample -Clarifying Qs
How does the user sign-up flow work?
How are we measuring user sign-ups?
Over what period have the sign-ups dropped off?

48. Analytical Sample -Funnel & Hypotheses
Website/App → Data Entry → Submit → Email Sent → User Clicks Verify
Generate Hypotheses
Broad
1. Are the disparities across demographics/locations/apps?
2. Have there been outages in any of our systems?
Specific [Per Funnel Component]
1. Intake: Have our ads stopped running?
2. Website: Are the forms working? Are we getting caught in a firewall?
3. Data Entry: Are the results making it into our database?
4. ...

49. Analytical Sample -Propose a Solution
Let’s say that the problem lies with the confirmation emails not being sent.
How would you propose a solution?
● Anomaly Detection for funnel stages
● Fail-safes & redundancy for email pipelines
● Delayed confirmation, access app & confirm later

50. Interview Tips
1. Practice. Practice. Practice.
○ Have answers ready for typical questions
○ Practicing white-boarding, or at least, writing down solutions
○ Practice out-loud, interview with a friend
2. Study the company
○ SWOT analysis, and have questions ready
3. Think out-loud, and summarize/recap where possible
4. STAR/PAR strategies, be detailed where it matters
5. Have copies of your resume and recommendation letters handy
6. Engage
○ “May I have a moment to think about this?” - have a sip of water
○ “Do you feel I’m on the right track with this solution?”- don’t be afraid to ask for a
hint/check in

51. Interviewing
☑ Have I practiced responses to
interview questions? Out loud?
☑ Have I performed a SWOT
analysis for the company?
☑ Have I thought about my
story? What are my passions?
What makes me unique?
Check Yourself

52. Networking -Where to look
Certain tech companies can receive >2,000,000 applications in a year.
Networking is essential to increase your odds - plus it’s good for your career!
1. Hackathons
2. Conferences, Career Fairs, Engineering Conferences
a. Canada: https://2021.cusec.net, http://cutc.ca
3. Facebook Groups, LinkedIn Groups, Slacks, Discords, and other
professional associations
4. Meetup
5. Eventbrite
6. Friends!

53. Networking -The Elevator Pitch
An elevator pitch is a quick summary of yourself, your skills, and your
objectives.
1. Start by introducing yourself
2. Summarize your history
3. Summarize what you do
4. Explain what you want
5. Finish with a call to action

54. Networking -An Elevator Pitch Example (Technical)
Hi there! My name is Aishwarya and it’s nice to meet you. I have a background
in Software Engineering from the Stevens Institute of Technology, which is
where I discovered my passion for user-centered design.
I’ve spent the last several years honing that passion by working in
Product-facing roles across a number of different industries in the Bay Area.
Right now I’m working as a Product Designer for L’Oreal, where I’m
responsible for the user-intake funnel of their ad campaigns.
I’d love to learn more about opportunities for improving advertising and
customer retention strategies. Could we chat over coffee?
Time: ~22 seconds

55. Networking -An Elevator Pitch Example (Non Technical)
Hi there! My name is Shahrukh and it’s nice to meet you. I’ve actually been a
teacher for the last several years and I’m really interested in leveraging my
talents in the software space.
As a teacher, I’ve developed the skills to context-switch quickly, balance
priorities, plan short-term and long-term strategies, handle unexpected crises,
and tactfully resolve difficult situations.
My background in philosophy also lends me the expertise to solve problems
in a novel way. Do you have any problem-solving roles in your company that
you are looking to fill?
Time: ~20 seconds

56. Networking -Elevator Pitch Tips
1. Write it down - but practice, practice, practice out loud
2. Take your time, but time yourself
3. Make it conversational - don’t be a robot
4. Create multiple flavors of your pitch based on your goals
○ E.g. Meeting a recruiter, meeting a colleague, or meeting a founder
5. Tell a story and showcase your passion(s)

57. Networking
☑ What steps am I taking to
expand my network?
☑ What kinds of people am I
trying to target in my network?
☑ Have I created and practiced a
compelling elevator pitch?
Check Yourself

58. Playing to Your Strengths
Contrary to popular belief, you do not need a tech degree to land a tech job
You do however, need relevant or applicable experience
You can gain relevant experience, from jobs that are not in tech
Think about how to leverage your passions to build or advertise skills
Think about the stories that make you stand out, use those stories to build
your career, use them in the interview

59. It Gets Easier
It is normal to:
1) Get rejected. Even for experienced professionals, rejections can
outnumber interviews.
2) Flub interviews. Especially for your first few, or early on in your cycle.
3) Feel overwhelmed. Being uncomfortable is how you learn! You don’t
need to be an expert at everything, you’ll build off your strengths
4) Feel envious. You can always make more, and some people are always
going to be one step ahead. Focus on being the best you that you can be.

60. Helpful Resources
● Product School (YouTube Channel)
● Cracking the PM Interview
● Decode and Conquer
● Swipe to Unlock
● The Design of Everyday Things
● Startup School (Y-Combinator)
● Blogs: https://www.bringthedonuts.com/
Example Questions
● StellarPeers
● Exponent
● Question Bank

61. @alivira
@musi.c.ali
@ali_vira /in/alivira alivira.com
Ali Vira

62. www.productschool.com
Part-time Product Management Training Courses
and
Corporate Training