PM Tip of the Tongue

Question 1

Design Criteria - ‘Do you like LinkedIn’s endorsement feature?’

Answer 1

Is it innovative?
Is it useful?
Is it easy to understand?
Is it honest?

Pros and Cons of the product according to each criteria

Question 2

What is meant by each of the letters in the acronym CIRCLES?

Answer 2

C - Comprehend the Situation
I - Identify the Customer
R - Report the Customer’s needs
C - Cut through prioritization
L - List solutions
E - Evaluate Tradeoffs
S - Summarize your recommendation

Question 3

COMPREHEND THE SITUATION - Three steps

Answer 3

1. Clarifying questions
2. Constraints and assumptions?
3. Goals and metrics

Question 4

COMPREHEND THE SITUATION - Clarifying questions

Answer 4

1. What is it?
2. Who is it for?
3. How do they use it?
4. How does it work?

Question 5

COMPREHEND THE SITUATION - Typical Goals and Metrics

Answer 5

Revenue
Engagement
Market share
User acquisition
User retention
Customer satisfaction
Conversion

Question 6

COMPREHEND THE SITUATION - Constraints and Assumptions (4)

Answer 6

Time/Deadlines
Resources
Scalability
Geography

Question 7

IDENTIFY THE CUSTOMER - 2 x 2 Matrix

Answer 7

Name of persona - Behaviors
Demographics - Needs and Goals

Question 8

REPORT THE CUSTOMERS NEEDS - Structure

Answer 8

As a ___ I want ___ so that ___

Question 9

CUT THROUGH PRIORITIZATION - Tool

Answer 9

RICE Score

Reach * Impact * Confidence
______________________________
Effort

Question 10

LIST SOLUTIONS - Use the method to improve a product in your sight

Answer 10

REVERSAL Method - Reversing the situation helps uncover new possibilities:
NEED - Car buyers don’t have time to go to a dealership
SOLUTION - Dealership can deliver test drives to the buyer’s home

Question 11

EVALUTATE TRADEOFFS

Answer 11

Pros and Cons of the final design choices

Question 12

SUMMURIZE YOUR RECOMMENDATIONS - List

Answer 12

What feature
Why this feature
Why not other features
Next steps

1. Tell what product or feature you’d recommend
2. Recap what it is and why it would benefit the user or company
3. Explain WHY you prefer this solution over others
4. Note any next steps you’d take

Question 13

What is the AARM Framework and when to use it?

Answer 13

AARM
Acquisition
Activation
Retention
Monetization

Use it for a basic metrics approach

Question 14

X Metric went down by Y% week-over-week. Why? List the steps.

Answer 14

TROPIC -
TIME
REGION
OTHER FEATURES - Is there a change in other features as well?
PLATFORM - Does the problem affect all platforms? Or only one?
INDUSTRY - Are competitors seeing a decline too?
CANIBALIZATION

Internal / External

Question 15

Internal and External factors for metric decline:

Answer 15

INTERNAL
- New features
- Bugs and outages
- Pricing changes
- Marketing changes
- Logging errors like a broken data pipeline

EXTERNAL
- Competition
- Changing user habits
- Natural disasters
- Macroeconomic factors like recessions
- Regulations

Question 16

How do you say no to feature ideas or requests?

Answer 16

As a product manager one of the most important things is to say no to most of the ideas. Here is the framework I use…

1. USER PROBLEM
2. USER GROUP
3. METRIC
4. COMPARE TO OTHER OPPORTUNITIES
5. If it ranks high in prioritization, add to the backlog - but explore OTHER WAYS TO SOLVE the same problem
6. Test it out using MVP

Irrespective, thank them for the idea and tell them the importance of providing the feedback.

Question 17

Outline the steps of the development lifecycle

Answer 17

Planning & Ideation/ User stories and Sprints/ Feedback loops and Testing ( QA, UAT) / Feature Delivery

Question 18

A deadline is approaching, what are the four areas you can increase or decrease to launch the product?

Answer 18

Quality
Scope
Time
People/Resources