Product Management is one of the fastest-growing careers in tech today. Every successful product is from your favorite app to the tools that power global businesses which starts with a product manager who understands both users and business goals. But getting into product management can feel confusing at first. What does a product manager really do? How do they work with design, tech, and business teams? And most importantly, how do you start?

That’s exactly why we created this Free Product Management Course which helps you learn the foundations of product management in simple, practical terms. No buzzwords, no unnecessary theory. Just real, actionable lessons from product leaders who’ve built products used by millions. Whether you’re a student, working professional, or switching careers, this course will guide you step-by-step through what it takes to become a great product manager.

About the Course

Our Free Product Management Course is designed for anyone who wants to understand how real product managers think and work. You’ll learn how products are imagined, validated, built, launched, and improved. We break down every part of the product lifecycle  by understanding users and writing PRDs to define metrics and managing releases. You’ll also get practical examples from companies like Google, Zomato, and Airbnb to see how top PMs make decisions every day.

We have designed this course for Aspiring Product Manager who are looking for Free Product Management Resources. And it is an end-to-end course where you will learn about different concepts of Product Management. This isn’t a dry classroom course, it’s a hands-on journey that shows how modern product managers balance creativity with structure. By the end, you’ll understand not just the “what” of product management, but also the “why” and “how.” Every lesson is designed to make you job-ready, confident, and skilled enough to take your first PM interview or manage your first real product.

How This Course Will Help You as a Product Manager

  • Understand the complete PM journey: Learn how an idea becomes a live product used by real customers.
  • Work confidently with teams: Master how to collaborate with design, engineering, marketing, and data teams.
  • Build real-world skills: Write PRDs, prioritize features, and define success metrics with hands-on templates.
  • Get career clarity: Identify your product strengths, choose your niche (B2B, consumer, or AI PM), and build a portfolio.
  • Stay ahead in tech: Learn how AI and data are changing product management and how to stay relevant in the new era.

This course will help you think like a product manager, make smarter decisions, and build products that truly solve problems.

Who Should Take This Course?

This course is perfect for:

  • Aspiring Product Managers – Anyone curious about product management or planning to switch careers.
  • Working Professionals – Marketers, designers, developers, or analysts who want to move into a PM role.
  • Founders and Entrepreneurs – Those building their own products and want to master the PM mindset.
  • Students – Fresh graduates who want to explore the product management career path with zero cost.

If you’ve ever looked at a product and thought, “I could make this better,” this course is for you.

About the Author – Ankit Shukla (Product Management Coach & Founder, HelloPM)

Hi, I’m Ankit Shukla. After spending more than a decade as a product manager in fast-growing startups and global tech companies, I realised there’s a gap between theory and what a working PM actually does. I built this free course so you (whether you’re an engineer, marketer, designer or analyst) can learn product management for free, from the ground up, and apply it right away.

Over the years I’ve launched multiple SaaS products, led cross-functional teams remotely, and coached 300 + aspiring product managers into their first PM interviews. In this course you’ll not only get frameworks and case studies, but also bonus masterclasses on writing PRDs, using Figma for wireframing, and mastering AI tools for product managers.

Ready to begin your PM journey? Let’s dive in together.

Session 1: Introduction to Product Sense

What are you going to learn?

In this session, the first of the Summer of Product 2025, you are going to get a foundational masterclass in Product Sense. The instructor breaks down exactly what a Product Manager does day-to-day, how the rise of AI is fundamentally changing the job, and what it truly means to “build products people want.” You will learn the core definition of Product Sense and, most importantly, be introduced to the “Product Sense Stack,” a 6-pillar, 3-level framework created by HelloPM to help you systematically analyze any product idea.

Why does it matter to you?

Product Sense is the single most essential skill for an aspiring or practicing Product Manager. It’s the “it” factor that separates a PM who just manages tasks (a “feature creator”) from one who drives real-world success (an “impact creator”). Understanding this framework is your roadmap to building products that work products that users love and that achieve business goals. This is the primary skill companies hire for, and mastering it is the first step toward a successful PM career, regardless of your background.

Key Takeaways

  • The PM Lifecycle: A Product Manager’s job is a continuous loop of Discovery (what to build), Delivery (building it), and Distribution (launching it).
  • Output vs. Outcome: Your job isn’t to build a feature (an output); it’s to generate revenue or engagement from that feature (an outcome).
  • The Golden Rule: “If you do not truly understand the problem, you have not earned the right to solve it.” Avoid “jumping to conclusions.”
  • AI is an Accelerator, Not a Replacement: AI doesn’t replace the need for customer centricity. It supercharges your ability to do research, validate ideas through AI prototyping, and write documentation, making you faster and more efficient.
  • The Product Sense Stack: A 6-pillar framework (User Empathy, Market Awareness, Data Acumen, Business Acumen, Tech & Design, and Execution) for building great products.
  • Find Products for Customers: The best companies (like NoBroker) don’t find customers for their existing products; they find new products for their existing customers by understanding their entire journey.

What Does a Product Manager Really Do?

The instructor demystified the day-to-day role of a PM by walking through the complete product management lifecycle. It’s a continuous feedback loop, not a linear process.

1. Gathering Inputs: A PM’s first job is to collect problems, ideas, and initiatives from a wide range of sources:

  • Business: High-level outcomes and metrics the company needs to achieve (e.g., “increase revenue by 10%”).
  • Market Research: What competitors are doing, new technologies, and shifts in the ecosystem or government regulations.
  • Data & Analytics: How users are actually behaving inside your product.
  • Stakeholders: This includes internal teams like Sales, Support, and Marketing (who are great sources of direct user feedback) and external partners.
  • Your Own Ideas: A PM’s own insights based on all the above.

2. The PM Process: Once this “bucket” of ideas is full, the real work begins:

  1. Validate & Research: You can’t build everything. The PM researches these ideas to see if they’re valid. Does data support this? Is it a real user problem?
  2. Prioritize: The PM decides what to build first, often using a simple Impact vs. Effort model to find high-impact, low-effort opportunities.
  3. Product Roadmap: This is the high-level, strategic document (e.g., 6-12 months) that aligns the entire company on the list of problems to be solved.
  4. Product Backlog: This is the low-level, detailed list of how to solve them. This is where the PM writes Product Requirement Documents (PRDs) and user stories for the engineering team.
  5. Sprint Backlog: The PM works with designers and developers to select a small chunk of work from the backlog to be completed in a “sprint” (typically 2-4 weeks).
  6. Testing & QA: Ensuring the feature is built correctly.
  7. Launch & Adoption: The PM works with the Growth or Sales & Marketing teams to launch the product. The job isn’t done when it’s built; it’s done when users are adopting it.

3. The Core Mindset: Output vs. Outcome The instructor shared a critical leadership mindset:

  • Output: Building a feature (e.g., shipping a new “Login with Google” button).
  • Outcome: The result of that feature (e.g., “increasing new user sign-ups by 20%”).

Your job as a PM is to be responsible for the outcome, not just the output. You are an impact creator, not a feature creator.

This entire lifecycle can be simplified into three main phases:

  • Product Discovery: Deciding what to build.
  • Product Delivery: The process of building it with engineers and designers.
  • Product Distribution: The process of launching it to customers.

Defining Product Sense: The Core PM Skill

This led to the core topic: Product Sense. The instructor shared the most important sentence for any product manager:

“If you do not truly understand the problem, you have not earned the right to solve it.”

He warned that the favorite game of most people is “jumping to conclusions.” They fall in love with a solution (their “idea”) and try to find a problem it can solve. This is backward.

Product Sense is simply: “Accurately creating what your users and market believe.” It’s not about sounding intellectual. It’s about building products that work. Does it solve the user’s problem? Does it make the business money? That is the only measure of good product sense.

 Case Study 1: Dscript (Simplifying the Complex)

The instructor used the video editing software Dscript as a prime example of product sense.

  • The Problem: Traditional video editing (like Adobe Premiere Pro or Final Cut) is based on a complex timeline. This is powerful but has a steep learning curve for the new “creator economy” (YouTubers, podcasters) who aren’t professional video editors.
  • The Product Sense: The Dscript team understood their users were comfortable with documents, not timelines.
  • The Solution: They built a product that transcribes the video. To edit the video, you simply edit the text document. If you delete a sentence from the transcript, Dscript automatically cuts that clip from the video. They competed on simplicity, not more features.

Case Study 2: NoBroker (Finding the Real Problem)

This case study shows the power of pivoting based on user research.

  • The Initial Assumption: The founders of NoBroker, a real estate tech company, assumed brokers were only for “property discovery.” They thought, “The internet can do that for free,” so they built a site to remove the broker.
  • The Failed Product: The site got some traffic, but users weren’t converting. They would find a flat on NoBroker and then go hire a broker to finalize the deal.
  • The User Research (The Pivot): By talking to users, the founders discovered the broker’s real job wasn’t discovery. It was handling the high-friction, complex tasks: documentation, police verification, and property management (for landlords who lived out of town).
  • The Product Sense: NoBroker stopped focusing on its solution (“no brokers”) and started focusing on the customer’s journey. They added “Managed Services” to handle all the documentation and verification for a small fee. They then expanded to solve all related problems: moving and packing, rent payments, and even society management apps.
  • Key Learning: “Don’t find customers for your products, but find the products for your customers.”

Case Study 3: Lovable.dev (From Insight to Features)

The instructor showcased Lovable.dev as a masterclass in AI-native product sense.

  • The Problem: Non-technical people want to build businesses but can’t code and find it impossible to find a good tech co-founder.
  • The Origin: The founder, Anton, first built an open-source tool called “GPT Engineer.” It got massive traction (53,000 GitHub stars), which validated the problem. But it was still too technical for non-developers.
  • The User Research: Anton used his existing user base from “GPT Engineer” to do exhaustive research, identifying key pain points and apprehensions.
  • The Insights-to-Features: Lovable is a perfect example of converting user insights directly into product features:
    • Insight: Users want speed and granular control.
    • Feature: Lovable has a Visual Editor (click any element to edit it) and GitHub sync (export the full code for your developer).
    • Insight: Users need social proof that this “magic” tool actually works.
    • Feature: A “Shipped” gallery on the homepage, showcasing real apps built by other users.
    • Insight: Users need working software, not just a pretty UI.
    • Feature: A partnership with Supabase to automatically create a fully functional backend and database for every app.

Case Study 4: Facebook (Data-Driven Product Sense)

This final case study showed how product sense can come from data.

  • The Problem: In the early 2010s, Facebook had high sign-ups but low retention. Users would create an account and never come back.
  • The Data Insight: A data scientist found a “magic number.” Users who added 7 friends in the first 10 days had dramatically higher long-term retention.
  • The Product Sense: The team didn’t just report this finding; they acted on it.
  • The Feature: This single insight led to the creation of the “People You Might Know” (PYMK) feature. The entire goal of this feature was to help new users get to that “7 friends in 10 days” milestone as fast as possible by suggesting friends from their school or work.

The Product Sense Stack: A 6-Pillar Framework

The instructor introduced the “Product Sense Stack,” a framework to ensure you are looking at a problem from all possible angles.

Level 1: The Foundation (The Problem Space) You must start here.

  • 1. User Empathy: Understanding human psychology and, most importantly, latent needs—needs users have but cannot articulate (e.g., people never asked for wireless earbuds, but they needed convenience).
  • 2. Market Awareness: Having deep domain expertise. This includes competitors, the ecosystem, and government rules.
    • Example: The Jar app. Problem: People want to save, but the mandatory KYC (a government rule) for mutual funds creates high drop-off. Market Insight: The founders knew that investing in digital gold (under a certain amount) does not require this complex KYC. Solution: An app that rounds up your spare change and invests it in digital gold—a low-friction way to start saving.

Level 2: The Context Layer This layer validates and contextualizes the problem.

  • 3. Data Acumen: Using metrics, experiments, and causal reasoning to turn your “clues” from Level 1 into “facts.”
  • 4. Business Acumen: Understanding your company’s economics, pricing, and unique leverage.
    • Example: Microsoft Teams vs. Slack. Slack had a better product (User Empathy), but Microsoft had better leverage. Their leverage was their massive B2B network. They bundled Teams with Office 365, winning on distribution, not product.

Level 3: The Execution (The Solution Space) Most people incorrectly start here, but this should be the last step.

  • 5. Tech & Design: Understanding usability, feasibility, and how to scope a V1, V2, and V3.
  • 6. Execution: The ability to get things done. This is about stakeholder management, conflict navigation, and actually shipping the product.

Session 2: Problem Solving & Proof of Work 

What are you going to learn?

In this second session of the Summer of Product 2025, you are going to learn the most critical part of becoming a Product Manager: how to prove you can do the job. The instructor moves beyond the theory of “Product Sense” from Session 1 and into the practical world of Problem Solving and Showcasing Your Skills. You will learn five specific, actionable methods to build a “proof of work” that demonstrates your capabilities to recruiters, hiring managers, and most importantly yourself.

Why does it matter to you?

Telling someone “I am passionate about product management” is useless. Passion is not a skill. In a competitive job market, you need to show your skills, not just tell them. This session matters because it gives you the exact playbook to build a compelling Product Portfolio from scratch, even if you have zero prior PM experience. This is how you build the confidence to succeed in interviews and how you make people trust that you are the right person for the job.

Key Takeaways

  • Passion is Not Proof: You must “walk the talk.” Your portfolio is your proof of work.
  • Conscious Practice is Key: You can’t just learn on the job. Like an athlete, you must practice your skills consciously and independently through case studies and side projects.
  • The 5 Proofs of Work: You can showcase your skills through (1) Content & Market Research, (2) Product Tear Downs, (3) Product Improvements, (4) Side Projects, and (5) Past Product Work.
  • Traction is Everything: In the AI era, building a simple prototype is easy. The real value in a side project is demonstrating traction and evolution—proving you can launch a product, get users, and iterate.
  • Go Deep, Not Wide: A shallow, AI-generated portfolio is worse than no portfolio. Focus on 2-3 deep, high-quality projects.
  • The “Stealth Screening” Hack: If HR rejects your resume, bypass them. Create a detailed improvement plan for one of your 15 dream companies and send it directly to the founders or PM leaders.

The 5 Ways to Showcase Your PM Skills

The instructor reviewed the Product Sense Stack from Session 1 (User Empathy, Market Awareness, Data Acumen, Business Acumen, Tech & Design, and Execution) and explained that today’s “proof of work” methods are designed to build and demonstrate skills across these levels.

Here are the five methods, in increasing order of difficulty and impact:

  1. Content & Commentary (L1 Skill)
  2. Product Tear Downs & Case Studies (L1/L2 Skill)
  3. Product Improvement & Suggestions (L1-L3 Skill)
  4. Side Projects (Full Stack)
  5. Past Product Work (Full Stack)

The instructor stressed that most people wrongly rely only on #5. He used the analogy of a cricketer: you can’t only play in the World Cup; you need “net practice.” Methods 1-4 are your conscious practice. The core of learning is “course correction”—you learn by doing, making mistakes, and iterating.

Method 1: Content, Commentary & Industry Reports

The first way to build proof is to establish yourself as an authority in a specific domain.

  • The How-To: Pick an industry you want to work in (e.g., FinTech, HR Tech) and create a deep, 50+ page market research report. This report should analyze the market size, key players, user insights, product categories, and feature differentiation.
  • Case Study (The D2C Entrepreneur): The instructor shared the story of a HelloPM student who ran a small e-commerce business. He had no formal PM experience. He was advised to create a deep research report on the D2C e-commerce landscape. He sent this report to companies in that space and was hired by Velocity, a D2C financier, because his report proved he had deep domain expertise.
  • The “Excuse Killer”: If you are an HR professional, don’t complain that you’re “not technical.” Research the HR Tech domain (e.g., Darwin Box), create a brilliant report, and send it to the founders. You have to create your own opportunities.
  • Resources: The instructor provided a list of resources to conduct this research, including Gartner, G2.com (for customer voice), and Facebook Ad Library (to see what features competitors are actively promoting).
  • Role of AI: Use AI to speed up your research by 80%, but not to do 99% of the work. You must provide the unique narrative, storytelling, and deep insights. AI gives you superhuman capabilities, but distractions are what prevent most people from leveraging it. Focus is your advantage.

Method 2: Product Tear Downs

A product tear down is the process of reverse-engineering a successful product or feature to understand the “why” behind it.

  • The How-To:
    1. Pick a popular feature (e.g., Blinket’s Seller Hub).
    2. Ask: Why did the business build it? What was the goal?
    3. Ask: What “Job To Be Done” (JTBD) does it solve for the user?
    4. Identify the key metrics they likely used to measure success.
    5. Try to re-create the Product Requirement Document (PRD) for it.
  • Philosophy (Pattern Recognition): The instructor noted there are “thousands of problems, but limited types of problems.” For example, many platforms (like a new mock interview app) face the problem of trust. By studying how Amazon solves trust (ratings, reviews), you can apply that pattern to your own product. Tear downs build your mental library of these patterns.

 Method 3: Product Improvement & Suggestion Cases

This is one of the most common PM interview questions: “How would you improve [Our Product]?”

  • The 8-Step Process:
    • Pick a Goal: You can’t improve everything. Pick one goal (e.g., increase acquisition, improve activation, drive monetization).
    • Understand Users & JTBD: Who uses this product and why?
    • Create User Journeys: Map the user’s entire journey to find drop-offs and pain points.
    • Brainstorm Solutions: Generate ideas to fix those pain points.
    • Prioritize: Use a simple Impact vs. Effort framework to pick the best solution.
    • Create Wireframes: Design the low-fidelity mockups of your solution.
    • Identify Metrics: Define how you’ll measure success. (Ask: “Why am I building this?”)
    • Write a Conclusion.
  • Case Study (Improving Microsoft Teams): The instructor showcased a detailed B2B case study by a student. The project was exceptional because it showed the work:
    • Foundation Research: Deep research on every term in the prompt (Teams, marketplace, etc.).
    • Market Landscape: A full competitive analysis (vs. Slack, Zoom) and a SWOT analysis.
    • Primary Research: They didn’t just guess. They got 85 Google Form responses and conducted 7 user interviews. The instructor emphasized: There is no substitute for hard work.
    • User Segments: They defined clear personas (Students, Teachers, SMBs).
    • Journey Mapping: They mapped a user’s full day, identifying pain points like “fragmented workflow” and “complex UI.”
    • Solution: They brainstormed, prioritized, and built high-fidelity wireframes for their new features.

Method 4: Side Projects (The Ultimate Proof)

This is the most powerful method because it covers the entire Product Sense Stack, especially execution.

  • The How-To:
    • Find a problem you or your friends genuinely have.
    • Build a solution (using the tools below).
    • Launch, Sell, and Grow: This is the most important part.
    • Track progress with analytics and iterate.
  • Critical Warning: The instructor gave a stark warning: “Side projects without traction and evolution are just prototypes.” In 2025, anyone can use AI to build a prototype in minutes. A prototype has NO value. The value is in proving you can get real users, learn from them, and evolve the product.
  • The Side Project Stack 2025: The instructor shared a comprehensive list of free and low-cost tools to build, launch, and grow a side project:
    • Ideation & Research: ChatGPT, Claude, Reddit, G2.com
    • Design: Dribbble (for inspiration), Figma, Google Snitch
    • Development (No-Code/AI): Lovable, Framer, Cursor, V0
    • Marketing & Growth: Product Hunt, Twitter, LinkedIn, Apollo.io
    • Analytics: Mixpanel, Google Analytics, PostHog
    • Community & Motivation: Indie Hackers, Hacker News, #buildinpublic

Method 5: Past Product Work

If you are already a PM or in an adjacent role (like sales or development), you can and should document your work.

  • The How-To: Write a detailed case study about a feature you helped build. Explain the process, your specific contribution, and the outcome. (e.g., “How we built the Swiggy Pop feature”).
  • The Catch: Be careful, as many companies have strict policies against sharing internal data. If you can’t, use Methods 1-4, for which you have no excuse.

Build & Structure Your Product Portfolio

Your product portfolio is your proof of work, a tangible way to show how you think, solve problems, and drive results. It’s more than a gallery of screenshots; it’s your personal case study collection that demonstrates your journey as a product manager.

Best Practices:

  • Explain Your Process: Go beyond the final outcome. Walk the reader through how you identified the problem, explored solutions, and made trade-offs. Show your thinking as much as your doing.
  • Focus on Metrics: Numbers speak louder than words. Use clear metrics like conversion rate lifts, retention growth, or feature adoption to quantify your impact.
  • Use Storytelling: Structure every project like a story — Context (the challenge), Conflict (the problem you tackled), and Resolution (your solution and results).
  • Go Deep, Not Wide: A few well-crafted projects beat a dozen shallow ones. As the instructor said, “A surface-level portfolio is worse than not having one.” Choose 3–5 solid projects and showcase depth, clarity, and reflection.
  • Design Matters: Presentation shapes perception. Build your portfolio using tools like Notion, Bento, or Framer, ensuring it’s visually clean, easy to navigate, and aligned with your personal brand.
  • Promote It: Once ready, share it widely. Add it to your LinkedIn, resume, email signature, and personal website. Treat it like a living document—update it as you grow.

If you’re new to creating a PM portfolio and want a detailed, step-by-step guide, check out our blog on How to Create a Product Management Portfolio? It walks you through choosing the right projects, structuring your stories, and designing a portfolio that truly reflects your product mindset

The “Stealth Screening” Article: Your Secret Weapon

What if you do all this, and HR still rejects your resume? The instructor offered a final hack.

  • The Strategy:
    1. Create a list of 15 dream companies.
    2. Pick one and do a deep-dive case study. Ask, “If I were the PM here, what would I do in my first 6 months to make this product successful?”
    3. Create a high-quality, detailed deck or article with your plan.
    4. Find the founder, Head of Product, or a PM leader on LinkedIn and send it to them directly. Follow up three times.
  • Why it Works: It bypasses HR and proves three things: (1) You have the skills, (2) You have passion for their company, and (3) You show ownership, the #1 trait of a great PM.

Session 3: Cracking Product Management Interview

What are you going to learn?

In this final learning session of the Summer of Product 2025, you are going to learn the complete playbook for cracking the product management interview. The instructor moves beyond building skills to proving them under pressure. You will learn why interviews exist, how to prepare, and the specific frameworks to answer every type of PM interview question, from “Tell me about yourself” to complex product design problems, behavioral questions, and guesstimates.

Why does it matter to you?

Having great product sense is useless if you can’t communicate it in a high-stakes interview. This session is the bridge between your “proof of work” and the job offer. Mastering these frameworks will give you a structured, repeatable system to handle any question, eliminate anxiety, and confidently demonstrate that you are the perfect fit for the role. This is the final step in turning your new skills into a new career.

Key Takeaways

  • The Interview’s True Purpose: An interview is a two-way process to find a “right fit.” Your goal is to prove you are Relevant, Capable, and Passionate.
  • The RELEVANCE Framework: The instructor’s 9-step meta-framework for managing your entire interview performance: Research, Empathy, Logic, Examples, Verbal/Non-Verbal, Ask Questions, Narrative, Closure, Enthusiasm.
  • Answering “Tell me about yourself”: Use the Hook, Line, and Sinker method to deliver a concise, powerful, and relevant 2-minute pitch.
  • Answering Behavioral Questions: Use the STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result) to tell compelling stories that prove your skills.
  • Answering Product Design Questions: Use the GOOGLE framework (Goal, Observe, Optimize, Go-to-Market, Learn, Evolve) to “Improve Product X.”
  • Resume = CAR: Your resume bullet points must follow the CAR method (Context, Action, Result) and be quantified to show impact.

The Philosophy of the PM Interview

Before diving into tactics, the instructor established the core purpose of an interview. It’s not an interrogation; it’s a conversation to determine a “right fit.” The company is trying to answer three questions about you:

  • Are you Relevant? Do you have the specific skills and experience for this role?
  • Are you Capable? Can you actually do the job and solve their problems?
  • Are you Passionate? Are you genuinely excited about their product, their mission, and the role itself?

Your job is to provide clear, structured answers that prove a “yes” to all three.

The “RELEVANCE” Framework: Your Interview Operating System

The instructor introduced his own comprehensive, 9-step framework called RELEVANCE. This isn’t for a specific question but for managing your entire interview performance from start to finish.

  • R – Research: This is non-negotiable. You must research the Company (mission, values, financials), the Product (use it, read reviews, find flaws), and the Interviewer (their LinkedIn, their past roles, their “school of thought”).
  • E – Empathy: This is about understanding the interviewer’s intent. What is the real question behind their question? Are they testing your creativity, your logic, or your technical depth? Don’t just answer the words; answer the purpose.
  • L – Logic: Structure is everything. Never just “wing it.” Use frameworks (like STAR, GOOGLE, or MECE) to structure your answers logically. This shows you have a clear, organized mind.
  • E – Examples: This is your Proof of Work. Your portfolio is your arsenal. When you claim a skill, you must back it up with a concrete example from a project you actually did.
  • V – Verbal & Non-Verbal: This is your communication. Speak clearly, confidently, and concisely. Maintain good body language, make eye contact (even on a video call), and show you are a professional.
  • A – Ask Questions: An interview is a dialogue, not a monologue. Ask clarifying questions during your answers (e.g., “This is my assumption, is that correct?”) and have intelligent, well-researched questions ready for the end.
  • N – Narrative: Use storytelling. Humans are wired for stories. Don’t just list facts; weave them into a compelling narrative (e.g., “Here was the problem, here’s how I struggled, and here’s how we won”).
  • C – Closure: End every answer cleanly. After using the STAR method, for example, conclude by summarizing the result and the learning. At the end of the interview, thank the interviewer and confirm the next steps.
  • E – Enthusiasm: Show genuine passion. Companies want to hire people who are excited to be there. Your energy and enthusiasm can be the deciding factor between two equally qualified candidates.Answering “Tell me about yourself” (Hook, Line, Sinker)

The instructor provided a simple, powerful structure for this critical opening question. Your answer should be a concise 2-minute pitch, not your life story.

  1. The Hook (Who you are): A 1-2 sentence summary of your professional identity. (e.g., “I’m a product manager with 5 years of experience in the B2B SaaS space.”)
  2. The Line (Why you’re relevant): This is the body of your answer. Highlight 2-3 of your most relevant skills or accomplishments that directly relate to the job description. This is where you connect your past experience to their needs.
  3. The Sinker (Why you’re here): A 1-2 sentence conclusion that explains why you are excited about this specific role at this specific company.

The 4 Types of PM Interview Questions

The instructor explained that nearly all PM interview questions fall into four main categories. He advised creating a “Question Bank” (a “Second Brain” in Notion) with your own pre-prepared answers for each.

  1. Problem Solving (Product Sense): “Improve Facebook,” “Design a product for X,” “What’s your favorite product?”
  2. Behavioral: “Tell me about a time when…”
  3. Guesstimates: “Estimate the number of windows in New York City.”
  4. Technical: “Explain an API to your grandmother.”

How to Answer Problem-Solving Questions (The “GOOGLE” Framework)

For the common “Improve Product X” question, the instructor offered a 6-step framework called GOOGLE.

  • G – Goal: Start by asking clarifying questions to define the goal. “What is the business goal? Are we trying to improve acquisition, engagement, or monetization?”
  • O – Observe: Who are the users? What are their personas and user journeys? What are their current pain points?
  • O – Optimize: Brainstorm 3-5 potential solutions (new features) to address these pain points. Then, prioritize them using an Impact vs. Effort matrix.
  • G – Go-to-Market: Briefly explain how you would launch your #1 prioritized feature to the user base.
  • L – Learn: How would you measure success? Define the key metrics (e.g., “We’d track daily active users of this feature.”)
  • E – Evolve: Mention the next steps and how you would iterate on the feature based on the data you collect.

How to Answer Behavioral Questions (The “STAR” Method)

For “Tell me about a time when…” questions, the answer is always the STAR method. This is the most famous and effective storytelling framework.

  • S – Situation: Set the scene. Briefly describe the context. (1-2 sentences)
  • T – Task: What was your specific responsibility or goal? (1 sentence)
  • A – Action: This is the most important part. What specific steps did you take to address the task? Use “I” statements, not “we.”
  • R – Result: What was the outcome? Quantify it! (e.Get; “As a result, we increased user retention by 15%.”)

Guesstimates & Technical Questions

The instructor briefly covered the last two categories, explaining their true purpose.

  • Guesstimates: The interviewer does not care about your answer. They only care about your logic. They want to see you break down a complex, ambiguous problem into smaller, manageable pieces and state your assumptions clearly.
  • Technical Questions: Unless you’re applying for a highly technical PM role, the interviewer isn’t testing your ability to code. They are testing your ability to communicate complex ideas simply. Can you talk to engineers and understand their world?

Crafting Your Resume (The “CAR” Method)

The instructor emphasized that resumes are scanned, not read. An HR manager spends 6-10 seconds on it. Your resume must be a clean, scannable, 1-page document that screams “impact.”

The best way to write your bullet points is the CAR method:

  • C – Context: What was the situation?
  • A – Action: What did you do?
  • R – Result: What was the quantifiable outcome?

Bad Example: “Responsible for the checkout page.” Good (CAR) Example: “Redesigned the checkout flow (Action) for our e-commerce platform (Context), resulting in a 25% reduction in cart abandonment (Result).”

He also recommended using AI (like ChatGPT) as a resume-building partner. You can feed it the job description and your CAR bullet points and ask it to tailor your resume to the role, focusing on specific keywords. To dive deeper, explore our detailed guide on How to Build a Product Manager Resume, it covers structure, formatting, top mistakes to avoid, and PM-specific examples to help your resume stand out to hiring managers.

Session 4: Preparing for PM Interviews

What are you going to learn?

You are going to learn a comprehensive, structured approach to mastering Product Management (PM) interviews. This summary breaks down the instructor’s advice, moving beyond simple frameworks to instill the core skills, mental models, and preparation strategies needed to succeed. It covers the six primary types of PM interview questions, with detailed processes, examples, and common pitfalls to avoid for each.

Why does it matter to you?

If you are an aspiring or current product manager, cracking the interview is the critical gateway to your dream job. The instructor emphasizes that interviews aren’t just about “right answers” but about demonstrating a structured mind, user empathy, and strategic clarity. This guide will help you move from simply “knowing” frameworks to “thinking” like a PM, which is what interviewers are truly looking for.

Key takeaways

  • Frameworks are tools, not crutches: Don’t rigidly follow frameworks. Use them to structure your thoughts, but don’t try to retrofit every problem into them.
  • Never jump to solutions: This is the most common and fatal mistake. Always start with clarifying questions, defining the goal, and deeply understanding the user and their problems before suggesting any features.
  • Practice is 95% of preparation: You do not rise to the level of the occasion; you fall to the level of your practice.
  • Four core skills are essential: Thinking on the feet, awareness of the PM lifecycle (PDLC), pattern recognition, and communication.
  • Structure is everything: Interviewers are testing your methodology and how you arrive at an answer, not just the answer itself.

The Core PM Skills (Beyond Frameworks)

Before diving into question types, the instructor emphasized four fundamental skills that all PM interviews are designed to test, regardless of the role’s seniority:

  1. Thinking on the feet: This is about your raw IQ and ability to handle new, unexpected problems.
  2. Awareness of PDLC: This is your subject matter expertise. You must understand the end-to-end product development life cycle, from idea to launch and iteration.
  3. Pattern Recognition: This is your systems thinking and experience. Can you see how different parts of a product or business connect?
  4. Communication: This is your articulation. A PM acts as the “glue” for all stakeholders, so clear, confident communication is non-negotiable.

The instructor noted that if you have these four skills, you can succeed even if you forget a specific framework. If you only have the frameworks but lack these skills, you will likely fail.

The Typical PM Interview Structure

The instructor outlined the common funnel that candidates go through:

  • HR or Recruiter Screening: This is the first touchpoint to check for basic fit, role alignment, and compensation expectations.
  • Take-Home Assignment (Optional): This is increasingly common. Companies use it to filter for serious candidates and see your work in practice.
  • Product Sense Round: Often the core round, focusing on product design and user-centric thinking.
  • Technical Round: This assesses your “technical acumen,” which usually means your ability to collaborate effectively with developers, not necessarily to code.
  • Behavioral Round: This is crucial, especially for senior roles, to understand how you handle conflict, influence, and leadership.
  • Negotiation & Offer: The final step.

A critical piece of advice for the screening round was to ensure candidate-job fit. The instructor advised creating a detailed Google Doc of all your career projects and experiences (far more detailed than a resume) and then, for each job, mapping your experiences to the specific requirements in the Job Description (JD). This allows you to present yourself as the most relevant candidate.

The 6 Types of PM Interview Questions

The main part of the session was a detailed breakdown of the six most common question categories.

1. Product Sense & Design Questions

These are the most common questions, such as “How would you improve LinkedIn for job seekers?” or “Design an ATM for an airport.”

The Process to Follow:

  1. Ask Clarification Questions: This is the most critical first step. You must fix the scope and ensure you and the interviewer are on the same page. The instructor gave an example of a candidate who failed by immediately designing a high-tech airport, only to be told the constraint was a tiny 20,000 sq ft plot of land.
  2. Identify the Goal: Why are we doing this? Is the goal user growth, engagement, revenue, or solving a specific problem?
  3. Identify Users (Personas): Who are we building this for? Be specific. For LinkedIn, this could be job seekers, recruiters, content creators, or salespeople. This step demonstrates your user empathy.
  4. Identify Problems & Desires: This is the most important step. Put yourself in the user’s shoes and run simulations in your mind. What are their “constraints, problems, desires, and needs”?
    • CRITICAL MISTAKE: The instructor repeatedly warned: Do not jump to solutions. If you start talking about features before defining the problem, you have likely already failed the interview.
  5. Brainstorm Solutions & Features: Now you can propose solutions. Each solution should directly address a problem you just identified for a specific user.
  6. Prioritize & Define Metrics: You can’t build everything. Briefly explain which solutions you’d build first (based on impact/effort) and how you would measure their success.
  7. Summarize: Briefly recap your answer, showing your structured thinking.

Example: “Design an e-learning platform for corporates.”

  • Bad Answer (Solution-Jumping): “I’d build a website with video uploads, quizzes, and a nice UI.”
  • Good Answer (Process-Driven): “First, what kind of corporates? (clarification). Let’s assume the goal is upskilling. Key stakeholders (users) are HR (who assign training), Employees (who take training), and Content Creators. Their problems are: HR needs to track compliance, Employees find training boring, Creators need easy upload tools. Therefore, my core features (solutions) would be a compliance dashboard for HR, gamification for employees, and a simple course-builder for creators.”

2. Metrics Questions

These questions test your data fluency and business sense. Examples: “Define success for Spotify Podcasts” or “How would you measure the success of Google Cloud Storage?”

The Process to Follow:

  1. Ask Clarification Questions: Make sure you are on the same page about the feature.
  2. Ask “Why?”: Ask yourself, “Why was this product or feature created?” The answer to this is the core goal.
  3. Map the User Journey: Identify the key steps a user takes (e.g., discovery, upload, viewing). This helps you find metrics for each step.
  4. Create a Metric Tree: Start with the high-level goal (the “North Star Metric”) and break it down into its component parts (drivers). Differentiate between leading metrics (e.g., page views, which predict future success) and lagging metrics (e.g., revenue, which confirms past success).
  5. Identify Guardrail Metrics: What metrics must not go down? For example, in adding fields to a signup form (to get more user data), your guardrail metric is the signup completion rate (which shouldn’t drop).

Example: “Success metrics for WhatsApp Status.”

  • Why was it created? To increase engagement and Daily Active Users (DAU).
  • Metric Tree:
    • North Star: DAU
    • Level 1 Drivers: 1. Status Creators, 2. Status Consumers
    • Level 2 (Creators): % of users creating a status, avg. statuses per creator, new vs. repeat creators.
    • Level 2 (Consumers): % of users viewing statuses, avg. time spent on statuses, status replies.
    • Guardrail Metric: Time spent on primary chat (ensure Status isn’t cannibalizing the core messaging use case).

3. Root Cause Analysis (RCA) Questions

These questions present a problem, like “Facebook engagement is down by 30%.” You are expected to act like a “doctor” to find the root cause, not just the symptom.

The Process (Mental Model): The instructor provided a mental model for breaking down the problem by exploring different variable categories:

  • Technical / Measurement Issues: Is the analytics tool broken? Are we logging data correctly?
  • Product Factors: Did we just launch a new feature that is cannibalizing an old one? (e.g., Facebook Messenger’s growth causing Wall Posts to decline).
  • User Factors: Has user behavior shifted? (e.g., COVID ending caused a drop for EdTech). Has the user segment changed?
  • Business Factors: Did we change pricing? Did a marketing campaign just end?
  • External Factors:
    • Competitor Actions: Did a competitor launch a major new product?
    • Market Trends: Did a new technology emerge? (e.g., AI and ChatGPT impacting companies like Chegg).
    • Regulatory Changes: Did a new law like GDPR or an RBI policy come into effect?

4. Guesstimate Questions

These ambiguous questions (“How many tennis balls fit in a Boeing 747?” or “How many dentists are in Mumbai?”) are designed to test your poise, structure, and logic under pressure.

The Process to Follow:

  1. Ask Clarification Questions: “Are we talking about only practicing dentists, or all certified dentists?”
  2. Create the Formula: Break the problem down into a logical equation.
  3. Identify Knowns & Unknowns: State your assumptions clearly (e.g., “I will assume the population of Mumbai is…”).
  4. Round Off & Calculate: Use simple, round numbers to make the math easy. The calculation is secondary to the logic.
  5. Do a Sanity Check: Does the final answer seem absurdly high or low? If so, revisit your assumptions.

Example: “Number of dentists in Mumbai.” The instructor proposed a demand-side formula:

  • Total Dentists = (Total Annual Dental Appointments Needed) / (Avg. Appointments one Dentist can Serve per Year)
  • He then broke down the Numerator: (Population of Mumbai) x (% with dental issues) x (Avg. visits per person/year)
  • And broke down the Denominator: (Working hours per day) x (Working days per year) / (Avg. duration of one appointment) This structured breakdown is what the interviewer wants to see.

5. Strategy Questions

These high-level questions ask why a company should do something. Examples: “Should Google enter the health and fitness market?” or “How would you increase the profitability of Blinkit?”

The Process (Mental Models):

  • Issue Trees (Most Important): This “divide and conquer” method is key. You take a core problem (like “Profit”) and break it into its components.
  • Porter’s Five Forces: Good for market entry analysis (Threat of new entrants, buyer power, supplier power, etc.).
  • 3C & 4P: (Customer, Competition, Company) and (Product, Place, Price, Promotion).

Example (Issue Tree): How to increase Profit?

  • Profit = Revenue - Cost
  • To increase Revenue:Revenue = (Number of Users) x (Average Revenue Per User - ARPU)
    • Increase Users by: Improving traffic or increasing conversion.
    • Increase ARPU by: Increasing prices or increasing basket size (upsell/cross-sell).
  • To decrease Cost:Cost = Marketing + Operations + R&D + etc.
    • Decrease Marketing cost by: Focusing on organic growth.
    • Decrease Ops cost by: Improving efficiency.

Example (Issue Tree): Should we enter a new market? Break the decision down into three factors:

  1. Market Size & Growth: Is this a big and growing opportunity?
  2. Alignment & Potential Share: Does it align with our company’s mission? Can we realistically win a significant share?
  3. Required Investment: Do we have the money, tech, and people to do this?

6. Behavioral Questions

These questions (“Introduce yourself,” “Tell me about a time you had a conflict with a stakeholder,” “How do you influence without authority?”) are arguably the most important, especially for senior roles.

Preparation Strategy:

  1. The “Life Doc”: The instructor strongly advised creating a Google Doc with all your life and career stories, projects, and experiences. Do not filter. This is your personal database.
  2. Map to the JD: Before an interview, review the Job Description and pull stories from your “Life Doc” that are relevant to the role’s responsibilities.

Answering Strategy:

  • STAR Method: Structure your answers using Situation (context), Task (your responsibility), Action (what you did), and Result (the outcome, quantified if possible).
  • Start with the Takeaway: What did you learn from the experience?
  • NEVER Bad Mouth: This is a critical rule. Never speak negatively about a former manager, colleague, or company. It shows poor judgment. Focus on how you handled the difficult situation to get the best outcome for the user and the business.
  • Highlight Your Contribution: Don’t be overly modest. An interview is the time to be specific about what you did and the impact you had.

Practice, Resources, and Final Steps

The instructor concluded by reiterating that information is useless until it’s converted to knowledge through action and reflection.

Key Announcements & Tools:

  • Final Task: To receive a certificate for the program and an invitation to a bonus session on AI for Product Managers, attendees must articulate their learnings from all four sessions in a LinkedIn post.
  • Case Study Competition: A competition was announced on Unstop, with the top 5 teams receiving one-on-one feedback, resume reviews, and other prizes.
  • Resource Guide: A comprehensive guide with PM interview questions, prompts for practicing with AI, and other resources would be shared with everyone who filled out the feedback form.
  • Tool Recommendation: NotebookLM: The instructor highly recommended Google’s NotebookLM as a research tool. Before an interview, you can add all the company’s blog posts, founder’s podcast videos (from YouTube), and news articles. NotebookLM will process them all and allow you to ask questions, create a study guide, or even generate an audio podcast from the content to listen to on the go.

Bonus Masterclasses

How to Write a PRD (Product Requirements Document)?

In this session you’ll learn how to create a well-structured Product Requirements Document (PRD) as a product manager. You’ll see exactly how to define the document, why it matters, what key sections it should contain, how to measure success, how to define users and problems, craft solutions, map product flows, set timelines and dependencies, and link to other related documents. You’ll get a full walkthrough of a PRD template that many organizations follow.

You’ll also gain clarity on your role as the owner of the PRD and how to make the document a living, useful tool for your team.

By the end of this, you’ll be equipped to draft a PRD that gives clarity to all stakeholders (designers, developers, marketing, sales, management) and sets your product up for better alignment and success.

Why does it matter to you?

As a product manager, your job isn’t just to have ideas, it’s to turn ideas into real outcomes. The PRD is one of the most important documents you’ll create, whether you’re working on a small feature or a full product. The instructor emphasises that if you don’t provide clarity via a PRD, your team may remain mis-aligned: designers may build something unexpected, developers may implement the wrong thing, marketing may be late, or your users may not get value.

In short: a good PRD helps you align business goals, user needs, team execution, and measurement of success. Without it, you risk wasted effort, organization chaos, or building the “wrong thing”. So for you aiming to be a strong PM, mastering the PRD is non-negotiable.

Key takeaways

  • A PRD is a living document you own as the PM; others contribute but you lead.
  • The very first section is meta-details: title, version control, point-of-contacts, creation date.
  • Always include a “Why” section: what business objective and user problem you are solving.
  • Define metrics for success and also guard metrics (what must not worsen).
  • Deeply understand your users: create personas, define their demographics, psychographics, likes/dislikes, context.
  • Define the problems to solve (or “jobs to be done”), with research/insight, not assumptions.
  • Move into the solution section: present the chosen solution, alternatives you considered, and how you prioritised (impact vs effort, stakeholder alignment).
  • Map the product flow: user journey, wireframes/flow diagrams, user stories, acceptance criteria, edge cases, tracking events.
  • Provide timelines: product team members ask when design finishes, when dev starts, when marketing can begin. PM gives transparent schedule.
  • List dependencies: infrastructure, budget, partner APIs, cross-team work.
  • Link and attach related documents: wireframes, prototype, go-to-market plan, system architecture docs.
  • Share real-world PRD examples so your team can learn from how others structure theirs.

Writing a great PRD isn’t just about filling a template, it’s about bringing clarity to your team. A strong Product Requirements Document helps everyone understand what needs to be built, why it matters, and how success will be measured. It cuts through confusion, saves time, and keeps designers, developers, and stakeholders on the same page.

If you’re not sure where to start, don’t worry. We’ve created a detailed step-by-step guide on How to Write a PRD Like a Pro that walks you through the process with examples, templates, and best practices used by real product teams. It’s everything you need to turn scattered ideas into a clear, actionable plan that gets your product moving in the right direction.