16 Product Design Questions to Crack a Product Manager Interview

Do you have a Product Manager interview coming up ? You must be getting pre-interview jitters; wondering what questions will be asked. To your rescue, here is the list of 16 most commonly asked Product Manager design interview questions. The below discussed product design questions for Product Managers are a part of our Product Management interview questions series.

If you have attended Accredian’s Product Management Masterclass, then you must know this already – One of the 5 pillars of Product Management (and a very crucial one) is Design. In any Product Manager interview you will most likely be asked product design questions to test your knowledge and experience on the subject. 

Earlier, we discussed product manager technical interview questions which would help you prepare for technical aspects of the PM interview. The article below will give you a heads up on the type of product design questions asked in a Product Management interview along with tips to answer them. 

Let’s get started

16 Most Common Product Manager Design Interview Questions

1. Have you used any of our products ? Which one do you like the most and why ?
2. If you had to improve any one of our products, which one would you choose and why ?
3. Have you ever worked on a UX design ? What was the product ?
4. According to you, which product in the market today has the best UX today ?
5. Which feature of an iPhone will you change/improve and how? Explain your strategy for the same. 
6. How would you describe our product to someone ?
7. What are the two pain points product designers face today ?
8. Have you worked with designers before ? What was the process of designing a product ?
9. What is the difference between a UI and UX designer ? Give an example to illustrate. 
10. Which is your favourite brand of headphone ? How would you improve it ?
11. How would you design a feature on Twitter for organ donation ?
12. Design a grocery app 
13. How would you redesign an ATM ?
14. Design a feature on Quora for book recommendations
15. Share an experience where you resolved conflict between an engineer and a designer 
16. Design a virtual reality game for children less than 6 years old

4 Step Approach to Answer a Product Design Question in a PM Interview

The goal of product design questions for Product Managers is not limited to testing their skills and knowledge. But, through these questions, recruiters aim to understand how a candidate will communicate, manage, and contribute in product design as a Product Manager. 

A disordered answer to product design questions can result in rejection. So, here’s the expert approved 4 step approach to answer a product design question in a Product Management interview. 

1. Identify Target Users : Whenever you are presented with a design question it is important to ask which user group the product is targeted at. Your product can be targeted at infants, children, millennials, elderly, only women/men, working professionals, businessmen, entrepreneurs, students, and the list is never ending.
   
   So, it is always important to ask the interviewer what the target user is. In case the user group is large and varied, you can make an assumption and choose any one of the user groups to answer your product design question.
   
   To understand this better let’s take the case of designing a ketchup bottle (You would remember this example from our latest Product Management Webinar conducted on product designing). So, for a ketchup bottle, your target audience will include children, adults, and even elderly.
2. Identify Pain Points : A pain point is a problem your users might face while using the product. Identify the possible pain points according to your target users and explain them. Pain points form the basis of your product ideas. Your product should ideally attempt to solve these pain points.
   
   In the case of designing a ketchup bottle, a pain point can be weight of the bottle for children use, material (glass) of the bottle, and shape of the bottle making it difficult to use. 
3. Product Idea (s) : After all research, now will be showtime. Considering all your assumptions and above discussed factors, come up with some product designs. Ensure that your product design ideas are both creative and practical at the same time.
   
   For a ketchup bottle design, you can reshape the bottle, change the material from glass to plastic, make it a squeeze or an upside down bottle.
4. Demonstrate Product & Its Features: Now you have a design ready, but you need to list down your product features to convince stakeholders to go ahead with it. In this step, describe your product, how it addresses all the pain points identified in step 2, and what new it offers.
   
   For your ketchup bottle design, the highlights could be how a plastic body instead of a glass one reduces the chances of breakage and spilling thus making it more user-friendly. 

To be fully prepared for a Product Manager interview, it is important to stay updated with the latest Product Management trends. A good way to stay informed is to follow product leaders and learn from their experiences. 

We hope you found our blog on Product Manager design interview questions helpful. If you are an aspiring Product Manager, you should check out our Product Management courses to give your career a head start.