If you’re looking to land a new product job in 2022, you’re not alone. The often-quoted Prudential Pulse of the American Worker Survey puts the number of workers looking to change jobs as the impact of the pandemic tails off at about 1 in 4. With so many people planning to make a change, you can bet there will be plenty of job opportunities for good product people out there, but the completion for the top roles will certainly be red hot – especially if you want to make the jump to a more senior role.

So, if you’re looking for a more senior product role and are getting interest from companies, how do you make sure you ace the interview and get the job? In our experience of successfully coaching product folks into top roles, here are the things we’ve found that most people get wrong and a simple way you can avoid making the same mistakes.

Not really understanding the role

When you’re applying for a role at a more senior level, there’s more to it than just meeting the requirements on the job description – you need to understand how the role you are applying for contributes to the company’s broader strategy and goals for the coming years. You can wait for the interview to ask about that then formulate a response on the fly, but you’re much more likely to be successful and be able to talk about how you would do the job well if you’ve prepared in advance.

Remember, this won’t give you the entire picture of company strategy but should give you enough background that you can make the most of your time in the interview rather than having to ask about the basics. It also shows that you can take a broader perspective on your work and understand more on how the whole business works.

TIP: Think like an investor and do your due diligence work on the company before you go into the room. Look at shareholder reports, public-facing documentation such as values, mission and public statements around goals for the next few years. Find as much public-facing information on the product strategy as you can, too. Some places to look for this might include roadmaps, press-releases, patents etc. When you google “[Company name] roadmap” you’d be surprised how much is often publicly available.

Suffering from imposter syndrome

It’s easy to feel like an imposter in product. We don’t have the luxury of standardised ‘stamps of approval’ certifications that more established professions like finance, law etc. have. And because many of use have learned on the job, it’s difficult to know when you are ‘experienced enough’ to apply for a role. This tends to manifest in two ways: over confidence and imposter syndrome, both of which can trip you up when applying for senior product roles.

People who suffer from imposter syndrome tend to undersell themselves in interviews and lack confidence – something that doesn’t come across well when applying for senior roles.

TIP: List out the requirements for the job and find real examples from your experience when you have done each of those things. Having those tangible examples will show you that you are ready for the role and will mean you can articulate yourself more confidently in the interview.

Not knowing your gaps

The flipside to imposter syndrome is not knowing where you fall short. If you don’t know where the gaps are in your experience and skills, it’s impossible to identify where you need to improve to secure a senior role in product.

TIP: In addition to the exercise in the previous tip, think about the areas in interviews where you have struggled or felt like you were ‘winging it’. These are probably where you lack experience. This is also an area where we find a lot of people benefit from working with a coach who has experience of working in a senior product role. An external perspective is often the most effective way to highlight blind spots.

Claiming to have all the answers (Not unpacking your logic and assumptions)

Interviews invariably contain tasks or questions that involve some hypothetical thinking about what you would do if you got the role. The reality of working in product is that it’s highly context-specific and you’re unlikely to have the detail you need to give the ‘right’ answer for these questions. But, just answering ‘it depends...’ for each question appears indecisive and doesn’t give the interviewer enough detail to get an idea of how you’d approach the job.

So, when you give an answer to a hypothetical question, be clear on the logic you’ve used and the assumptions you’ve made in getting to your answer. This gives the interviewer a clear picture of your approach, and the skills and knowledge you’ve brought into your answer. It also makes it clear that you understand the limitations of your answer and the extra data you’d look for if you were to work through it for real.

TIP: Memorise some basic information about the company and product before the interview so that you can come up with answers on the fly. Key things to research are: total number of users, target market, market cap (if applicable), competitors. There are also some general numbers that will be useful for making estimates on the fly such as: population of your country and other key countries (to estimate growth), typical click-through rates for ads etc.

Zooming in too far

Senior roles require strategic thinking and seeing the big picture. Something which can be challenging if you’ve been managing day-to-day work for the last few years. Oftentimes candidates get so engrossed in describing the minutiae of what they’ve been working on that they miss the opportunity to show they can think strategically about what they do.

In the interview, make sure when you talk about examples of your previous work that you explain how each one helped contribute to the business’ goals and, if appropriate, how it helped contribute to making product practice more effective in your company.

TIP: Make a table of examples that show how you meet each of the criteria on the person spec. For each example, write out how it contributed to the business goals and product strategy. Practice telling the story of each of these examples until you are confident on them.

Glossing over failures

Obviously you don’t want to spend a whole interview recounting times you have failed at things, however, being honest about when things didn’t go to plan can be positive if you deal with it in the right way.

By focusing on what you learned and how you revised your approach, you can show the interviewer how you deal with challenging situations. The reality of working in product is  that even the best-planned projects will have unexpected challenges as you work on them, so it makes sense to be transparent about your experience of similar situations.

TIP: List some examples of times when you’ve failed or work didn’t go to plan. How did you get things back on track, what did you learn from the experience, and how did you revise your practice to prevent the same thing from happening again?

Not going above and beyond

If you’re going for a top product role, you need to be clear that just surviving the process isn’t enough. By the interview stage, all the candidates will meet the criteria in the job spec. They will all be able to answer situational questions, and they will complete the task –those are table stakes for people at this level.

To get the role, you will likely need to set yourself apart by going above and beyond in your preparation so that you are confident on the day, by making the most of your USP or unfair advantages, and by making sure you bring your a-game to the interview.

TIP: Think about what your USP or unfair advantages are. Maybe you are already a power user of the product or sit squarely in their main customer segment, perhaps you have industry experience or specialist technical knowledge the other candidates won’t have, or maybe you have a shared connection with the hiring manager who can vouch for you.

If you don’t have one right now, what advantage could you create for yourself above the other candidates? For example, you could secret shop the product and its closest competitors, or if you have friends that love or hate the product, do a bit of user research with them so you can bring a little extra insight to the interview.

Not seeing things from the hiring manager’s perspective

Interviewing people is a pain in the ass for hiring managers. Think about it, if you need to hire people, that means you don’t have enough right now so your time is likely stretched trying to cover the jobs you are hiring for.

A hiring manager’s dream is that they can say ‘yes’ to the first person put in front of them, so your job is to make it as easy as possible for them to say ‘yes’ to you.

Try thinking about your hiring manager as you would your users when you are researching their jobs to be done, pains and gains. As you are talking to them in the interview, ask your own questions to understand the real job this hire is doing for them, what their pains are, then summarize how you are uniquely-positioned to relieve those pains for them.

TIP: Hiring managers are looking for people who have potential, but they want people who can do the job without being high-maintenance – especially for senior roles. Give them the confidence that you are self-sufficient and if not already their peer, close to being one, and you’ll be a step closer to them saying yes.

In summary...

If there’s one main point to remember, it’s the last one on the list. Whatever stage of the application process you’re at, try your best to see things from the other side. Putting yourself in the shoes of the hiring manager will help you see the whole process in a different, more objective light.

It’s just like developing your product. Engaging with users is the only way you can be sure you’re building something that adds value. Not trying your best to understand what problem you’re solving for a hiring manager is just like building your product in a vacuum – a recipe for disappointment.

So, take a minute, think about things from the hiring manager’s perspective, and work through the points above. And remember, if you need some help along the way from an experienced product leader, you can apply for a free consultation from one of our product coaches.