If you work in IT, it’s not too hard to find work. But it’s not nearly as easy to choose a job that you will actually like. I’d like to talk about why I joined Productboard and how things work at the company in this three-part series.
When I’m looking for a new job, I’m always interested in hearing (or reading) about the personal experiences of people who already work there. That’s why I’ve decided to share my own experience at Productboard.
Hiring new people in IT is generally a complicated process for both sides. A company can’t be sure that a job applicant is as qualified as they say they are in their CV before they ask them to come in for an interview, and sometimes even that isn’t enough. From the applicant’s point of view, there is no way to know for sure that the company they are applying to work at is a great fit. A lot of the hiring process at any company is based on trust, gut feelings, and a lot of research done by both sides. I want to show you how I looked for a new job and explain why I finally got a job at Productboard. This will hopefully make your job a little easier. I know that everyone has different priorities and that your job expectations may be different from mine. But maybe you’ll find some similarities between what I’ve done and what you want to do.
Productboard is quickly becoming one of the most popular product management platforms, empowering teams to build products that truly resonate with users. As Productboard continues to grow, job seekers are taking notice of the exciting opportunities available at this leading company.
However, interviews at Productboard can be challenging. You’ll need to demonstrate not just your product management skills, but also your strategic thinking, communication abilities, and leadership potential.
To help you ace your Productboard interview, I’ve compiled this list of the 15 most common and tricky questions asked, along with tips on how to craft winning responses With the right preparation, you’ll be ready to highlight your relevant experience and qualifications when it matters most.
1. How do you stay up-to-date on product management best practices and industry trends?
This question tests your proactive learning, curiosity to evolve, and understanding of the field. Interviewers want to know that you’re not stagnant in your career and are constantly seeking ways to expand your skillset and knowledge.
Tips for a great answer:
-
Share 2-3 specific resources you leverage to stay current, such as podcasts, publications, events, and thought leaders.
-
Give real examples of new methodologies or trends you’ve recently learned about and applied.
-
Emphasize curiosity, passion for continuous learning, and sharing knowledge with your team.
-
Avoid generic answers like “reading blogs” – get specific to showcase your commitment,
Example: “I make it a priority to stay on top of industry developments through resources like the Product School podcast, PMHQ Slack community, and product conferences like Mind the Product. For example, I recently learned about Jobs to be Done theory, which has transformed how I approach user research. I’m constantly looking to evolve as a product manager and share insights with my team.”
2. How would you go about understanding customer needs and designing a product to meet those needs?
This behavioral question tests your understanding of core product management practices like research, analysis, ideation and execution. Interviewers want to assess your strategic approach and how you would translate customer insights into well-designed solutions.
Tips for a great answer:
-
Walk through your step-by-step process, starting with research techniques.
-
Emphasize synthesizing findings into key insights vs just gathering data.
-
Discuss how you would translate insights into product requirements and user stories.
-
Share examples of how you’ve delivered on this process before.
Example: “I would start by deeply researching the target users through methods like surveys, interviews, and customer observation. Rather than just collect data, I analyze and synthesize the research into key insights about customer problems and unmet needs. I’ll use techniques like affinity mapping to identify themes and pain points. From these insights, I’ll write clear user stories to capture requirements that address the top issues. Throughout design and development, I continuously gather user feedback to refine prototypes and ensure we deliver an optimal solution.”
3. How would you go about prioritizing features in a product roadmap?
Prioritization is a core product management skill. This question reveals your analytical abilities, strategic thinking, and understanding of how to balance multiple inputs to determine priority. The interviewer wants to know that you can make smart data-driven decisions.
Tips for a great answer:
-
Discuss utilizing data from both quantitative (metrics, data) and qualitative (user feedback) sources.
-
Explain how you would analyze value vs effort/cost.
-
Share factors you consider beyond data, like strategy and vision.
-
Provide a real example of how you’ve prioritized successfully.
Example: “I leverage both quantitative and qualitative inputs to prioritize product features. This includes usage metrics to identify highly demanded capabilities, customer feedback to gauge satisfaction levels, and market analysis to align with trends and competition. I analyze the potential business and customer value versus the level of effort to gauge ROI. But it’s not just about data – I factor in the overarching product vision and strategy when assessing priority. For example, I led the prioritization for a payments product by deeply analyzing usage metrics and feedback surveys. This allowed me to focus first on streamlining the checkout flow, which became our top priority based on its potential impact on conversion rates and transaction volume.”
4. How would you handle a situation where sales teams are requesting a feature that engineering says is not feasible in the roadmap?
This situational question tests your ability to manage stakeholder alignment and expectations. Interviewers want to know you can strategically balance priorities and facilitate compromise.
Tips for a great answer:
-
Show you understand both perspectives and can mediate effectively.
-
Emphasize clear communication and transparency with both teams.
-
Suggest solutions focused on the customer experience and company goals.
-
Share an example of how you’ve aligned sales and engineering before.
Example: “First, I would have an open discussion with sales to fully understand the rationale for the request and the customer problem it aims to solve. Similarly, I would talk to engineering to grasp the effort involved and potential trade-offs required in the roadmap. My goal would be to identify solutions that address sales’ concerns while recognizing engineering realities. This may involve deferred delivery timelines, alternative capabilities, or temporary workarounds. With clear communication and a shared focus on customer experience, I’m confident we can find a compromise that meets immediate needs while keeping long-term roadmap priorities intact. For example, I once led the successful alignment of sales and engineering on a requested feature by implementing an interim manual process and deferring full automation to a future release.”
5. How do you identify and communicate the business value of product features to stakeholders?
Product managers must be able to articulate the business impact and ROI of their products to key stakeholders. This question tests your analytical thinking and influence through effective communication.
Tips for a great answer:
-
Discuss quantifying value through data – metrics, forecasts, etc.
-
Explain techniques for presenting insights through reports, presentations, etc.
-
Share examples of how you influenced decisions by communicating product value.
-
Emphasize tailoring messaging and data to resonate with different stakeholders.
Example: “I leverage both quantitative data and qualitative insights to build a compelling business case and communicate product value to stakeholders. This includes conducting extensive market analysis to quantify the market opportunity. I’ll forecast sales projections, revenue potential, and cost savings based on data and reasonable assumptions. To bring the data to life, I create visual presentations tailored to each audience, highlighting the benefits most relevant to them – whether it’s revenue growth, brand recognition or cost optimization. For example, I influenced our CEO to greenlight a new feature by creating a data-backed presentation emphasizing increased customer retention and its total economic impact. My strategy is to make the business value tangible through targeted messaging and concrete data.”
6. Tell me about a time you had to manage down scope on a project. What was the result?
Remaining focused and decisive despite obstacles is key. This question evaluates your project management skills when faced with roadblocks. Interviewers look for strategic scoping decisions while maintaining stakeholder alignment.
Tips for a great answer:
-
Concisely explain the situation necessitating a reduction of scope.
-
Share how you analyzed which features to cut while limiting impact.
-
Discuss how you maintained alignment with stakeholders when downscoping.
-
Emphasize results – delivered successfully despite challenges.
Example: “My team was building a new app feature when unexpected API integration issues forced us to reevaluate scope. I immediately met with engineers to understand trade-offs. I worked collaboratively to analyze how reducing specific aspects of the feature would impact the end user and business goals. Based on this analysis, we decided to focus initially on just iOS compatibility, delaying Android support. To get stakeholder buy-in, I showed a preview of the iOS feature to highlight the still significant value. Despite the initially broader vision, our pragmatic scoping delivered an impactful user capability. This scope discipline resulted in launching the new iOS feature on schedule, providing the core value while reducing complexity.”
7. How do you balance short term incremental improvements and long term innovation in your product roadmap?
Demonstrating this balance shows strategic thinking and ability to align tactical needs with a broader vision. The interviewer wants to see that you understand the dynamic product lifecycle.
Tips for a great answer:
-
Discuss dedicating effort across both incremental and innovative improvements.
-
Share how you gather data to inform innovation focus areas.
-
Provide a real example of balancing short and long-term deliverables.
-
Emphasize continuously evaluating market signals to adjust roadmap focus.
Example: *”An effective roadmap requires both incremental improvements and innovative leaps. I dedicate effort across continuous improvements to current capabilities as well as longer-term R&D for cutting-edge features. User analytics and market analysis inform the focus for innovation efforts based on evolving behaviors and demands. At the same time, I gather feedback and monitor performance to identify incremental opportunities. For example, my last role involved building multi-touch attribution analysis while allocating 20% time to explore machine learning applications. This provided immediate marketing analytics gains while innovating for future-proofing. I continually assess signals
Defining requirements when looking for work
There are a lot of jobs available in IT right now because demand is still much higher than supply. This means we have a lot of options and can choose the type of job we want. In my case, I had the following requirements:
- I didn’t want to work in a digital agency. On principle, I don’t like agencies or companies that do work for other people. For me, the product itself doesn’t give me a sense of ownership. Management doesn’t always stress doing things well because it takes more time and money and might not always bring in more money for the agency. Body-shopping is a similar case. This type of business usually takes advantage of the fact that big companies don’t want to hire contractors directly or don’t mind hiring contractors through outside companies. Digital agencies, on the other hand, are fun to work for when you first start out because you can try out lots of different technologies, switch projects often, and meet lots of new people.
- I wanted to work for a company that had some set procedures but not too many. People call a startup that doesn’t have any processes “punk,” but once the company gets big enough, it needs processes or it can’t grow. Companies, on the other hand, often get stuck on procedures and don’t get much work done, which is also not ideal. That’s why it’s important to find a balance between them.
- I wanted to make something fun that I would want to use myself. You start to understand how important it is to enjoy your work once you meet the basic needs in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. This is easy to do in IT. When you don’t enjoy your job, you lose drive and find it hard to do a good job over time. That’s why it’s important to work on things you enjoy and can fully achieve.
- It was important to me to work with inspiring people who could teach me. It’s said that a person is like the five people they spend the most time with as a whole. There’s definitely something to that, at least from my perspective. We absorb language, behavior, and thought structure from our surroundings. Since we spend a lot of time at work, it’s important to get along with your coworkers as much as possible. I still want to work with people who are interested, willing to try new things, and don’t see work as a means to an end. If you don’t like your job or are in a bad place to work, you should quit as soon as possible.
Based on these requirements, I narrowed my search down to several companies with offices in Prague. The key prospects were Memsource, Windy, Pipedrive, and Productboard. These companies were developing products that appealed to me.
From a product point of view, Windy and Memsource were very interesting to me. But Pipedrive and Productboard had better company culture, which is important to me.
I liked the team at Pipedrive’s clear goals, their well-established processes, their interesting company culture, and most of all, the sauna at their Karlin offices, which is a must for me!
I made it through the whole hiring process at Pipedrive, and I liked it. The third round was the most interesting of all. It included an interview with Martti, VP of Engineering, where we discussed personal projects inside and outside of IT. He really is interested in the candidate’s ultimate goal and whether they program out of love or for other reasons. It was one of the most interesting interviews that I had during the whole hiring process. Still, I was completely set on taking the job at Pipedrive. Until that is, I had a call with my friend Martin, Staff Engineer at Productboard.
What does Productboard even do?
I’ll admit, I had no idea about how problematic product management was. It looked like a simplified version of Jira to me. It showed features in a timeline and called it a “roadmap.” ”.
I was wrong about this, and Martin quickly cleared it up for me by saying, “Productboard is exactly what you use even before Jira.” Many companies don’t even think about it, but it would help them if they did. ”.
I told him how I thought product managers chose the best places to focus on during development to help the product the most. Then I realized I had missed the Jira process for putting requests in order of importance that should happen between user feedback and requests for new features.
Requests for new features shouldn’t be based on feelings or personal preferences, but on data and feedback that can be measured. So that’s what Productboard does.
The tools for getting feedback from users are on the left side of the Productboard workflow diagram, and the tools for keeping track of issues are on the far right. In between the two is Productboard. It takes all of the user requests and turns them into roadmaps that can be shared with the public and then used to get more feedback.
Product managers can use Productboard to figure out which things have the most impact on the product with the least amount of work. You don’t have to be as smart as Steve Jobs to know what needs to be done and which features will fetch the most money for your time.
Martin talked to me about Productboard for about two hours. He showed me how the product worked in detail and described the company culture. After that call, I wrote to a few people I know at Productboard to ask them how they liked working there and received extremely positive responses from everyone. I checked the reviews on Glassdoor, and they were also fantastic.
I listened to all the podcasts I could find with Productboard’s CEO Hubert and CTO Dan to learn more about the program and the problem it tries to solve. I also checked out the series People of Productboard and Engineering leadership. I went through articles I found about user experience with products. I found out who the competitors were and read articles about hiring that were written by Productboard’s talent department. I liked Productboard’s strong vision, and I felt a job there could really be interesting.
I went through several rounds of interviews at Productboard. The first round was with a recruiter Adela where we talked about my expectations and goals. In the second round, I programmed little snippets in JavaScript; in the third, I was asked to work with React components. I spoke with Vojta, Senior Director of Engineering, in the fourth round of the interview process. In addition to these interviews, I was also invited to lunch and met (virtually) with the team to be sure that we got along. (Spoiler alert: we did!)
The interview process isn’t especially easy and it isn’t meant to be. Both sides are trying to mutually understand each other and figure out if they’re going to get along. The company is checking not only your technical skills but also your English, your emotional intelligence, and whether you’d be a good fit for the team as a whole. When a company is picky, it can hire people who will work well with others and keep a strong company culture and sense of belonging.
I personally like companies that have a multi-round, complicated interview process. They’re more stressful and difficult to prepare for. But from my experience, when you work for a company with a simple interview process, you end up working with people you don’t learn much from. This isn’t the case at companies that put more emphasis on finding the right candidates in the first place.
My advice: Don’t hesitate to go through complex interviews. Look at them as practice rounds. They will make you feel better about yourself and help you get ready for that one interview you really want to ace.
A Step-by-Step Guide to Better Product Discovery | Product Management Tips
FAQ
How to prepare for the final interview with the director?
