Product teams are not born the same. Far from it. Through countless conversations with PMs is varying levels, I tried to identify “the best from the rest”. Eventually, I set on the following questions to help guide me:
How much of your time is focused on Discovery vs Delivery?
- As a PM I want to be provided with a business goal, or problem to solve and be empowered to identify solutions through discovery work I can then test and validate. Too many product teams are given solutions to execute on, not problems to solve. This is a good preliminary question to test the water.
How often and in what channels do you engage with customers directly?
- As a PM I want to have a direct channel to interact with customers, as well as tools to gather quantitative insights about my customers. A warning sign for me is when these communications are being guarded and mediated by customer-facing teams (mainly customer success and sales). These teams are valuable stakeholders, but no replacement to direct customer input.
When’s the last time you talked with your customers? How often have you done that in the last month?
- A follow-up question to the previous one; let’s validate what’s the reality looks like for the desirable outcome described in the prior question.
How do you decide what to build next? What technics do you use to prioritize features?
- For me this is a key to understanding how much ownership you will really have as a PM; Do leadership provides Product with requirements or with problems to solve? How much leverage do you have to push back? Especially in a big org, there are going to be so many requests coming from stakeholders (leadership, CS, Sales, Marketing), parallel product teams, and tech debt that needs to be addressed. The question for me is how much bandwidth you have to drive work that going to delight your customers and influence your metrics.
How are your (personal and team) goals set up? Do you feel empowered to tackle and solve the business problem assigned in the way you see fit?
- This is a direct question as to how you and your team are going to be measured, in case this is still not covered in the prior responses.
How often do you test new ideas and what technics do you use?
- This question has two parts: (1) What discovery looks like for this team and (2) What tools are you provided with to do discovery — the more understanding there is of the tools a PM needs to do discovery right (event tracking, for example — more on that another time), the more you are set up for success.
What was the last feature or product your team killed?
- Fixed mindset vs growth mindset question. Do you stick to something because “it’s on the roadmap” or do you continuously reevaluate and have the flexibility to make mistakes and reiterate? This is a key competency for product success.
What was the last thing your team has built and shipped, and what was your biggest challenge in shipping?
- Hey — let's not forget execution is a key part of the PM role. This is an opportunity to learn about the team execution culture, and what you can bring to improve that.
Tell me about the last coaching session you had with your manager. How often did that happen last month?
- Growing and development are crucial to personal success but also to the company and product success. A good manager makes sure his team is challenged, provided with feedback, and pushes forward. Awareness and intention is the first step to getting there.
— — — —
What else do you ask to identify an empowered product team? Let me know!
Side note: Just like in user interviews, refrain from asking about the “usual” and try to ask about specific past experiences (cc: The Mom Test).
The writings of SVPG, Teresa Torres, and @shreyas among others, helped shape my thoughts on the topic.
