Read the original at Lenny’s Newsletter ↗lennysnewsletter.com · subscriber post
By Lenny Rachitsky · lennysnewsletter.com · @lennysan on X · YouTube · LinkedIn
Lenny Rachitsky lays out a practical playbook for interviewing product managers: a multi-stage funnel with screens, a full-day loop, and panel debriefs. He covers which skills to test, sample questions, how to design take-home or day-of project assignments with real examples, and tactics for closing candidates.
Subscriber post — summary only01Key takeaways
- Expect to talk to roughly 23 PM candidates to hire one strong candidate, so plan sourcing and referrals accordingly.
- Test six core IC PM skills: communication, collaboration, execution, strategy, impact, and product sense.
- Project exercises reveal how candidates decompose problems and communicate, which matters more than reaching a 'correct' answer.
- Choose between take-home and day-of projects by weighing candidate fairness, friction, and signal quality, and consider offering both.
- Use structured, consistent questions with predefined good and bad answers to reduce interviewer bias.
- Treat the offer stage as a selling opportunity, investing heavily in closing top candidates.
“Interview best practices are generally anecdotal, so definitely do your own research.”Lenny Rachitsky · Lenny’s Newsletter
“The goal of the project is to get a taste of how a candidate approaches a new problem.”Lenny Rachitsky · Lenny’s Newsletter
02Frameworks mentioned
Summary and takeaways written by PM Atlas; quotes are short excerpts. © the original author.