Mastering the 'Do You Have Any Questions?' Interview Moment: Expert Tips

Hey there 👋

Never has an interview concluded without the interviewer asking, "Do you have any questions for me?" And yet, most candidates prepare very poorly for this.

The worst you can do is say that you have no questions to ask. It shows you are disinterested and ill-prepared.

Consider this:

Interviewer: Do you have any questions for me?

Candidate: Yes! Could you share the biggest challenges the product team is currently facing?

Interviewer (thinks) - Do you really mean to ask this question? You are only asking this to impress me, aren't you? Do you really believe you can solve some significant problems that our existing team hasn't been able to solve? Do you believe you have enough knowledge to understand the context of the “biggest” problems we are facing now? Let me give you something that put an end to this.

Interviewer - Sure. We are working to improve the overall experience of the App.

Candidate (thinks) - I am so smart! nailed this one!!

Candidate - Okay! Thanks for sharing

The best questions to ask are the ones that you really mean to ask as a future PM in the organization. For example: Who truly decides what features are to be shipped? Is this a feature factory, or does someone actually talk to customers? What happens when there is a conflict? Who sets priorities and how? What is the team dynamic like?

Of course, you cannot ask these questions exactly like this. You need to reframe them to get these insights. Here are some good questions that will help you gain insights and make you come across as a well-prepared, thoughtful candidate:

Question #1

How do the development team and Product team work together?

Expected insights

The reporting structure of the development team, use of sprints, dotted line reporting of developers to PM, etc.

Question #2

How do you prioritize what will be shipped? Who decides that? What happens when there is a conflict in priority?

Expected insights

Power available with PM, visibility of other stakeholders and their influence in the process.

Question #3

Is decision-making top-down or bottom-up? What happens when a feature is requested by Senior management?

Expected insights

Does the process go out the window whenever there's a feature request from a CXO, or is it still followed?

Most companies are still figuring out Product Management, and that doesn't make them a bad employer or a bad place to work. Don't expect perfect answers here. In fact, if you're told that everything works exactly as recommended by gurus, but you still see a suboptimal product, you should doubt the responses.

The goal here is to learn about the workplace and its dynamics so that you can prepare yourself for challenges appropriately.

I hope you found this useful.

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All the Best

Aditi