Client contact management for Product Management

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hello everyone and welcome my name is diego granados and i'm a product manager in today's video we're going to talk about how you can prepare to answer strategy questions in a product management interview these questions can be tricky and more often than not are we going to be open-ended but don't worry i'll show you what you can do to prepare for them you prepared all this time for your product management interview and you're ready to tackle behavioral and product case questions and suddenly the interviewer surprises you with a question that seems impossible to answer in a short interview something like should netflix get into the video game industry or what should apple do next what about what is the biggest threat to youtube now don't panic there are ways to approach this type of strategy questions and i'll share some tips of what you can do one of the most important things to know is that there is no right answer to these questions in fact what matters most is the process of how you got the answer the interview wants to know how you approach these type of problems and what are the things that you consider as you go along the way you should also know that there is no specific framework with steps that will answer all questions today i'm going to share some of the tips to consider for an interview when you get asked this type of questions however i also recommend that you read more on two particular topics to take it one step further i'll leave a few links below in the description porter's five forces which is a framework that analyzes a company's competitive environment and the market in three cs and for peace with an emphasis on the three cs is a framework that can help you remember key aspects when discussing product questions alright so before the interview in theory you've done your research about the company you visited their website and read the recent news about it in product management it's difficult that you'll be researching to stay updated on news and tech trends and while this is not about memorizing any specific number or dates everything that you read will help you answer strategy questions just think about it for a moment maybe you read that there's a possible acquisition or merger happening or that there is a new product or a new feature that was released not so long ago all of this information will help you with ideas as you brainstorm a solution for these type of strategy questions so let's go ahead and talk about what you should do in an interview when you get a strategy question number one clarify questions before jumping into solving the question you want to make sure that you fully understand what you need to do and that you and the interviewer are on the same page if there's anything ambiguous about the question you should clarify it for example let's say that they ask you a question like should netflix get into the video game industry this is a really big question so it's better to clarify things like does the question refer to getting into the video game industry as game producers as a streaming platform as console makers make sure that you clarify any ambiguities so that you know exactly where to take the problem next [Music] number two customers and company like i mentioned before there's no specific framework to use here but there are certain things that are very important to consider in a strategy question one of the most important ones are customers so unless the interviewer asks you a question related to a specific segment of users now it's a good time to talk about the customers who are the customers for this particular company are the customers and users the same or are they different what are their pain points what are their needs what alternatives do they have to your company's product and then talk about the company how does the company solve the user problems how is a company changing over time to adapt to these user needs now companies don't completely change overnight because there's a customer need they evolve and expand with their mission and the vision at the center and yes missions and visions change but not as fast as we will think to solve strategy interview questions you need to think about the company mission and how the solution to the customer problem stems from them for instance in the case of netflix and the question of whether they should expand into the video game industry we should look at the typical netflix customer and then think of netflix mission and vision while netflix doesn't have an official published mission statement their founders have always talked about how their mission and vision for netflix includes things like becoming the best global entertainment distribution service and licensing entertainment content around the world among other things so with that in mind if netflix were to get into the video game industry would it make more sense for them to create their own games for other consoles or to become the place the service where people can play video games and both the netflix can create their own games and allow creators to publish their games as well in this case probably the latter goes more aligned with what their founders have said before [Music] number three competitors and other companies there are other players to consider besides just the customers and company in almost every case you have to consider competitors and you should talk about them too and how the decisions the company make will affect all competitors or perhaps what new competitors the company has to face if they enter a new industry maybe there are actually new entrants in the market that you need to consider moreover how does the current company's portfolio help or harm the company in this new venture if netflix moves into the video game industry how does that affect competitors like hulu what new competitors will netflix have to be aware of here's another example if apple went into the self-driving car business how does that affect google and now that apple will have to compete against tesla how does that affect these two companies but not everything is about competitors the question can also be about one company acquiring another or a company doing a new partnership with another company and in this case just repeat the process talk about the customer and the different companies where do you see the synergies between the companies that can solve the customer needs or problems where do you actually see potential risks is the reason to acquire a company to gain advantage of a new technology to complete a portfolio of products or because a competitor is interested in acquiring the same company and we should do it faster and remember there is no right answer to strategy questions but it's rather about how you approach the logic that you use and how you structure your ideas [Music] number four suppliers not everything that happens is exclusive to the company and their competitors there are other players like suppliers or providers that affect decisions about the company and you should talk about them and take them into consideration as well when coming up with an answer and these providers or suppliers will have their own motivations and goals and in certain industries they also have a lot of power so the company needs to think about them when making a decision for instance if netflix goes into the video game industry you may need to talk about the independent game developers or suppliers who would publish games in the platform and talk about what they care about and how their motivations affect netflix or if netflix will build its own video game studio how would they source the people for the studio if netflix does independent games on its own how does that affect the indie developers in the market their suppliers [Music] and number five the environment finally everything that you also mentioned before is affected by the environment trends in the market or changes in consumer behavior will affect your decisions and what the company or competitors will do so talk about what you have heard or seen or read about the industry and how this plays into the decisions you're making and once again in the case of netflix getting into the video game industry you could talk about how mobile gaming has been constantly growing or that while vr sounds really exciting not everybody has a device at home yet maybe even talk about video game streaming platforms like twitch and how that has affected the market or even how esports are growing as well i hope that with these simple examples you see that for a company to make a decision to get into a new industry or launch a product or acquire a new company or new partners or new suppliers is not just about understanding the customer and making a decision there are plenty of other things to consider and that's what the interviewers are looking for your thought process and how you break a big question like this one into smaller chunks to solve the problem and now let's do a quick summary everything that we talked about today can be found in frameworks like fortress 5 forces so if you're interested in strategy i definitely encourage you to read more about it and now when you're going to ask a strategy question in an interview make sure you follow these steps number one clarify questions make sure that you and your interviewer are on the same page and that you remove as much ambiguity as possible from the question number two talk about your customers and the company number three talk about competitors and other companies why other companies remember that perhaps the question they're asking you can be about a merger an acquisition or a new partnership number four suppliers there are other players in the game and you want to consider them and talk about them as you develop the case and number five the environment don't forget that there can be trends in the market or changes in consumer behavior that will also affect your decisions and with that you should be ready to tackle strategy questions in a product management interview that's it for me today thank you everyone for watching and i'll see you next time