Hiring rubric for a senior product manager.

The rubric.

Weights sum to 100. Calibrated across small-team hiring panels.

Ten questions to ask.

Each includes what a strong answer contains and what a weak answer sounds like.

1. 01

   communication medium · launch

   Write a tweet announcing a new feature. What's your editing process?

   Strong answer

   Cuts 50% of words. Leads with user benefit. Avoids buzzwords. Knows who they're writing for. Has colleagues read it.

   Weak answer

   First draft is the final. Lots of adjectives.
2. 02

   product hard · strategy

   Your product has product-market fit in one segment. CEO wants to expand to a new one. How do you think about whether to do it?

   Strong answer

   Evaluates whether current PMF transfers. Cost of serving new segment. Risk to existing segment's experience. Would talk to 10 prospects first. Discusses focus as a strategic choice.

   Weak answer

   'Sure, let's do it.' Or 'no, stay focused' — either without analysis.
3. 03

   product medium · failure

   Tell me about a feature you shipped that failed. What did you learn?

   Strong answer

   Specific feature. Specific failure mode (low adoption, negative metric, user complaint). Clear lesson applied to next shipment.

   Weak answer

   'Everything worked.' Or vague 'we iterated.'
4. 04

   culture medium · feedback

   A designer pushes back hard on a decision you made. How do you respond?

   Strong answer

   Curious, not defensive. Asks what they're seeing that you're not. Separates their reasoning from their emotion. Changes your mind if they're right. Explains clearly if they're not.

   Weak answer

   Either steamrolls or caves. Either way, no real conversation.
5. 05

   experience baseline · resume-probe

   Your resume says you grew product X's usage by Y%. What did YOU do vs what the team did?

   Strong answer

   Clear boundary between individual contribution + team. Credits specific colleagues. Knows why certain decisions were made even those they didn't make.

   Weak answer

   Claims credit for team output. Vague about own role.
6. 06

   product medium · prioritization

   You have 10 feature requests from enterprise customers. How do you prioritize?

   Strong answer

   Frameworks (RICE, ICE) used sanely, not dogmatically. Asks about strategic fit, not just loudest customer. Distinguishes 'painful' from 'asked for.'

   Weak answer

   Whoever yelled loudest or paid most. Or a Jira-style priority queue with no strategy.
7. 07

   stakeholder medium · eng-disagreement

   Engineering tells you a feature you need will take 6 months. You think it should take 6 weeks. What do you do?

   Strong answer

   Asks why. Doesn't assume engineering is gaming estimates or they're being unreasonable. Breaks down the 6 months into components. Proposes phased shipping. Respects engineering judgment while pushing back.

   Weak answer

   Either accepts silently or escalates aggressively. No curiosity.
8. 08

   situational medium · data-conflict

   Your quant analyst says users don't want feature X. Your best customer says they do. Who do you believe?

   Strong answer

   Neither blindly. Investigates — is it the same feature they're describing? Is the quant measuring the right thing? Talks to 5 users to triangulate.

   Weak answer

   'Data wins.' Or 'the customer is always right.' Either is wrong.
9. 09

   product medium · metrics

   You're launching a new feature. What metric tells you it's succeeding?

   Strong answer

   Leads with user-facing value (not just 'DAU went up'). Distinguishes leading from lagging indicators. Guardrails to catch unintended harm.

   Weak answer

   'Users will love it.' Or picks a vanity metric.
10. 10

    stakeholder medium · sales

    Sales commits to a feature with an enterprise prospect that's not on your roadmap. How do you handle?

    Strong answer

    Debriefs with sales to understand real need vs stated need. Evaluates fit with strategy. Clear yes-with-conditions or no-with-alternative. Doesn't punish sales for closing deals.

    Weak answer

    Either adds it silently or refuses without engaging.