Senior Director Of Product Interview Questions
10K
Senior Director Of Product interview questions shared by candidates
The manager of component 'A' says his functionality is more important than that of component 'B.' The manager of component 'B' says his is more important than that of component 'A.' You can only implement one A or B, but not both - which do you choose to implement.
14 Answers↳
The key question to ask is definition of "IMPORTANT". Is it important to the managers (ego equation), important to the end consumer or important for Amazon. The first one needs to be thrown out immediately and the others must be quantified based on achievability, impact on end user and ROI. Less
↳
I would say whichever is more valuable to customer & gives competitive advantage to Amazon. Less
↳
Agreed. Need to drill into what "important" means. Great catch My guess is that Amazon was looking to quantify/define "important" from the customer perspective. Less
Tell me how you would scale a social media software platform?
3 Answers↳
Try to define "scale", ask for clarifications. Are we trying to scale to more users or to more ad providers? Are there any current bottlenecks? What is the goal here? How about we improve the experience by providing more relevant ads? etc... Less
↳
Its such a tricky question. I guess its by the analytic we use to know the page views and all.. Less
↳
I didn't have a good answer for this one.
Suppose you are working on a project with an original scope of a few months and you are told that you instead now have a few days -- how would you handle it?
5 Answers↳
I'd ask 'why'? Something radically changed since the last time this was discussed. Understanding what it was that changed is critical to determining the best course of action. Adding manpower, reducing scope, working 24/7, or pushing back might all be reasonable (or horrible) solutions. By first understanding the (new) need, you can then develop a solution. Less
↳
Depends: Who is telling me this? What stage is the project in on the project life cycle? Review these factors in light of the impacts, set change management process and communication plan. There are no cookie cutter approached - each project is unique. Less
↳
I would say evaluate the overall impacts and risks then communicate it with your sponsor (customer). Let he/she to decide then document it. Less
Have I ever managed a project where my deadline move-up abruptly? Was I able to meet that deliverable deadline, and if so, how?
1 Answers↳
I explained a recent experience in which my predecessor chose to ignore a critical condition of approval on her project, which had been turned over to me. I explained how I meet with my organizations principals, gained their blessed and immediately scheduled a meeting with the city's engineering and public works department. It took me jumping in, evaluating the issue, determining the best possible solution for all, and work with and manage my team flawlessly. It is a complete success and I met my deliverable deadline. Less
Describe a project that you have managed and the steps you took to see that project completed.
1 Answers↳
I described a very large application re-write project I had done for a previous employer. I explained the requirements gathering process, scope documentation, documentation, planning, day to day management of resources and tasks and final testing, UAT and rollout. Less
How would you deliver a project when there are two conflicting directives issued by your manager and your manager's manager?
1 Answers↳
Communicate these directives, first to your manager, then come to an agreement. Communicate to your manager's manager the reason behind what this agreement is to move forward. Correct protocol shows respect to both managers and solid communication skills. Less
What do you think of the team?
6 Answers↳
team is a group of people with different ideas working on a common goal
↳
the team is a group of people who help each other to make the company success
↳
Working a project, a functional team is the one major key to success.
How would I design the elevators for a new 40 story office building that had an average of 100 people per floor to most efficiently fill and empty the building given a standard 9-5 workday and traffic conditions in my city? The answer needed to be completely detailed, including expected passengers per car, time per stop, average floors stops per trip at various hours, etc.
7 Answers↳
1) The first advice that I've read is to ask some questions before you start answering. It will show that you are strategic & don't jump to random assumptions. So I will probably ask questions like: Is the efficiency goal focused only at the start & end of day & not in between (i.e. lunch time, breaks)? How many elevators are there? What is the capacity of each elevator? 2) Assuming that everything is average, i.e. 6 elevators, 15 people per elevator, and focus only on start and end date, then the sample data should follow a normal distribution. 730-8 - 2% 8-830 - 14% 830-9 - 34% 9-930 - 34% 930-10 - 14% 10-1030 - 2% 3) I will break this down & solve the worst case scenario first. This means, 34 people x 40 floors = 1360 people to be transported by 6 elevator x 15 = total 90 capacity during 830-9 or 9-930 am. 4) Focusing on this more manageable problem, 1360 / 90 means each elevator will make 15 full cycles (lobby to highest floor and back) 5) Since we want to minimize the cycle time for each elevator, we assign one elevator per subset of 40/6 consecutive floors. This should address the issue on minimizing time per stop. 6) That means, the final design should be a load balancing of the elevators by minimizing the travel time --- Elevator A - 1st to 7th floor, B - 8th to 14th floor, and so forth. Do you guys see anything wrong with this line of thinking? Less
↳
The idea is to "learn" from user behavior. Start with a blank slate where the elevators assume that all floors, except the first floor, have the same probability at all times. Then, based on user behavior, alter the probabilities. If the elevators can talk with the users' phones, via bluetooth, and identify to which floor this user goes, when he/she comes to and leaves work, how often does this person take the elevator to go to other floors or out on lunch, then improve the efficiency based on the aspects learnt. Less
↳
A simple algorithm would be to note that there will be more people during the morning going up and slowly taper this down as the day progresses. For example, during the noon-afternoon period, the frequency and number of people going up or down would be almost the same. So have a priority for the ground floor during the morning hours. Move the elevators as soon as possible to the higher floors. Mandate that people get in regardless of whether the elevator is going up or down, once the elevator reaches the highest floor, it would reverse and go non-stop to the bottom floor. Increase the priority for people for the floors that have the buttons pressed as time passes. Less
What is the best way to sort a terabyte of array of data, when you have limited RAM (500k), and each array element has a couple of items of data, at about 1-10k each.
6 Answers↳
External merge sort. First load the data chunk by chunk, sort it in-memory (by quicksort for example) and write it back in chunks. After this, use merge sort on the chunks. This is how most databases do sorting. Less
↳
How is this relevant to a product manager role? This is an engineering problem
↳
External merge sort is the answer
Why are you leaving your current position
6 Answers↳
Hi I have had to relocate to New York because of a need for more opportunities Available within my sports med minor My current employer has been very understanding and has offered me a chance to travel and learn More about my intended career goals Apart from my associate management employment Position a Rittenhouse sports Philadelphia Her names is Carolyn and since maintaining a concise agende and updating with the shop I proved the ability toward making for the best On behalf of Career Volunteering & community Which has its rewards Less
↳
Thank you for writing this comment. It is very good and encouraging for someone who might have applied or about to go through the process. Less
↳
Thank you so much for the detailed review. I have been applying at UHG but still no answer. My current project was affected by a budget cut so I'm really looking for a new project. I am a CMS contractor and I'm really praying to get a position with UHG. I love that company. Less