20 Best Amazon Product Manager Interview Tips with Practice Questions and Answers

This post provides exhaustive information on the Amazon product manager interview, including useful tips, practice questions and answers to help in your preparation and achieving success at the job interview.

Please, read on:

Product management is a core department in the Amazon Company. Amazon won’t be Amazon without their products and customers.

They always look to hire the right product managers that can skillfully handle product ideation to delivery.

That said, you should expect to go through some important screening to be hired as a product manager with Amazon.

Amazon Product Manager Interview Tips

Here are valuable tips to help you prepare effectively and succeed in the product manager job interview with Amazon:

1. Research what product management is all about.

Many candidates fail from the start because they don’t even know what the product manager job is all about in the Amazon context.

2. Get familiar with the PM interview process.

There are different stages of the interview process. You will need to be aware and ready for them. It reduces tension.

3. Prepare for different question types.

The question comes in different types and forms. You would also need different strategies for them.

4. Research the 14 Amazon leadership principles.

Amazon is built around 14 leadership principles. You can’t succeed without knowing them well.

5. Research deeply into Amazon products.

A PM candidate would be expected to have a good knowledge of Amazon products.

6. Come up with an interesting product design idea.

Amazon will test your creative abilities; your capacity to improve on products and create new ones.

7. Think big.

Make your ideas big enough to catch their attention. Thinking big is an important leadership principle in Amazon.

8. Design and rehearse a simple and concise break down of your idea.

Candidates often find it difficult to state how their product ideas would be created. Interviewers want to know how you plan to create your product idea. They need tactical details.

9. Make sure that the 14 leadership principles reflect on your product Ideas.

Don’t hurriedly talk about any idea at the interview. Think of it well and ensure it falls into the leadership principles.

10. Your collaborative skills will be tested.

A product manager is always asked questions that test their collaborative skills to know how they will communicate with their teammates and managers.

11. Customer obsession questions are more important than ever here.

More than any other role, the interviews would want to ensure that candidates understand customer needs and problems.

12. Get ready for behavioral questions.

Behavioral questions are very important in any Amazon interview. Prepare for them.

13. Spend time developing stories to answer behavioral questions.

You will need a well-structured story to go through Amazon behavioral questions.

14. Employ the STAR technique to answer behavioral questions.

It is very advisable to master the STAR technique and use it to answer behavioral questions. STAR stands for: Situation, Task, Action, Results.

15. Expect some “devil’s advocate”.

In PM interviews, interviewers often intentionally take an opposite side of an issue in question to test your reaction.

Don’t be easily swayed to agree with them if you have a well-structured argument to make.

16. Furnish your Communication skills.

Amazon considers communication skills greatly especially when it comes to product managers. Prepare to communicate excellently with clarity.

17. Expect to follow up questions that would probe your product development experience.

Be ready to share in details your past experiences as a product developer or manager.

18. Spend a good time preparing for hypothetical questions.

You will be asked to talk about some business problems Amazon is facing with their products and market.

19. Ask questions.

Don’t hesitate to ask questions that can help you answer any question better.

20. Rehearse practice questions and answers.

Get yourself familiar with the kind of questions they normally ask and their possible answers.

20 Amazon Product Manger Interview Practice Questions and Answers

Here are useful questions and answers to practice with for your preparation for the Amazon product manager job interview:

1. Why are you interested in product management?
   “Product management gives me the opportunity to create a product that will solve problems faced by millions of people; this excites me the most.”
2. What will you do to redesign our products?

“I will first seek to understand what the product needs and what it lacks. I will then retain and build features that would make the product unique and easy to use. I will make it as cost-effective as possible without reducing quality to satisfy customers.”

3. Mention two ways to avoid product failure?

“Firstly, you have to keep innovating. Secondly, launch the product to a sample audience before moving out officially.”

4. What does a product development strategy consist of?

“It majorly consists of:

• Market demand data
• Business situation
• Competitors
• Technology capabilities
• Domain and
• Design expertise.”

5. What is the difference between B2B products and B2C products?

“B2B products are focused on enabling simple and profitable business activities for stakeholders while B2C has its focus on providing a good user experience to its target audience.”

6. What is PLM?

“It stands for product lifecycle management.”

7. What is the primary goal of PLM?

“The main purpose of PLM is to make the flow of information, people, and processes related to the lifecycle of a product possible.”

8. What metrics do you use to measure the success of a product?

“Here are the metrics to measure product success:

• Product awareness
• Frequency of use
• Product depth
• Efficiency
• Customer satisfaction.”

9. What are the major things that determine a product price?

“There are three major things to consider: variable cost, fixed cost, and profit margin.”

10. In what ways can you ensure adequate communication with the engineering team as a product manager?

“I would take certain measures like communicating any development challenge been faced to them and let them solve the problem.

I would also take measures to have frequent communication with them.

I would also make decisions strongly based on valid data to avoid disagreement on products.”

11. What do you think about XYZ product?
12. What makes a good user interface?
13. How will you keep in touch with product users?
14. Compare PLM and ERP.
15. What is Amazon most successful product?
16. Talk about major products competing with Amazon.
17. Talk about a major or the most successful product you created.
18. How do you define market opportunity in a business plan?
19. What product technology trend excited you the most?
20. Talk about a product you had so much challenge creating.

10 Good Questions you can ask Interviewers at the Amazon Product Manager Interview

When asked if you have any question to ask at a product manager interview with Amazon, here are good questions you can ask:

1. Did I answer your question correctly?
2. What is the career path like in this company?
3. How do you reward individual performance?
4. What is the next thing after this interview?
5. What challenges should a product manager expect in this company?
6. What common mistakes do people make in this role?
7. Is there any advice you would love to give me?
8. How will you describe the ideal person for the job?
9. Who are your major competitors?
10. Is there any other thing you will need me to do?

Conclusion

You will do well in the Amazon product manager interview with good preparation and this article provides valuable tips and practice questions and answers to make your preparation effective.