Mobile Marketing Interview Questions

With our focus on mobile automated testing, we are in constant contact with mobile product managers (PM) on a daily basis. Considering that before starting testmunk, we developed mobile apps ourselves, we felt it was time to re-acquaint ourselves with this profession a little better. In order to do so, we got together with our friend Yu-Kuan Lin, a former PM at Google for Android, to list some of the areas you might want to cover and questions you might want to raise when interviewing a potential mobile PM, or, if you are considering applying for a PM role, what you should be prepared for.

What are some of the tasks for Mobile Project Managers?

Typically, a mobile PM is hired when a mobile application startup reaches a certain size, where multiple projects or an increasingly complex product means that the founders do not have the capacity to be heads down in product related tasks or projects. This point of saturation is very much dependent on the company and its structure. A mobile PM can be involved in several areas, including deciding features, being involved in user interface decisions, planning project budgets and roadmaps, some engineering, analytics, and also QA. A mobile PM can truly be a very versatile role, requiring a varied skill set.

1) Product Design

When trying to find the right candidate from a product design perspective, you need to be sure he or she has a good understanding of product design. When reviewing your interview responses, these are some of the questions you should ask yourself.

• Can this person be the “voice of the user/customer”?

  A good PM must be able to communicate and prioritize instructions from the client, as well as communicate feedback from the users into design improvements, and settle any conflicts between the two.

• Can this person make good design tradeoff and judgment?

  This question is key for determining whether the mobile product manager can make smart decisions ensuring that client requirements are met, while keeping the interface intuitive and simple for the user.

• Can this person design something that will make users & customers happy?

  Again, this is about compromise, communication and a transparent decision process. As an interviewer, you must look at the responses given for examples of insightful reviews of other apps, ideas for improvement, and of clear communication, should client concerns and user needs conflict.

2)Skills (Analytical/Technical/Versatile)

Obviously, you cannot hire a mobile PM without being comfortable with his/her skill set. When analyzing their skill set, these are some key areas of consideration:

• Can this person analyze a lot of data without guidance?

  Your candidate needs to be able to analyze and organize a great deal of information on a daily basis. He needs to be able to make sense of this information, and communicate it.

• Can he then draw out useful, statistically significant insights from this data?

  Even more than understanding and communicating this data, he needs to be able to draw true meaning from these facts and figures. He should be able to see patterns, and in some cases, come up with ways to change these patterns.

• Can this person make good engineering tradeoffs & decisions? Guide engineers?

  Part and parcel of this position is to make important decisions on product direction. Does feature X take priority over feature Y? What would it take to deliver both? Another resource? Increased automated testing? Is it impossible to deliver feature Y as described? Then what can be delivered in relation to this feature? A trade-off implies an unhappy party somewhere in the equation, typically the client or the user. If a feature cannot be delivered, or needs to be delivered differently, the revised item absolutely must be delivered when promised. The mobile PM needs to be confident and decisive.

• Can this person work with the smartest engineer in your team and earn their respect?

  It all boils down to whether the mobile PM will be taken seriously. The mobile PM must not only be savvy enough to provide these answers, but to ensure the engineer takes ownership of delivering on these decisions. The mobile PM also needs to be knowledgeable and assertive enough to push, if an engineer is not prioritizing correctly, or is not in turn driving production adequately.

• Does this person know mobile specific metrics such as installs / session interval / time in app / # of openings per day, etc.?

  In order to be considered knowledgeable, the mobile PM needs to know the language and core concepts. A successful PM from another technological industry might have some of the key skills, but will quickly ‘lose the room’ if he has to have simple definitions clarified. In addition, you as the hiring agent need to be certain to find someone that can fit the team dynamic, or better yet, to create their own.

• Does this person have an understanding about customer acquisition channels that are typical for mobile?

  A mobile PM not only has to understand the technical side of the job, but also the marketing side, plus the channels through which the product might be sold. He or she should also be able to provide insight into which might benefit from a change.

3) Teamwork, Cultural Value & Passion

Part of any hiring process is personal reflection, and compatibility. The chances of being hired and being despised by the person doing the hiring are slim to none. When considering a new mobile PM, you must consider your hire in terms of a potential relationship.

• Would you want to work with him?

  You don’t necessarily need to have all the same interests, or to laugh at the same jokes. But it helps. You should at least be able to chat with your new hire comfortably at the coffee maker/water cooler.

• Would you learn from him?

  The best hires are those based on mutual respect. The candidate should know more than you do in the chosen field, and be able to teach you to bridge the gap. You should feel comfortable taking instruction from your hire, within this sphere of influence. He in turn must respect your expertise and seek your advice when needed.

• Is he a jerk, to put it nicely?

  The candidate’s attitude can be a key consideration. Obviously a mobile PM has to be at least somewhat a type A personality, in order to get results. However, if the candidate disrespects his past co-workers, monopolizes conversation within the interview, interrupts constantly, or more, these can definitely be red flags in the hiring process.

• Is he passionate about the product and can he identify himself with the vision?

  Last but not least, you do not want to hire someone who shows up simply because there was an advertisement in the news paper. It’s important that your candidate not only knows something about the company and ideally the product he will be working on, but is excited about the prospect.

4) Strategy

Whether launching a new product, promoting new features, or launching in a new market, your mobile PM needs a fundamental understanding of mobile marketing strategy. Without this understanding, the above mentioned ‘good engineering’ decisions may not have the desired impact, nor will the app succeed as well as it should. The mobile PM must provide product direction, and whether this is his sole responsibility or he is supporting a strong client agenda, the ability to strategize is key.

• Can this person come up with a convincing strategy to win for a different market?

  The ideal candidate should be able to identify key product features for individual markets, whether this be a separate industry, or a separate culture. He should be able to prioritize these features in order to answer the needs of the industry or culture, and promote these features accordingly.

• Can this person analyze competitive environment and utilize resources to his advantage?

  A strong part of on-the-job success is to be able to identify key differentiators in a competitive marketplace. If the key differentiator is not yet there for a particular industry or marketplace, the job is to put it there. This means understanding the resources available to you, as well as understanding the needs of clients and users, and more importantly, understanding what the competition is offering, in order to produce what they are not.

Sample questions:

Product Design

How do you get a sense of whether the new mobile PM has a grasp of product design? I’ve found that the following series of questions tends to work well:

1) Which apps do you use the most?

• Pick one and tell me the 1-2 best features. Why?
• Tell me the 1-2 worst features. Why?
• Now improve it. How?
• If you only have 1 engineer and 2 weeks, what would you implement, and why?

DO:

When asking the above rather simple question, it is important to ask at least three whys, in order to ensure that the candidate is able to respond to a challenge, and is confident in his answers. To test his skill set, add and remove constraints he or she will need to test for.

DO NOT:

It is important not to allow the candidate prattle on and on about what they like/dislike. Likes and dislikes do not make a good product. Supporting data does.

2) Design me an X that does Y. (e.g. a location-based ad system, a recommendation system for movies, an oven for blind or old people.) (10-15min)

DO:

This question should not be rushed. Offer at least 10 minutes in order for the candidate to provide a rudimentary UI flow & design. If possible, have him sketch wireframes on a whiteboard. Do not be afraid to dive deep into technical details. If in doubt, press for more details, pseudocode, etc.

DO NOT:

When asking the above questions, do not let the candidate just talk. He should be able to draw a quick wireframe, as well as describe the imaginary product in detail.

Analytical/Technical

Analytical and technical questions are important, in order to ensure the potential mobile PM is able to provide the direction (marketing or technical) needed for a given product, as well as to ensure a level of respect from his/her engineers. The following questions can help with this:

1) Market size/Guesstimation exercise: (5-10 minutes）

• Estimate the # of ads seen per day by an mobile app user. What’s the average cost? revenue?
• Estimate the # of Xiaomi phones in Shanghai. Why? Is it high or low?

DO:

It is important to challenge any assumptions they make. Can they explain them adequately? Are they reasonable? Do they stand behind their methodology and/or estimates when challenged?

DO NOT:

In order for the above questions to provide a meaningful gauge of the candidate’s ability, it is important that he/she does not simply discuss methodology. The candidate must provide an actual number, and should be prepared to defend his conclusion.

2) Engineering design & data structures (10-15min)

• How would you justify native development vs. webviews?
• How would you design a recommender app that suggests you places to eat based on your location?

DO:

When analysing responses to the above questions, push the client to define scenarios in which each option would shine. Challenge his responses. When the candidate designs this locational restaurant app, pay attention to whether he would implement webviews for this, and how.

DO NOT:

You are not looking for all the possible ways an app could be built. Ensure the candidate knows the key differences, and move on. When asking about app design for this restaurant recommender app, be sure the candidate commits to an answer, rather than stating multiple ways he could do it. You are looking for knowledge, yes, but equally important is decisiveness and confidence.

Strategy

A candidate’s grasp of strategy needs to be assessed in a situational manner. A good

way to assess their ability is through short roleplays.

1) Possible Role-play Questions (5-10m)

• You are the CEO of Microsoft, your job is turnaround Microsoft’s mobile strategy in 12 months. What would you do?
• Your CEO has told you to develop a product in 6 months that will challenge the market #1, and there isn’t even a team yet. What would you do?

DO:

React and respond to the candidate with questions along the way. Ask why. Challenge their assumptions. Change variables – for example, in the second scenario, if they say they would not enter the mobile market under those conditions, ask them what they would do if they had to.

DO NOT:

Again, it is important to keep the candidate on point, and responding appropriately to the roleplaying situation. Most strategic answers sound good on paper until the rubber meets the road. Try to role-play and simulate realistically (e.g. how a board might drill a CEO during a board meeting) as much as possible.

Team work

When assessing teamwork and interpersonal skills, your best gauge is likely past work experience. Most of your questions should therefore be related to their previous experiences. Potential questions might be:

Tell me about a time when you disagreed with your engineering lead. How did you resolve it? Was there a time when you persuaded him? How?
• Tell me about a time when you had a major disagreement on your engineering team. How did you resolve it?

DO:

Whenever possible, it is best to ask for specific experiences, in order to gauge how they truly react in a given situation, rather than an idealized version of what they might do.

DO NOT:

It is better to not ask many questions in which the interviewee is asked to hypothesize. Save “What would you do in this case?” as a last resort. Bear in mind that if they cannot answer questions regarding real life situations, it might be that they are too inexperienced for the job.