Directi Product Manager Interview Questions, Process, and Tips

DirectI interview Preparation:What tips would you give to other job seekers? - Tips:

1) Be thorough with your case submission. Do not mention any feature unless you think it is feasible (technically and economically).

2) Be ready for estimation questions. If the metrics provided are user engagement, CTR, CPC, etc., think through how much each will contribute to revenue in a year. Be prepared with this and not wait to hear it for the first time in the interview.

3) Basic premise: BookMyShow should bid at least as much as the profit it will make through the revenue generated by the AdWord. This boils down to an estimation question about CTR, Avg. ticket size on BookMyShow, CLV of a customer and of course, market size estimation.

4) I think they believe that only by pushing to the limit will creative solutions appear. While solving case type questions, think out loud. Make assumptions and say it loud and provide a rationale for making such an assumption (they shouldn’t be outrageous assumptions).

5) Recommendation engine: Thinking from the perspective of end-users always helps get insights. (Read consumer behaviour). Draw a process chart of how a user would interact with the system and undergo the process step by step. Prior knowledge of workings of search, reco engines will help in listing down the obvious factors. For every factor listed down, discuss if the interviewer agrees with you. Provide your rationale behind the suggestion. (Q7)

6) Ad fraud: Understand the definition of fraud and just to be sure that both are on the same page as far as the understanding of Q goes. If you know technically how ad fraud works, great – feel free to include tech jargon in to your answer. Be careful to not go too deep unless you are sure of what you are saying (you can’t faff on tech aspects). List down metrics to identify bots for fraud (click in my case – links and images). (Q8)

7) Sample metrics/mechanisms to detect: Originating IP of request is same for all suspicious clicks in a day; there will be a pattern in the time to trigger a click after the page fully loads (API request is completed); mouse click always happens at the same end-point on the image on the screen; cursor moves in a straight line from point of origin to end point. (Q9)

8) Do a feasibility analysis of the case submitted while applying for the job. List down why you think the feature will work and why it might not work. Through a tree diagram explain different possible scenarios and how you will overcome the problematic scenarios. Drive home your point by providing assumptions and estimates of the output you claim to achieve through the feature. (Q13)

9) Cart abandonment is a popular case scenario for PM roles. Firstly, draw the user journey from purchase intent to purchase on the app/website. Understand user motivation at each step.
*Identify the step at which the cart being abandoned.
*Upon reaching an agreement with the interviewer on the step list down possible reasons why cart could be abandoned at this step.
(*are the steps at which interviewer wanted SQL queries)
While listing each factor/reason, explain why you think so. There will be cross questioning on this. (Q14)

10) At the end ask some question that will stand out. Easiest way is to make sure the interviewer is made to think to answer the question. This there will most likely be a follow-up comment and couple of minutes of discussion.