User Understanding and Empathy Questions

Focuses on the ability to deeply understand users, build empathy across teams, and ensure user needs drive product decisions. Topics include user research methods such as interviews, surveys, observation, usability testing, and analysis; creation and use of artifacts like personas, user journey maps, empathy maps, and problem framing; synthesizing insights into actionable requirements; and communicating user needs compellingly to influence stakeholders. Candidates should provide examples of how they brought users into design conversations, prioritized user pain points, and measured impact on user experience. Senior candidates should show how they fostered a user centered culture and scaled research and empathy practices across teams.

EasyTechnical

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What are personas, why do PMs use them, and what are common pitfalls when creating or using personas in a product team? Provide two good examples of personas and two anti-patterns to avoid.

HardTechnical

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You launched a major UI redesign. Analytics show no meaningful change in retention or engagement after launch, while post-launch qualitative interviews show polarized reactions: some love the clarity while others miss old workflows. As PM, present a diagnostic and remediation strategy that decides whether to iterate, roll back, or A/B test changes. Include data to collect and stakeholder communication plans.

EasyTechnical

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Explain the difference between problem framing and solution thinking. Provide an example where poor problem framing led to the wrong solution and explain how reframing the problem would change the product approach.

HardTechnical

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Regional user research conflicts: customers in Region A overwhelmingly request feature X while Region B finds X irrelevant and requests Y. The executive team wants a single global product. As PM, describe how you would reconcile this, propose trade-offs (localization, configuration, segmentation), and define how you'd measure success for your chosen approach.

EasyTechnical

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Describe three concrete ways you would bring users into day-to-day design conversations within a product team (e.g., design crits, shadowing, demo days). For each, detail frequency, expected participant roles, and how you'd measure whether the tactic increased team empathy.

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