Ratings12
Average rating3.7
Cracking the PM Interview is a comprehensive book about landing a product management role in a startup or bigger tech company. Learn how the ambiguously-named "PM" (product manager / program manager) role varies across companies, what experience you need, how to make your existing experience translate, what a great PM resume and cover letter look like, and finally, how to master the PM interview questions (estimation questions, behavioral questions, case questions, product questions, technical questions, and the super important "pitch").
Reviews with the most likes.
Cracking the PM is a dense workbook/reference that is well-written and fulfills its promise.
Despite its age, it is still an outstanding book to prepare for Product Management interviews, whether you are looking for a job or recruiting professionals that fit your organization's needs.
I would argue that most of the advice also applies to Product Design interviews or any business-centric type of interview.
Please note that the book clearly focuses on Product Management in the context of tech companies and, consequently, has a bias towards engineers-as-product-managers. Nevertheless, technical background of note, there is a ton of value to unpack here.
Switching into the PM role myself lately, I was looking for some guidance on what that involves. The most useful parts of this were the early descriptions elaborating on the difference between a Product Manager and a Project Manager, as well as some of the descriptions of what PMs do at various tech companies. After that though, I found less value in this one. Going into how to write cover letters and resumes wasn't as useful.
Switching into the PM role myself lately, I was looking for some guidance on what that involves. The most useful parts of this were the early descriptions elaborating on the difference between a Product Manager and a Project Manager, as well as some of the descriptions of what PMs do at various tech companies. After that though, I found less value in this one. Going into how to write cover letters and resumes wasn't as useful.