many books offer guidance on the product manager interview process. but time is money when it comes to preparing for afternoon interviews.
You just won’t have time to read more than a few books. So which ones should you go through to maximize your chances of getting a job at a high-tech company like Google, Amazon, Facebook, or Microsoft?
You are reading: Best product management interview books
Before I go into more detail, here’s a quick overview of the best product manager interview books we’d recommend:
- deciphering the afternoon interview (by mcdowell and bavaro)
- slide to unlock: an introduction to technology and business strategy (by mehta, detroja and agashe)
- decode and conquer (by lewis c. lin)
and 3 popular afternoon talk books we wouldn’t recommend:
- Deciphering the Tech Career (by Gayle Laakmann McDowell)
- Product Manager Interview (by Lewis C. Lin)
- Hired: How to Get a Manager Job of product (by cobby and araujo)
Read on to find out why we have (or have not) recommended the books listed above.
Alternatively, if you want to start your preparation without having to read a book cover to cover, we recommend taking our Product Manager Interview Course. It will help you save time and access everything you need in one place, with lessons on how to answer all types of questions, high-quality sample answers, mock interview videos, and over 300 practice questions.
1. deciphering the afternoon interview: recommended
our recommendation
Overall, we recommend reading how to crack the afternoon interview, as it’s a good introduction to the product manager interview process. you’ll have to do more to get an offer, but it’s an interesting starting point.
See Also: 5 Must Read Books on Supply Chain Management | Supply and Demand Chain Executive
the pros and cons
mcdowell and bavaro cover a lot of ground in a structure that is easy to follow. The book’s main strength is the breadth of content it covers related to getting an PM job: tips for resumes and cover letters, types of interview questions, etc. it also includes clear examples for each of these topics.
The “behind the interview” chapter is particularly valuable as it provides detailed information on interviews for some of the major tech companies (google, facebook, amazon, microsoft, etc.) such as how interviews are taken. hiring decisions, specific areas of focus during interviews, and other company-specific tips.
That said, there are some shortcomings in the book. First, it feels repetitive in places where similar content could have been condensed into fewer chapters. second, there’s a chapter on career advancement in the middle of the book, which is distracting if you’re preparing for interviews and feels a bit out of place given the content of the rest of the book. and third, it does not provide a clear enough distinction between strategy questions and analysis questions, which can make it difficult to choose the best method to answer these types of questions in an interview.
authors and content
gayle laakmann mcdowell worked for google, microsoft, and apple and was on google’s hiring committee. jackie bavaro was most recently product manager at asana, and was previously pm at google and microsoft.
The book consists of 18 chapters. It begins with an introduction to the PM discipline and how the role varies by company. Then there are chapters on getting the right experience, tips on career advancement, and the “behind the scenes of the interview” information mentioned above. the next set of chapters covers how to land an interview (eg, writing a better resume and cover letter) and general preparation (eg, researching the company, preparing a personal speech when answering “tell me about yourself”, etc.). the remaining chapters, which make up the bulk of the book, cover specific question types you can expect during afternoon interviews, such as behavioral questions, estimation questions, etc.
2. swipe to unlock: recommended
our recommendation
Basic knowledge of the tech industry and its products is required to get a PM offer from companies like Google, Facebook, and Amazon. If you don’t currently work in tech or are a new PM, we recommend reading this book to better understand the business of tech and communicate about product strategy. however, you should combine it with other resources that focus on methods for answering specific types of questions and practice interview questions.
See Also: 5 Must Read Books on Supply Chain Management | Supply and Demand Chain Executive
the pros and cons
This is a great book for candidates looking to strengthen their understanding of how technology works at major tech companies and better understand the strategy used to make certain product decisions. breaks down many complicated tech industry concepts in a simple way (e.g. api, cloud computing, hacking and security, etc.), often with helpful visuals (e.g. diagrams that simplify complex product logic ), which makes them easy to understand.
The main limitation of this book is that it is not intended to directly prepare you for interviews. therefore, you will have to use other resources as well, such as the other books we recommend. and non-tech savvy people may need to plan some extra time to reread and really understand some of the ideas covered in the book.
authors and content
neel mehta is an associate product manager at google and was pm at microsoft. Aditya Agashe is a PM at Microsoft and was the founder of a couple of startups. parth detroja is a product manager at facebook and previously worked at amazon, microsoft, and ibm.
There are 12 chapters in the book. The former cover things like understanding how software and the internet work, as well as the business models of popular apps. The next set of chapters covers the main technical concepts that drive the Internet and its many applications, including cloud computing, security, and big data. the last four chapters provide useful trend analysis for understanding technology business strategy as it is today and where it is headed in the future.
3. decode and conquer: recommended
our recommendation
Practicing with real questions is essential to excel in interviews. We recommend that you read this book to get a good idea of the questions interviewers ask during afternoon interviews.
See Also: 5 Must Read Books on Supply Chain Management | Supply and Demand Chain Executive
the pros and cons
This is a great book for those who want lots of practice questions to prepare for afternoon interviews. Lin covers a few simple frameworks for providing well-structured answers to afternoon interview questions. There are also detailed sample answers for each question that can really help you get an idea of what a good conversation with an interviewer should feel like.
However, the categorization of the questions is unnecessarily complex in our opinion. for example, the book goes through many categories of design questions (eg, design a desktop application, design a website, design an application, design a consumer product, etc.). this content could have been condensed since the same method can be used to provide a good answer to the design questions included in this too specific categorization.
author and content
Lewis c. Lin is a former Director of Product Management at Microsoft. In addition to being the CEO of the coaching firm Impact Interview, he is also featured in media outlets such as Business Insider and Atlantic.
In just over 200 pages, the book provides many detailed sample answers to questions you can expect in afternoon interviews. The 16 chapters cover topics including questions of design, estimation, analysis, strategy, and behavior.
4. figure out the tech race: not recommended
our recommendation
this appears on a few lists of the “best afternoon interview prep books” we’ve seen, so our opinion may be controversial, but we feel this book is too general to be useful. You’ll make better use of precious prep time by reading the Cracking the PM Interview, which covers similar topics found in this book, but is much more specific to product management interviews.
See Also: 5 Must Read Books on Supply Chain Management | Supply and Demand Chain Executive
the pros and cons
mcdowell writes with authority and personality. the book is well designed and easy to follow. It manages to cover a large number of topics (eg resumes and cover letters, behavioral questions, etc.) that come in handy when trying to land a job at major tech companies like Google and Microsoft. is a useful introduction to careers in the tech space.
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However, there are reasons why we wouldn’t recommend this book if you’re preparing for an afternoon interview. First, the book broadly covers tech careers rather than being specific to PM. Second, it includes a decent amount of content that isn’t critical to preparing for interviews (eg, company cultures, different roles, career paths, etc.), so we recommend reading Cracking the PM interview from same author instead of this book, as it is a better use of your time.
author and content
gayle laakmann mcdowell worked for google, microsoft and apple and was part of the google hiring committee. She is the co-author of the previously recommended interview book Cracking the PM.
The book is about 260 pages long and consists of 17 chapters. its first chapter provides an overview of the world’s leading technology companies. Then there are some chapters that cover topics to help you get interviews, like preparation, resumes, cover letters, and references. the middle set of chapters focuses on standout interviews such as telling your story, behavioral interviews, and programming interviews. finally, the book has some mixed chapters on things like getting into games, women in tech, and managing deals.
5. the interview with the product manager: not recommended
our recommendation
Since practicing with real questions is so important, it might seem strange that we’re not recommending the Product Manager Interview, which is essentially a big list of practice questions and answers. however, it references some key concepts that aren’t actually explained in the book, making it an inefficient study tool.
See Also: 5 Must Read Books on Supply Chain Management | Supply and Demand Chain Executive
the pros and cons
lin offers a clear and well structured book. provides many practice questions (over 160) with detailed sample answers. but there are multiple references to concepts from different books without explanations (for example, the method of circles), which means this book won’t be useful unless you also read some of his other books. Decode and Conquer, recommended above and also written by Lin, has many useful practice questions like this book, but includes explanations of all the topics it covers. In other words, Decode and Conquer doesn’t require relying on secondary study resources, so you should read that instead.
author and content
Lewis c. Lin is a former Director of Product Management at Microsoft. In addition to being the CEO of the coaching firm Impact Interview, he is also featured in media outlets such as Business Insider and Atlantic. he is the author of the previously recommended Decode and Conquer book.
The book consists of 26 chapters. The first few chapters cover things like tips for finding study partners, popular terms and abbreviations, and frequently asked questions. the remaining 21 chapters are made up of sample questions and answers for specific question types (eg estimating, product design, market strategy, etc.).
6. hired – how to get a product management job – not recommended
our recommendation
If you provide the product school with your email address, they will give you this book in return. But even if it’s just hard to access your email inbox, we don’t recommend spending time reading this guide, as you can find much clearer and more specific tips for afternoon interviews elsewhere.
See Also: 5 Must Read Books on Supply Chain Management | Supply and Demand Chain Executive
the pros and cons
cobby and araujo’s guide is well structured and covers a lot of company specific information related to product management at major technology companies. however, much of the advice is very general (eg “netflix: finally get ready, get ready, get ready for your interview!”). this ends up being more confusing than helpful, as it’s hard to know what really is company-specific information. Also, the guidance in the “interview tips” section is too nebulous to be helpful (eg, passion is gold). finally, it’s also worth mentioning that the formatting makes it very difficult to read (note: we reviewed v2 released in 2019).
author and content
roy cobby was content manager at product school from 2018 to 2019, and gabriela araujo has been director of content marketing at product school since 2018.
This book has about 60 pages. is divided into five sections: transitioning to product management, getting hired at your dream company, general tips and advice, interview tips, and your first days as a product manager.
what late night talk book are you considering reading?
We can’t wait to hear your thoughts on the afternoon’s talk books. do you agree with our list? which ones are you considering reading? If you have read any, which ones would you recommend?
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