interview prep no. 54
Life Gets in The Way | Weaknesses Surface | Product Sense Delight | Hidden Messages | Coach's Recording | Private Session for Paying Members | Suggested Prompts
I appreciate your patience. I have been debating whether I should shut down the newsletter because I am not as consistent as I would like, but I know many of you rely on much of the archive materials, and if I make up for the missed weeks eventually, there is value for you. Thank you for your patience. For paid subscribers, I have a makeup option that involves a private session (see subscriber section for options). Thank you again for trusting me to help you, despite the delays caused by a nightmare commute.
This Week’s Highlights
Week 2 Life Gets in the Way (how to keep on track)
Week 3 Weaknesses Surface
Product Sense OpenTable Delights
Communication Hidden Messages
Coach’s Recording Improving Grocery Store Shopping
Week 2
Falling Behind
As a coach who wants to keep sharing knowledge, despite being swamped by a long commute and a new job, I fell behind in my goal to give you three months of prep advice weekly. I am now trying to play catch-up. At first, I felt horrible, but the silver lining is that this happens to 90% of you who follow me. So there is value in showing you how I catch up. Follow Weeks 3 and 4 (next week) to see how I catch up.
Some quick advice if you are swamped and following in my footsteps:
Mock others if you don’t have time to mock yourself. The lift is lighter but still helpful at keeping your head in the game.
Write out your answers, even in shorthand. Write the framework out as an outline. Then fill in the blanks in short form, bullet points with core concepts. You can do a case in 15 to 20 minutes. Make it a post-lunch exercise or dedicate one hour a week to it.
See below for product sense exercise. Take 5 minutes when you have a good or bad product experience and note it. .
Week 3
Weaknesses Surface
This week, I completed a mock with a partner. My goal was to reduce the time I took to gather my thoughts. TL;DR - I skipped major steps as I tried to move quickly.
I was late with listing at least a high-level goal (not make or break for all companies but a major fail for my target company).
I used words that had broader meanings for me but specific meanings for my interviewer, leading to confusion.
But the BIGGEST failure was not narrowing sufficiently, leaving my pain points too generic and my solutions boring, at best.
Fell into my Achilles Heel trap: Speaking WAYYY too fast.
Simplifying the names of my groups but expounding in my descriptions confused the mock interviewer.
Missed hint from interviewer. But might have been too late regardless. Some interviewers would have been ok with my assumptions, others would have been left disappointed with my response.
Paid subscribers get to listen to the recording below.
When you mocked, what were your failures? How are you doing trying to improve them?
Product Sense
OpenTable Delights
I got an email recently from OpenTable announcing alerts for cancellations! I thought, where have you been. I went through the following emotions:
Yipee > Finally > Wondering Why It Took So Long > Still Delighted
This was the pitch in the email:
Don’t be daunted by that perpetually-packed restaurant—if you’ve got the OpenTable app, you’ve got availability alerts on your side. The next time you go to book and don’t see a table, simply tap “Notify Me” to be alerted anytime a last-minute slot opens up. (Make sure your notifications are turned on!)
Unfortunately, clicking doesn’t immediately make the feature seem obvious, but it's still a nice addition when you are trying to book and a restaurant is full. If I were in an interview, I could add this to a product I love to watch get through a list of user requests.
When was the last time you were delighted?
Product Sense Challenge: Note 3 things that happened in the week that delighted or annoyed you. Imagine you were on the product team, what would you change/improve? And/or keep a running list.
My list currently has 10 items. I will share over time and I try to add something new each week. The biggest challenge was finding one place to note them. I had pieces of paper, notes in my head, notes on work computer and notes on personal computer until I finally built a system on my personal computer/phone.
Communication
Hidden Messages
This week I want to share some thoughts on hidden messages from Deb Liu. I have been saving it for weeks because I didn’t want to forget to share it.
I will share the final paragraph (or so) as a teaser. Read the full story here. It is excellent advice. Many of you may have heard me comment about how you are coming across, much of it comes from my knowledge of what she explains in this post.
Humans are built to seek connection, but we often forget that our body language and tone convey more than the things we say. The next time you interact with someone, reflect on what you’re communicating without words. Are your shoulders slouched? Are you turned toward them? Are you making eye contact? Do you nod along to what they’re saying? Are your arms crossed? Do you keep checking your phone? We perform so many of these small gestures every day, without even thinking, and each one sends a message.
What message are you sending?
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