How to Crack the PM Interview and Uplevel Your Product Thinking in 2024 | Satish Mummareddy (Meta)
Insights after interviewing 200+ PM candidates at Meta. Plus how to choose the right job offer and get leaders to mentor and sponsor you
Dear subscribers,
Today, I want to share a new episode with Satish Mummareddy.
Satish has interviewed 200+ PM candidates and mentored 100+ PMs as a senior IC7 PM at Meta. We had a great chat about how to crack the PM interview, choose the right job offer, and find strong mentors. Satish is also offering a $250 discount on his popular Uplevel Your Product Thinking course only for readers of this newsletter.
Watch now on YouTube, Apple, and Spotify.
Satish and I talked about:
(00:00) How not to let rejection get you down
(01:53) Hot takes after interviewing 200+ PMs at Meta
(05:14) Why experienced PMs often struggle in interviews
(09:13) 3-month plan to crush interviews at top tech companies
(15:05) How to uplevel your product thinking skills
(27:31) How to avoid getting down-leveled
(36:24) 3 steps to find great mentors and sponsors
(40:25) Deliberate practice, career arcs, and mental fitness
Get the takeaways below.
How to prepare PM interviews
Welcome, Satish! So, what are some of your hot takes after interviewing 200+ PM candidates at Meta?
I have quite a few hot takes:
New grads often crush the PM interview, while experienced PMs often struggle.
Skipping straight to mock interviews just doesn’t work.
There are no magic frameworks. What matters is your product thinking.
The altitude of your answers matters if you don’t want to get down-leveled.
#1 is really surprising. Why do new grads outperform experienced PMs?
Unlike new grads, experienced PMs often try to wing the interview because they already know how to do the job. However, interviewing is a different skill from PM.
There are two types of PM interviews:
Behavioral focuses on past experiences.
Product sense and execution focus on hypothetical cases.
The problem is that product sense and execution interviews often cover a wide range of products you might not have prepared for. Everyone can regurgitate the same frameworks, so what matters is your ability to go deep on a specific vertical or field.
Let’s get tactical. Suppose I have three months to prep for PM interviews at top-tier companies. What’s my action plan?
You only get one shot at these top companies every 12-18 months. I would focus on product thinking, analytical thinking, and leadership skills. Here’s how I’d prepare:
Start by up-leveling your product thinking:
Choose companies that you’re interested in across verticals.
Do writing exercises using the prompt, "What would I build if I was a PM here?"
Do your research and get feedback from other PMs.
Next, practice analytical thinking. Pick a product in your target company and ask:
How would you measure success?
How would you make decisions using data?
What would you do if this metric dropped?
Then, work on your communication skills:
Build stamina for 30-minute sessions of structured thinking and speaking.
Learn to collaborate with the interviewer instead of monologuing.
Doing the product and analytical thinking first will make your mock interviews more effective.
So, my general approach to product sense interviews is to understand users and their needs before coming up with solutions. Are you saying studying companies in different markets will help you stand out?
Exactly. Applying this framework has become table stakes. To stand out, you need to understand the nuances of each market and product type.
Ok, but if I don’t know anything about a company’s products, how do I know if I’m preparing properly?
You have to start by doing alot of research:
Read company S-1 filings to get in-depth strategy and market info.
Listen to founder and CEO interviews to understand their thinking.
Do these steps before writing 2-3 page summaries to synthesize your learning.
So you’re telling me there isn’t a magic framework to help people stand out as PM candidates?
Yes. The framework part is simple (e.g., start with the user problem!). The challenge is building the right context across verticals to apply it to different scenarios quickly during an interview.
How to not get down-leveled
I also know PMs who got an offer one level below what they expected. What can people do to avoid getting down-leveled?
Leveling depends on two factors:
Company comparisons: Companies often have models that map their levels to other companies. You can’t do much about this.
Problem complexity: Your interviewers will assess the complexity of your customer, business, and leadership examples. This is much more in your control.
To be specific, you need to choose the right complexity. For example, if you’re asked to improve Tinder, here are some potential solutions from low to high complexity:
Low: Improving photo selection in profiles
Medium: Redesigning the entire onboarding flow
High: Reimagining online dating for young people
You need to balance this because it’s also possible to pick a problem so ambiguous that you won’t be able to narrow it down to a specific solution in 30 minutes.
That’s why doing the written prep work ahead of time matters.
How do you demonstrate the right complexity in the behavior interview?
You have to show that you’re not just executing a solution given to you but are also thinking about whether this is the right solution or problem to solve in the first place. You also need to demonstrate a nuanced understanding of organizational dynamics.
That's great advice. Even if your product fails, how you tell the story - whether you tried to grow it or decided to cancel it yourself - says a lot about your level.
How to choose the right company to join
Let's talk about evaluating offers. Say you get a director title at a smaller company versus an IC offer from Facebook. How do you decide which company to join?
I'll share my perspective and then some general advice.
Before Meta, I hadn't experienced working at a company of that scale before. For me, it was a no-brainer to join Meta regardless of level for several reasons:
Higher leverage: I can solve important problems for billions of users.
Talented colleagues: I can learn what "great" looks like across functions.
Compensation: I can get paid more if the stock grows, even at a lower level.
For general advice, I recommend thinking about your career as a portfolio of bets:
Aim to get a few recognizable brand names on your resume - they open doors when times get tough.
Once you have a few brands, balance medium reward/risk with high reward/risk bets based on your life stage.
Above all else, though, work with world-class people to learn what excellence looks like across functions.
Working with world-class people is probably the biggest benefit of working with a top-tier company. You may be able to find that at startups, too, but it’s more hit or miss.
Exactly. If you build good relationships with these people, it provides a safety net too.
For example, I'm taking a risk starting my own company now, but I have sponsors at Meta who would be happy to have me back if needed. That's valuable for long-term career resilience.
How to find great mentors and sponsors
Speaking of world-class people, have you had some great mentors at Meta?
Absolutely. A few people at Meta who had a profound impact on me by investing in my growth:
Chris Struhar (ex-Meta VP) helped level up my product thinking and writing skills.
Miki Rothschild (VP) taught me how to improve my storytelling skills.
I still mention them when I teach and keep in touch.
Meta has an army of PMs. How did you get these VPs to invest in you?
Become someone that leaders want to sponsor by solving complex problems for them.
When you're working on a leader's critical issues, they naturally invest time in the work and, by extension, in you.
For example, Miki was focused on the 2020 US elections, so I got coaching as a byproduct of working on that critical project. With Chris, it was navigation problems in the Facebook app. You earn the right to work on top-priority projects, and the mentorship follows.
Ok, but how do you get assigned to these high-priority projects?
Let’s be honest — when you join a new team, you typically start with the least desirable projects.
The key is to hit a high bar even on seemingly small tasks. When the next planning cycle comes, you’ll earn the right to get higher-priority work.
Don't look down on small projects - use them to prove yourself to your leaders.
That's great advice. You also have to stay at a company for a while to earn those opportunities - you can't leave after two years like I did too many times.
Exactly. Once you build trust with a leader, you can often move with them to new orgs and get the best projects there. Senior ICs often end up reporting to increasingly senior leaders this way.
Three tactical tips to land your dream job
To wrap up, can you give my audience three tactical steps that they can take now to advance their PM career?
Commit to deliberate practice. There's no secret sauce - it's about doing common things uncommonly well through repetition. Set aside time each weekend to deeply analyze one company's problem. Do this for eight weekends, and you’ll significantly improve your product thinking.
Identify your career arcs. Look for patterns in your experience. For example, I have experience in personalization, consumer products, and monetization. Create resumes targeted around these arcs and target companies that match these narratives.
Work on your mental fitness. Job searching is a rollercoaster, and past rejections can create baggage. Google and many other companies rejected me, and Meta wouldn’t even interview me. Process and let go of that negative energy. Build resilience to bounce back from inevitable interview missteps. Try breathing exercises, journaling, or courses on mental fitness.
I love that your courses don’t promise a magic pill. You have to put in the effort.
Exactly. It's fascinating - some people have taken the Uplevel Your Product Thinking course 3x and attended over 100 practice sessions. They see their clarity of thought improving and buy into the idea that there's no shortcut.
One person found a job 30 days into the course but kept showing up for another 30 days because it helped improve his thinking. That motivates me - people who understand the value of consistent effort and see real results.
Thanks Satish! If you enjoyed this interview, follow Satish on LinkedIn and check out his Uplevel Your Product Thinking and Influence Without Authority courses.