Factorial Product Manager Interview Questions
& Process

First a regular "who are you" interview with the recruiter/TA. Then an interview with the Product Leader. I was never trained for a structured interview, so now I know the type of conciseness I missed when we spoke - a chat is not the same as an interview. The Prod Dicrector I interviewed afterwards with didn't want to hear anything - she wasn't really interested in hearing my experience - it looked like she just wanted to tick some quick boxes and had I done a quick/efficient STAR, I would've passed. As someone who has interviewed people at both MINE and HER seniority, this seemed very counter-intuitive for a non-junior role, but yeah, I get it - lots of people, little time. So, if you really want a tip: practice to be quick, elevator pitch kind of interview. They prob won't want to hear your ACTUAL story (again, it makes sense, it's a 45min interview). The only issue I do have is that she lied, she said I would get feedback and that she'd answer further questions... Heard nothing after. I truly like the company, very, very much. But after being lied to I realized I may have skipped a fire.

I spoke with the group product manager first, who was great. Then I did a case study with the group PM, an engineering manager, and a UX/UI designer. They were all really nice and engaging. After that, I got a call scheduled with the CEO. The CEO's attitude was a bit of a red flag for me. He said working late is normal if you want impact and took pride in building a culture with poor work-life balance. We then discussed my reasons for leaving Germany and other random things. He was surprised about my scuba diving center not having an online presence and questioned my business model with flat contracts for instructors, to which I explained I value employee stability. When talking about data, he challenged my 'data-driven' claim because I didn't know my company's revenue, stating revenue is the only number that matters. He also dismissed discovery, documentation, A/B testing, and product-led growth as ineffective, and called the Spotify model propaganda. He implied his way is the only right way and dismissed concepts like feature adoption, churn rate, NPS, or costs. He asked me about owning 10% of a company, and I chose Schlumberger, which he hadn't heard of. It's a shame the team is great but the CEO's attitude seems to be an issue, based on employee feedback. I'd avoid working for this management.

It was a really good interview process. The second part was a technical interview with a product director. They didn't do the usual stuff but made it a good atmosphere. Before that, I had a chat with HR.