Interview Kickstart Product Manager Interview Questions
& Process

The interview process was pretty smooth and organized up until the last round with the Founder. That final meeting, though, was a real letdown. The Founder seemed totally checked out during our chat, distracted and just low on energy, maybe because of the time difference. He kicked things off, but by minute one, he was clearly not invested, often looking away when I was talking. It was a bummer after putting in so much work to get there: six hour-long interviews, plus a big assignment where I had to put together a detailed case study and a functional, vibe-coded prototype. Honestly, the final part felt like a waste of time after everything else. I also suspect they used that assignment to scout for new product ideas for their business.

The interview process for Product Manager at IK felt like a scam. First, there was an assignment that I think was just a way to get free ideas for the company's growth, which took me 2 hours to prep. Then, they had an interview where most of the time was spent on the assignment. I talked to a friend who warned me that some companies do this to get free ideas without actually having job openings, and IK seems to fit that. They should stop giving assignments so people don't complain about the time spent. I've applied to many places and faced rejections, but this felt really strange. The hiring manager could have told me about the mismatch during our interview, and I would have understood. But now I think the whole point was to get free ideas from candidates.

The interview was conducted in 3 rounds. In the first round, they gave a detailed overview of the company and the job responsibilities. Questions were more focused on understanding my background and my interest in the job. I was asked to do an assignment for the second round. In the second round, a short coding test was taken along with a detailed discussion about the assignment. The interviewer was focused on assessing my understanding of the assignment, rather than on the number of things I had included, which I felt was a good way to judge a person. The last round was a cultural fitment round which focused more on assessing how I would work within the company and whether my outlook was suitable for them or not. Overall the process was very relaxed and I felt comfortable at every stage unlike some of the other companies I had interviewed for earlier.