Renaissance Learning Product Owner Interview Questions
& Process

I had a few rounds for this PO job. First, I chatted with the recruiter. Then, I spoke with the director of product to make sure I really understood the PO role. After that, there was a take-home test. Finally, I had two more interviews: one with a senior PO and a group interview with the tech lead and the engineering director.

So, I had an initial HR interview and she was impressed, which led to scheduling an in-person visit at the Brooklyn, NY office for all rounds. It was interesting because, in this company, the PO and PM roles seem reversed from what I'm used to – POs manage the engineering team, and PMs are customer/VP facing. I ended up having four back-to-back rounds, though two were cancelled. The most critical interview got rescheduled to the end, and the least important one was first. The first round was with three engineers. The second was with a Sr. Director and VP of Ops (or people at that level). The third was with the VP, and the fourth was with a Sr. Product Manager. This wasn't the original plan; it was supposed to be PM first, but a scheduling mix-up by HR caused this shuffle, pushing the PM interview to the very end. Two of the scheduled PO interviews on Webex were cancelled. The first interview was with engineers who were new to the company, not very professional, and not even on the team I'd be joining. They had their laptops out, working on them, and sharing jokes, which was distracting. Only two of the four scheduled people showed up initially; one joined the second round, and another showed up last minute. They were taking notes on their laptops during the interview. Questions were mainly about me, their profiles, and company culture. The second interview was with what turned out to be a Sr./Principal Engineer and the VP of Ops. They were knowledgeable and asked generic questions, like about handling marketing pressure versus team capacity, and some specific questions. They acknowledged my lack of agile experience but appreciated my background. It felt like a soft grill, and they seemed to know their stuff. The third interview with the VP felt like a watered-down exercise, mostly generic discussions about the company and me. The fourth interview was with the Sr. Product Manager. She seemed capable but rushed, cutting the scheduled hour down to thirty minutes due to another meeting. This was a decision-maker, and I felt she might have already made up her mind. My energy was low by then, having traveled since early morning and going through four rounds without a break. This interview, which I felt was the most important and had been rescheduled, kind of went down the drain. Overall, I felt the interviews went well, but I never got feedback on why I didn't get the job. My advice: be prepared for many people, ensure schedules are firm, expect scheduled people to differ from attendees, aim to meet all employees, maintain energy levels, try to have PM interviews earlier, and schedule the highest-ranking person first to manage energy.

The interview process was pretty standard for a Product Owner role, and I liked the team I met. It started with a recruiter phone screen, followed by a panel interview. After the panel, the communication was slow, and they took too long to get back to me. By the time they were ready for the final round, I had already accepted another offer. Something that seemed a bit off to me was that the PO's report to engineering.