Friday, March 21 – “How Do I Prepare For Product Cases?”

Happy Friday!

Here’s what’s on the job description for today:

1. New roles from an independent fund manager.

2. Today’s Question: “I landed an interview for a product position but am a bit concerned about the product cases. How can I prepare?”

IN HIRING

Neuberger Berman

• With a massive and global reach, the firm has a presence in equities, fixed incomes and alternative investment products.

• Over 100 jobs are currently available with the majority in client relationships & operational efficiency with many in product, finance, and technology.

• Here are a few of the most interesting roles available

  • Client Strategist – Click here for full details

  • Private Equity Associate – Click here for full details

  • Quantitative Commodity Researcher & Strategist – Click here for full details

Click here for the company’s career page

TODAY’S QUESTION

Today’s Question: “I landed an interview for a product position but am a bit concerned about the product cases. How can I prepare?”

Recommendation: learning about product cases has helped me understand many different interviews so this is highly relevant. Here is how I’ve learned to solve these problems:

• First, get a sense of the industry you’re interviewing for. I would think about the external factors within a SWOT analysis:

  • Based on the macro-economic factors, what are the major threats and opportunities for a player in this industries.

  • Have a list of the top 5 technologies, trends, and concepts before you go into any interview but it is critical for product cases.

• Second, follow the this framework when solving cases in product interviews:

  • It spells CUPPS

    • C: clarifying questions such as what does success look like and which geographies the product will be focused on

    • U: who are the users that would use this product

    • P: prioritize one of the users that you will focus on and give a justification as to why that user is most important

    • P: which pain points are most important to the user you’ve identified when building this product

    • S: come up with a list of 2-3 solutions of varying realism and resources and pick one to move forward with. It’s nice to have a moonshot solution to show creativity that is unlikely to ever be built but shows you understand the technology and trends in the industry

• Finally, in most product interviews, there is still a behavioral so ensure you spend some time practicing introductions and why you want to work there

Conclusion:

I find product cases more simple than consulting and quite a bit more fun/collaborative. Get a process that works and find the joy in doing them for best outcomes.