I’ve been working with a Head of Product who recently moved into a new role. He’s run product teams for years, hired people, set strategy, and asked insightful interview questions.
In the interview, the panel asked him how he prioritises his workload.
He said he works out what needs to happen first. That’s true, but it didn’t land. The person asking was earlier in their career and was hoping for a step-by-step method. Nobody in the room picked up that the interview questions were the problem.
The question was for a different job
A Head of Product doesn’t spend their day planning their own to-do list. They decide which projects get money and people, which ones stop, and what that means for customers and revenue. How you prioritise your workload is a good question for a product manager. It’s the wrong question for the person running the team.
This isn’t about anyone getting it wrong. Nobody had told the panel what a good answer looks like at that level, so they judged him against the wrong one.
Clients want results, not launch lists
I’m seeing this in every Product role we’re working on. Businesses want to see a return on what they spend, so a list of features and a roadmap delivered on time isn’t enough. Clients want to know if the work made money, saved money or kept customers.
It’s most obvious with AI. MIT’s NANDA initiative found most company AI trials weren’t earning back what they cost, even after tens of billions of dollars of spending.
What the best candidates talk about
The best people I’m meeting can tell you the problem they were fixing, how they knew it worked, and what changed for the customer or the business. They don’t lead with what they launched.
Three things to check before your next senior Product hire:
- Write your interview questions for the job you’re hiring for, not for the level of the person asking them.
- Ask for one result the candidate delivered from start to finish, not a list of launches.
- For a Head of Product, ask how they’d split money and people between competing projects. Keep the workload question for junior roles.
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