Understanding the Question

When you're asked, "How do you prioritize features in a new product?" during a product manager interview, the interviewer is probing into several key areas of your expertise and mindset. This question is designed to uncover your decision-making process, your ability to strategically align product features with business goals, user needs, and market trends, as well as your understanding of the product development lifecycle.

Interviewer's Goals

The interviewer has several goals in mind when posing this question:

1. Strategic Thinking: They want to see if you can align product features with the overall business strategy and goals.
2. User-Centric Approach: Your ability to prioritize based on user needs and feedback is crucial.
3. Analytical Skills: This includes your capability to evaluate the potential impact of each feature, considering the resources required and the expected ROI.
4. Stakeholder Management: How you balance and communicate priorities to stakeholders, including the development team, sales, marketing, and upper management.
5. Adaptability: The tech landscape and market demands can change rapidly. Your response should reflect an ability to adapt priorities as needed.

How to Approach Your Answer

Your answer should articulate a clear, thoughtful process for prioritizing product features. Here’s how to structure your approach:

1. Start with the Big Picture: Mention how you align feature prioritization with the company’s vision, mission, and the product’s goals.
2. Discuss Your Methodology: Whether it’s the MoSCoW method (Must have, Should have, Could have, Won’t have this time), the RICE scoring model (Reach, Impact, Confidence, Effort), Kano Model analysis, or any other framework, explain the criteria you use to evaluate and prioritize features.
3. User-Centric Focus: Emphasize how user feedback, market research, and user personas influence your prioritization.
4. Stakeholder Involvement: Highlight how you engage with stakeholders to gather insights and align on priorities.
5. Flexibility and Iteration: Stress the importance of being adaptable, using data-driven insights to adjust priorities as necessary.

Example Responses Relevant to Product Manager

Here's an example of how to frame your response, tailored for a Product Manager role:

"Prioritizing features for a new product begins with a deep understanding of our business objectives and user needs. I typically start by aligning the feature set with our product vision and strategic goals. To systematically prioritize features, I use the RICE scoring framework, which considers the Reach, Impact, Confidence, and Effort required for each feature. This helps in objectively evaluating the potential value against the investment needed.

I also place a strong emphasis on gathering and incorporating user feedback through surveys, user interviews, and beta testing. This user-centric approach ensures that we're not just building features based on assumptions but are meeting real user needs.

Engaging with stakeholders is another critical step in my process. Regular discussions with the development team, marketing, sales, and customer support help in identifying technical feasibility, market trends, and potential customer issues that could influence our prioritization.

However, I'm also mindful of the need for flexibility. Market trends and user feedback can evolve, so I continuously review and adjust our priorities based on new data and insights, ensuring our product development remains agile and responsive to change."

Tips for Success

1. Be Specific: Give concrete examples of how you’ve successfully prioritized features in the past.
2. Show Empathy: Demonstrate an understanding of different perspectives, especially the end-users and stakeholders.
3. Highlight Collaboration: Stress the importance of teamwork and how you work with cross-functional teams to make informed decisions.
4. Reflect on Challenges: Mention any challenges you faced while prioritizing features and how you overcame them.
5. Stay User-focused: Keep coming back to how user needs and feedback shape your prioritization process.

By structuring your answer to highlight your strategic, user-centric, and adaptable approach to prioritization, you'll effectively demonstrate your qualifications for the Product Manager role.