Facebook Product Management Interview Prep

Author: Funkstop
Date: December 28, 2021

Following are notes I collected prior to going through Facebook (Meta) interviews in 2020

Links:

Below covers Leadership questions

  • People management interview
    • can you support org health (what does org health mean?)
    • People mgmt, building teams
    • Can you trouble shoot (trouble shoot what?)
    • building high performing teams
  • Types of Questions:
    • Understand current team
      • how do you assess (assess what?)
      • set goals?
  • Example of a time where
    • employee needed improvement
    • attract and keep good employees
    • how do you delegate?
    • how to keep engaged?
      • don’t chat too much about your current company (Google) method of hiring
  • Operating at Facebook
    • org skills, ppl mgmt is very important
    • growing a team, building competencies
  • Leadership values:
    • Moving fast
    • Org contributions
    • openness, having difficult conversations, providing and accepting feedback
    • understanding career trajectory
      • why did you leave, why did you join?
      • What do you like dislike at current company
      • example of giving, receiving feedback
      • how do you deal with high structure vs chaotic?
    • are you someone they enjoy working with?
    • are you someone who has the necessary toughness to get the job done?
    • are you really interested in the job?
  • Question Examples
    • Could ask Mark Zuckerberg anything – what would it be?
      • what would you ask? why would you choose that?
      • Ask for more context of the scenario.
        • wouldn’t want to ask anything opportunistic. or try to get project visibility for example.
        • would ask something along the lines of what he sees as what he sees the biggest threat or opportunity for FBL – or what does he see as success in the
    • Let’s take a look at the common behavior based question categories:
      • Teamwork Oriented
      • Problem Solving
      • Initiative/Leadership
      • Interpersonal Skills
      • Challenge/Stress/Pressure
    • Facebook Core values:
      • Be Bold
      • Focus on Impact
      • Move Fast
      • Be Open
      • Build Social Value
    • Org health is optimizing for three things:
      • being aligning around a vision/strategy/culture
      • being able to execute
      • being able to adjust to market / business changes
      • Reference: mckinsey:
        • 4 areas employees want:
          • great company (taken care of)
          •     the culture and values of the company –
          • great leaders (my role)
          • great job (my role)
          • great rewards (taken care of)
    • Typical questions to prepare for include:
      • Describe your leadership style
      • Tell me about your team composition
      • Tell me about a time you managed someone out
      • How do you motivate employees?
      • How do you mentor high performers?
        •  Mckinsy: high performers are 400 percent more productive than average ones.
      • Q: Tell me a time you dealt with a difficult employee
      • How do you manage low performers?
      • How do you manage conflict across teams?
      • If you’re a manager:
        • What do your 1:1’s look like?
      • How are your 1:1’s different between your managers and IC’s?
      • How do you manage IC’s?
      • How do you prioritize projects across your team?
      • How do you measure team health?
      • Tell me about your role
      • How do you build teams?
      • What motivates you:
      • **Weakness? **
      • Mgmt style: (failing of a manager) (this is a strengths question)
      • Personality you do not want to work for
      • What do you dislike working on? dislike doing? (This is a weakness question)
      • How would your last manager describe you? (this is a strengths question! )
      • How about your colleagues? (this is a strengths question! )