Essential Work Sample Exercises for Hiring Top Product Managers

Product management sits at the intersection of business, technology, and user experience, making it one of the most multifaceted roles in any organization. A great product manager must possess a unique blend of analytical thinking, strategic vision, communication skills, and customer empathy. Traditional interviews often fail to reveal these complex abilities, as candidates can easily rehearse answers to common questions without demonstrating their actual capabilities.

Work sample exercises provide a window into how candidates approach real product challenges. By simulating actual job tasks, these exercises reveal a candidate's thought process, problem-solving approach, and ability to balance competing priorities—skills that are essential for product management success but difficult to assess through conversation alone.

The exercises outlined below are designed to evaluate the core competencies of effective product managers: strategic thinking, data-driven decision making, cross-functional collaboration, and customer-focused innovation. Each exercise creates an opportunity to observe candidates in action, providing more predictive insights than hypothetical questions or resume reviews.

When implemented thoughtfully, these work samples not only help identify the strongest candidates but also give applicants a realistic preview of the role, leading to better job fit and reduced turnover. By incorporating these exercises into your hiring process, you'll be able to distinguish between candidates who can talk about product management and those who can actually deliver results.

Activity #1: Feature Prioritization Exercise

This exercise evaluates a candidate's ability to make strategic decisions, balance competing priorities, and communicate their reasoning effectively. Product managers must constantly decide which features to build next, considering factors like customer value, business impact, and development effort. This exercise simulates that critical decision-making process.

Directions for the Company:

• Prepare a list of 8-10 potential features for a product in your company (or create a fictional product if needed).
• For each feature, provide a brief description and some basic information about customer requests, potential impact, and estimated development effort.
• Allow 45-60 minutes for this exercise, including preparation, presentation, and feedback.
• Provide the candidate with access to a whiteboard or digital collaboration tool.
• Include 2-3 stakeholders from different departments (engineering, marketing, sales) to participate in the presentation portion.

Directions for the Candidate:

• Review the list of potential features and any supporting information provided.
• Create a prioritized roadmap for the next two quarters, selecting which features should be built and in what order.
• Prepare a brief (10-15 minute) presentation explaining your prioritization decisions, including:
• Your methodology for evaluating and ranking features
• The rationale behind your top 3 priorities
• Features you decided to defer and why
• Any assumptions you made or additional information you would want
• Be prepared to answer questions from stakeholders who may have different priorities.

Feedback Mechanism:

• After the presentation, the interview panel should provide specific feedback on one aspect the candidate did well (e.g., "Your framework for evaluating business impact was very thorough") and one area for improvement (e.g., "We'd like to see more consideration of technical dependencies").
• Give the candidate 10 minutes to revise their prioritization based on the feedback and explain how they would incorporate this feedback in a real work environment.
• Observe how receptive the candidate is to constructive criticism and how effectively they adapt their approach.

Activity #2: User Problem Analysis and Solution Design

This exercise assesses a candidate's customer empathy, problem-solving skills, and ability to translate user needs into product solutions. Great product managers start with customer problems rather than jumping straight to features, and this exercise reveals how candidates approach this fundamental product thinking process.

Directions for the Company:

• Prepare a realistic user problem scenario relevant to your product or industry.
• Include user research data such as survey results, user quotes, or usage metrics that highlight the problem.
• Provide context about the target user persona and their goals.
• Allow 60 minutes for this exercise, including preparation and discussion.
• Prepare questions that probe the candidate's thinking process.

Directions for the Candidate:

• Review the user problem scenario and supporting data.
• Analyze the underlying user needs and pain points.
• Develop a potential solution that addresses the core problem.
• Create a simple wireframe or sketch of your proposed solution.
• Prepare to discuss:
• Your understanding of the user problem
• How your solution addresses the core user needs
• How you would validate your solution with users
• Metrics you would use to measure success
• Potential challenges or limitations of your approach

Feedback Mechanism:

• After the candidate presents their solution, provide specific feedback on one strength (e.g., "You did an excellent job identifying the underlying user need beyond the surface problem") and one area for improvement (e.g., "Consider how this solution would work for users with different technical abilities").
• Ask the candidate to spend 10 minutes refining their solution based on the feedback.
• Evaluate how well they incorporate the feedback and whether they demonstrate flexibility in their thinking.

Activity #3: Cross-Functional Collaboration Role Play

This exercise evaluates a candidate's ability to collaborate with different stakeholders, navigate conflicting priorities, and build consensus—essential skills for product managers who must align engineering, design, marketing, and business teams around a shared vision.

Directions for the Company:

• Create a scenario involving a product decision that affects multiple teams.
• Assign 2-3 team members to play roles representing different departments (e.g., an engineer concerned about technical debt, a marketing manager focused on launch timing, a sales representative advocating for a specific client's needs).
• Brief your role players on their positions and concerns, ensuring they present realistic but challenging perspectives.
• Allow 30-45 minutes for this exercise.
• Observe how the candidate balances different viewpoints and works toward a solution.

Directions for the Candidate:

• You will participate in a simulated product meeting with stakeholders from different departments.
• Your goal is to facilitate a productive discussion and work toward alignment on a product decision.
• You'll receive a brief describing the product situation and decision to be made.
• Take 10 minutes to review the materials and prepare your approach.
• During the 20-minute role play:
• Facilitate the discussion
• Understand each stakeholder's perspective and constraints
• Identify areas of agreement and disagreement
• Work toward a solution that addresses key concerns
• Establish next steps and responsibilities

Feedback Mechanism:

• After the role play, the stakeholders should provide feedback on one aspect of the candidate's facilitation that was effective (e.g., "You did a great job acknowledging everyone's concerns") and one area for improvement (e.g., "You could have dug deeper into the technical constraints").
• Give the candidate 5-10 minutes to reflect on how they would approach a similar situation differently based on the feedback.
• Assess their self-awareness and ability to adapt their collaboration style.

Activity #4: Product Metrics Analysis and Decision Making

This exercise tests a candidate's analytical abilities, data interpretation skills, and capacity to make evidence-based product decisions. Product managers must regularly analyze performance data to evaluate feature success and inform future direction.

Directions for the Company:

• Prepare a realistic (but anonymized) dataset showing product metrics before and after a feature launch.
• Include multiple metrics (e.g., user engagement, conversion rates, retention) with some showing improvement and others showing decline or no change.
• Intentionally include some ambiguous or contradictory data points that require deeper analysis.
• Allow 45-60 minutes for this exercise.
• Provide access to spreadsheet software or printed materials with the data.

Directions for the Candidate:

• Review the product metrics dataset provided.
• Analyze the impact of the feature launch on key performance indicators.
• Identify patterns, correlations, and potential issues in the data.
• Prepare recommendations for next steps based on your analysis.
• Be ready to present (15 minutes):
• Your interpretation of what the data shows
• Key insights and unexpected findings
• Hypotheses about why certain metrics changed
• Recommended actions (e.g., iterate on the feature, roll back, investigate further)
• Additional data you would want to collect

Feedback Mechanism:

• After the presentation, provide specific feedback on one strength of their analysis (e.g., "You identified an important correlation between user segments that wasn't obvious") and one area for improvement (e.g., "Consider how external factors might have influenced these metrics").
• Ask the candidate to spend 10 minutes refining their recommendations based on this new perspective.
• Evaluate their ability to incorporate new information and adjust their thinking based on feedback.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long should we allocate for these work sample exercises?

Each exercise typically requires 45-60 minutes, including preparation, execution, and feedback. We recommend conducting no more than two exercises in a single interview day to avoid candidate fatigue. The feature prioritization and metrics analysis exercises can be shortened to 30 minutes by providing simpler scenarios if time is limited.

Should we use real company data for these exercises?

While using real scenarios makes the exercise more relevant, always anonymize sensitive data and simplify complex situations. For early-stage interviews, fictional but realistic scenarios often work better as they level the playing field for candidates without specific industry knowledge. Save company-specific scenarios for final-round candidates.

What if a candidate asks for additional information during the exercise?

This is actually a positive sign! Strong product managers ask clarifying questions rather than making assumptions. Have additional context ready, but also observe how candidates handle ambiguity when information isn't available—a common situation in real product management.

How should we evaluate candidates across different exercises?

Create a simple rubric for each exercise that maps to your key competencies (e.g., analytical thinking, communication, strategic vision). Rate candidates on a consistent scale for each competency rather than comparing candidates directly to each other. Look for patterns across multiple exercises—strong candidates typically show consistent strengths in their core competencies.

Should we give candidates these exercises to complete at home?

While take-home exercises allow candidates more time for thoughtful work, they also demand more of their personal time. We recommend keeping take-home assignments under 2 hours or offering them as an alternative to in-person exercises. The cross-functional collaboration role play must be conducted live, while the other exercises can be adapted for take-home format if necessary.

How can we make these exercises inclusive for candidates with different backgrounds?

Provide clear instructions in multiple formats (written and verbal), offer accommodations when requested, and design scenarios that don't require specialized industry knowledge unless absolutely necessary for the role. Focus evaluation on problem-solving approach and thinking process rather than specific terminology or prior exposure to similar problems.

Product management excellence begins with hiring the right talent. By incorporating these work sample exercises into your interview process, you'll gain deeper insights into candidates' actual capabilities and fit for your specific product challenges. Remember that the goal isn't to find candidates who get everything "right," but rather to identify those who demonstrate strong product thinking, collaborative skills, and the ability to learn and adapt.

For more resources to enhance your hiring process, check out Yardstick's suite of AI-powered tools, including our AI Job Description Generator, AI Interview Question Generator, and AI Interview Guide Generator. These tools can help you create comprehensive job descriptions and structured interview plans tailored to your specific product management needs. You can also find more information about product manager roles in our Product Manager Job Description.

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