Program Manager Work Samples: Practical Exercises to Identify Top Talent

Program Managers serve as the backbone of successful project execution across organizations. They coordinate multiple workstreams, manage stakeholders, mitigate risks, and ensure timely delivery of complex initiatives. Finding the right Program Manager can dramatically improve your organization's ability to execute strategic initiatives efficiently and effectively.

Traditional interviews often fail to reveal a candidate's true capabilities in program management. While candidates may articulate their experience well, their actual ability to plan, coordinate, communicate, and solve problems in real-time remains untested. This is where practical work samples become invaluable.

Work samples provide a window into how candidates approach real-world scenarios they'll face in the role. They demonstrate not just what candidates know, but how they apply that knowledge under conditions similar to those they'll encounter on the job. For Program Managers, this means assessing their ability to organize information, identify risks, communicate clearly, and adapt to changing circumstances.

The following four activities are designed to evaluate key competencies essential for successful Program Managers. Each exercise simulates a different aspect of the role, allowing you to observe candidates' thought processes, problem-solving approaches, and communication styles. By incorporating these work samples into your interview process, you'll gain deeper insights into candidates' capabilities and make more informed hiring decisions.

Activity #1: Program Planning and Timeline Development

This activity assesses a candidate's ability to organize complex information, identify dependencies, and create a realistic timeline for program execution. Effective program planning is foundational to success in this role, as it requires balancing competing priorities, understanding resource constraints, and establishing a clear roadmap for implementation.

Directions for the Company:

• Prepare a brief (1-2 page) description of a program that needs planning, including key objectives, available resources, and any constraints.
• Include a list of 8-10 workstreams or components that need to be coordinated.
• Provide basic information about the stakeholders involved and their priorities.
• Allow candidates 45-60 minutes to complete this exercise.
• Provide access to basic planning tools (spreadsheet, project management software, or even pen and paper).

Directions for the Candidate:

• Review the program description and identify key deliverables, milestones, and dependencies.
• Create a high-level program plan with a timeline showing major phases and milestones.
• Identify critical dependencies between workstreams.
• Highlight potential risks to the timeline and suggest mitigation strategies.
• Prepare a brief explanation of your planning approach and key considerations.

Feedback Mechanism:

• After the candidate presents their plan, provide feedback on one strength (e.g., "I appreciated how you identified the dependency between the marketing launch and product readiness") and one area for improvement (e.g., "I noticed the timeline might be aggressive for the technical implementation phase").
• Ask the candidate to revise a specific portion of their plan based on the feedback, giving them 10-15 minutes to make adjustments.
• Observe how receptive they are to feedback and how effectively they incorporate it into their revised plan.

Activity #2: Stakeholder Communication Exercise

This exercise evaluates a candidate's ability to communicate effectively with different stakeholders, tailor messages appropriately, and address concerns or resistance. Strong stakeholder management is critical for Program Managers who must align diverse groups around common objectives while navigating competing priorities.

Directions for the Company:

• Create a scenario where a program is facing a significant change or challenge (e.g., timeline delay, scope change, resource constraint).
• Provide profiles of 3-4 key stakeholders with different perspectives and concerns about the situation.
• Allow candidates 30-45 minutes to prepare their communications.
• If possible, have team members role-play the stakeholders during the exercise.

Directions for the Candidate:

• Review the scenario and stakeholder profiles to understand the situation and various perspectives.
• Prepare communication approaches for each stakeholder, including:
• A brief email to all stakeholders announcing the change/challenge
• Talking points for individual conversations with each stakeholder
• Responses to anticipated questions or concerns
• Consider how to maintain transparency while managing expectations and maintaining stakeholder confidence.
• Be prepared to role-play a conversation with at least one challenging stakeholder.

Feedback Mechanism:

• Provide feedback on the candidate's communication style, including one strength (e.g., "You effectively addressed the VP's concern about budget implications") and one area for improvement (e.g., "The technical team might need more specific details about how this affects their workload").
• Ask the candidate to revise their approach for the stakeholder where improvement was suggested.
• Have them role-play the conversation again, incorporating the feedback.

Activity #3: Risk Assessment and Mitigation Planning

This activity tests a candidate's ability to identify potential risks to program success, evaluate their impact and likelihood, and develop practical mitigation strategies. Proactive risk management is essential for Program Managers to prevent issues from derailing timelines and deliverables.

Directions for the Company:

• Develop a case study of a program with several inherent risks across different dimensions (technical, resource, timeline, external dependencies, etc.).
• Include some obvious risks and some that require deeper analysis to identify.
• Provide relevant background information about the organization, team capabilities, and external factors.
• Allow candidates 45-60 minutes to complete the exercise.

Directions for the Candidate:

• Review the program case study and identify at least 8-10 potential risks that could impact success.
• Create a risk register that includes:
• Risk description
• Potential impact (high/medium/low)
• Probability of occurrence (high/medium/low)
• Mitigation strategy for each risk
• Contingency plan for high-impact risks
• Prioritize the top 3-5 risks that would require immediate attention.
• Prepare a brief presentation explaining your risk assessment approach and key findings.

Feedback Mechanism:

• After the candidate presents their risk assessment, provide feedback on one strength (e.g., "You identified a critical external dependency that wasn't obvious") and one area for improvement (e.g., "Consider how the mitigation strategy for risk X might create new risks").
• Ask the candidate to develop a more detailed mitigation plan for one of the high-priority risks, incorporating your feedback.
• Evaluate how they refine their thinking and whether they consider second-order effects.

Activity #4: Cross-Functional Team Coordination Scenario

This exercise assesses a candidate's ability to coordinate work across multiple teams, resolve conflicts, and keep a program on track despite competing priorities. Effective team coordination is crucial for Program Managers who must align efforts across functional boundaries without direct authority.

Directions for the Company:

• Create a scenario where a program involves multiple teams (e.g., engineering, product, marketing, sales) working toward a common deadline.
• Include a situation where teams have conflicting priorities or resource constraints.
• Provide information about each team's current workload, priorities, and constraints.
• Allow candidates 30-45 minutes to prepare their coordination approach.
• If possible, have team members role-play team leads during a coordination meeting.

Directions for the Candidate:

• Review the scenario and team information to understand the coordination challenges.
• Develop an approach to address the conflicts and ensure program progress, including:
• A structure for cross-team coordination meetings
• A method for tracking dependencies and commitments
• Strategies for resolving priority conflicts
• Escalation paths for issues that cannot be resolved at the team level
• Prepare to facilitate a mock coordination meeting with team leads to address a specific conflict.
• Demonstrate how you would maintain program momentum while respecting team constraints.

Feedback Mechanism:

• Provide feedback on the candidate's coordination approach, including one strength (e.g., "Your structured approach to tracking commitments would create clear accountability") and one area for improvement (e.g., "Consider how you might help teams identify trade-offs rather than just escalating conflicts").
• Ask the candidate to revise their approach to the specific conflict discussed, incorporating your feedback.
• Have them briefly explain how they would implement the revised approach.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long should we allocate for these work samples in our interview process?

Each activity requires 30-60 minutes for the candidate to complete, plus time for presentation and feedback. We recommend selecting 1-2 activities most relevant to your specific Program Manager role rather than attempting all four in a single interview process. You might consider having candidates complete one activity (like the program planning exercise) as a take-home assignment before bringing them in for an in-person interview where they can present their work and participate in one of the more interactive exercises.

Should we provide these exercises to candidates in advance?

For activities like program planning or risk assessment, providing the scenario 24-48 hours in advance allows candidates to demonstrate their best work rather than their ability to work under artificial time pressure. For more interactive exercises like stakeholder communication or team coordination, it's reasonable to provide the basic scenario in advance while keeping some elements (like specific stakeholder reactions) for the live exercise.

How should we evaluate candidates across these different activities?

Create a scorecard based on the key competencies for your specific Program Manager role. For each activity, identify 3-5 specific behaviors or outputs you're looking for and rate candidates consistently. Consider having multiple interviewers evaluate the same exercise to reduce individual bias. Remember to assess both the quality of the work product and the candidate's process, communication, and adaptability.

What if a candidate has a different approach than what we expected?

Different approaches can be equally valid in program management. Evaluate whether the candidate's approach is logical, addresses the core challenges presented, and would be effective in your organization's context. The candidate's ability to explain their reasoning and adapt their approach based on feedback is often more important than following a specific methodology.

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

Design scenarios that test fundamental program management skills rather than specific industry knowledge. Provide enough context that candidates without direct experience in your industry can still demonstrate their program management capabilities. Consider allowing candidates to ask clarifying questions before beginning the exercise to ensure they understand the scenario.

Can these exercises be conducted remotely?

Yes, all of these activities can be adapted for remote interviews using video conferencing and collaborative tools like Google Docs, Miro, or project management software. For remote exercises, consider providing slightly more structure and clearer instructions to compensate for the lack of in-person interaction.

Program Managers are critical to driving successful outcomes for complex initiatives across your organization. By incorporating these practical work samples into your interview process, you'll gain deeper insights into candidates' actual capabilities beyond what traditional interviews reveal. These exercises help you identify Program Managers who can plan effectively, communicate clearly, manage risks proactively, and coordinate cross-functional teams—skills that directly translate to program success.

For more resources to improve your hiring process, check out Yardstick's AI Job Descriptions, AI Interview Question Generator, and AI Interview Guide Generator. These tools can help you create comprehensive job descriptions, generate targeted interview questions, and design structured interview guides to complement these work samples.

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