How do product managers describe the projects they've done?

In the interview scenario, how does the product manager introduce the project he has done to the interviewer? This article summarizes the relevant ideas, I hope to inspire you.

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, so today I will share the first article in the collection of "Those Interviews That Make Product Managers Big" - how product managers introduce the projects they have done.

How to introduce the projects you have done? I believe that all of you who have become product managers will be familiar with this question, and even when you need help from other departments at work, you will also introduce your own projects to the relevant contacts. However, the same question needs to be answered in different ways in different scenarios, and in the work scenario, you may only briefly introduce what your project does, but how to answer this question in the interview scenario?

First of all, we have to analyze the fundamental reasons why the interviewer asked this question, which in the author's opinion is nothing more than the following:

• Get a quick overview of your past experience and your actual tasks and processes
• Do you have the ability to think in a structured way?
• Find an entry point that will keep the interview going

For the first point, it is very simple and easy to understand. Before you actually start the interview, the interviewer's knowledge of you is probably based on flipping through your resume just a few minutes on the way to the interview location. The so-called "if you can listen, you won't see, and if you can, you won't listen" is just that. Reading resumes is also very boring, if the interviewer can freely put away his resume and tell the interviewer, I believe it will greatly improve your image in the interviewer's mind.

As for your actual tasks and processes, how should you output them to the interviewer? The essence of this lies in the second point mentioned above - the product manager's ability to think in a structured way.

Your primary school Chinese teacher must have told you that you should write essays in the form of "total-score-total" or "total-score". That's right, structured thinking is pretty much the same thing. When you think about a problem and need to output it to others, this organized way of outputting will not only make the other person feel comfortable, but also improve the efficiency of communication. However, the introduction project and the essay for elementary school students are not exactly the same, so here I share a structured way of thinking that is easy to use for project introduction: the STAR rule.

The so-called STAR rule, in which S-Situation, T-Task, Action, and Result, STAR is to connect these four initials. Among them, Situation can be understood as the project background, and Task can be understood as the project goal. Applying this STAR rule, we can introduce our project in the following sentence:

I am mainly responsible for the product design of the XXX business part of the XXX product. Before the project was established, the problem encountered by the product was XXX or we wanted to make a little attempt in the direction of XXX. Based on the above background (previously S-Situation), we want to improve the conversion between users and members or promote the interaction between users (T-Task).

After establishing the project goal, I did XXX optimization/XXX module construction from 0 to 1 (A-Action) based on the company's existing XXX technical means through market, competition and user research, and finally increased XXX and XXX by XX% and completed the set task goal (R-Result result).

When the author completely typed down the cliché on the keyboard, it felt quite similar to a primary school student's essay, which was nothing more than "time, place, people, causes, and events...... In fact, if you can finish this set of words fluently, it will take a relatively short time, but in fact, remember not to say too long about the project introduction during the interview process.

If your project presentation is too long and you don't think about your voice, you also have to think about the interviewer's memory...... To be honest, if you ask the interviewer to recall a project he has worked on before, he may not be able to remember it well, let alone ask him to remember a project that he has not worked on before. Your project introduction is too short for the interviewer to remember, let alone a "smelly and long" project introduction. You can even ask yourself, are you annoyed that your mother or your girlfriend is crazy about you...... The author's remarks here are a bit excessive, please forgive me.

What is it for the interviewer to find an entry point that can make the interview continue? The author believes that there are two main aspects of the cut-off, which we can adjust as needed:

First of all, your project is "wonderful" enough. If your project happens to be of particular interest to the interviewer, as long as your project is not so long that the interviewer's interest is lost, the interviewer will most likely ask the next question based on the interest in your project.

In addition, the interviewer has happened to be in charge of a project similar to the one you presented, in which case the interviewer will also be "interested" in your project. However, this interest is usually more stressful for the interviewer, after all, the interviewer decides whether to continue in the interview level, and if you do not make your interviewer very satisfied with your answers in the following communication, I am afraid it is difficult to continue to pass the test.

There is also a situation where the interviewer is very shocked by the results of your project or the responsibilities of the project, that is, if the packaging marks are heavily exposed, they will also be "interested" in your project...... Compared to the previous case of interest, this can be said to be twice the pressure. Therefore, for "well-prepared" projects, it is best for you to sort out the previous work you have done rigorously and logically several times before the interview, according to what is written on your resume, so as to achieve "one". In addition, for the data achievement part, all the process data on the index acquisition and indicator calculation link should be prepared in advance and checked several times. Don't write that with your efforts, China's land area has expanded by 10 million square kilometers, but in fact you have recovered Japan, remember not to let your "ability" be self-defeating.

For the second entry point, I believe that many product students have heard such a sentence: a good interview process is conducted in a conversational way, and the interviewer and the interviewer discuss a certain point in the interviewer's resume and self-statement. In the process of discussion with the interviewee, the interviewer distills the interviewer's professional abilities from the output.

First of all, don't be too long, if you finish talking about the latter part of the interviewer and forget the first part, then it's not a discussion but Pardon.

Then there's the essence – don't talk too much. This conclusion was concluded by the author and his beloved during a certain interview preparation process. In fact, it is just to take it easy, create a little suspense, and create some opportunities for in-depth discussions with the interviewer. And where these opportunities are buried depends on which part of your project you are more proud of and satisfied with, or the part you say is the most proficient (there are many interviews, and you must have the part of the project presentation that you can memorize)

To sum up, the author believes that the projects you have done should be truly put into accordance with the STAR rule. Don't be too long, it's best to bury a few more sparkles, which is the most suitable way to introduce the project during the interview process. Of course, there are many faces, and this method will certainly not work for every interview scenario. Interview a lot, be flexible, I believe you will be fine in this part!

Author: Product Xiao Wu, public account: Product Xiao Wu

This article was originally published by @产品小吴 on Everyone is a Product Manager and is not allowed to be reproduced without the permission of the author.

The title image is from Unsplash and is licensed under CC0.

The views in this article only represent the author's own, everyone is a product manager, and the platform only provides information storage space services.