I wish, I had the following information when I walked into my phone screen, hopefully it will help someone out there.
Here is the format of my 1st phone screen with a PM (45 minutes long).
* Interviewer talks about his/her background (3~5 mins)
* Two general questions - tell me about yourself and why do you want to work here? (5 ~ 10 mins)
* Product questions - design and strategy (25~30 mins)
* Questions for the interviewer (last 5 mins)
My interviewer asked me 3 product questions so you are looking at 10~15 minutes per question.
I was caught off guard when my interviewer cut me short while I was flushing out solutions for a product design.
My recommendation, ask your interviewer how much time you have for the question or roughly how many product questions they have in mind so that you are not caught off guard like me.
On average, if the interviewer expects you to take 15 minutes for a product design problem then you don't have a lot of time for each of the below steps. You probably want to focus most of your attention on pain points and design (5 mins each).
* Define the user personas
* Define the pain points
* Prioritize the pain points
* Brain storm the solutions for the pain points
* Come up with a rough design for the solution
* Define success metrics for your solution
Product design is an iterative process, you will find better user personas, pain points and solutions as you go through the process. Be mindful about getting stuck in analysis paralysis and remember to touch on the key elements of the process.
Good luck, the process is not perfect, don't beat yourself up if you don't make it.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Tell me about yourself, why do you want work here?
The hiring and interview process was very well organized; I enjoyed the sample writing prompt exercise but make sure to be as detailed as possible (the time limit is a bit too short)
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Favorite product and why; how to design a better shopping app for parents
I applied online. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Google in Oct 2018
Interview
Recruiter screen, then phone interview, then second phone interview, then in person interview. Phone interviews seems to be focused on raw capabilities and skill sets. No emphasis is given to past experience. More focus on the technical side than the expected.