This was pre-Kindle Fire and the questions were about if Amazon should compete with the iPad. Reasonable questions, but very kept very hypothetical. Most of my responses were trying to show the questions I'd look to answer before making a decision. When I said, for example that I'd want to understand Amazon's goals in releasing a new Kindle the reply was that was up to me. Though I may be in charge of a product, clearly Amazon's entire strategy including content (movies, books, music, general merchandise) is not up to a single Senior Product Manager. As much as I love to be given a lot of room to make decisions, launching a device is a big decision that should meet business objectives beyond the scope of a single PM. In my experience, there's always a bigger context.
I'm sure she felt my responses were too wishy washy because I was trying to show how I'd go about making the decision (if it were mine to make). When I interview people, I want to know how they think and how they would act. The specifics of the decisions are somewhat less important. I think I made clear how I would go about doing the research, how I'd go about trying to make a decision, etc. None of it seemed to satisfy her. She seemed to want, "this is what I'd do" . Mind you, this wasn't something I could have prepared for since this device was secret at the time. So it isn't like I could quote real numbers, etc. All I could do is talk about the process I'd use to come to a conclusion. The outcome would depend on what I learned and what the constraints were (objectives set for me, etc.) Even though I didn't have numbers to back me up, I did go down the path of, "based on what I know *now* i can see how X makes the most sense." Even that wasn't specific enough to impress.
That unceremoniously ended that set of discussions.
I was approached by an Amazon recruiter last week about another unannounced product. The recruiter was very nice and set up a phone call with the hiring manager. It was a slightly better tone, but still the manager was remarkably monotone. I tried to appreciate that this must be how Amazon managers are trained to interview and didn't take it personally but it is hard to have an enthusiastic demeanor when there is virtually no response on the other end from the start, no matter what you say. The manager also insisted on using a speaker phone during the call despite that initially I said it sounded like a very bad connection. Only toward the end did she pick up the phone so I could actually hear her well.
Without being able to tell me what the product was, the questions were similar. For an "imaginary" product, what would I do... Again I said my first step was to understand the overall goals or suggest them if none existed and get buy in as part of the concept. Everything from there hinges on that. Without some agreement on why we are doing something and how it fits the bigger context it is hard to know where to take the device. Features, priorities, etc. are all driven from what we hope to achieve. Look at the Kindle strategy itself vs say, Apple. Apple is selling the hardware essentially pure and simple. Amazon almost gives away Kindle to make sales of movies, music, and books. I said if that was the strategy here too, then I would do X.
Now people who know me know that I'm anything but wishy washy. While I can change my mind in light of new information or persuasion--I'm very decisive. But it rarely makes sense to make decisions without any information and describing the information I'd get before making a decision seemed like an unacceptable response.
I had a mixed feeling about the interview, but I was able to tell from LinkedIn that the manager had checked my profile. I read hers and then followed her on twitter and I think she followed be back. I thought this may be a good sign. Sure enough they arranged another round of phone interviews. Good! The next interview went very similarly. Same monotone, same unenthusiastic responses. Same hypothetical questions.
I should add that none of the of the hypotheticals were aided. For example, If I asked a question, there was nothing like, "assume X and go from there."
I understand the idea they are shooting for, but the combination of asking about hypothetical products without participating in a meaningful way.
Anyway, the whole thing is kind of disappointing as i think highly of Amazon as a customer and I could contribute a great deal.
