PM Interview Experience at Haptik.ai

I'd reached out to the co-founder on LinkedIn a while back. And after 2 weeks, I got a response from the HR. 

Round 1 - Call with the HR
Round 2 - Call with Product Head
Round 3 - Interviews with Product Head, Business Head, CTO and CEO

Round 1 - Call with the HR

After a 5 minute call with the HR, I got an assignment to be solved and submitted within the week. The assignment was to test guesstimate/opportunity sizing capabilities. A sample question for example - Find the number of users who are online in Europe or How many people play Casual Games in India. Here, the task was to figure if I can think broadly and what all parameters do I consider. I started with the main formula and listed all attributes that could impact my final value. Highlight all assumptions and form a strong basis for them. How deeply could I think was the main focus for the assignment round.

Round 2 - Call with Product Head

I had an introductory call with the Product Head to check for fitment. This was a 15-minute discussion around the work I have done and what product work am I looking for. Seemed like a filter call on my work experience before moving on to the next round. Clarity of thought was a key criterion.

Round 3 - Interviews with Product Head, Business Head, CTO and CEO

Was called to their Mumbai office for four interviews with the CEO, Product Head, CTO and Business Head. More details below -

1. The CEO round started with generic chit chat about the space i.e. the best bots I have come across and why do I like them. Obviously here, the stress was to check my awareness about different competitors and trends in chatbots space. This was not a technical round. In fact, fairly behavioural. After this, we discussed my experience starting a company - what were my learnings. Later, I came to know that they try to look for ex-startup folks or people with some entrepreneurship experience
2. Then I had another session with the Product Head. He started by giving me a scenario on how I would plan a Product roadmap. The focus area here on was how would I prioritise different tasks, and what was the criteria to figure out what initiatives are picked up by the Product manager short term and long term. Then a real scenario was given where say I get X requirements from different internal teams, and with limited resources, what would be my
   decision
3. The 3rd interview was with the CTO. This discussion started with a brief around how the Haptik Platform is built. And then questions around what would be my framework to suggest improvements. Also, follow-up questions' to vet how closely have I worked with engineers (working with Tech Debt and scale issues around chat applications). And If I’d be able to share requirements with engineering accounting for edge cases and keeping in mind
   the reach across different channels (pre-release checklist etc.)
4. The final interview was very different. The Business head tested me with problem-solving questions. For example - Say, I am the PM for the Facebook feed. And one fine day, I see the main metric for the Facebook feed product go down by 50%. What would I do? I had to come up with a plan to figure out what may have gone wrong and how can I figure out the possibilities here. Then midway, I was given a Product design question - How would I build an ATM for people with visual impairment. I’d practised this, so I knew that I had to start by thinking users first - form a user persona and list out the motivations/needs before jumping onto the end solution.

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