Facebook Product Manager Interview Questions & Answers

"About 20 years ago, I took several courses with Landmark Education including the Forum where I learned who to leverage my strengths which are sharing. I had two reports who wanted guidance on what they needed to work on. We had to present often to our customers and one would talk and not be able to put out key points and the other one was shy and had a hard time speaking in front of groups. So, I would coach them, tell them to put together an objective, key points, and successes and would review it together, then would role play with them. Within a month or so, they were more clear and confident in speaking and it was something that took the pressure off of them as well as me for it helped the company maintain its credibility and sme with its customers but also gave leadership more faith in succession plans and know they had true employee assets working as part of the team."

"I have always had entrepreneurship at heart, which is why I am self-driven and passionate about building programs and new initiatives. I am efficient but also able to act quickly and decisively when pursuing a vision or strategy, which demonstrates true entrepreneurialship. In early 2019, strict regulatory deadlines quickly ramped up at the bank. One of the critical priorities was moving an immature independent Point of View program from concept to BAU. I immediately saw an opportunity to take an existing regulatory finding and build out a formalized approach using the Centralized IS Governance issue and develop it into a formal POV. The effort required me to reach out to multiple teams, from IS Chief of Staff to reporting teams to Legal, and formally documenting 28 current activities the Information and Cyber Security Front line was performing and obtaining sustainable evidence to support. I utilized the RMF to establish the risk ratings and was able to provide a final product with 25 effective areas and three areas in need of improvement. This report was eventually shared with the regulators and the BoD and became the POV standardized approach for the firm."

"I want to work at Facebook for many reasons; however, the most personal and compelling are how I believe I can help Facebook bring back trust in its user's data privacy. I have worked with multiple control frameworks and policies and there is no perfect answer or solution. It takes a multi-lens and multi-layered approach to give the coverage in areas to ensure commitment to the FTC's requirements along with its users and advertisers."

"First is continual open communication. Learning and understanding where the strengths and passion are and helping others gain knowledge through delegating tasks. "Delegating to the strengths of my team is undoubtedly my favorite approach to maximizing my team's efficiency. I find things are more smooth and impactful when someone with strength in GRC configuration takes over design and also if possible shadows and mentors others on the team to learn their strengths. Learning to let go and delegate tasks is one factor to efficiency; however, delegating to strengths is even more impactful. Delegation through organization and clear communication with simple Tasks Lists with simple objective and end results to be achieved. I always encourage my team to collaborate, and I actively empower every member to show the team where they can shine. When everyone is focused on tasks that highlight their greatest skills, we generate results faster and with higher quality outcomes. When team members can apply their best skills to the tasks where they want to create genuine value, we will generate much higher quality results for the company and its customers."

"Need to first learn what areas of priorities are relevant if it is internal or external such as regulatory.

As an organized and focused Product Manager, I understand the importance of clear, privacy and risk process, controls, and frameworks with KPIs and kris, It is important to show our maturation and have supporting evidence which proves effective against our internal controls and policies. I will work hard and provide consistency and streamlined processes which align with LOBs key privacy areas. We can show sustainability and if not, process and or controls need to be updated."

"For example, I had to perform a very detailed Topical Point of View on a subject area or domain. Depending on the topic would drive the type of data I would analyze. Many times it is qualitative from the LOB and thus have to look at data and understand does the rationale for the subjective statement make sense. On other hand, if looking at specific operational systems and measuring the availability and uptime or how many Risk Accpetions were signed off by the business for high risks. I would look at and compare multiple months or quarters and provide a trend diagram with examples of the risk acceptances. These would be highlighted in a summary deck and then presented with observations or findings/issues.

If the privacy area needs to show how many users' data was being shared on a 3rd party app or I would look at quantitative but if there was more a look at risk acceptances or security exceptions I would use both."

"When I was working as an Info Security Architect, there was a critical program for dealing with the Firecall Emergency IDs with passwords in envelopes that were created by a privileged access administrator. I was asked to solve the problem and an alternative approach to these known passwords. I first tried to learn what the issue was and what was driving it, then what options were available to solve it internal vs external. I had basically two options, develop a solution in-house with limited developer resources or buy a Cots application. I met with Gartner and there were only two solutions that they had not formally reviewed. Met with both did proof of concept with both. Had SMEs who were privileged Admins UNIX and WINDOWS work on the POC. At end of the day, both products were limited on their platforms but one was more bank workflow focused. So I went back to leadership to find out what kind of budget we could spend. Total with hardware licensing etc 400K. Went back to the vendor and negotiated if they would work with our administrators on several additional platforms and develop PAR (Password Auto Repository), we would go with their solution. This was a win-win for both vendor and the bank. This project took about 2 years to be completely BAU across 7 platforms. But, they are still using the solution today."

"I practice self-awareness to avoid pushing my personal preferences onto a process or policy. I like to incorporate in discussions, what is your opinion, any additions you wish to add? Also, let them know to reach out to me or the team with constructive feedback or something they wish to be added to the approach. When executed, I feel some form of key risk indicator or key performance indicator will also gain input based on agreement or not."

"- The MoSCoW method, which is an acronym for Must have (vital), Should have (priority), Could have (optional), and Won't have (scratch it!).

"Typically, when I am prioritizing tasks or product features, I will use the MoSCoW model. I have been trained in Agile methodology and lean toward this model because it focuses on both the project stakeholders' goals and the customer's needs. I also find it the easiest method to use when I need to explain my decision-making process to individuals outside of the technical aspects of the project. The first step is to ask if the product feature is a 'must-have,' vital feature. Then, I ask if it is a 'should-have,' which makes the feature a priority. Moving down the list, is I ask if the product feature is a 'could-have.' Perhaps it's optional or could be visited at a later time. Then, I can determine if the feature is a 'won't-have,' meaning it's time to scratch that particular idea. Then, my team will prioritize the must-have and should-have features. Could you share with me if there is a preferred prioritization model at Facebook?"

" I appreciate that Facebook's mission is 'to give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together.' I feel this mission allows for openness and creativity in bringing new approaches and ways of being more efficient through innovation. Examples include its digital advertising and how that has changed traditional advertising in terms of making advertising affordable for everyone. The new F2 and the Novi wallet and the Diem stablecoin may be the biggest game-changer to banking and payments as the internet was to shopping. Also, Oculus has cutting-edge VR that leverages its strong infrastructure. As far as competitive position, Facebook offers social media services and digital advertising options via its mobile apps and websites, including Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and Oculus. When it comes to Facebook's advertising pricing strategy, the company ensures that its mission is met by -

The company uses the following pricing strategies for its online display advertising service from 'Pay-what-you-want' and 'Market-oriented' pricing. Pricing is often based on a per-impression or per click model, making digital advertising accessible to business owners with large and smaller budgets. This flexibility is well-embraced by many advertisers, making Facebook advertising a very competitive option compared to other marketing and advertising options. As a Product Manager for Facebook, I will always keep Facebook's mission and competitive strategic positioning in mind as we bring new products to the market and further improve existing products."

"My liberal arts education built a strong foundation for a broad range of topics to develop strong professional discipline and interpersonal skills. I was involved in many social activities while enjoying studies that were fun and interesting to me."

"The Facebook development team is built of world-class developers, designers, engineers, data scientists, researchers, and more. To ensure that the highest standards are built and maintained during a project, I ensure there is a clear objective and scope. Also, if there are any things that are open to interpretation such as quality, risk, are aligned to enterprise criteria or I spell it out. I am big on continual daily checkpoints at beginning of the day, go over any issues or roadblocks. Stay focused even though additional functions, bugs feedback come up, overcome them by staying the course on what the limitation or problem trying to solve. Key tasks are part of the milestone if tasks can be combined without losing quality we move forward. milestone. When we can identify defects right away, the project can remain on track. The more closely we follow the project roadmap, the smoother the outcome."

"When I face a complex problem, I first look at the overall problem and the situation. I follow a simple method called SBAR; Situation, Background, Assessment, Recommendation, which brings the situation and the solutions or resources needed to address it. I then engage appropriate team members and discuss further with takeaways of how the problem could be resolved with existing solutions or leveraging input to put something in place."

"I have worked in cross-functional agile teams most of my career. Currently, I work with every area of Wells Fargo areas from Lines of Business to functional areas all over the world. I am successful because I am adaptive, and can be able to be open to different approaches and viewpoints. Working with a wide experience level, it is important to show value and how you will bring value to their area and help them. An example of this is showing IS storefront metrics dashboard if they can capture specific metrics even if not automated? Our report gets shared with the BoD quarterly and if you need some traction on items such as automation or tool resources we can help. Another example working with multiple teams to Exeutivion of IS Policies or IS Risk Management Activities and obtaining measurable metrics aligned to controls and policies to establish effectiveness. They need to show sustainable results to pass findings for MRA and I need to be able to show repeatable effective Risk Management processes which protect ____ data. I like the challenge of working with multiple levels of leadership and a wide variety of SMEs. Being able to clearly articulate the objective and finding a common shared impact is a key factor of success." Some teams are about solutions for risk remediation and others are concerned about how the issue occurred and others want to know how to report and mitigate for the future."

"I take a mindful people-focused approach to build trust and nurture the health of the team. My favorite approach is getting to know people personally by asking them questions about themselves, listening intently to their responses, and remembering the information they share, such as their spouse's name or hobbies outside of the workplace. In the work setting, I maintain a happy team by holding only important and structured meetings so that everyone feels their time is valued. I ask questions when I need clarity rather than pretending to know the answer. Also, I am highly focused on supporting diversity and inclusion efforts and showing everyone respect and fairness, an approach that Facebook leaders actively embrace. Two of my direct reports at my former company said I was the best manager they have ever had. I am very transparent, open, and honest, and many colleagues come to me for advice or just to share at every company I have ever worked for."