Imagine that the engineers on your product development team consistently delivered poor quality deliverables. What steps would you take to address the issue?
Principal product managers are responsible for ensuring that the products that are ultimately developed meet the vision and standard the stakeholders or end users of the product expected. Poorly developed products can lead to costly rework, delays, and loss of revenue. Interviewers ask this question to determine if a candidate has the leadership skills necessary to address this potentially difficult and uncomfortable situation.
Remember to include a process for gathering information prior to discussing the quality issues directly with team members. Individuals often take work quality related feedback personally. A data-driven approach can help a team focus on the impact of the issue versus the people who created it.
Also, remember to demonstrate that improving the quality of any product is a team effort. Interviewers appreciate candidates that inspire others to improve while collectively owning the process and the end result.
"The first step I would take is to research the quality of similar products. I would want to have benchmark information available before discussing the issue as a team. I would also analyze the time and money spent on rework. I would perform an impact analysis to help demonstrate the result of the quality issues. If appropriate, I might run the scenario by an engineering lead or architect on another team to get some perspective and ensure that my quality assessment is fair.
Once I had the data necessary for the discussion, I would facilitate a meeting with the engineers and their leadership. I would ensure that the feedback was not offered personally, and that we stay focused on the business impact of poor quality work.
I would begin by reminding everyone of the vision and the level of quality we are striving for. I would offer the results of my analysis and work with the group to define a reasonable expectation for improvement. I would then ask for their thoughts on how we could improve the process to create higher quality deliverables. Once a plan was established, I would ask for a commitment from everyone and set a clear timeline to reflect upon the changes and whether or not they achieved the desired results."
