The PM Interview in Gaming and What to Expect
I have interviewed more times than I’d like to admit. This means I’ve gained a very wide range of experience interviewing as a PM in technology, and I’d like to share all my learnings with you so you can avoid having to interview quite as much as I have. I consistently receive the question from mentees on how to get into gaming and how to interview as a PM in gaming, so I’d like to share those tips. I have interviewed people and sat on hiring committees and also been the interviewee, so I am fortunate to know both sides of the table. Here are some general topics I cover in interviews and how to answer them well and what we grade for.
The Role
When I structure interviews, it varies dramatically depending on what the team needs are. This is one of the reasons why the gaming interview differs so much from a big tech company. There are roughly four major flavors here:
The standard, this is probably the most typical role; you are coming into a fairly organized team, and they need a PM to pick up a new project or are taking over for someone who’s left or moved into another group. This will test you on most areas and be the most typical PM interview in gaming. Here’s a few examples.
The quant, this is someone who is stepping into a live game that hasn’t fully established their data team or it could be someone stepping into a very data-heavy culture like Zynga that requires PMs to do a lot of modeling and prediction to justify features. This could also be someone stepping into a very data or systems-heavy game like a CCG (Collectible Card Game). The PM will need to understand how to design systems that scale well and monetize well, so they’ll need to model out various scenarios. Here’s a few examples.
The executioner, this is the person who is able to run delivery teams; they can push a product launch out the door on time and won’t miss a beat. This is also a PM who is coming into a live ops role, someone who can run tests, run evergreen features, and drive growth. This person is usually pretty standard for top-down or more leadership-driven cultures as the executives and/or founders tend to like to run product strategy. Here’s a few examples.
The generalist, this is where I usually fall; this is the PM that has a bit of everything; they can crunch numbers, they can run execution and delivery, they can design a crude version of a feature, lead a creative group, and they can run a really technical group into problem-solving mode. These roles are usually for new games or small studios that haven’t hired all the roles yet, and the PM will morph in and out of different roles as the game evolves. Here’s a few examples.
Sometimes the job descriptions will indicate which one they are looking for, but not always. Here are a few that I found that show some signs of each type of PM they actually want without telling you directly.
The Prep
The prep required to mitigate all of the above is vast, so be prepared to spend a decent amount of time preparing for the interview. I suggest you play the game you are interviewing for if it’s live, if it’s not live or they haven’t told you what game you’ll work on, play the games that are live. Think about the following things when you play their games:
What part of the game did you lose interest? Why did you lose interest?
What part of the game did you feel compelled to buy something? Why? Did it work?
What made you play the game the next day, week? (play the games for at least a week ideally before you start the interview process)
What part of the game was least fun? Why? What would you improve?
You should also research the company, what do they value, what types of people have they hired in the past, how do they operate, what phase is the company in (Start-up, Turnaround, Accelerated growth, Realignment, Sustaining success, see The First 90 Days for more detail about these stages). Depending on what stage the company is in will depend on what type of PM mentality and skill set they are looking for. And remember the game could be in its own state, so it may not be reflective of the overall company stage but it could be impacted by it if it’s different.
The Screening Interview
Of course these PM personas can mix and be more or less of each different skill, but when the team syncs internally you are usually looking for a very specific type of person. This unfortunately isn’t always clear when the job description is written, so it’s vital to ask specific questions about what this PM will need to do early in the interview process. Some questions I ask the hiring manager that help tease this out is as follows:
What does an ideal candidate look like for this role?
What projects will this person be working on in the next 3 months?
What does success look like for this team in the next year?
What about my background made you think I’d be a good fit for this role?
What does a typical day look like for this role?
You don’t have to ask all of these questions, but they can lead to a bit more detail on the specific focus of the role. Once you are done screening, you’ll be given a rough guideline on what to expect. The guide should include the following major topics:
How long does the process take from start to finish?
The role, this includes salary expectations, benefits, location of job and other organizational details like eligibility and time in the office (if it’s hybrid)
The interview process, who you are interviewing, what they will test you on, take-home tests or case studies, etc…
If you don’t get these 3 bullets answered fully, make sure you ask questions at the end to get as much clarity as possible so you are best prepared for the next steps.
The Case Study
Gaming companies love to send PMs a test; don’t ask me why, but I’d say they do it 75% of the time I interview with game teams. The idea behind the test a few things from what I’ve observed from hiring committees:
It gives you some context and content for the discussions later in the process.
It forces the PM to familiarize themselves with the game or genre of games as the test usually revolves around specific types of games.
It creates a stage gate to sift out anyone who doesn’t have hard skills that you desire for the role, like balancing economies, doing a competitive analysis of the market, understanding feature development and how to write good documentation and specs, etc…
My personal opinion, the biggest most competitive companies in the world like Google don’t require tests but have some of the most skilled and experienced PMs in the world; why don’t they do it? Here’s the short answer to my rhetorical question, when you put a test in front of someone and you don’t pay them to do the work it causes some of the more highly sought-after PMs to drop out of your process. This isn’t ideal because if the goal is to hire someone who’s best for the job a test deters people from continuing the process; conversely if you don’t send a test you may have gaps in the candidate’s experience. In summary, don’t be afraid to ask for compensation especially if they give you a very detailed and time-consuming test. I have been compensated for tests in my past, so it’s not unreasonable to ask.
Sorry, a bit of a digression, once you are finished with the test be sure to proofread it numerous times so you are familiar with your content because they will ask for follow-up responses or justification for some of your assumptions. Here are some tests I’ve received in the past.
Backflip Design test (just for fun, PMs will get design questions so it’s somewhat relevent)
Disclaimer these are my tests and none of them led to offers. I did get through the process with these tests but some of them may contain errors so I encourage you to try some of the questions out for yourself and not use my responses as the correct answer or guide.
The Interview
Ok, this is when it gets spicy so buckle up; interviews in games are different from large tech companies in a few ways.
First, they are looking for you to have experience in games, and they’ll dig deep on that experience during the interview.
Second, they will test you on a wider range of subjects depending on the game type; this could range from game design to data and analysis, or it could be strategic but focused on monetization strategies that match similar patterns in their specific sector (like freemium models).
Third, they’ll want to know you can work well with their team, and their team may have different design principles than you are used to. Product Managers had a bit of a bad name in gaming for a while, so they want to make sure you aren’t going to plaster ads all over the game and ruin the player experience for short-term revenue gains.
It’s typical for a PM to interview with a vast array of different disciplines within the game studio. This could range from artists, designers, game designers, engineers, data scientists/quant PMs, studio managers (EPs, Executive Producers), and Producers, and of course Product Managers. The PM interview for a game studio can be the most diverse group of interviews you may ever encounter, so be prepared to discuss a wide range of topics. Each member of the hiring committee will be required to test you on a certain vector. I have provided an example of what I used to grade each interview. They may also require you to do a take-home test and may discuss the results and your responses in the interview, so be prepared to justify any responses you made in the test.
Grading Matrix Example created by Lewis Lin from The Product Manager Interview
Passion
Do you love gaming? Tell me why?
How did you get into the games industry?
What is your favorite game of all time?
Execution
Data chops
D1 retention drops; what’s the issue?
Design a dashboard for a new game launch; the game is a free-to-play puzzle game on iOS and Android.
Tell me about an experiment you ran recently; how did you roll it out, what were the results?
Organizational skills
Tell me about a time when there was a critical issue in your game; what did you do?
Tell me about a time when you had to convince a leader to do something.
Tell me about a time you disagreed with an engineer.
How would you structure a team and how they do work? Why?
Strategy
Gaming sector familiarity (console, mobile, VR, etc…)
What do you think games will look like in the next 5 years?
What trends are you keeping an eye on? Why?
What’s your favorite game that came out recently?
Why is roblox so popular?
What new technologies will impact gaming? What do you think their impact will be?
Culture
We build games like x because we believe x; do you align with those values?
We work like x; do you like that style of work? Does this align with your work style?
Conclusion
Interviewing is the most difficult thing you may ever do as a PM; it’s vitally important you prep as much as possible before the day of the interview. The more prepared you are, the better it will feel. Create a plan and stick to it. Give yourself at least 2 weeks to prepare for the interview process and make sure you get adequate rest 2 days before the interview (this is how I do it with races because there’s no way I sleep well the night before). There are plenty of support groups out there that can help you through the process, myself included, so make sure you are practicing with the best so you get the most efficient training. You are gonna do great! Let me know what you think of this post and feel free to comment as I love to hear what you found most useful.
