Product Sense is the most common type of case candidates have to solve, as part of the interview process for a Product Manager role. It is typically a broad prompt and the candidate is expected to walk the interviewer through structured thinking to arrive at an MVP, minimum viable product.
Most recently companies evaluate candidate for Product Sense as an intermediary step before moving them to the final round. In a crowded market, employers are looking for signals on strategic thinking, user empathy prioritization and creativity.
Consider this question I got from a hiring manager in Q1 2025, a Doordash veteran: “Improve the Post booking experience at Open table”.
I usually start with stating my assumptions to align my understanding of the question. Here that would look like sharing my understanding of what I think the post booking experience looks like.
Next steps include discussing the problem space to answer the following questions: what happens during the post booking experience and what is the main issue with that stage of the experience.
Then comes the stakeholders identification and personas prioritization, a segment to focus on. Once that’s completed the candidate is expected to set a goal and then showcase user empathy through problem identification for a chosen persona and suggest a couple of solutions to address the problem. Throughout the exercise, the interviewer will look to the candidate to explain the prioritization rationale: the why!
Now that I have shared my approach, you can view how I solved this prompt here. It is password protected so DM me at linekouecheu@gmail.com and I will grant you access.
The PM journey 