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Doordash PM interview - product prioritization question type?

Interview prep
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#1

Hi David/Team,

Doordash splits the first-round PM interview into product prioritization (20 mins) and product sense (15-20 mins).

Do you know if product prioritization is similar to FB trade-off questions? Any tips/insights on how to tackle such questions will be really helpful. The recruiter just shared that structure and metrics etc. will be evaluated.

Thanks

#2

I could see it be one of two things:

  • Analytical tradeoff questions, similar to FB tradeoff questions (like you suggested). Often these involve pricing decisions and/or AB tests. Seems very likely you’ll have something like this at Doordash (given it’s a very analytical company) and I certainly would expect to appear in the screen.
  • Product intuition: some companies occasionally do an exercise of the form “here are 5 projects, how would you prioritize them”. The key is to have a crisp goal and evaluate of the options in the explicit frame of the goal.

I would ask the recruiter for clarification: ask them if you should expect product prioritization to be analytical and if there’s any ressources they recommend you read ahead of them.

Let us know what you hear back!

2 Likes
#3

Thanks David. This is really helpful. Based on your note, I think I now understand what it could mean.

Since their final round has separate ‘product prioritization’ and ‘analytical’ interviews. So I am guessing that product prioritization during the phone screen should be along the lines of your second point i.e. product intuition kind of question.

I have seen a question asked in the past on the internet that now based on your note, I am guessing is a prioritization question - You are a PM for Instacart. What would be the worst problems in the delivery experience after the buyer has placed the order?

That also now seems to align with the initial guidance provided by the recruiter: Your interviewer will give you a case study on a third-party business, and you’ll work to solve a problem. Be prepared to illustrate your framework on how you would prioritize.

And on further probing, was told that they will assess: PM fundamentals with prioritization (structure, metrics, etc)

#4

Ah yes, I’ve also heard this about Doordash — expect a question like “if you were in charge of LinkedIn, what would you prioritize next?”

This is more of a pure product intuition question, but very important to think about the structure of your answer before actually thinking about an answer. For example, I might first say something like “let’s think about some of the biggest painpoints people have with LinkedIn, then prioritize those relative to LinkedIn mission and finally think about some specific features.”

#5

Great, thanks so much.