PM Metrics Interview Questions
6 questions about defining success metrics, diagnosing problems, and navigating metric trade-offs.
Key Metrics Concepts
Leading indicators predict future outcomes (signups predict future revenue). Lagging indicators confirm past success (revenue). You need both.
Metrics that ensure you're not gaming your primary metric. If you optimize for signups, counter-metric might be Day-7 retention.
Grouping users by when they joined to track behavior over time. Essential for understanding if metrics changes are mix shift or behavior change.
A single metric that best captures the value you deliver to customers. It aligns the team but shouldn't be the only thing you measure.
Metrics Interview Tips
Always Ask About Goals First
"How would you measure success?" has no right answer without knowing what success means. Ask what the feature or product is trying to achieve before proposing metrics.
Think in Systems, Not Single Numbers
One metric is never enough. Propose a system: a north star metric, leading indicators, counter-metrics, and how they relate to each other.
Be Ready to Diagnose
"Our metric dropped 20%" questions are common. Have a systematic debugging approach: verify data, segment the problem, correlate with changes, and narrow down.
Practice Metrics Questions
Metrics fluency comes from practice. Record yourself answering these questions and review your structure and reasoning.