How to hire a VP of Product
What the role does, the job description, the interview questions, and the 42-minute screening pack that tells you who can do the job before you book a single interview.
The role
What a VP of Product does
A VP of Product sits in the Leadership function. The sections below give you the job description, the interview questions and the screening pack for the role.
Screen before you interview
The VP of Product screening pack
Product craft, data, leadership and understanding the market. Every applicant gets one link. You get one ranked report.
- 1
How do you set product strategy and keep it alive quarter to quarter?
- 2
Describe a product you killed and how you decided.
- 3
How do you structure a product team for a company our size?
- 4
How do you handle sales asking for features the roadmap does not have?
- 5
Which metrics tell you the product is winning?
Interview questions
VP of Product interview questions
For the candidates who pass the pack. Each comes with a sample answer on the full page.
Ask these after the screening pack, not instead of it. A candidate who has already scored on Product Management, Data-Driven Decision Making, Leadership & People Management, Market Research has shown they can do the work, which frees the interview to do what a test cannot: find out how they think, how they explain themselves, and how they behave when something goes wrong.
- Ask every VP of Product candidate the same questions in the same order. Comparable answers are the whole point; a different conversation with each person tells you who you liked, not who was strongest.
- Look for a specific example with a result, not a description of how the candidate would approach it in principle. Follow up once with “what happened next?” and stop talking.
- Score each answer before moving to the next question, and write down what was said rather than the impression it left.
- At volume, record the first 4 of these instead of calling. Candidates answer on their own time, the answers are transcribed and scored, and you keep live interviews for the shortlist.
The pack takes a candidate about 42 minutes, so a VP of Product applicant arrives at this interview already measured on the parts you can measure without a meeting.
- 01
Why are you interested in the VP of Product role here?
- 02
Describe the product team you currently lead.
- 03
How do you partner with engineering and design as a product leader?
- 04
What kind of products do you most enjoy working on?
- 05
How do you translate company strategy into a product roadmap?
- 06
How do you coach and develop product managers?
- 07
How do you make prioritization decisions across squads?
- 08
How do you use metrics and experimentation in your product process?
Frequently asked questions
Send every applicant one link that carries 4 skills tests (Product Management, Data-Driven Decision Making, Leadership & People Management, Market Research), 2 personality inventories and 5 one-way video questions. springhire scores everything automatically and ranks the candidates, so you interview the top few. The free plan covers 10 candidates a month.
About 42 minutes for the tests, plus 10 to 15 minutes for the video questions. Candidates complete it on their own time, on any device.
A short brief, key responsibilities, must-have and nice-to-have skills and the requirements. The JD generator writes one for this role in a minute.
Questions that ask for a specific past example and a walkthrough of how the candidate thinks. This page lists 8 with sample answers, and the full bank has more.
Yes. The free plan includes every screening tool with 10 candidate credits a month and no card. Paid plans start at $39 a month.
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