Product Management Interviews
We’re excited to help you prepare for your Product Management interview at Wise.
Our goal is to provide you with the information you need to succeed. This guide will walk you through the key points we’re interested in and offer tips on how to present your experiences effectively.
Product Managers at Wise are critical to delivering our mission. Let's get started!
Our interview process
Our interview process typically takes between four to five stages (each 60 mins) depending on the specifics of the role. Please note that we may customise some of the stages in accordance to the assessment criteria required for individual teams and roles.
Interview with a recruiter
A 30 minute Zoom call with a Recruiter.
This is an introductory call with a focus on your experience and career aspirations.
1
Product interview
This is a 60 minute interview with one or two Product Managers.
This is an in-depth interview with a focus on your product skills and ability to solve meaningful customer problems.
2
Stakeholder collaboration interview
This is a 60 minute interview with members of our engineering, analytics or design teams.
This is an in-depth interview with a focus on building partnerships in a cross-functional team.
3
Final interview
This is a 60 to 90 minute interview with one or two Product Leads. Depending on the role and level, you may have the opportunity to meet our Chief Product Officer, Nilan Peiris.
This is a recap on your experience in building complex and impactful products.
4
Product interview
Our interview process is designed to understand your problem-solving and analytical skills, customer focus and collaboration together with hands-on experience, and how you measure success.
How to prepare
At Wise we look for Product Managers who give evidence of being able to operate as product 'builders'. Curiosity and growth mindset are at the heart of our product culture.
The team will be looking to assess how you would build a product: drawing from your experience on how to solve complex customer problems, and later how to collaborate with cross-functional teams. Clearly articulating the reasons behind your decisions is of a significant importance to the interviewers.
In addition to understanding your approach to past problems you solved, we may also use hypothetical questions or ‘microtasks’ to better assess your way of thinking.
We usually kick the interview off by discussing a product you owned most recently that had a significant impact for the customer. We love hearing about a high complexity problem that you solved.
Our assessment criteria:
Clear communication to articulate the problem you are trying to solve
Identify and articulate the core issue affecting your customers
Explain how you identified the problem and prioritised it. What evidence or customer feedback supported your decision?
Explain how you developed a strategic plan to address the problem and prioritise actions based on impact and feasibility
Detail your direct contributions—design, coding, analytics, etc
Identify the essential steps you took to achieve the solution and ensure efficient execution
How you inspire and engage your team and cross-functional partners to work towards the solution
And finally, how you execute and implement the plan and continuously measure progress to ensure success. What measurables have you put in place?
Stakeholder collaboration interview
You have successfully passed the Product interview at Wise and now it’s time for you to meet some of the stakeholders you will closely work with.
Depending on the role and the team you will be interviewing for, you may meet with engineers, analysts, designers, compliance leads, or other team members.
How to prepare
At Wise, working in cross-functional teams and getting both engineering and design concepts on board from a product perspective is the key to successful collaboration.
This interview round is designed to assess your experience working with and influencing stakeholders in the likes of tech, compliance, operational, sales teams, etc.
Remember, we don't expect you to be a designer or an engineer, but since our team is radically customer-focused, it's crucial for us that all team members have a good understanding of these areas.
Our assessment criteria:
- Your experience with dynamic, cross-functional collaboration, and your ability to motivate and inspire related teams
- Clear communication in describing your tech and design understanding, affinity, and general approach when making product decisions
- Your ability to define KPIs and OKRs, and set baselines for the team
- How you measure the success of technical projects and keep control of them, balancing between technical debt and growth
- Making decisions when engineers in your team are stuck
- Influencing decision-making in your team with data
- Your approach to tackle cross-functional team difficulties and unblock the wider team (engineers, designers, and analysts) to get to common solutions and a strong product roadmap
- Discuss topics related to problem-solving and getting everybody on board with product decisions, while ensuring all teams are heard in the decision-making process.
Final interview
You are at the Final interview for a Product Manager role at Wise.
At this stage, you will likely meet with one or two of our Product Leads and depending on the role, you might also meet with our Chief Product Officer, Nilan Peiris.
How to prepare
This final interview is designed to recap on the overall interview assessment so far.
For leadership roles, the focus will be on your capacity to lead and mentor others. It’s also an opportunity for you to better grasp how your role will fit into Wise’s mission.
Our assessment criteria:
- Recap on your experience with building impactful and complex products
- Discuss how you prioritise and navigate ambiguity
- Highlight examples of scalable solutions and future vision
- Discuss why you believe customers need Wise and potential barriers to adoption
- Consider industry factors, competitors, and team dynamics in your vision
- Describe how you lead and inspire teams toward common goals
- Describe your approach to making tough decisions
- Discuss your experience in developing and managing team performance (if applicable, for leadership positions).
Tips to help you prepare
Before the interview
You’ll receive an email from Wise containing the details of the interview: when it will take place, who you will be meeting with and how it will be conducted. It can be an onsite interview where you get the opportunity to visit one of our offices (depending on your location), or a video interview via Zoom. We appreciate that technology and the internet doesn’t always run smoothly so please let your interviewers know if you’re experiencing difficulties.
If you haven't used Wise before, have a go at making a test transfer. You don’t have to complete it, but trialling the product will help you understand what it feels like to use Wise from a customer's perspective.
Getting set up
For remote interviews, a stable internet connection and a quiet environment are very important. Consider using a headset for better audio quality for both yourself and the interviewers.
We recommend joining the interview via video, not just audio to establish clearer communication and reduce misunderstandings.
We’re a laid back bunch, so feel free to dress smart casual.
At the interview
We use competency-based interviewing and will ask you to talk us through specific examples in your career that align to the various attributes and product skills we’re looking for. Unless specifically requested, avoid giving theoretical answers. We want to hear about real-world situations where you applied your skills and knowledge.
Make sure to provide a clear, articulate, step-by-step vision on how you approach certain topics, everything backed up by clear, tangible customer focused metrics. We’d recommend you to use the STAR interview technique in the competency-based interviews.
Please bear in mind when answering: customer impact is above everything for us.
Most importantly, be yourself. It’s vital to us that you feel comfortable to express yourself fully. Make sure you have an understanding of Wise and our mission as well as the mission and objective of the team you are interviewing for. If you have any questions about this, please reach out to your recruiter.
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