📋 PM Case Interview Prep

Structured product management case study practice — frameworks, mock answers, product teardowns, and real-world thinking exercises.

Built and maintained by Ashwin C — SWE → PM in progress.

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🎯 Purpose

I'm a Software Engineer with 5 years at JPMorgan Chase, formally transitioning to Product Management. This repo is where I practise and document product thinking systematically — not just to prep for interviews, but to build the muscle permanently.

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🗂️ Contents

1. Case Frameworks

Core mental models I use across case types:

Framework	When to use
CIRCLES	Product design / feature design cases
Profitability	Revenue decline, cost optimisation
Market Entry	New geography, new segment
Metrics & Diagnosis	DAU/MAU drop, conversion decline
Prioritisation (RICE/ICE)	Feature backlog, roadmap trade-offs

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2. My Case Answer Template

For every case I practice, I follow this structure:

CLARIFY     → What exactly is being asked? What constraints?
GOALS       → What does success look like? What metric moves?
USER        → Who is the user? What do they need?
SOLUTIONS   → What are 3–5 possible approaches?
TRADE-OFFS  → Pros/cons, effort vs impact, risk
RECOMMEND   → My recommendation and why
METRICS     → How would I measure success post-launch?

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3. Mock Cases (WIP)

• Decline in DAU — Spotify's daily active users drop 15% MoM. Diagnose and fix.
• New feature design — Design a group payments feature for Swiggy.
• Market entry — Should WhatsApp enter the B2B enterprise communication market?
• Prioritisation — You have 3 engineers and 8 backlog items. What do you build first?
• Metrics definition — Define success metrics for GitHub's Copilot feature.

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4. Product Teardowns (WIP)

Products I'm deconstructing — user flows, metrics, pain points, what I'd change:

• Amazon Search UX (informed by building amazon-sponsored-blocker)
• JIRA — what makes it powerful and what makes it painful
• GitHub Profiles — how could they better serve career transitions?

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5. From My Own Experience (JPMC)

Real PM situations I've navigated at JPMorgan Chase (details anonymised):

• Backlog prioritisation under regulatory constraints
• Writing acceptance criteria that both compliance and engineering can agree on
• Managing a production incident as a PM — communication, triage, stakeholder updates
• Running a PI Planning session across 3 scrum teams

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📚 Resources I'm Learning From

• Inspired — Marty Cagan
• Continuous Discovery Habits — Teresa Torres
• Lenny's Newsletter
• Reforge frameworks

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🤝 Contributions Welcome

If you're also prepping for PM roles and want to add cases, frameworks, or teardowns — PRs welcome.

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Ashwin C | LinkedIn | GitHub