Meta Rotational Product Manager (RPM) Interview Guide
Are you planning to apply to Facebook’s Rotational Product Manager (RPM) Program 2022? Read this guide and be ahead of the rest while learning more about the program and its interview process. 🎯
This blog covers the following topics:
Meta RPM Program Overview
Meta RPM Application Process
Interview Process and Timeline
Sample Meta RPM Program Interview Questions
Conclusion
Meta RPM Program Overview 🧑🏻💻
The Meta/Facebook RPM Program is an 18-month program that comprises three different Product Management rotations. Each of these rotations is for six months, where candidates like you get an opportunity to work on high-priority and high-visibility projects with various product teams like Facebook Marketplace, Facebook Dating, Facebook Gaming, Business Integrity, and WhatsApp Payments. Besides the three rotations, candidates also get an opportunity to attend a month-long product bootcamp training and go for a 2-week global research trip.
The program is designed for early-stage PM professionals looking to kickstart their product journey. RPMs at Facebook are considered full-time employees and proceed to work as PMs upon completing the program.
The Facebook RPM job description looks as follows:
Rotational Product Manager (RPM) Responsibilities
- Lead the ideation, technical development, and launch of innovative products
- Establish a shared vision across our company by building consensus on priorities leading to product execution
- Engage in all stages of a product’s lifecycle and drive product development
- Work with engineers and designers from ideation, technical design, and development to the testing, production, and/or release of the product
- Design, develop, and modify product specifications to ensure our products are successful
Rotational Product Managers (L3) at Meta in the United States make around US$166k in compensation yearly.
Meta RPM Application Process 📋
The Facebook RPM application process for 2023 commenced on July 18, 2022, and will close on August 12, 2022, for US and London.
Each year, Meta hires RPMs for the following office locations:
- Menlo Park
- New York City
- Seattle
- London
- Tel Aviv
- Remote (the U.S. only)
The applications for Tel Aviv will open soon too.
Need a resume review or a LinkedIn makeover for your Meta RPM application? Connect with us now!
Also Read: How To Write A Product Manager Resume (2022) With Example
Interview Process and Timeline ⏩
The Facebook RPM interview process is similar to that of several other roles at the company. However, the timeline may depend upon the number and location of your application.
Recruiter Screen (20–30 minutes)
The recruiter screen is a brief call with a recruiter/hiring manager to assess your fit for the role. Over this call, they would also brief you about the program, the interview process and share with you any prep material to prepare for the interviews. Be ready to answer basic behavioral questions using the STAR method over this call.
Video Interviews (2 rounds, 45 minutes each)
The video interviews for Meta RPM Program 2022 consist of Product Sense and Product Executions questions. These rounds are 45 minutes each and conducted by existing PMs working at Meta.
Onsite Interviews (3 rounds, 45 minutes each)
The onsite interviews are conducted in 3 rounds, where candidates are invited to the Meta offices and assessed by interviewers on topics like Product Sense, Product Execution, and Leadership and Drive. Although these rounds may sound similar to the video interviews, the complexity of questions increases for these last sets of interviews, where candidates are expected to showcase their fundamental PM skills and cultural fit for the Meta RPM Program.
Sample Meta RPM Program Interview Questions 💻
Here are a few Meta RPM interview questions that you can practice.
Product Sense
Example Product Sense Questions
- Create a Facebook product for music.
- Instagram is considering introducing an audio clip feature. What factors would you consider to determine whether or not to proceed?
- Can you tell me about a product you love? How would you improve it? What metrics would you track to validate the improvement?
- Design an app for Facebook Volunteering.
- How would you add a food item to a menu in a restaurant?
- If you have a year, how would you make Facebook events awesome?
- How could we expand Search on Facebook in new ways?
- Build a product for travel on Instagram.
- What should Facebook do next?
- Design a jobs product for Facebook.
How To Answer Product Sense Questions?
For the Product Sense questions, your interviewers are trying to assess the following aspects through your answer:
- Can you articulate the problem well and break it down into iterative steps?
- Can you identify the users’ main challenges and pain points?
- Are you able to identify the trade-offs involved?
- Are you able to explain your approach well enough?
- Is your response something Facebook would approve?
To ace all of these aspects, here’s how you can answer these questions:
- Start with a framework. Many candidates prefer to use Lewis Lin’s CIRCLES framework to answer such questions. It involves comprehending the situation >> identifying the customers >> reporting their needs >> prioritizing >> listing solutions >> evaluating the tradeoffs >> summarizing the recommendation.
- Once your framework is ready, tailor it to the question you are solving, depending on whether it requires a typical user journey or go-to-market strategy.
- Highlight your overall vision for the product rather than solving just the problem on hand. Your interviewers want to find out what you think about the situation in the larger picture.
- In arriving at the final recommendation, focus on the users’ needs, challenges, pain points, and experiences. Your answer should mainly revolve around this.
Product Execution
Example Product Execution Questions
- How would you measure the success of Instagram Reels?
- What goals would you set for Facebook Live?
- You’re the PM for Facebook Marketplace. Set goals and metrics.
- When you upload an album on FB, how many photos from that album should be displayed on your Newsfeed? What’s the correct number?
- What metrics should we look at to evaluate the success of Facebook groups? What is the goal of Facebook groups?
- Imagine you run ads to promote the awareness and growth of Facebook Dating and achieve a new user acquisition cost of $10. Walk me through how you would evaluate if this ad campaign effort is worth scaling at this price point.
- Daily active usage of Facebook Dating dropped 25% overnight. How would you diagnose the problem?
- You are the PM for Facebook pages — what features would you prioritize?
- You are the PM for Facebook newsfeed — how would you rank posts?
- Facebook ads revenue dropped 20% — what do you do?
How To Answer Product Execution Questions?
For the Product Execution questions, your interviewers are trying to assess the following aspects through your answer:
- Can you identify the correct metrics or goals to answer the question?
- Do you ask for more information and clarify any unrevealed information? What assumptions do you make, and are you able to reason them?
- Do you understand any other related internal or external indicators?
To ace all of these aspects, here’s how you can answer these questions:
- Clarify any missing information first. To arrive at the optimal product execution solution, request more information/data from the interviewers to understand the situation better.
- Assess any related internal(data, timeline, user, product, technology, etc.) or external(industry, competitors, user behaviors, etc.) factors for the question on hand.
- Hypothesize the questions keeping in mind several related factors. Don’t forget to have valid reasoning for all of these while discussing them.
- Summarize your recommendation by explaining why you chose the approach you did, what assumptions you made, and why you think the solution is optimal.
Leadership and Drive
Example Leadership and Drive Questions
- Describe a time when your work was criticized. [Sample Answer from findmyprofession.com]
- How does your background fit within Facebook?
- What aspects of your past experience sets you up to be a product manager at Facebook?
- Tell us about a time when you had to work with someone difficult to get along with. [Sample Answer from interviewpenguin.com]
- What is something that you have devoted to outside of work? [Sample Answer from findmyprofession.com]
- What is something that you had to fundamentally change about yourself to be successful?
- Tell me about a time you had to make a decision without all the information you needed. [Sample Answer from interviewpenguin.com]
- What would you do if your designer wasn’t meeting expectations?
- Can you give an example of when you had to work with ambiguous information? How did you clarify the steps you needed to take? [Sample Answer from indeed.com]
- How did you turn an adversary into a confidant? [Sample Answer from PMExercises]
The Leadership and Drive questions for the Facebook RPM Program are similar to behavioral questions at other FAANG companies. The best way to answer these questions would be using the STAR method.
Situation (S) — Explain the situation you had on hand.
Task (T) — Give an overview of the task you were trying to accomplish.
Action (A) — Elaborate on your actions to accomplish the task.
Result (R) — State the result of the action with measurable impact. State any metrics to support your answer.
The STAR Method is the best way to crack behavioral questions. Make sure you have enough stories ready in mind from your past experience to answer these questions like a pro.
Read: How To Use The STAR Method to Ace Your FAANG Interview
Conclusion
Starting your product management journey at Facebook is the best way to kickstart your career. Not sure how to apply?
We have curated the application opening links for your reference below:
- Meta Rotational Product Manager (RPM) [Menlo Park, CA; Seattle, WA; New York, NY; Remote, US] — Click here to apply
- Meta Rotational Product Manager (RPM) [London, UK] — Click here to apply
- Applications for Tel Aviv will open soon
Meta accepts applications from candidates even if they do not have a tech background or have experience in another field and want to get started with product management through this role.
If you think this job is the right fit for you, don’t forget to apply! We can’t wait to hear from you that you made it to Facebook!
If you need help with mock interviews, please get in touch with us to get in touch with our team of ex-Facebook mentors who can guide you on how to ace the RPM program interviews.
