Context: Technical interviews where a product leader needs to show they are an effective partner to engineering teams and the leader, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) or VP Engineering (VPE).
Using a product leader named Andrew for example.
Technical ability: Is Andrew able to gain respect from engineers? Does he have the ability to incorporate technical tradeoffs into design and prioritization? (Action: Talk through 1-2 good relationships and why you helped with technical tradeoffs.)
Strategic partner: Has Andrew worked well with cross-functional leaders, including peers from sales, customer success, marketing, and engineering to identify opportunities to accelerate growth? (Action: prepare 1-2 stories as examples.)
Fit: Do engineers want to work with Andrew? What makes Andrew an effective and positive product partner to the CTO and the engineering team?
(Action: pick 1-2 from below to showcase if you are asked to give an example.)
- Ownership of the product and all issues
- Visionary, help the team have impact
- Understand engineering realities and make smart tradeoffs
- Endlessly positive and inspirational
- Force for focus & prioritization
- Shield against scope creep and randomization
- Give more credit than you take; entire team wins together
When you think like a CTO — you can quickly see what they might be most concerned about with their own leadership.
Topics like:
- Business execution: finance & operations
- Technical excellence: depth and breadth on their team across architecture, quality, engineering, & infrastructure
- Strategic alignment: how tech & engineering contributes to company & product winning in the market
- Driving change—and other leadership topics—depending on the context
Then, use that lens to imagine how you as a product leader can help them succeed as technical leaders. By doing this well, you’ll come across as both strategic and collaborative.
The Full Stack Leader 
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