The essential guide to technical program manager interviews. Learn from FAANG hiring managers how to confidently demonstrate your skills and get hired.

In this course, you will work through the most common interview questions that are asked in a technical program manager interview. Written by a TPM who has worked at multiple FAANG companies, you will get the inside scoop on what it takes to pass this difficult interview.

Beyond that, you will also get practical advice on the role of a TPM and how to thrive in this role. By the end of this course, you will have the confidence to ace your interview and be well equipped to perform on the job.

Hacking the TPM Interview

How do you handle a conflict with another team member or cross-functional partner?


# Background ##
Conflict is a very common occurrence in interview questions and in the workplace, so you'll want to be prepared with a detailed answer. The key goal here is to demonstrate who you're someone that will be pleasant to work with and not a "brilliant jerk."

# Solution approach ## 
We'll take an onion-like approach to answering this question and progressively going deeper:  

- State a high-level strategy for understanding and resolving the conflict. 

- Enumerate potential options for implementing that strategy, and discuss the pros and cons of each. 

- Pick an option that has worked in the past, and provide an example from your resume to prove that you have done this before.  

The intent behind this approach is to show the interviewer that you can handle tricky situations in a methodical and open manner. The specific example doesn't matter too much. But since it is an interview, the outcome should generally be positive. 

# Sample answer ##
When I sense disagreement, I want to understand the "why" and find ways to agree on the right next steps as quickly as possible. There are a few ways to go about this: 

1.  Set up a 1-1 meeting with the relevant individuals to understand their concerns. Work to address these concerns with data or by talking to the person's peers with whom they respect. 

2. Escalate to management immediately to get a decision as soon as possible. 

3. Adopt approach number 1. If an agreement can't be reached, move to number 2. 

Depending on the circumstance, all of the above approaches are valid. I find that approach number 3 is usually the one that is most effective at reaching a decision while still preserving your relationship with the individual. One example where this has proven itself is when I was at company X where I was working on project Foo. I was trying to convince a partner team to help us do FooBar because it would unblock us from achieving a critical company objective. They were reluctant to help us, so I worked to quantify the impact of the work by providing concrete estimates based on historical data and by doing preliminary investigative work on a potential solution. Despite this, the other team still pushed back and would not commit to our timelines. We were at a standstill. So after meeting one more time to try to move forward, we decided to do a friendly escalation to our respective management chains by laying out the pros and cons of doing this work and what the trade-offs would be. This helped us reach a decision faster, and while we didn’t necessarily get the outcome we wanted, we maintained good relationships with the other team so that they eventually delivered what we needed on a reasonable timeline. 

The lesson learned from this experience was that relationships matter and positive outcomes usually flow from good ones. Influencing and collaborating with others is usually a better approach than confrontation or escalation, even if the progress is slower than one would like. 





Example interview question on handling conflict with a team member or partner.

What is Technical Program Management?

Interview Prep (a.k.a. Skills Development)

Practical Advice

Career Transitions

Final Thoughts

Behavioral: Handling Conflict

Question

Background