Prep smart for round 1 and make a strong first impression.

Crack assignments by knowing what hiring managers look for.

Round 1 Interviews

It’s about clarity, not perfection. Nail your first round.

Assignment approach that gets you to round 2

What interviewers want to hear in your intro

How CRED actually thinks about growth problems

Why most elevator pitches fall flat

Breaking down Scopely's PM thinking process

Make the first copy of your elevator pitch

How to present past work without boring them

What Urban Piper wants from senior PMs

Practice round 1 questions that mirror real interviews

PM skills that matter in first round conversations

Zerodha's assignment: What they're really testing

Interview red flags that eliminate candidates

What Talabat looks for in PMM candidates

How to talk about changing jobs without looking unreliable

Understanding the Hiring Manager’s hiring checklist

Why "I want to learn" fails when they ask why you want that job

Signals that convince interviewers you're genuinely interested

How to position career gaps as strengths

What to say to prove you actually want this job

What happens behind the scenes in hiring

When you appear for interviews, what do you struggle with the most?

Have you ever felt like you are not able to successfully communicate your previous experience in an interview? Are you someone who has made great impact but struggle with presenting it as leverage?

You may be excellent at your job. Perhaps, even the best candidate with an extensive Proof of Work. But if you are not able to communicate it effectively to a recruiter or hiring manager, then your skills and potential will always remain underutilized.

We hear you: One of the most difficult parts of the interview process is communicating your worth or your value in a genuine, clear and engaging way.

This is where Communicate Your Craft comes in!

📝 Here are the Outcomes of this module for you:

Project selection that showcases the right skills

Get an in-depth understanding of everything you'll learn and the outcomes you can expect.

Before learning how to communicating your craft, it is crucial to identify which project you should pick to best explain your skillset and impact.

The project you choose to pick should pass a litmus test by checking the following conditions:

Let’s understand each condition one by one.

The project has to be absolutely relevant to the target role, which means you should be able to communicate your craft based on the nature of the role and what is expected of you.

You should have made significant contribution to the project. Ensure you are able to quantify your contribution and how it affected the overall numbers of the organization.

Avoid picking projects where you have either shadowed someone or assisted someone because it will not reflect your ownership. Pick a project whose success can be attributed directly to you or your team’s efforts.

You should have owned the process of thesis building to conception to impact which is end-to-end to show high accountability and delivery. Additionally, you should be able to answer at least 3 levels of WHYs to establish trust.

Note: Don’t pick a shiny project just because it sounds good. The project should be able to present YOUR skills and impact. The project itself should not have to be big but it should successfully communicate what you are capable of.

If the project you are pitching has all of the above 4 points then great! ✅

If you have 3 then it’s good. But if you only have 2 or less then that’s a red flag. ❌

Avoid picking up such projects because they won’t help you get through round 2.

The JTBDs of your pitch change basis the career stage you are in (early, mid and leadership).

If you are in the early stage of your career, you need to present that one skill or craft that has shined through in your project

If you are mid-career, you should be able to show your ONE major skill and also people management skills. Here, it is best to pick a project where you have handled a team, even if a small one for that matter.

If you want to crack an interview for a leadership role then you need to present projects that reflect your ability to take bets that changed or did not change the orbits for your last org. You should be able to answer at least 3 levels of WHYs behind them.

Your craft pitch = Questions for the interviewer

Here’s a structure that will help you efficiently frame your craft

— What was the situation you were in during that project Task 

— What were the tasks required to do or assigned to you Action 

— What action did you do and why Result 

— What result were you able to achieve through it

The project you are pitching should present your core strengths. You must be able to articulate your competencies and expertise in an easy sentence that you believe and can actually deliver. Focus on tangibility, quality, and consistency.

If you struggle with identifying what your strengths are, ask your friends and family to share what they think you are really good at.

Talk about numbers because that’s the best way to show impact on the project and the way it affected the north star metric of the business

It should be a number that matters to the business as a whole — you should be able to translate the impact of your ownership.

If you are transitioning, focus on presenting proof of work and the validation you might have received for the POW you built.

Which work example actually impresses interviewers

Now that you’ve identified which project to pitch, let’s understand how to cultivate perceived value pre-, during and post-interview!

Perceived value is the subjective impression that someone has of you.

Communicate your value in a way that resonates with the interviewer and makes them want to work with you.

Let’s understand how we can do that in:

Before the interview, go through the product you are applying for and understand all possible user flows multiple times.

One of the first things the interviewer in the first round wants to know is your enthusiasm for the role. They test that by asking you what you know about the product

If you are meeting someone for an interview in person, remember every single thing matters including:

In case of remote interviews, basic logistics matter more than you think.

A lot of people write to the interviewer thanking them for taking out the time or asking for feedback. Unfortunately, it can lead to additional waste of time for the person reading the email.

Additionally, seeking feedback can make them feeling you are underconfident about your performance.

Do not follow up with the hiring manager unless there is no recruiter available.

Following up several times with hiring manager can give the impression that you are desperate as a result of which you lose all the negotiation power

All the actions you are carrying out as part of round 1, 2 and 3 are going to be pivotal in your negotiation round

See if they are writing content on LinkedIn or Twitter. here you can go ahead and share your POV or recommendation that adds value. This is a great way of building rapport.

Avoid pestering but rather focus on adding valuable comments or reflections on their posts.

Body language and tone that build trust

Now that you have understood the Whats and the Whys, let's dive into How to Design Your Communicate Your Craft Pitch. 

Step 1 → Write down the list of projects

The first step will help you build raw materials.

Step 2 → Put the project into STAR approach

Chuck the vanity, write down how did the project change core business numbers? Talk about effect on the core business metrics like CAC, CLV, NPS, and CSAT. 

Your impact on these needles is going to be crucial when you will be presenting your project. 

And with this, we come to the end of the module. 

Now that you have finished this module, we hope you have designed your Communicate Your Craft Pitch and are all set to ace that interview!

You can also check out video content on Communicate Your Craft on ELEVATE 

How to structure project walkthroughs

Are you an aspiring Product Manager or Product Marketer? Does the thought of building, deploying, and iterating excite you?

If yes, then you might be a great fit for a Growth team!

But having an intent isn’t enough. It is important to effectively communicate it in a way that people know what you are capable of just by the first few seconds of talking to you!

Being extremely good at what you do is a big differentiator from the crowd but how you introduce yourself matters more than you think.

This is where the Elevator Pitch comes in!

Opening lines that set the right tone

And how to design your own!

The Job To Be Done (JTBD) for a Growth team is typically to drive and manage the organisation’s growth by identifying, testing, and implementing strategies that attract and retain users, increase revenue, and enhance the overall business.

Simply put, a Growth team’s JTBD is to take a product from point A to point B.

Now, there are 3 core pillars to do this:

👉 Building the core product or the features of the core product relevant to the users

👉 Focusing on the positioning, segmentation, marketing, and the overall distribution of the product

👉 Developing theses, and helping the leadership make decisions or assist with OKR implement

Now that you have the context of the growth function, let’s begin by understanding 3 core steps to crack any growth role!

1. Build extremely relevant Proof of Work

2. Nailing how you present your Proof of Work

🎯 GrowthX members have cracked Director of Product level roles with their POWs, which is a testament to how powerful it is.

Growth role expectations vs reality

And how you can leverage them

Understanding the hiring manager’s JTBD is super crucial.

👉 They help evaluate your fitment for the role. Using the right keywords that are relevant to the role you have applied for is extremely important to establish relevancy.

👉 This means what you submit on paper should be the same when you appear for the interview. There shouldn’t be any inconsistencies in terms of information or personality.

👉 It may sound ambiguous but vibe check is an important criterion before hiring. The recruiter or hiring manager needs to feel positive about you as a person so they can trust you.

👉 Showing how eager and curious you are for the role shows effort and good intent. The interviewer wants to know how far have you gone to understand the product, and intent solves that.

 to understand how you can make a lasting impression with your Elevator Pitch

Questions interviewers ask themselves about you

First step will help you build raw materials

Second step will help you put all your raw materials to generate a 60-second introduction

Your job in the first few lines is to do the following

 ⏱️30 seconds (Use the intriguing facts here)

You have to achieve the following in this segment

Step 3 → Compile information in the template

In this step you will collate everything in the following template.

🛗 Your elevator pitch [Spend 15 minutes crafting this]

, I’m very excited to have this conversation. Thank you so much for taking the time.

2️⃣ Talk about your current role, company, and major strength.

3️⃣ Talk about what you’re looking for now and why you’re interested in this company.

4️⃣ Pause with a question: “Let me know if you have any questions before I proceed”.

5️⃣ Proceed with highlighting your major work achievements in brief.

In this step you can write and keep your final elevator pitch on whichever tool that you're comfortable with - Notion, Google Docs or even your diary. 

Read the script as is for the first time. Want to make changes? Do them.

Done? Watch the video, modify if required.

Now that you have finished this module, we hope you have designed your Elevator Pitch and are all set to ace that interview!

You can also check out video content on Elevator Pitch on ELEVATE 