- They want to know what the company culture is like,
- how teams go about shipping projects,
- what challenges the product faces in the marketplace,
- what aspects of the work environment can be improved
Instead, focus on questions that the interviewer can uniquely help you to answer. For example, you might ask them to help paint the picture of what working at the company is like:
- What’s your typical work day like?
- What’s the process of taking an idea you have from an inception and shipping it to production?
- What fraction of your time is spent building new things versus maintaining old ones?
- How do product / business / engineering decisions get made at the company?
Or focus on the team culture:
- What’s one thing you really like about working at the company and one thing you’d like to improve? What’s being done about the thing you’d like to improve?
- What are the core values of the company, and what are some examples of how they’re reflected day-to-day?
- How would you describe the culture of the company?
Or dive deeply into one aspect of the product that you’re curious about:
- How did this particular product feature get designed and launched?
- Why did you decide to launch this particular version instead of this other one?
- How has the product evolved since launch based on user feedback?
Or ask about growth opportunities:
- What’s the most unexpected lesson that you’ve learned on the job?
- What is the onboarding or mentoring process like (if any) for new hires?
- What opportunities have you had to work with different people and projects during your time at the company?
- How is knowledge across projects documented and shared at the company?
Or learn about the challenges that the company is facing:
- What are the biggest obstacles to this company becoming massively successful?
- What are the current priorities and focus areas at the company?
- Where would I be able to add the most value?