Last week I completely fumbled a product prioritization question during a FAANG interview. Instead of disappearing, I referenced the feedback when asking the hiring manager for coffee advice on improving - and it worked. What techniques have you used to transform interview screw-ups into meaningful PM connections? Particularly interested in frameworks for follow-ups that don’t feel desperate.
lol the ‘humble learner’ act works maybe 1/20 times. most hiring managers see right through this - they’ll ghost if you botched the fundamentals. but sure, keep polishing those turd experiences into networking gold if it makes you feel better
omg this gives me hope! i totally blanked on a metrics question yesterday. how long should i wait before sending coffee request? is 2 days too soon??
pls help - my follow-up email draft: ‘hi i know i failed the case but can we talk more?’ cringe or okay??
The key is structured vulnerability. Frame 1) Specific learning 2) Clear ask. Example: ‘Your question exposed my gap in enterprise sales cycles - could we discuss how you’d approach training PMs on this? I’m compiling resources for our community group.’ Makes it mutually beneficial.
Love this! Every stumble plants seeds for growth. You’re building resilience AND connections - double win!
Once mixed up ARR and MRR in final round. Sent a mea culpa with meme about number blindness, asked how they train PMs on finance basics. Got coffee + referral to their financial modeling crash course. Sometimes humor works!
Analysis of 127 community members showed those embedding 2-3 specific improvement areas in follow-ups received 42% response rate vs 11% generic requests. Recommend attaching your revised approach to their actual question as context for discussion.