Your Thinking Matters Most
not your tool choice
If you've been following PM interviews this year, the new AI interviews probably read like AI is changing the bar and the prep that worked last year doesn't work anymore. It's tempting to read it that way, and I want to offer a different read.
Let's talk about Meta's Product Sense with Vibe Coding interview.
The original Product Sense bar didn't go away. Product Sense with Vibe Coding is the original Product Sense interview, with AI woven in throughout. The interviewer is still asking the same question they've been asking for years: Can you take an unclear problem, pick the right user, and propose a solution worth building.
Working with AI is a new dimension on top of that, not a replacement for it. If you don't pass on Product Sense, you don't pass this round, even if your AI use and your prototype are strong.
So the bar didn't change. It got higher. The new rounds added criteria. They didn't remove any.
Tooling fluency is necessary now, but it's not the only aspect that decides a pass/fail. It moves you forward against people who haven't picked up the tools at all. It does not move you forward against people who can already think clearly under pressure.
If you've been trying to figure out what to learn first, here's how I would approach it:
If you are already proficient in Product Sense, learn the AI tooling enough such that it doesn't slow you down so you can prototype proficiently.
Else, spend the majority of your time on up-leveling Product Sense that's been the bar all along before spending time on tooling.
Meta is starting the new AI interviews in Central Products. Other orgs will most likely adopt it in the near future.
If there's only one thing you take away from this post, it's this: the thing that will help you stand out is your thinking, not your tool choice.
What part of the new format have you been spending the most time on, and is it the part that's actually going to move your odds?
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