Evaluating Product Management Candidates: Skills for Success

If you’re navigating today’s brutally competitive PM job market and wondering what “good” looks like, this episode will become your playbook. In this episode, Ben moderates a candid panel with three veteran product hiring managers:

Nickey Skarstad – Director of Product, Duolingo (now leading Duolingo Math)

Stephanie J. Neill – Head of Product, Stripe Tax

Chantal Cox – Director of Product, LTK (LiketoKnow.it creator platform)

Together, they reverse-engineer every stage of their 2025 hiring funnels—from 30-second resume scans to offer debriefs—and spell out the signals that turn an applicant into a hire. You’ll hear why product-sense interviews have moved to earlier in the process, how AI prototypes are becoming table-stakes, and the red flags (LLM-generated answers, recycled stories etc.) that get instant no-hires. Whether you’re an aspiring PM or a manager revamping your own process, you’ll leave with concrete, immediately applicable tactics for landing—or giving—an offer.

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To support the podcast, please check out the links below:

* Preparing for a PM interview with tech companies like Meta and Google? Check out Ben's course for Product Sense and Analytical Thinking PM interviews (selected by Lenny Rachitsky as a Top Course in Product on Maven 🔥) and his AI Copilot for interview practice. Supra Insider listeners get 10% off the course with promo code “suprainsider”. Enrollment is now open for the next cohort starting July 15th.

* Supra has teamed up with Maven to bring you something special – courses that our own community members have personally curated. And because you're part of the Supra family, you get $100 off any of these handpicked selections with code SUPRAxMAVEN.

In this episode, we covered the following topics:

* (01:40) Guest intros: Nickey (Duolingo), Stephanie (Stripe), Chantal (LTK).

* (08:00) Chantal details LTK’s funnel—recruiter screen, hiring-manager call, AI feature exercise, leadership loop.

* (11:30) Stephanie explains Stripe’s flow and why Product Sense now precedes the full loop.

* (13:20) Nickey walks through Duolingo’s four rounds and the new interactive prototype requirement.

* (17:50) What wins a résumé review: tight one-page metrics, LinkedIn consistency, warm referrals.

* (24:40) Hiring-manager screens: confirming skill fit, probing AI curiosity, expecting candidates to have used the product.

* (31:00) Offer debriefs—looking for “spikes” in key areas, guarding against bias, zero tolerance for failed rounds at Duolingo.

* (43:40) How candidates should and should not use Gen-AI; interview-prep bots, friction logs, lightweight prototypes.

* (50:20) Early-career advice: move internally, start in customer-facing roles, ship side-project AI apps, network before you need it.

* And more!

If you’d like to watch the video of our conversation, you can catch that on YouTube:

Links:

* Nickey Skarstad: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickeyskarstad/

* Stephanie J. Neill: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephanieneill/

* Chantal Cox: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chantalcoxsf/

* Marc: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcbaselga/

* Ben: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benerez/

To support the podcast, please check out the links below:

* Supra has teamed up with Maven to bring you something special – courses that our own community members have personally curated. And because you're part of the Supra family, you get $100 off any of these handpicked selections with code SUPRAxMAVEN.

* Preparing for a PM interview with tech companies like Meta and Google? Check out Ben's course for Product Sense and Analytical Thinking PM interviews (selected by Lenny Rachitsky as a Top Course in Product on Maven 🔥) and his AI Copilot for interview practice. Supra Insider listeners get 10% off the course with promo code “suprainsider”. Enrollment is now open for the next cohort starting June 17th.

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