Engineering Manager interview question · Most asked
How do you work with product on roadmaps and goals?
Summary
We plan jointly — engineering manager, product manager and tech lead — with outcome-based OKRs where features are bets, explicit visible capacity for technical investment with its own outcomes, and mid-quarter reviews where we change or stop bets that aren't moving the results.
Longer Answer
OKRs written as tasks ("launch saved cards") don't tell us whether work mattered; outcome KRs (conversion, success rate, latency) do. Reserving 20–30% for platform and reliability, visibly, stops it competing invisibly with features. A now/next/later roadmap avoids false precision beyond the current quarter.
Key Points
- Joint planning
- Outcome KRs; features as bets
- Visible technical investment
Deep dive: Roadmaps and OKRs With Product
Explanation
What interviewers look for
Partnership and outcome orientation.
Red flags
- Roadmap as product's feature list
- Technical work only in spare time
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