Deep Thinking Is The Key Ingredient In Segmentation That Will Help You Ace L6-L9 Product Sense Interviews

I just watched something click for a L7 client that made my whole week.

We were reviewing their practice answer to a product sense question. On paper, it looked great: clear structure, good framework, hit all the "checkboxes".

They also showed me how they leveraged their AI copilot to help with their thinking.

The Question: "Design a product to help people learn new skills."

What their AI generated:

I'd pick working professionals aged 25-45 who want to upskill for career advancement. They're time-constrained and need flexible learning options.

The main problem is they struggle to find time for consistent learning and often abandon courses halfway through.

Because they are busy, I'd have bite-sized lessons, progress tracking, and gamification to drive engagement. We'd partner with industry experts for content and use AI to personalize learning paths...etc

Sounds reasonable.... Hits the framework... Shows structured thinking....

But this didn't connect the dots for me.

Because is 'people abandoning online courses' actually a problem worth solving? Or is it just... normal?

Maybe people abandon courses because the course wasn't that important to them. Maybe they got what they needed and moved on. Maybe life happened and it was fine.

A better question to ask is "when would course abandonment actually be problematic?"

What about someone who just got laid off and is terrified they don't have relevant skills for the current job market? For them, yes, abandoning another course is disappointing, but more importantly, it's reinforcing their fear that they can't change their situation.

What about the single parent who's been in the same role for 10 years, watching younger colleagues get promoted, feeling stuck but having only 30 minutes after kids are asleep to try to change their trajectory?

Now we aren't talking about "25-45 year olds who want to upskill."

We are talking about people experiencing acute career anxiety in specific life contexts where the stakes are real.

So this prompt won't be fully solved if we only focus on "people who want to learn skills"

We also need to think about:

• When does NOT learning create real consequences that compound over time?
• What life circumstances make skill-building urgent versus nice-to-have?
• What are people really afraid of? (It's not "not finishing a course", it's being left behind, becoming irrelevant, failing to provide for their family)

The segmentation changed from demographics to contexts:

• Not "working professionals" but "people facing career transition under financial pressure"
• Not "time-constrained learners" but "caregivers trying to career-pivot with fragmented time"

The solution validation changed entirely:

• "Does this actually resolve their anxiety about career trajectory, or does it just give them another course to potentially abandon?"

Here are the Principles that you can apply to think more deeply:

1. Question whether the problem is real before showcasing your solution creativity. Just because people do something (or don't do something) doesn't mean it's painful enough to solve.
2. Find the problem positioning: When/where/for whom does this behavior cross from "mild annoyance" to "acute pain with real consequences"?
3. Segment by pain and context, not just demographics: Two 35-year-olds can have completely different needs. One 25-year-old and one 50-year-old might have the exact same problem.
4. Work backward from suffering: What are people really afraid of? What happens if they DON'T solve this? (The "or else" test)
5. Test with specificity: Can you describe a real person experiencing this pain so vividly that someone reading it immediately recognizes them?

Why This Matters for L6-L9 Interviews:

L5 PMs execute frameworks beautifully. They show they can think structurally.

L6-L9 PMs question the foundations. They demonstrate strategic judgment about what's worth building in the first place.

• Is this actually a problem?
• For whom, specifically, in what context?
• What are they really struggling with underneath the surface behavior?

AI can help you structure your thoughts. But it can't teach you to question whether those thoughts are interrogating the right problem.

And that's the deep thinking that makes interviewers lean in, that makes you stand out.

If you're preparing for L6-L9 interviews and want to develop this kind of strategic thinking, Amit S. and I can help you with exactly this.

Because deep thinking is what will help you stand out.

Our clients have landed offers from Meta, Google, Microsoft, Walmart, Tesla, Stripe, Intuit, Nvidia, Glean, Retool, Apple and Tubi at Staff, principal, GPM, Director, and VP of Product roles with TC up to $1.2M this year in 2025.

They didn’t get there by relying on AI-generated prep or regurgitated frameworks.

They succeeded because they developed clarity on what great actually sounds like at the L6 – L9 levels, with executive communication techniques and strategic insight, not surface-level AI language.

Would you like to make your success story the next one? 🚀

The old way of prepping for L6 – L9 and leadership interviews can stretch your prep longer than needed with endless mocks, where delaying your time-to-offer means losing $10K+ every week.

Go here to request your invite for PM interviews and behavioral & leadership interviews across all roles, and we'll be in touch. 🌟