What's Your Favorite Product?": Why Saying "The iPhone" Will Fail You (And What to Say Instead)

Introduction

The interview starts. You’re settling in. The hiring manager smiles and asks a seemingly casual question:

"So, what’s your favorite product and why?"

You relax. You think it’s an icebreaker. You say, "I love my iPhone because the camera is great and the ecosystem is seamless."

Stop. You just wasted your biggest opportunity to show your Product Sense.

This is not a casual chat. This is a Product Analysis question in disguise. The interviewer doesn't care what you like; they care about how you analyze value. Answering with a generic product like the iPhone (unless you have a wildly unique insight) makes you look like a consumer, not a Product Manager.

In this post, we’ll break down how to pick the right product and the 3-step framework to deconstruct it like a FAANG PM.

The Trap: Being a User vs. Being a PM

The biggest mistake candidates make is describing the product as a fan.

• Fan Answer: "I love Spotify because it has all my music and the playlists are cool."
• PM Answer: "I admire Spotify because they solved the 'Paradox of Choice' in music. Their 'Discover Weekly' algorithm turns a daunting database of 50 million songs into a personalized, friction-free experience, creating high switching costs for users."

See the difference? One talks about features; the other talks about user psychology and business moats.

The Framework: The "V.U.C.A." Analysis

To ace this question, don't just ramble. Use this structure to organize your answer.

1. The Value Prop (The "What" and "Who")

Start by briefly defining the product and the specific user it serves.

• "My favorite product is Duolingo. It’s a language learning app, but its core user isn't just someone learning a language; it's the casual learner who wants to feel productive in their spare time."

2. The Unique Insight (The "Why It Wins")

This is the core of your answer. What does this product understand about human behavior that competitors miss?

• "Duolingo understands that learning is hard and boring. Their unique insight is Gamification over Education. By using streaks, leaderboards, and immediate feedback loops, they effectively hooked users who would have otherwise quit a traditional course. They turned language learning into a dopamine habit."

3. The Critique & Improvement (The "PM Lens")

A PM is never satisfied. You must offer a critique. A candidate who says "it's perfect" lacks critical thinking.

• *"However, Duolingo has a weakness: Intermediate Plateaus. The gamification works for beginners, but advanced users often feel they aren't learning 'real' conversational skills.
• My Improvement: I would build a 'Duolingo Real-Talk' feature—an audio-only mode using Generative AI to simulate a real conversation with a local, forcing users to speak off-script. This solves the advanced user's pain point and increases retention for long-term learners."*

How to Pick a "Favorite" Product

Don't pick the iPhone, Google Maps, or ChatGPT unless you can critique them better than the people who built them.Instead, pick a product that:

1. You actually use: Authenticity matters.
2. Has a clear "Hook": Something with a unique business model or user experience (e.g., Notion, Strava, a specific FinTech app).
3. You can Improve: Pick something with a visible flaw you can solve.

Master the "Product Sense" Interview

The "Favorite Product" question is just one flavor of the Product Sense interview. You might also get:

• "Critique a product you hate."
• "Improve a product you use every day."

The Mastering Product Management Guide breaks down these questions with full sample answers for hardware, software, and B2B products.

We teach you the vocabulary of product critique: Switching Costs, Network Effects, Friction, and Cognitive Load. These are the buzzwords that actually matter.

👉 Get the PM Prep Guide today and learn to sound like the PM they want to hire.

FAQs

Q1: Can I choose a non-tech product?Yes! Choosing a physical product (like a Nespresso machine or a specific backpack) can actually help you stand out. It shows you understand product principles (usability, design, value) beyond just software. Just make sure you can structure the analysis.

Q2: Should I prepare more than one product?Yes. Prepare three:

1. A Mobile App (e.g., Duolingo, Strava).
2. A Physical Product (e.g., Kindle, AirTags).
3. A Product You Hate (Interviews often flip the script: "Tell me a product that is well-designed but you hate using").

Q3: How long should my answer be?Aim for 3-4 minutes. Spend 1 minute on What it is/Who it's for, 1 minute on Why it's successful, and 1-2 minutes on How you would improve it. The improvement is the most important part.

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