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IRC Product Manager Interview Prompt

The role is Product Manager & Data Analyst, you can find the Data Analyst prompt solution here. I will be working with the Data and Operation Excellence Team for the International Rescue Committee.


Prompt: Develop a Product/Project Plan

Duration: 8 Hours

Role: Product Manager


The Opportunity/Business Case:

IRC is unable to quickly know the basic staff demographic (e.g. # of female staff, # of national staff) we have in each of the 40+ country programs and US and Europe offices we work in to use in donor proposals and for internal planning.

Currently, data is collected on a monthly basis on an excel spreadsheet by a country HR lead who collates HR data across various locations in a country program on a monthly basis. The country HR lead submits this excel sheet to their Regional HR lead once a month. A solution of a standard Global HR Data App built on Microsoft’s Power App that collects data on a routine basis with a standardized process.

Using a presentation tool, such as PowerPoint, create a proposal for the Global HR Data App that can be used for discussions and socialization with Global HR and Program Leadership stakeholders across IRC. In the presentation, please cover the below:

  • Agenda of the presentation
  • Global HR Data App Vision, Goal, Intended Outcomes/Benefits, and Objectives
  • Target Audience (e.g. who will use the app, who will benefit)
  • Product Design, Testing, Product Roadmap/implementation timeline with dates/deliverables
  • Final slide on next steps/questions for discussion with Global HR leadership stakeholders

Current Solution

  • Country HR Lead collects data on a monthly basis on an excel spreadsheet
  • Country HR lead collates HR data across various locations in a country program on a monthly basis.
  • Country HR Lead submits this excel sheet to their Regional HR lead once a month.

Current Solution Analysis

HR Lead

  • collects data on excel spreadsheets monthly
  • collates HR data across various locations in-country monthly
  • submit the excel sheets to their regional HR once a month

Current Users

People involved;

  • Field HR person (point of data input)
  • HR Lead (point of data collection, collation, and submission)
  • The missing link (point of verification)

Product Flow Map


Product Pitch


Product Goals & Objectives


Product Roadmap


Product Milestones


Product Prototype


Reflection:

The product plan does not clarify the users, I made up the flow considering the operation of IRC according to their website. The Color, Font, and Typography selection is also based on the company website.

I used the company’s objective as a True North for the formulation of my product objective, so, there are some levels of assumptions in developing this plan. Also, during my interview, the data operation team asked me about my product design decision, these are the factors I considered:

  • IRC worked in 40+ countries and some of these countries have more than one local sites in hard to reach region but many of the employees have to pass through the country office.
  • Diversity is of concern to the company, and as such, this application has to take cognizance of the context while also consider how we can detect bias hiring at local levels through data reporting and monitoring.
  • Currently, there are no universal lists of tribes/races or ethnicity and we are trying to take capture this information with the intention of standardizing it for the use of others.
  • Data verification is currently missing, and to protect the integrity of data, there is a need for checks at the point of data entry.

NOTE: This solution takes less than 8 hours as I have 3-prompts to work with while also preparing for my interview defense which ends up taking 2.5hrs instead of 1hr.

What to do better next time: Ask more questions to clarify use case and users, though I got the users for this product right (according to the hiring team).

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