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Staying Up to Date with Tech & Product Trends

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Strategy and product sense questions test whether you understand the world your interviewer operates in. Companies often ask practical questions about their own products and markets e.g., a Siri team at Apple asking, “How would you improve Siri with AI?”

They may also ask about products far outside their portfolio (e.g., Meta asking its candidates to design Google Maps). With the market moving this quickly, even a few months of inattention can show. Interviewers want to hire PMs who can keep their products ahead of the competition. Your answers show whether you could be one of them.

This lesson shows you how to build a simple system for staying current on tech and AI, so you can discuss recent moves with confidence in an interview.

The three layers

There are three layers to staying current, each solving a different problem: awareness, depth, and credibility. Interviewers can tell which layer someone is operating from within the first few minutes of a strategy question.

  1. Layer 1: Passive intake. Information that keeps you current without demanding attention. You set it up once and it runs.
  2. Layer 2: Active synthesis. Taking one item from your passive intake and spending 10 minutes thinking through the strategic logic behind it.
  3. Layer 3: Hands-on fluency. Trying at least one AI or tech product you are learning about, even briefly, so you have real opinions about it.

The Three Layers of Staying Current

The rest of this lesson shows you how to build each layer comprehensively and efficiently.

Layer 1: Passive intake

Start with the basics. Search for “AI trends” or “tech news” on LinkedIn, X (formerly Twitter), and other platforms you use. Follow 5 to 10 people who write thoughtfully about tech strategy and product. Engage with useful posts. Within a couple of weeks, your feed should become a reliable source of ambient industry news.

Then build a personal briefing. This takes a little setup, but it is the most valuable part of the system.

Open Claude and create a Project called something like “Interview Prep: Trends.” Add instructions that give it context about your search:

I am preparing for a PM interview at [company A, company B, company C]. 
My interview is on approximately [date]. 
When giving me briefings or analysis, always prioritize news and moves that are most relevant to these companies, their competitors, and the AI and product trends they care about most.

Next, create a daily scheduled task in Cowork that runs each morning and emails you a briefing. Use this prompt:

Search for and deliver my daily interview prep briefing.

Section 1: [Companies I'm interviewing at]. Any news from the last 24 hours: product launches, executive changes, earnings, partnerships, regulatory actions, or anything a PM candidate should know before walking in.

Section 2: FAANG and major AI company moves. What did major tech companies do strategically in the last 24 hours? Prioritize product launches, acquisitions, partnerships, and competitive moves. For each item, one sentence on what happened and one sentence on why it matters.

Section 3: Policy and legal. What happened in AI regulation, legal cases involving tech, or government actions? One sentence on what changed and one sentence on what it means.

End with two tasks for today: (1) Pick one item from sections 1 or 2 and frame it as a question to analyze: 'Why would [company] do [this move] right now?' (2) Name one AI or tech product from today's briefing that I should spend 5 minutes trying.

The result is a briefing that arrives every morning before you open email, tailored to the company you are interviewing at, and pre-loaded with your daily practice tasks. You simply configure it once and it runs.

Layer 2: Active synthesis

Choose one move from the briefing and analyze it. For example: “Why would ChatGPT create a family product now?” Treat it like a product strategy interview question and reverse-engineer the company's decision.

Ask yourself:

  1. What was the company's position before this move? What competitive pressure or opportunity created the opening?
  2. Why now? What changed in the market, the technology, or the regulatory environment?
  3. Who benefits and who is threatened? Name specific companies or user segments.
  4. What are they trying to validate? What does success look like for them 12 months from now?
  5. What would you have done differently?

This is how an OpenAI growth PM candidate described a competitive landscape round that taught them the difference between Layer 1 and Layer 2:

"I probably overprepared for [layer 1]. I came in with a thorough competitive breakdown, but the interviewer did not seem to care much about the research itself. She quickly shifted to what I would do with it, how I would act on it, and how I would launch based on those insights."

Knowing the landscape is table stakes. What sets candidates apart is having a view on what to do next.

Once you’ve worked through the five questions yourself, paste the briefing item and your analysis into Claude. Ask:

Challenge my reasoning.
What assumptions am I making, what have I missed, and where would you reach a different conclusion?

If you learn best through conversations, use our peer mock interview tool to find thought partners and discuss these ideas with other PMs.

Layer 3: Hands-on fluency

Each briefing should also suggest one product to try. Spend five minutes with it.

Candidates who discuss AI products convincingly usually use them for real tasks. They can describe what surprised them, where the experience broke down, and how the product changed their approach. Reading alone cannot give you that perspective.

As you try a product, notice three things:

  1. What does it do well?
  2. Where does it feel rough or incomplete?
  3. What would you change first as the PM?

Five minutes will not make you an expert, but it will give you a genuine reaction—and that is far more useful in an interview than a borrowed opinion.

Putting it together

Set up the project and daily briefing today. Tomorrow, analyze one move and try one product. Then repeat.

You do not need to know everything. You just need a system that keeps you informed and helps you turn what you learn into a clear point of view.

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