Interview prep

AI Opportunity & Model Strategy Interview Questions

9 subtopics, 207 questions. All 207 carry a written answer.

Opportunity identification for AI

  • What characteristics make a workflow a good candidate for AI? List five.
  • Describe a method for finding AI opportunities inside an existing product without starting from the technology.
  • How do you distinguish a problem AI solves from a problem AI merely touches?
23 questions · 23 answered

When NOT to use AI

  • List five conditions under which you should reject an AI solution outright.
  • Explain why a deterministic rules engine sometimes beats a model, with an example.
  • A stakeholder wants AI to decide loan approvals. Make the case against.
23 questions · 23 answered

Build vs buy vs fine-tune decisions

  • Lay out the decision tree for build, buy, prompt, retrieve or fine-tune.
  • What conditions make buying a vendor solution the right call for an AI feature?
  • Explain the strategic risk of building your core differentiator on a third-party model.
23 questions · 23 answered

Model selection from a PM lens

  • What are the five dimensions a PM should compare models on before a product decision?
  • Why is benchmark leaderboard position a weak input to model selection?
  • Describe how you would build a model bake-off for your specific use case.
23 questions · 23 answered

Feasibility assessment and technical spikes

  • What is a technical spike and how do you scope one for an AI feature?
  • Design a two-week spike to test whether an AI feature is viable.
  • What question should a feasibility spike answer, and what should it explicitly not try to answer?
23 questions · 23 answered

Data strategy as product strategy

  • Explain why the data you collect today determines the products you can build in two years.
  • What is a data flywheel and what are its preconditions?
  • Describe how you would instrument a product to generate training or eval data as a byproduct.
23 questions · 23 answered

Roadmapping under model uncertainty

  • How do you build a twelve-month roadmap when model capability in month six is unknown?
  • Describe the difference between a capability bet and a feature commitment.
  • What does a roadmap look like when it is organized by uncertainty rather than by quarter?
23 questions · 23 answered

Competitive analysis in fast-moving AI

  • How do you run competitive analysis in a market where the landscape changes monthly?
  • What is the difference between a competitor's feature and a competitor's advantage in AI?
  • Describe how you would test a competitor's AI feature to find its real limitations.
23 questions · 23 answered

Evaluating AI vendors as a buyer

  • List the ten questions you would ask every AI vendor before a pilot.
  • How do you evaluate a vendor's quality claims without running your own eval?
  • Design the pilot you would run to evaluate two competing AI vendors.
23 questions · 23 answered