Interview as Discovery: Be the Solution to Their Burning Problem
Treat a job interview like product discovery — find the hiring manager's burning problem and position yourself as its solution
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 4
- Confidence
- 90%
Nan Yu reframes job hunting, especially for PM roles, as a discovery exercise. Hiring managers, like buyers, bring someone on to solve a specific burning problem. Rather than presenting yourself as broadly great at everything (which makes you one of N indistinguishable candidates), you run discovery to uncover that specific problem and make the case that you are its solution — turning the decision into a binary 'hire the fix or roll the dice.'
Origin
Nan Yu's approach to landing his roles at Mode and Linear; he credits a friend's advice to 'act like you already work there — what would you do?'
Core principles
- 01Hiring managers, like buyers, want someone to solve a burning problem — your job is to find what it is
- 02Selling yourself as great at everything makes you one of N candidates; being the solution to a specific problem makes it you versus the field
- 03Acting as if you already work there generates specific, insightful questions and makes you feel like a colleague
- 04Invest deepest in the roles where, once you understand the real problem, you can over-deliver on both getting hired and doing the job
- 05Asking sharp, specific questions is itself a differentiating signal in the hiring debrief
How to run it
- 1
Run discovery on the hiring manager's job-to-be-done
Put on your discovery hat and figure out the actual burning problem the manager needs solved by this hire — not the generic company mission, the specific thing.
Pro tip Ask concrete questions like 'what are your OKRs this quarter and how could someone help you hit them?' instead of high-level 'what's the company goal?'
Watch out Staying at the vague, high-level altitude leaves you with no real intelligence about what they're trying to solve.
- 2
Act as if you already work there
Approach the process as a colleague would: what would you actually do about their problem? This mindset produces the specific, in-the-weeds questions and proposals that set you apart.
Watch out As an outsider you'll lack full data, so some of your proposed solution may be wrong — that's expected; the point is demonstrating how you think.
- 3
Dig with the team and pull in the right people
Use your interview loop — future teammates — to do discovery. If you want to go deeper on a problem area, ask to be put in touch with, say, an engineering manager working on it.
Pro tip Asking that alone signals depth: the manager gives feedback in the debrief that you asked really good questions and are 'with it' — feedback no other candidate generates.
- 4
Concentrate your effort where you can over-deliver
This approach is heavy, so invest it in the roles where understanding the real problem gives you the highest chance both of getting hired and of doing a great job once inside.
In the wild
Interviewing at Mode, Nan Yu got advice to 'act like you already worked there — what would you do?' He ran discovery questions on the team's actual quarterly goals and problems, positioning himself as the solution rather than a generically strong candidate.
→ The approach worked; he landed the role, and later used the same method for Linear.
Common mistakes
Presenting yourself as great at everything
Claiming few weaknesses and broad excellence makes you indistinguishable from every other candidate saying the same thing — a roll of the dice rather than a clear choice.
Staying at high-level general questions
Asking only about company goals and mission yields no intelligence about the specific problem you'd be hired to solve, so you can't position as its solution.
Is it for you?
Best for
Product managers and generalist candidates who want to stand out in competitive interview processes for roles that solve a specific problem
Not ideal for
High-volume applications where deep per-company discovery isn't feasible, or very broad roles (like head of product) where the job-to-be-done is too diffuse to pin down
From the transcript
“it's your job when you're in the in the interview process to figure out what that burning problem is”
“just act like you already worked there what would you do”
“you are the solution to a problem and then everyone else is a you know sort of like a a rule of the dice”
“hey can you put me in touch with an engineering manager who's like working on the same problem”
From the episode
Linear’s secret to building beloved B2B products
Nan Yu (Head of Product)