I went broad first and that was probably a mistake.
Start with a high-level overview of the product's purpose and architecture, then drill down into key components and the rationale behind design choices. Emphasize how the architecture supports user needs, scalability, and business goals, while highlighting trade-offs you've navigated as a PM.
Pro tip: Focus on the 'why' behind architectural decisions, not just the 'what'—show how you balanced technical constraints with product requirements and user impact. Use concrete examples of trade-offs you influenced, demonstrating your ability to collaborate with engineering.
Briefly describe the product, its users, and the core problem it solves. Mention the scale (e.g., number of users, requests) to ground the architecture discussion.
Provide a simple diagram or verbal overview of the main components (e.g., clients, services, data stores) and how they interact. Avoid deep technical jargon; focus on clarity.
Explain 2-3 critical architectural choices (e.g., microservices vs. monolith, database selection) and the trade-offs involved. Tie each decision back to product requirements like latency, scalability, or cost.
Describe how you as a PM contributed to these decisions—e.g., prioritizing features, facilitating trade-off discussions, or ensuring alignment with business goals.
Discuss how the architecture might evolve to meet future needs, showing forward-thinking and awareness of technical debt or scalability challenges.
AI-generated suggestions, not part of the candidate's original notes. May be inaccurate — verify before relying on them.