Any creative-minded media user knows exactly what Vimeo is — the video hosting, sharing, and services platform, which places high importance on the delivery of high-definition video across a range of devices. It may be one of the most wholesome organizations to exist, with the passionate filmmakers/founders simply wanting to find a beautiful way of harnessing the power of video and sharing it with the world. With innovation driving this organization, any product manager would thrive in such an environment. So if you can imagine yourself at such a great organization, read on and learn how to win yourself that Vimeo Product Manager interview.
Company Overview
Launched in 2004, parented by IAC and headquartered in New York, Vimeo was founded by video content creators who wanted to share their creative work. This quickly developed into a large supportive community of passionate individuals, with 175 million active subscribers using the platform and 60 million video creators.
They provide a software as a service (SaaS) with revenue deriving through subscription plans for businesses and video content producers. Its subscribers are provided with tools for video creation, editing, broadcasting and the means for video professionals to connect with fellow professionals and clients.
Anjali Sud, CEO since 2017, has spurred Vimeo’s growth, with the Covid19 pandemic catalyzing its popularity. So much so, the IAC raised $150 million in anticipation of spinning Vimeo as its own company, giving it US$2.75 billion valuations. And with an investment injection at the start of 2021, it now values an estimated US$5 billion.
Product Culture
Vimeo is all about “letting you harness video’s power, in seconds.” Simply put, Vimeo is a video hosting platform providing the leading all-in-one video solution with 5 tiers for its users to work with. Vimeo basic is free to use, but users who will be sharing and marketing their content have 4 subscription options to choose from:
- Plus: host and share videos
- Pro: create videos with templates
- Business: market your business
- Premium: live stream events
Such a model is supported by a sophisticated technological infrastructure – interacting with programs such as Google Drive, Slack, CloudCheckr and many more.
Vimeo also offers an opportunity to turn content into a full-scale streaming subscription service with Vimeo OTT. For anyone more interested in engaging with Vimeo as a form of entertainment, they’ve covered their bases with Vimeo on Demand, their signature streaming and downloading service.
When it comes to video content, Vimeo has it all: users can watch, create, upload, share, live stream, and market original work, depending on their needs and the subscription level they’ve chosen.
Overall Company Culture
Vimeo’s mission is “Professional quality video for all”. Their team is built on 5 key principles: Start with Users, Ask Why, Aim High, Own it, and Be Real. Their jobs page emphasizes building growth, pushing boundaries, and leaving a mark.
They also highlight diversity as one of their key values: it’s important to Vimeo to be led by a team “as diverse and vibrant as the creators we serve”. They’re so transparent about their dedication to diversity, they publish an inclusion and diversity update to lay out their plans for potential new hires.
If you’re big on work-life balance, Vimeo might be a great place for you to build your career. They’re focused on caring for their team:
Their level of care shows in the rave reviews from Vimeo employees on Glassdoor: 115 employees reviewed their experience working for Vimeo highly, giving the creative company an overall score of 4.3 out of 5 stars. Reviews point especially to employee progression and growth, noting constant opportunities for employees to climb the career ladder. Also, it’s worth noting that 97% of employees think highly of Vimeo’s CEO, Anjali Sud: this is a well-led team.
Furthermore, with access to great compensation packages, it is no surprise that the organization attracts high-quality employees: this creates a great team environment where you have the opportunity to work with creative and hard-working individuals. And as an organization borne from video makers’ passion for creating content, there is a great focus and encouragement for employee creativity.
Product Team Culture
Just like the overall company culture, the product team culture places focus on individual creativity. A culture where making mistakes is encouraged so that employees have the ability to fully create and develop products and ideas. Don’t be mistaken, creativity doesn’t mean a laid-back job — quite the opposite — dedication to hard work is an element that drives the product team.
What Does a Typical Vimeo PM Job Posting Look Like?
A PM post at Vimeo relies on the individual to be hands-on:
- They tend to ask for previous experience in a PM role (3+)
- Hands-on experience with collecting, analyzing and interpreting data. This is fundamental of Vimeo’s PM roles as the individual will need to conduct research to better understand the users and analyze viewer engagement metrics, whether these are needed to increase user engagement, retention, loyalty etc.
- Leadership skills and excellent communication. The PM role may require you to be a team motivator or work with stakeholders to outline customer needs, user specifications, requirements, user stories and success criteria. Another common requirement that features in the Vimeo PM specifications relating to communication skills is being able to work with managers of different departments when in the process of designing and developing the product.
- A thorough understanding of UX concepts and design. This enables you to turn the research that you’ve done and the work in collaboration with other departments on what the user needs and problems it has to then develop the product.
Other common skills mentioned across a variety of Vimeo PM posts include experience with cross-platform development (web and mobile), comprehensive knowledge of development methods and techniques and the skill to be highly detail-oriented and organized.
You get the idea. All of these skills are required because as a PM at a streaming-based organization, you need to have a comprehensive understanding of the user and be able to present and develop your findings into a service that will be of the same standard that Vimeo has produced, and will continue to produce.
How Do You Get a Vimeo Product Manager Interview?
Where can you look for PM roles at Vimeo? According to Glassdoor, 56% of applicants found job postings online — Vimeo currently has 225 jobs posted on Glassdoor and 9 Product Manager jobs listed directly on their site — while 19% of interviewers got connected via referral, and 17% found the job through a recruiter. Once you’ve found the job posting, here’s how to apply:
Write a Product Manager Resume
Remember that your resume is essentially your passport, meaning without it structure appropriately and relevant to you, you can forget about an interview. Ensure you read the requirements and responsibilities of the role properly so that you can include these in your resume. The last thing a recruiter will want to read is a resume that has no relevance to the job posting. You can check out our resume writing guide and our tutorial on how to synchronize your resume and your LinkedIn profile.
Prepare Your Pitch
After crafting the perfect product manager resume, your next step is preparing the killer pitch. This goes a long way to impress your recruiter and help you win the interview if you’re demonstrating the product manager part of your career.
Apply!
There’s a common misconception that submitting your resume is the only way of getting that interview. You can in fact network your way to the interview. By doing this, you’re creating your own opportunity to familiarise yourself with the work environment, employee culture, information about your recruiter, and ultimately, the ins and outs of the interview exercise. This gives you leverage when you are called up for your interview. Watch this video to learn how to network your way into getting that product manager interview:
What Is the Vimeo Product Manager Interview Process and Timeline?
Vimeo’s interview process has a very quick turnaround and is renowned for being incredibly well-organized, with constant feedback provided at every stage.
The first-round call will be with the recruiter. This gives you the opportunity to discuss your resume, your experience and behavioural questions — check our article on first-round interviews to get in-depth guidance on the best way to approach these.
How to Win the Introductory Call With the Hiring Manager
The stage of the interview will be defined by behavioral questions — even though this is personal hell for most interviewees, it will provide the recruiter with more information about you and how you are able to approach problems. Most behavioural questions for PM roles include:
- Tell me about yourself. Walk me through your background and experience.
- Why are you interested in {company}?
- Describe an accomplishment that you’re proud of.
- With your technical experience, why aren’t you applying for an engineer position?
The recruiter will also use this opportunity to give you a brief overview of the company and the job role responsibilities. Looking at the stats, 48% said that the interview process was positive, a process that was defined by good-quality questions and friendly interviewers. However, with a further 38% reporting a negative experience, the biggest problem seemed to be not getting back to those interviewees that hadn’t been successful. So if you don’t hear from Vimeo, it’s best to assume that you haven’t been successful.
So, you’ve impressed the interviewer to move on to the next page! The second round focuses on the questions that will demonstrate why you’re a good fit for a PM job at Vimeo.
How to Win the Technical Round With the Hiring Manager and Team Stakeholders
Once passing past the initial stage, this is the time that the interviewer will use to identify your technical knowledge, experience with other stakeholder groups and the more in-depth behavioural questions. Here are some examples:
- Was there ever a time where you had to convince stakeholders of a product decision they didn’t agree with?
- What is your product development lifecycle?
- If Vimeo wanted to implement a new subscription feature, walk me through your thought process.
- What is your prioritization process for a product roadmap?
Unlike the first stage, the second stage of the interview focuses on the specifics of the product management process, the different stakeholder groups that you would work with and how you interact with the customer and their user needs.
If you still have questions or need an extra hand for this stage of the interview, check out some tips here.
How Did COVID-19 Change Hiring?
As mentioned earlier, Vimeo has thrived during the pandemic, with more and more people having the time off from everyday life to be able to utilize the service. This means that, unlike other organizations, Vimeo is in the position to continue to hire product managers.
However, the pandemic has called for the movement of in-person meetings to an online platform, whether this is through Zoom or Microsoft Teams. This can change the game when it comes to interviews, so make sure you read our guide on being able to overcome this and ace the virtual interview.
Need more help with prepping for your PM interview? Schedule a call with us today to find out how we can help you kick-start your Product Manager career.
