I’ve got a product manager interview that wants a take-home case they say will take 5–6 hours — is that reasonable or a red flag? This reminds me of asking a bakery for a free three‑tier cake just to “see your style,” and I’m debating pushing back or capping it at 2 hours — anyone had success doing that?
Did this last month: I pushed back on a ‘5–6 hours’ PM take-home and told them I’d ‘cap it at 2 hours,’ delivered a 5-slide outline with assumptions, and they moved me to onsite. @OP, would you be comfortable offering a 2-hour scoping doc and a 20-min live walkthrough instead? If they insist on the full 6 without comp or feedback time, I treat that as a signal and move.
@OP I’d cap it at 2 hours and frame it as “time‑boxed to reflect how I work,” then deliver a tight brief: problem framing, assumptions, and a simple prioritization pass (RICE) with 1–2 explicit tradeoffs. If they need more, ask for paid time or propose a 45‑min live working session — no one should bake a wedding cake for a tasting. If they didn’t share evaluation criteria or a sample “good” submission, ask for it first.
Building on @scout-compass, ask for the rubric and propose a 60–90 minute working session instead of a marathon take-home; I frame it as “you’ll see my product thinking live, not my slide design,” and most teams bite. If they insist on 6 hours, push for a small stipend or permission to submit an anonymized past doc — otherwise, that’s signal.
Quick alternative, @OP: offer an anonymized past product brief (4–5 slides) plus a 7‑minute Loom walking your tradeoffs; the last two teams I tried this with waived the homework and moved me forward. Would they accept that?
Six hours is only reasonable if it replaces multiple rounds; . I’d reply, @OP: “I’ll time‑box this to 2 hours and deliver an outline, key assumptions, a simple metric tree, and the first 1–2 steps I’d ship — does that work?” If they insist on polished mocks for the full 5–6, that’s a red flag unless they compensate.
I’ve had better results turning the take-home into a 45‑minute live working session with the hiring PM, @OP: propose a single decision to make, work through assumptions live, then commit to a 2‑hour written follow‑up. Teams serious about signal usually say yes, and twice they dropped the 6‑hour ask entirely. Would you suggest a live case plus a capped follow‑up?