Favorite Product Question Walkthrough

If you’re interviewing for Product Owner type positions it won’t be uncommon to be asked what your favorite product is.  Resist the urge to pick the latest iPhone or app if you can because the interviewer will already have heard that answer a half dozen times up to that point of calling through a list of 12 candidates over the phone or perhaps even in person.  Instead try and think of something that is unique and that you can actually speak to because you’ve used it.  Bonus points would be to use something that is relevant to the company you’re interviewing with.  What follows is a general framework of how you’d answer that question and how I’d answer it.

1. What is the product and what does it do?  The product is called PEP, Paint Estimating Program.  Initially in my painting business we were guessing on the cost of each project and then we were trying to come up with our own rates for production.  Then we upgraded to this software that is automated, mobile, and uses the PDCA rates of production when doing measurements.  It also integrates with our quickbooks, time clock software, and scheduling applications.  
2. Who are its competitors and what makes this product better?  Estimate rocket, The Paint Estimator, One-Step Estimating, Planswift, and many online spreadsheets from various contractors.  PEP is better because it already has PDCA standards loaded in, everything is stored in the cloud, it has automated follow up after estimates, syncs with quickbooks, customizable presentations to customers, gives feedback timewise on how long what content was viewed on the bid and in what order for AB testing opportunities, as well as workflow management and scheduling capabilities.  
3. How did you first hear about this product and what keeps you continually using it?  At a painting conference I went to learn more about the industry and how to set myself apart from my competitors and what others around the country who were successful were doing.  I keep using it because the price point is affordable, great support and training was and is excellent, and the product is really easy to use and intuitive once you have the basics down.  It makes us much faster by giving estimates the same day, makes us more professional looking, and takes out the guesswork for various rates of production you might not have exposure to prior to showing up for a certain job.
4. Product features/product strategy - Despite how amazing this product is its ability to integrate with our time clock software and assign crews/painters to projects created.  It needs to add the ability to plan and schedule more than one crew at a time.  That would be a short term implementation that would make a big impact.  Long term letting customers check in on the status of a project via their application would be helpful as well.  

This is a brief, but effective way to quickly walk an interviewer through what your favorite product is right now.