If you’re prepping for a FAANG product management interview like at Meta and Google, you’ve likely encountered the CIRCLES framework. It’s shiny, it’s structured, and it promises to be your golden ticket.
But here’s the hard truth: it’s a crutch, not a ladder. Hiring managers want ingenuity, adaptability, and the ability to read between the lines—not cookie-cutter answers wrapped in a bow. In this article, we’ll show you why CIRCLES isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, walk you through its pitfalls with a Google Maps redesign example, and explain how Kalena Advisors can help you craft answers that dazzle and differentiate you from the herd.
What Is the CIRCLES Framework?
CIRCLES is like the Rubik’s Cube of product management: solve it step by step—Comprehend, Identify, Report, Cut, List, Evaluate, Summarize—and you’re golden. Or so they say. The problem is that real-world product design doesn’t follow a neat algorithm. It’s messy, dynamic, and full of gray areas. While the framework offers structure, it falls short in helping you address the nuanced, fast-paced demands of product sense interviews.
Why CIRCLES Is More of a Roadblock Than a Roadmap
First off, let’s talk about flexibility—or lack thereof. CIRCLES treats product design like a linear conveyor belt: one step follows the other. But in the real world, product management is more like herding cats. Priorities shift, constraints pop up, and you often need to pivot on a dime. CIRCLES doesn’t account for that.
Then there’s empathy. Sure, CIRCLES tells you to “identify the customer,” but it doesn’t dig into why they behave the way they do. It’s surface-level analysis dressed up as insight. Imagine redesigning Google Maps without knowing what truly frustrates users—like being routed through unsafe neighborhoods at night.
Creativity? Forget it. CIRCLES produces answers so generic they could double as default settings. Features like “route safety scores” and “offline maps” sound practical but lack imagination. Where’s the boldness? The innovation? Hiring managers want moonshot ideas, not something they’ve already seen in three other interviews that day.
And let’s not ignore how time-consuming it is. Most candidates can’t even finish analyzing a single persona in 20 minutes. By the time you get to “Evaluate trade-offs,” your interviewer has already checked out.
The Google Maps Example: CIRCLES Falls Flat
Let’s say you’re asked to improve Google Maps. CIRCLES would have you:
- Comprehend the situation: Maps is a navigation tool; improve the user experience.
- Identify customers: Drivers, cyclists, pedestrians, and businesses.
- Report needs: Traffic updates, safer routes, offline maps.
- Prioritize: Safety and personalization.
- List solutions: Safety scores, AI recommendations, better offline downloads.
- Evaluate trade-offs: Safety requires partnerships; personalization raises privacy issues.
- Summarize: Improve navigation by making it safer and more tailored.
It sounds logical, but here’s the problem: this response lacks justification. There’s no prioritization based on data. No tie to KPIs like reducing commute times or increasing app retention. No differentiation—how does this set Google Maps apart from Waze or Apple Maps? And the ideas? Generic at best, uninspired at worst.
How Kalena Advisors Would Approach It
At Kalena Advisors, we throw out the playbook and teach you how to think like a product leader. Here’s how we’d tackle the same Google Maps problem:
Empathize with the User
Start with the human side and all of the customers’ user journeys. Drivers hate circling for parking. Pedestrians want well-lit, safe routes. Cyclists need better hazard detection. By digging into real frustrations, we uncover opportunities that matter.
Prioritize with Data
Instead of a vague “focus on safety,” we use validated pain points. Parking, for instance, affects 60% of Google Maps users daily. Fixing that delivers the highest impact.
Set Bold KPIs (but Product-Market Fit KPIs first)
How do we measure success? Reduce parking search time by 30%. Improve ETA accuracy to within one minute. With clear targets, we keep solutions focused and impactful.
Deliver Innovation
Now comes the fun part. How about IoT-enabled dynamic parking insights? Or AR overlays that show pedestrians the safest walking routes? Gamified exploration that rewards users for discovering local gems? These aren’t just features; they’re experiences.
Connect It All
When you present this in an interview, you’re not just listing features. You’re telling a story: Here’s the problem. Here’s why it matters. Here’s how we fix it, and here’s how we measure success.
Why Kalena Advisors?
Because frameworks like CIRCLES are training wheels. They might get you moving, but they’ll never win the race. At Kalena Advisors, we help you craft answers that are as strategic as they are human. We teach you to break free from rigidity, think on your feet, and deliver responses that make hiring managers sit up and take notice.
Ready to Stand Out?
Don’t let stale frameworks hold you back. With Kalena Advisors, you’ll learn how to think, not just what to say. Book a session today or schedule a free consultation to ace your product management interviews and land the role you’ve been dreaming of.