What is a Product Manager at Avery Dennison?

As a Product Manager at Avery Dennison, you are stepping into a pivotal role at the intersection of materials science, global supply chain logistics, and cutting-edge digital innovation. This position is not just about managing software or physical goods in isolation; it is about bridging the physical and digital worlds. You will drive initiatives that impact everything from retail branding and In-Store Digital Media to Electronic Shelf Labels (ESL) and RFID technologies. Your work will directly influence how global brands optimize their inventory, engage with consumers, and streamline their operations.

The impact of this position is massive, given the scale and complexity of Avery Dennison. You will be tasked with understanding intricate market demands, translating them into actionable product roadmaps, and guiding cross-functional teams to deliver solutions that are both technologically advanced and commercially viable. This requires a unique blend of strategic foresight, deep domain expertise, and the ability to navigate a highly matrixed, global organization.

Expect a role that is deeply collaborative and highly visible. You will not be working in a silo; instead, you will partner closely with engineering, sales, marketing, and regional leadership to ensure your product vision aligns with broader enterprise goals. If you thrive on solving complex, tangible problems and want to see your products deployed in thousands of retail environments worldwide, this role will be both challenging and immensely rewarding.

Getting Ready for Your Interviews

Thorough preparation is the key to navigating the rigorous interview process at Avery Dennison. Your interviewers will look beyond your resume to understand how you think, how you lead, and how you handle ambiguity in a fast-paced environment.

Focus your preparation on the following key evaluation criteria:

• Role-related knowledge – This measures your understanding of product lifecycle management, go-to-market strategies, and relevant domain expertise (such as digital media or retail technologies). Interviewers evaluate this by asking how you have historically launched products, priced them, and measured their success in the market. You can demonstrate strength here by bringing concrete examples of market analysis and product roadmaps you have successfully executed.
• Problem-solving ability – This assesses your capacity to break down complex, ambiguous challenges into structured, actionable steps. Avery Dennison values data-driven decision-making, so interviewers will look for your ability to synthesize market data, customer feedback, and technical constraints. Show your strength by walking interviewers through your analytical frameworks and explaining the "why" behind your product decisions.
• Leadership – As a Product Manager, you must lead by influence rather than direct authority. Interviewers will closely examine your ability to align cross-functional teams, manage difficult stakeholders, and drive consensus. You will excel in this area by sharing specific stories of how you navigated conflicting priorities and rallied a diverse team behind a unified product vision.
• Culture fit and values – Avery Dennison places a high premium on collaboration, integrity, and continuous improvement. Interviewers want to see how you adapt to setbacks, take ownership of failures, and work alongside colleagues from different business segments. Display this by being authentic, highlighting your adaptability, and showing a genuine enthusiasm for the company’s physical-to-digital transformation.

Interview Process Overview

The interview process for a Product Manager at Avery Dennison is traditionally structured, thorough, and highly focused on behavioral principles and cross-functional alignment. You will typically begin with one or two phone screens led by the HR team, which serve to validate your baseline qualifications, compensation expectations, and cultural alignment. This is followed by a deeper, 30- to 45-minute phone or video interview with the hiring manager, where the conversation will pivot toward your specific product experience and domain knowledge.

If you progress to the final stage, expect a comprehensive onsite or virtual panel interview. This is often an intensive half-day or full-day event, featuring multiple 45-minute 1:1 sessions with cross-segment personnel, including engineering leads, marketing directors, and other product managers. A defining feature of the Avery Dennison final round is often a formal presentation, where you will be asked to walk the panel through a specific product case study or past launch. In some locations, you may also be given a facility tour or asked to complete a competency assessment test.

The company's interviewing philosophy heavily emphasizes behavioral evidence over hypothetical answers. They want to hear detailed case examples from your past experiences, focusing on leadership, stakeholder management, and execution. While the process can sometimes feel lengthy due to the number of stakeholders involved, the teams are known to be extremely professional and deeply invested in ensuring candidate comfort.

This visual timeline outlines the typical progression from the initial HR screen through to the intensive final panel and presentation stage. Use this to pace your preparation, ensuring you have high-level behavioral stories ready for the early rounds and a deeply refined, data-backed presentation prepared for the final onsite stage. Note that specific steps, such as the competency assessment or facility tour, may vary slightly depending on the region and the specific product group.

Deep Dive into Evaluation Areas

To succeed, you must understand exactly what the hiring team is looking for during each conversation. Below is a detailed breakdown of the core evaluation areas for the Product Manager role.

Behavioral and Leadership Principles

Leadership and behavioral traits are perhaps the most heavily weighted criteria at Avery Dennison. The company operates across complex global markets, requiring product managers who can influence stakeholders without formal authority. Interviewers will dig deep into your past experiences to see how you handle adversity, resolve conflicts, and drive alignment. Strong performance here means providing highly specific, structured narratives that highlight your emotional intelligence and strategic foresight.

Be ready to go over:

• Stakeholder alignment – How you build consensus among sales, engineering, and regional leadership.
• Navigating ambiguity – Your approach to moving projects forward when data is incomplete or resources are constrained.
• Ownership and accountability – How you handle product failures or missed deadlines, and the lessons you extract from them.
• Advanced concepts (less common) – Leading through major organizational restructuring, driving digital transformation in legacy environments, and managing cross-border cultural differences in product teams.

Example questions or scenarios:

• "Tell me about a time you had to push back on a major request from a key stakeholder. How did you handle it?"
• "Describe a situation where a product launch did not go as planned. What was your role in mitigating the fallout?"
• "Give me an example of how you gained alignment from a team that initially disagreed with your product vision."

Product Strategy and Domain Expertise

As a Product Manager, you are expected to be the CEO of your product. This area evaluates your ability to conceptualize, validate, and launch products that solve real customer problems while driving business value. For roles focused on In-Store Digital Media or ESL, interviewers will look for your understanding of retail environments, hardware-software integration, and B2B go-to-market strategies. A strong candidate will seamlessly connect high-level market trends to tactical product features.

Be ready to go over:

• Market analysis and sizing – How you identify new opportunities and justify product investments using data.
• Roadmap prioritization – The frameworks you use (e.g., RICE, Kano) to decide what gets built and when.
• Go-to-market (GTM) strategy – Your experience coordinating pricing, marketing, and sales enablement for a successful launch.
• Advanced concepts (less common) – Hardware lifecycle management, IoT ecosystem integration, and navigating regulatory compliance in global retail markets.

Example questions or scenarios:

• "Walk me through how you would prioritize features for a new In-Store Digital Media product with competing demands from marketing and engineering."
• "How do you measure the success of a product post-launch, and what metrics matter most to you?"
• "Describe a time when market data contradicted your initial product hypothesis. How did you pivot?"

Cross-Functional Collaboration and Execution

Great ideas are useless without execution. This area tests your ability to turn strategic roadmaps into delivered products by working in the trenches with engineering, manufacturing, and operations. Avery Dennison values candidates who understand the realities of product development, especially when dealing with physical goods and digital supply chains. You must demonstrate that you can keep teams on track, manage dependencies, and communicate technical constraints to non-technical stakeholders.

Be ready to go over:

• Agile and development methodologies – How you partner with engineering to define requirements, write user stories, and manage sprints.
• Cross-segment communication – Your ability to translate technical jargon into business value for sales and marketing teams.
• Risk mitigation – How you identify potential bottlenecks in the development process and proactively address them.
• Advanced concepts (less common) – Managing supply chain delays for hardware components, integrating third-party APIs into proprietary platforms, and scaling operational support for new product lines.

Example questions or scenarios:

• "Tell me about a time when engineering told you a critical feature could not be built within the required timeline. How did you resolve the issue?"
• "How do you ensure that the sales team is fully equipped and motivated to sell a newly launched product?"
• "Describe your process for gathering and incorporating customer feedback into an existing product roadmap."

Key Responsibilities

As a Product Manager at Avery Dennison, your day-to-day work will be dynamic and highly cross-functional. You are responsible for the end-to-end lifecycle of your product portfolio, from initial ideation and market research to end-of-life planning. A significant portion of your time will be spent analyzing market trends, conducting customer discovery interviews, and synthesizing that data into a compelling product vision and roadmap. You will act as the primary bridge between the customer’s needs and the company's technical capabilities.

Collaboration is at the heart of your daily routine. You will work closely with engineering and R&D teams to define product specifications, prioritize the backlog, and ensure that development aligns with strategic goals. Simultaneously, you will partner with marketing and sales teams to develop robust go-to-market strategies, establish pricing models, and create sales enablement materials. You will frequently present to senior leadership and cross-segment personnel to report on product performance, secure buy-in for new initiatives, and justify resource allocation.

You will also be deeply involved in operational execution. This means monitoring product KPIs, tracking profitability, and troubleshooting issues as they arise in the field. Whether you are managing the rollout of new Electronic Shelf Labels in a retail chain or optimizing the digital media interface for in-store displays, you will be expected to maintain a pulse on both the macro strategy and the micro details of product delivery.

Role Requirements & Qualifications

To be a competitive candidate for the Product Manager role at Avery Dennison, you must bring a mix of strategic thinking, technical fluency, and exceptional interpersonal skills. The company typically looks for professionals who have a proven track record of managing complex B2B products, particularly those that blend hardware, software, and data.

• Must-have skills:

  • 5+ years of dedicated product management experience, preferably in B2B, retail technology, or manufacturing environments.
  • Strong proficiency in product management frameworks (e.g., Agile, Scrum) and roadmapping tools.
  • Demonstrated ability to conduct market research, define pricing strategies, and execute successful go-to-market plans.
  • Exceptional communication and presentation skills, with the ability to influence cross-functional teams and senior executives.
  • A data-driven mindset, with the ability to analyze complex metrics and translate them into actionable product decisions.

• Nice-to-have skills:

  • Specific domain expertise in In-Store Digital Media, Electronic Shelf Labels (ESL), or RFID technologies.
  • Experience managing hardware product lifecycles and understanding supply chain logistics.
  • An MBA or advanced degree in a related technical or business field.
  • Familiarity with modern AI tools and how they can be leveraged to optimize product management workflows.

Common Interview Questions

The questions below are representative of what candidates face during the Avery Dennison interview process. They are designed to illustrate the patterns and themes of the evaluation, rather than serve as a memorization list. Expect your interviewers to ask follow-up questions that probe deeply into your specific contributions and thought processes.

Behavioral and Leadership

These questions test your emotional intelligence, your ability to influence without authority, and your resilience in the face of challenges. Use the STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result) to provide structured, compelling answers.

• Tell me about a time you had to lead a cross-functional team through a significant change or pivot.
• Describe a situation where you failed to meet a product goal. What happened, and what did you learn?
• How do you handle a scenario where a key stakeholder strongly disagrees with your product roadmap?
• Give me an example of a time you had to make a critical product decision with incomplete data.
• Tell me about a time you identified a new market opportunity and successfully championed it to leadership.

Product Strategy and Execution

These questions evaluate your domain knowledge, your strategic frameworks, and your ability to bring a product from concept to market. Interviewers want to see how you balance user needs with business objectives.

• Walk me through your process for developing a go-to-market strategy for a new B2B product.
• How do you prioritize features when you have competing requests from different customer segments?
• Describe a time you successfully launched a product that required both hardware and software integration.
• What metrics do you rely on to determine if a product is successful, and how do you track them?
• How do you stay informed about emerging trends in retail technology and incorporate them into your strategy?

Cross-Functional and Stakeholder Management

These questions assess your ability to collaborate effectively with engineering, sales, and marketing. You must show that you can translate technical constraints into business realities and vice versa.

• Tell me about a time you had to translate a complex technical issue into terms that a non-technical sales team could understand.
• How do you ensure that engineering understands the "why" behind the features they are building?
• Describe a scenario where a product launch was delayed due to manufacturing or engineering bottlenecks. How did you manage the communication?
• How do you partner with the marketing team to ensure a product’s value proposition is accurately communicated to the market?
• Give an example of how you gather and synthesize feedback from the sales team to improve an existing product.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How difficult is the interview process for a Product Manager at Avery Dennison? The process is generally rated as average to difficult. The challenge lies not in solving abstract brainteasers, but in providing highly detailed, structured behavioral examples that demonstrate your leadership and cross-functional execution. Thorough preparation of your past case studies is essential.

Q: What differentiates a successful candidate from the rest? Successful candidates excel at storytelling. They don't just explain what they built; they explain why they built it, how they gained alignment from difficult stakeholders, and what the measurable business impact was. Showing a deep understanding of the intersection between physical products and digital solutions is a major differentiator.

Q: Will I need to prepare a presentation for the final round? Yes, it is highly likely. Many candidates report being asked to deliver a presentation during the onsite or final virtual panel. This typically involves walking the interviewers through a past product launch or presenting a case study relevant to the role's domain.

Q: How long does the interview process typically take? The timeline can vary, but it generally spans 3 to 6 weeks from the initial HR screen to the final offer. Some candidates have noted that scheduling the final onsite interviews can take time due to the number of cross-segment personnel involved.

Q: What is the company culture like for Product Managers? Avery Dennison is a highly professional, matrixed organization. The culture values data-driven decision-making, meticulous planning, and strong interpersonal collaboration. You will be expected to operate with a high degree of autonomy while constantly keeping global stakeholders aligned.

Other General Tips

• Structure your stories: Use the STAR method rigorously. Avery Dennison interviewers will cut through vague answers. Ensure you clearly define your specific role in any team achievement.
• Focus on the "Why": Whenever you discuss a product feature or roadmap, articulate the underlying customer problem and the business justification. Never present a feature as just a "good idea" without backing it up with market logic.
• Prepare for a marathon onsite: The final round can involve up to 7 different people in 1:1 sessions or panels. Maintain your energy, stay consistent in your messaging, and treat every interviewer with equal importance, regardless of their title.
• Ask strategic questions: At the end of your interviews, ask questions that show you are already thinking like an Avery Dennison Product Manager. Inquire about their supply chain challenges, their digital transformation goals, or how they measure success for the specific product line you are interviewing for.

Summary & Next Steps

Securing a Product Manager role at Avery Dennison is an opportunity to drive meaningful innovation at a global scale. You will be at the forefront of merging physical materials with digital technology, creating solutions that redefine retail environments and supply chains. The work is complex, highly visible, and deeply impactful.

To succeed in your interviews, you must master the art of behavioral storytelling. Focus your preparation on structuring your past experiences to highlight your leadership, your strategic product vision, and your ability to execute across diverse, cross-functional teams. Remember that your interviewers are looking for a colleague they can trust to navigate ambiguity and deliver results.

This compensation data provides a baseline expectation for the role. Keep in mind that the final offer will depend heavily on your specific domain expertise, years of experience, and geographic location. Use this information to anchor your salary expectations confidently during the initial HR screens.

You have the experience and the skills required to excel in this process. Approach each conversation as an opportunity to showcase your passion for product management and your alignment with the company's goals. For even more detailed insights, question banks, and preparation tools, continue exploring the resources available on Dataford. Good luck—you are ready for this!