Technical & Developer Experience (DX)

As a PM managing highly technical products, you must demonstrate that you can speak the language of engineers and developers. You do not need to write code, but you must understand system architecture, API design principles, and developer workflows.

Be ready to go over:

• API Design Principles – Understanding RESTful vs. gRPC architectures, versioning, and documentation standards.
• System Constraints – Managing latency, throughput, rate limits, and computational costs in large-scale systems.
• Developer Workflows – Understanding how developers integrate SDKs, debug API errors, and monitor production systems.

Example scenarios:

• "How would you prioritize developer requests for a new SDK feature versus engineering requests to refactor core API architecture?"
• "Explain how you would handle a major version deprecation for a widely used API endpoint without disrupting active enterprise clients."

Cross-Functional Collaboration & Leadership

The final round features a panel of interviewers from engineering, design, and leadership. They want to see how you build consensus, manage stakeholder expectations, and maintain a high bar for product quality.

Be ready to go over:

• Stakeholder Alignment – Techniques for managing competing priorities between research, engineering, and sales.
• User-Centric Design – Partnering with product designers to create seamless user interfaces for complex technical tools.
• Strategic Vision – Aligning short-term product execution with the long-term strategic goals of the company.

Example scenarios:

• "Describe a time when you had to convince an engineering lead to build a feature they initially opposed."
• "How do you balance the push for rapid feature development from sales with the engineering team's need to address technical debt?"

As a Product Manager at Cohere Technology, you will own the end-to-end lifecycle of critical product areas. Your day-to-day responsibilities will bridge the gap between deep technical research and commercial viability, ensuring that the company's products remain competitive and highly valuable to customers.

You will lead cross-functional teams of software engineers, machine learning researchers, and product designers to define, build, and ship products. This involves gathering requirements from developer communities and enterprise customers, translating those insights into structured product requirement documents (PRDs), and maintaining a prioritized roadmap. You will act as the primary voice of the customer, ensuring that engineering efforts are always aligned with solving real-world developer and business problems.

Additionally, you will play a pivotal role in product execution and release management. You will design and oversee product launches, coordinate with developer relations and marketing teams, and monitor post-launch performance. By analyzing usage data, API telemetry, and customer feedback, you will continuously iterate on the product to optimize performance, usability, and developer satisfaction.

To be competitive for the Product Manager role at Cohere Technology, you must demonstrate a strong blend of technical capability, product execution, and leadership experience. The team looks for candidates who can operate independently in highly ambiguous environments.

Technical & Professional Experience

• Product Management Experience – Typically 3 to 5+ years of product management experience, preferably building developer platforms, API-first products, SaaS, or AI/ML-driven applications.
• Technical Literacy – A strong understanding of software architecture, APIs, and modern cloud infrastructure. Experience working directly with machine learning models, natural language processing, or LLMs is highly valued.
• Analytical Skills – Proven ability to use data-analytics tools, run SQL queries, and design rigorous A/B experiments to guide product decisions.

Core Competencies & Soft Skills

• Must-have skills:
  • Exceptional structured communication and presentation skills.
  • Ability to write clear, comprehensive, and technical PRDs.
  • Strong prioritization frameworks to manage competing demands from multiple stakeholders.
• Nice-to-have skills:
  • A degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, or a related technical field.
  • Experience working in fast-growing, venture-backed startups.
  • Hands-on experience building personal projects using AI APIs or developer tools.

Q: How technical do I need to be for this role? A: You do not need to write production code, but you must be highly technical. You should feel comfortable reading API documentation, discussing system architecture with senior engineers, and understanding the fundamental concepts of machine learning and LLMs.

Q: What is the format of the case study? A: The case study is a timed exercise. You are typically given 1 hour of independent work to analyze a prompt, design a feature or experiment, and create a light presentation deck. You will then present this deck to a panel of interviewers for 30 minutes, followed by a Q&A session focused on your thought process.

Q: How does the team evaluate culture fit? A: Cohere Technology values collaboration, humility, and a strong execution mindset. During your interviews, especially the cross-functional panel, interviewers will look for signs of low ego, a passion for solving hard developer problems, and the ability to work effectively across diverse teams.

Q: What is the typical timeline for the interview process? A: The entire process, from the initial recruiter screen to the final decision, typically takes about 2 to 3 weeks, depending on candidate and interviewer availability. The team aims to move quickly and maintain transparent communication throughout.

Master the case study setup: Since you only have 1 hour to prepare your case study presentation, practice structuring your thoughts quickly. Create a template beforehand that covers the problem statement, user persona, proposed solution, experiment design, metrics, and risks. This will save you valuable time during the actual interview.

Understand the business model: Before your interviews, make sure you thoroughly understand how Cohere Technology packages and sells its products. Research their API pricing models, their core developer tools (such as Embed, Rerank, and Command), and how enterprise clients integrate these tools into their workflows.

Align on compensation early: Candidates have noted that compensation structures, including equity components like options or RSUs, can vary significantly depending on the specific role, level, and location. Use your initial recruiter screen to get clear alignment on the salary range and equity structure to ensure it meets your expectations.

Be prepared for ambiguity: The AI space is evolving rapidly. Show your interviewers that you are comfortable with shifting priorities, changing technical landscapes, and making product decisions with incomplete data. Highlight past experiences where you successfully navigated high levels of uncertainty.

The Product Manager position at Cohere Technology offers an extraordinary opportunity to shape the future of artificial intelligence and developer platforms. It is a role that demands a unique blend of deep technical curiosity, rigorous analytical thinking, and outstanding cross-functional leadership. By driving the strategy and execution of core AI products, you will have a direct hand in enabling the next generation of software applications.

To succeed in this interview process, focus your preparation on mastering the timed case study, refining your technical communication skills, and structuring your behavioral stories to highlight collaboration and execution. Approaching the loop with a structured, data-driven, and highly collaborative mindset will set you apart as a top candidate.

For additional real-world interview insights, salary data points, and preparation resources tailored to top tech companies, explore the comprehensive tools available on Dataford.

The compensation data above represents typical salary ranges and packages for product management professionals in this sector. When reviewing this data, keep in mind that total compensation often includes base salary, performance bonuses, and equity components. Use these insights to guide your discussions with recruiters and ensure your expectations are aligned with current market standards for high-growth AI and developer platform companies.