A Product Manager at Itw Performance Polymers plays a pivotal role in driving the growth, profitability, and strategic direction of our highly engineered industrial brands. Operating within the broader Illinois Tool Works (ITW) ecosystem, this division specializes in manufacturing advanced adhesives, sealants, coatings, and lubricants for industrial, OEM, and maintenance markets. As a product leader, you are responsible for managing the entire product lifecycle, from customer-back innovation and development to pricing, portfolio optimization, and market commercialization.

Your impact in this role is direct and highly visible. You will manage a diverse product portfolio, ensuring that our solutions meet the rigorous demands of industrial end-users while maximizing business profitability. By leveraging the famous ITW Business Model—specifically the 80/20 principle—you will identify high-value opportunities, simplify product lines, and eliminate complexity. This requires a unique blend of technical understanding, commercial acumen, and strategic vision to ensure our products remain market leaders in a highly competitive industrial landscape.

What makes this role exceptionally rewarding is the cross-functional influence you will wield. You are not managing in a vacuum; you will collaborate daily with Operations, R&D, Sales, and Leadership teams across key locations such as Glenview, IL, Itasca, IL, and our manufacturing plants. You will act as the central hub, aligning technical capabilities with commercial realities to deliver high-quality solutions that solve real-world customer problems.

To help you prepare, we have categorized common questions asked during the Itw Performance Polymers hiring process. These questions are drawn from real candidate experiences and are designed to assess your domain knowledge, behavioral alignment, and strategic thinking.

Experience & Role Alignment

These questions evaluate how well your previous experience prepares you for the unique challenges of industrial product management.

• Walk me through your product management background and explain how your specific experiences align with the requirements of this role.
• Can you share an example of an industrial or B2B product portfolio you managed, and how you drove its growth?

Preparing for an interview at Itw Performance Polymers requires a solid understanding of both B2B product management and the operational philosophies that drive ITW. You should be ready to demonstrate not only your technical and commercial expertise but also how you collaborate across a highly matrixed organization.

Role-Related Knowledge – You must demonstrate a deep understanding of B2B product lifecycles, industrial distribution channels, and value-based pricing. Be ready to discuss how you manage technical complexities, translate customer needs into product specifications, and work alongside chemistry and engineering teams.

Problem-Solving & 80/20 Execution – ITW is famous for its 80/20 business model, which focuses on the 20% of customers and products that generate 80% of revenues. You will be evaluated on your ability to simplify portfolios, analyze complex datasets to drive business decisions, and ruthlessly prioritize high-impact initiatives.

Cross-Functional Leadership – As a Product Manager, you must influence without authority. Interviewers will look for evidence of how you partner with Sales, Operations, and R&D to align objectives, manage product delivery timelines, and resolve competing priorities.

Cultural Alignment – ITW values a collaborative, professional, and pragmatic culture. You should demonstrate humility, strong active listening skills, and a practical approach to problem-solving. Showing that you value input from both operations floor managers and executive leadership is critical.

The interview process at Itw Performance Polymers is thorough, professional, and highly collaborative, typically taking about 5 weeks from the initial touchpoint to an offer. The company prides itself on transparency, and managers are highly detailed when explaining the role, the business environment, and the team culture.

The journey begins with a standard recruiter phone screening to align on basic qualifications, salary expectations, and location preferences. This is followed by an online interview with the Hiring Manager, which focuses heavily on your previous experience, product management methodologies, and how your background relates to the performance polymers business.

The final stage is a comprehensive on-site panel interview, often held at key offices like Glenview, IL. This panel typically consists of 5 people, including the Hiring Manager, cross-functional peers, and representatives from Operations and the Sales team. You will also have additional conversations with division leadership to ensure a strong cultural and strategic fit.

The timeline above outlines the typical progression of the hiring loop. Candidates should use this timeline to pace their preparation, focusing first on high-level behavioral alignment and progressing toward deep operational and strategic case discussions as they approach the panel stage. While the process is rigorous, the polite and structured nature of the interviews ensures you will have a clear understanding of the company's expectations before receiving an offer.

To succeed in the Itw Performance Polymers interview loop, you must perform exceptionally well across several core evaluation areas.

Portfolio Simplification (The 80/20 Principle)

At ITW, product managers are expected to be champions of simplicity. You must prove that you can analyze a broad product portfolio, identify low-margin or low-volume products, and streamline operations without sacrificing customer satisfaction.

Be ready to go over:

• Product Rationalization – How you identify underperforming SKUs and execute a sunsetting strategy.
• Resource Allocation – Techniques for focusing engineering, marketing, and sales efforts on high-margin products.
• Operational Complexity – Understanding how excess product variations impact manufacturing lines and inventory costs.

Example scenarios:

• "Walk me through a time when you successfully reduced the number of SKUs in a product line while maintaining or growing overall revenue."
• "How would you apply the 80/20 rule to a newly acquired chemical product line that has hundreds of low-volume variations?"

Commercial Strategy & Value-Based Pricing

Industrial products require a deep understanding of value-in-use. You must show that you can price products based on the tangible value they deliver to the customer (e.g., reduced labor costs, faster cure times, superior durability) rather than simple cost-plus pricing.

Be ready to go over:

• Value-In-Use Methodology – Calculating and communicating the economic value of premium polymer formulations to industrial buyers.
• Competitive Positioning – Positioning premium brands (like Devcon or Plexus) against low-cost commodity alternatives.
• Sales Enablement – Developing technical collateral and training that empowers the sales force to defend premium price points.
• Advanced concepts – Managing price increases in inflationary environments and negotiating raw material surcharges.

Example scenarios:

• "How do you justify a 15% price premium for an structural adhesive over a standard competitor product to a skeptical procurement manager?"
• "Describe your process for conducting competitive market analysis before launching a new coating product."

Cross-Functional Collaboration & Peer Alignment

At Itw Performance Polymers, decision-making is highly collaborative, and managers are strongly supported by their peers. You must demonstrate that you can build consensus across diverse departments, from the plant floor to the sales office.

Be ready to go over:

• Operations Alignment – Working with plant managers to align production schedules, capacity planning, and raw material sourcing with product forecasts.
• Sales Partnerships – Collaborating with regional sales managers to gather market feedback and drive product adoption.
• R&D Translation – Translating customer feedback into actionable technical requirements for chemical engineers and R&D scientists.

Example scenarios:

• "Describe a time when Operations could not meet the production demand for a major product launch. How did you handle the situation with the Sales team and the customer?"
• "How do you align a highly technical R&D team with the commercial realities of the market?"