Product Development interview prep.

Behavioural questions to expect

1. Walk me through your CV.
2. Tell me about a product or line plan moment where you owned a measurable outcome.
3. Why apparel + footwear product development - vs CPG product, luxury, fashion merchandising, or DTC product?
4. Why this category - sportswear vs athleisure vs denim vs fashion apparel vs footwear?
5. Why the firm?
6. What is your read on our line plan and hero franchise health?
7. How would you describe our sourcing footprint and factory ecosystem?
8. Walk me through how you would cost-engineer a hero franchise to recover IMU without compromising fit, construction, or consumer perception.

Technical concepts to master

• Line plan + assortment architecture + carry-over discipline

  Line plan + line list · Good / better / best architecture · Carry-over vs newness discipline · SKU productivity + discipline · MOQ + factory capacity

• Design-to-factory translation + tech pack + sample lifecycle

  Design brief + season strategy · Tech pack + BOM · Proto -> SMS -> PP -> TOP sample lifecycle · Fit session + grading · Sample-to-shop yield

• Sourcing + factory ecosystem + materials

  Sourcing country mix · Tier-1 vs Tier-2 factory partnership · Vertical mill + material partnership · Material lead time + MOQ · Sustainability + traceability

• Costing + IMU + retail price architecture

  FOB cost build-up · Landed cost · IMU + retail multiplier · Good / better / best price ladder · Cost engineering vs craft preservation

Practical drills

• A hero hoodie retails for $120 at a 60% IMU - landed cost $48. FOB is $36 ($21 materials + $9 labour + $4 overhead + $2 factory margin). Freight + duty add $12 (25% of FOB) to get to landed. Raw-material inflation just pushed materials to $24 (+14%) and a tariff shift raised duty by $3. You must hold IMU at 60% without raising retail and without losing the signature fleece weight + brushed-inside hand-feel. Walk through the cost lever stack and the recommendation.
• You are the new product director for a brand whose line plan has drifted: SKU count has grown 35% over 4 seasons, carry-over % has dropped from 65% to 38%, newness is up to 62% but sell-through on newness is < 50%, IMU is compressing, factory MOQs are forcing tail inventory, and the good/better/best ladder has muddied. Walk through how you would reset across the next 4 seasons.
• Your brand is launching a new footwear category - 6 silhouettes at $90-$160 retail. Footwear MOQs are 5,000 units per SKU + colourway. You have two Tier-1 footwear partner options: Factory A (Vietnam, $42 FOB average, 110-day lead time, 60K units / month capacity, strong sample quality) vs Factory B (Indonesia, $38 FOB average, 130-day lead time, 90K units / month capacity, newer relationship, sample quality on probation). Total launch capacity needed: 180K units across 6 SKUs × 4 colourways = 24 SKU-colourway combos. Walk through the sourcing, line plan, and pricing logic.

Smart-question anchors

• Line plan posture - SKU count + good/better/best ladder + carry-over vs newness mix
• Hero franchises + signature silhouettes - which are protected, refreshing, or under-leveraged
• Sourcing footprint - country mix, Tier-1 vs Tier-2 partners, vertical-mill trajectory
• Sample lifecycle discipline - proto + SMS + PP + TOP cadence, sample-to-shop yield
• Costing + IMU + retail multiplier discipline - margin trajectory, cost-engineering posture

Sourced from

BoF + McKinsey State of Fashion annual report · Sourcing Journal + Just-Style + Apparel Resources · WGSN + Edited.com apparel + footwear product + assortment intelligence · NPD Group + Circana apparel + footwear retail tracking · Apparel product-management curriculum + industry interview prep (FIT, Parsons, LIM, Polimoda + practitioner guides)