The One AI Question Every TPM Interview Must Ask — and Answer
2025.25 - The time to assess a TPM's AI capabilities and impact is not tomorrow but today. This one question will reveal much for interviewers and its important interviewees prepare to answer this.
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There’s one question that will soon define the next generation of Technical Program Managers and one I now permanently ask in every interview regardless if I am interviewing a Product Manager or a Technical Program Manager: “How do you leverage AI tools to improve your own impact and the impact of the teams you support?”
This isn’t a trick question. It’s a lens; a way to gauge whether a TPM, or anyone, understands how their role is evolving in an AI-powered world, where productivity is stretching beyond the process, but an opportunity to amplify your impact on self and team.
Why This Question Matters
The TPM role has always been about enabling teams to do their best work to connect dots, unblock progress, and bring predictability to chaos. But the toolkit is changing.
The TPMs who will stand out in the next decade aren’t just fluent in Jira boards, sprint ceremonies, or status reports; they’re fluent in AI-assisted execution.
Whether it’s summarizing meeting notes, analyzing trends, automating repetitive reporting, or running workflow experiments, AI tools now allow TPMs to scale their impact far beyond what was previously possible. No more asking for more resources to build that one specific tool you wish you had.
Therefore, this single interview question helps separate those who are merely aware of AI from those who apply it to create real leverage whether for themselves and/or their teams.
Signals for Interviewers
When you ask this question as an interviewer, listen for a few key signals:
Exposure: What kinds of tools has the candidate actually used? Are they exploring built-in capabilities like Gemini in Google Docs, or venturing into advanced tools or maybe even building their own custom GPTs or agents using Claude or OpenAI?
Application: What problems are they solving with these tools at a personal level (e.g., prioritization, synthesis, communication) and at a team level (e.g., automating updates, improving visibility, synthesizing progress)?
Depth: Are they going beyond surface-level tasks like summarizing emails and documents? The best TPMs will use AI to synthesize, predict, and influence, not just summarize.
Context: If they haven’t used AI tools, why not? Is it because their organization hasn’t adopted them yet, or because they haven’t made the effort to explore? That distinction matters. One the candidate has control over, the other they unfortunately don’t.
This isn’t about judging capability, just yet. It’s about identifying mindset, curiosity, initiative, and adaptability. You’re assessing whether the candidate has the learning agility to thrive in an AI-augmented environment.
Guidance for Interviewees
If you’re preparing for interviews, start gathering specific examples of how you’ve used AI tools to create impact. The more concrete, the better.
For example:
Have you used AI to draft project plans, decision docs, or risk summaries?
Have you created dashboards or automations to track metrics and milestones?
Have you used AI to clarify complex trade-offs or speed up technical discussions?
⚠️ Point Of Clarification: If your company hasn’t rolled out AI tools yet just say so. Many are still catching up. But don’t stop there. If you can show how you’ve taken the initiative personally, thats top marks. Maybe you’ve experimented with ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini to learn how they think. Maybe you’ve built your own prompts or micro-agents to simplify your workflow. These are all still great examples of your learning mindset.
Your goal isn’t to prove high expertise but it’s to demonstrate curiosity. TPMs with a growth mindset stand out because they’re willing to learn, experiment, and adapt before they’re told to.
That’s what the best TPMs have always done: learn quickly, connect dots, and help others move faster.
💡Question to ask you future employer: Interviewees don’t have to hold back but can rather push on the future employer with questions like:
What kind of AI tools are available at your company?
Do you provide educational budget for someone who wants to learn and acquire AI skills?
Do you have a healthy experimentation and sharing group for AI users within the company?
You want to work for a company that is thinking about the future today. No point in working for dinosaurs.
The Real Signal of Future-Ready TPMs
AI fluency is quickly becoming the new digital literacy, a signal of both curiosity and future readiness.
⚠️ Counter Argument: Some might argue that this kind of questioning is still too early. I would argue, no. The pace at which AI research and development is happening, things like these will sneak up on you. Those who get ahead will be better prepared for an inevitable future in progress.
For interviewers, this question reveals whether a candidate is a passive observer or an active shaper of how work gets done.
For interviewees, answering it well shows that you’re not waiting for permission to explore, you’re already building the future of program management, one experiment at a time. It is also an opportunity to judge your future employer as well. Can they talk the talk by helping their workforce adapt to this new future?
But this question isn’t just about evaluating candidates. It’s a mirror for the role itself. As AI becomes woven into every layer of program management, the TPM interview must evolve too. We can’t assess future-ready TPMs with yesterday’s questions.
The best TPM interviews will now focus beyond what you did but start asking on how you amplify yourself and your impact. How do you adapt. How do you turn new tools into new forms of leverage.
In this new era, curiosity isn’t optional, it’s a core competency. And the TPMs who keep asking “How can AI help me multiply my impact?” are the ones who’ll keep shaping the future of this craft.
Until next time.
-Aadil
📣 TPM Basecamp 2025, the penultimate annual TPM gathering is around the corner and this year, they have a new global innovative format.
🗓️ November 14 - The Penultimate TPM Annual Gathering
Join us for a global, distributed event designed by TPMs, for TPMs — with in-person gatherings in India, the US, and Canada, plus a shared, real-time virtual experience.
This one-day event is designed to create deeper, real-time connections between TPMs. You’ll hear from exceptional local speakers, then stay for global cross-talk as each chapter shares a live session from their region.
🤑 There is a special discount for my readers. Use coupon code AADIL20 and get 20% off your ticket.
💬 At every summit and meetup, we’ve seen it: TPMs thrive when they collaborate, exchange ideas, and support each other’s growth. TPM Basecamp is built for exactly that.
🎤 Here’s a first look at some of the expected speakers:
🇺🇸 Bay Area: Jenny Truong, Director of TPM at Meta
🇨🇦 Vancouver: Reji Varghese, Senior TPM at Autodesk – The Technical Challenges Every TPM Must Master
🇺🇸 New York: Tal Lazar, award-winning cinematographer, producer, and educator – Lessons in Authority from the Film Set “You don’t need all the answers to lead. Authority begins when others see themselves in your vision.”
🇺🇸 Seattle: Toby Roberts, SVP of Engineering at Zillow Group - Fireside Chat on creating and launching the TPM role at Zillow Group.
🇮🇳 India: A full-day, in-person experience packed with learning, leadership, and community.
Working sessions with Li, Gaurav Sen, and Naveen Mansur
Panel featuring:
Deeptha Mohan – Senior Director, Head of Central PMO & Customer Ops
Padmasini Renga Bashyam – Building Tuzo
Ananya - Product Manager at Google
This is more than just a series of events, it’s a global movement to elevate the TPM craft, share knowledge, and build the next generation of tech leaders.