Just a boring normal phone screen from HR. Smartsheet was recently acquired by a private equity firm. They tried to spin it positively, but it was easy to tell that it is not a good sign. Their product is a clear Airtable rip-off. Boring enterprise work management PM role. They offer 401k matching, but you have to stay for 3+ years for it to fully vest — not very attractive at all. Middling salary. No equity. Pithy of a bonus. One of their homework assignments was very clearly asking to try their software and then write a PRD for a new feature improvement. Why should I do free work on their behalf? It sounds like they wanted to capture me as a sales-marketing lead even more than as an employee.

First contacted by recruiter for a screening. Recruiter was professional, friendly, helpful. That session was followed by a on-on-one virtual interview with a member of the team that the role would be supporting. Pretty standard product questions with a focus on scenarios (you are charged with taking the product global, what do you do?) and company-specific questions like describing one of your favorite features of the product.