7 steps to the CIRCLES Framework
The CIRCLES method is a problem-solving framework that helps product managers (PMs) make a thorough and thoughtful response to any product sense question.
What is the CIRCLES Method?
The CIRCLES method is a problem-solving framework that helps product managers (PMs) make a thorough and thoughtful response to any design question.
The seven linear steps of the process form the CIRCLES acronym: Comprehend the situation; identify the customer; report the customer’s needs; cut, through prioritization; list solutions; evaluate tradeoffs, and summarize your recommendation.
Clarifying the goal (e.g., increase revenue, market share, or engagement).
Understanding the constraints you have for the problem upfront (e.g., how much time do you have, how many engineer resources are available, etc.).
Understanding the context of the situation that gives you foundational knowledge (i.e., don’t guess or make assumptions–instead ask questions that help you understand, like “What is it?” and “Who is it for?”).
Why Is the CIRCLES Method Important to Product Management?
The CIRCLES method is helpful in product management because it:
Keeps the focus on users by distilling who PMs are building the product or feature for. Communicates why they are building it.
It helps PMs prioritize things like product features, execution, user feedback, and the product roadmap
Enables PMs to ask the right questions during the critical first step (comprehend the situation) to gather ample information before rushing to a solution
Encourages PMs to keep an open mind as they move through the sequential steps of the framework instead of jumping to conclusions or a solution
CIRCLE Method Steps
The CIRCLES method is a framework that product managers can use to respond thoughtfully to any design question. It’s a method developed by Lewis C. Lin. CIRCLES is an acronym in which each letter stands for the first word of the step and explains what you should do to answer the question posed to you:
Comprehend the situation
Identify the customer
Report the customer’s needs
Cut through prioritization
List solutions
Evaluate tradeoffs
Summarize your recommendations
According to Allen Yang, former PM at Google, interviewers use product design questions in PM interviews to “gauge your ability to think about a new or potential products critically — about who its target users are, about what needs those users have, and about how the product satisfies those needs.”
How to Use the CIRCLES Method
During PM interviews, companies want to see how well you can articulate a product vision, prioritize use cases, and overcome limited resources. The CIRCLES method gives you a framework that allows you to showcase all these traits by taking the design question into full context. Here’s how to think through an interview question using the CIRCLES method:
Comprehend the situation
When faced with a product design question, the CIRCLES Method creator advises seeking as much information as you can. This enables you to better grasp the situation so that you can respond more aptly.
Lin suggests asking what are called the “5 W’s and H” questions, which are:
What is it?
Who is it for?
Why do they need it?
When is it available?
Where is it available?
How does it work?
However, the most important ones to ask are the “what,” “who,” “why,” and “how” questions.
This step is basically about understanding the goal, context, and constraints. You may make an educated guess if an interviewer won’t answer some of your questions.
Identify the customer You should be ready to suggest a great product during an interview. To succeed at that, it is critical to know who the customers are.
Come up with different personas of customers you can provide a solution for. You will need to put yourself in the customer’s position to know what matters more to them.
Apart from identifying the customer, you must understand their personality and goals. What are their demographics and peculiar behaviors?
Report customers’ needs Having identified your customers, you now want to report their needs. These are also called user requirements or use cases.
The reporting is done from the user’s perspective. In many cases, it takes the form of user stories that put across what the user wants to be able to do in simple language.
User stories typically take the form, “As a <type of user>, I want <goal> so that <some benefit>.
Cut, through prioritization, Evaluate the needs of customers and identify the one that is most important to tackle. There may be more than one use case, but you should choose just one to take on first.
There may not be enough time to go over all use cases during an interview. You have to just select one based on what you consider the most important – user experience, ease of execution, revenue, or any other consideration.
List solutions For whatever user need you selected, come up with possible solutions. There is often more than one way to deal with a problem.
Lin uses an example of wanting to help customers deal with junk mails. Possible solutions include a global do-not-mail list, SMS opt-out, and an opt-out camera app.
Try to come up with at least three possible solutions.
Evaluate tradeoffs Whatever solutions you identify will usually have pros and cons. You want to point these out to the interviewer.
Having predefined criteria will help with your solution evaluations. These can include revenue, user satisfaction, and ease of execution.
Drawing attention to tradeoffs can help to portray you as an analytical, attentive, and objective person.
Summarize recommendation The final step is to provide a summary of your recommendation. This may be optional in some cases.
Tell your interviewer what product you’d recommend. Let them know why you think it is helpful to the customer and/or the organization. Also, point out why the solution is preferable to alternatives.
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