[palakchokshi]

I consider myself as a product engineer too and the traditional interview process is definitely broken for someone like me. I think @holman nailed the current interview process with this statement "I need to figure out hidden knowledge that the interviewer knows already". I'm glad to know there are others who share my frustrations.

Having said that, I think for my next interview I am going to go in telling them who I am. I will own the Product engineer title and let them know what a Product Engineer is and what we excel at. If that is something they are interested in then we can continue otherwise it will be a waste of time for everyone.

If I were to design an interview process for someone like me I would come up with a simple product. It can be something as simple as a List web app ala Trello. Then have them design the product for individual use, then layer on collaboration requirements and then layer on sharing requirements, if time permits. This will allow me to know how they think about the product. If they suggest collaboration when designing for individual use then that's awesome because it tells me they are already thinking about where the product can go.