I will begin by defining the main terms so that there is no misunderstanding later. The text below is a personal account, not a universal guide or a collection of shortcuts.
In this article, a project manager is someone who understands web development, has hands-on development experience and remains close to technology and business trends. The role also requires an ability to communicate with different kinds of people and a working knowledge of interface prototyping, design and digital marketing in addition to software development.
The list may make such candidates seem impossible to find. They are rare, but they do exist, and the time and money invested in a careful search can repay themselves quickly. Every organisation will set its own requirements because projects, products and operating environments differ. This article explains my view of the role and my approach to finding, interviewing and selecting candidates.
See you soon
After reviewing applications, I set aside the most promising ones and ask HR to arrange a meeting, or invite the candidates myself. A live conversation remains one of the best ways to understand a person and evaluate professional capability.
Details that initially appear insignificant can provide useful context, although none should be treated as a verdict on its own. I may ask whether the office was easy to find and observe how the candidate communicates, behaves and presents themselves. The aim is to form a preliminary view of confidence, independence, leadership potential and general communication style, then test that view against evidence from the conversation.
Attention to detail
Most of the interview takes the form of the candidate telling their story: experience, achievements, skills, mistakes and lessons learned. As the employer’s representative, I ask questions that help assess the evidence and reach a decision. I normally reserve about an hour: roughly half for the candidate’s account and half for clarification.
The time limit is stated in advance so that the candidate can emphasise what matters instead of filling the conversation with generalities. The discussion shows whether a person can speak coherently, support an opinion with facts, explain an idea clearly and make a convincing case for their own candidacy.
I mark points in the CV that deserve closer attention and ask the candidate to clarify them:
- Experience and skills stated in the application. The purpose is not to catch someone out, but to understand how objectively they assess themselves.
- Confidence and the ability to defend a decision. I challenge the candidate’s position with facts and watch whether they can remain calm, revise an assumption when necessary and still defend a sound conclusion. Project-management systems, principles and methods provide useful discussion topics.
- Reasons for leaving previous organisations.
- Experience in adjacent disciplines such as digital marketing, analysis, interface and system design, software development and related fields.
The next stage: questions
I explain the responsibilities of the role, the importance of the project manager, the organisation’s working rules and the methods used to support performance. I then move to the questions intended for candidates who remain under consideration.
Development experience and understanding of the field
I do not rely on a single test assignment to judge a project manager. Instead, I use technical and situational questions to understand the candidate’s depth and reasoning:
- What advantages does object-oriented programming offer?
- What are the strengths and weaknesses of object-oriented and procedural approaches?
- What is AJAX and how does it work?
- How would you add a registration form with server-side field validation without reloading the page?
- What distinguishes good code from poor code?
- How should a system be prepared for high load?
- How does a web server process a request?
- What are the practical differences between Apache and Nginx?
- Which design-pattern families do you know?
- What is responsive web design?
- What is version control, which systems do you know, how have you used them and what value do they provide to a team?
- What would you do if the team was clearly going to miss the deadline?
- What would you do if the delivery date had to be brought forward?
Seven days as the project manager
I ask the candidate to describe, in plain language, how they would organise a project manager’s working week and what they would do in several situations. This reveals priorities, operating rhythm and the level of practical detail behind the answer.
Have you ever built a team?
The candidate ranks the qualities they would look for in team members and explains the order. The purpose is to understand how they build and lead a team and whether they can distinguish attractive theory from real management practice.
A project from A to Z
The candidate walks through a real project from the first idea and requirements gathering to release. The answer should show what they actually did, how decisions were made and where reality departed from the textbook. Much of the candidate’s practical maturity becomes visible during the first half-hour of this discussion.
How would you assess developer effectiveness?
May an employee read a professional resource such as Habr during working hours, and when does that create value for the company? Does the number of hours spent in the office measure a developer’s contribution? How should repeated lateness be handled? The answers show whether the candidate can evaluate outcomes fairly and influence team performance without substituting attendance for productivity.
Your actions during an incident
Every project-team member has their own principles, perspective and emotional state. The project manager must still find a workable approach. I offer two scenarios:
- One employee is in a poor mood, argues with colleagues and cannot focus. Another is doing well overall but passes difficult tasks to peers whenever something does not work.
- Two influential stakeholders disagree on how to resolve the same situation and ask the project manager to settle the conflict.
There is no single correct answer. The candidate should explain what they would do and, ideally, offer more than one option with the conditions under which each would be appropriate.
Reading outside the profession
A shift from a demanding professional topic to fiction may appear trivial, but it shows how easily the candidate changes register and whether their interests extend beyond work. I may ask about a favourite author or book and why it matters to them.
Interface review
I show two interface mock-ups and briefly describe the user requirements. The candidate reviews and comments on the solution. The interviewer must understand the subject well enough to distinguish a reasoned critique from confident improvisation.
The best question
Large technology companies have long used estimation questions with no exact answer. I ask a deliberately open question and request as many defensible approaches as possible—for example: “How many women in Ivanovo wear high heels?” The value is not in guessing a number, but in seeing how the candidate frames uncertainty, makes assumptions, decomposes the problem, checks the result and responds when those assumptions are challenged.
These questions are sufficient to form a considered view of a project-management candidate. Each organisation should add questions specific to its product, technology, risks and culture.
Summary
After many interviews, it is difficult to identify one universal technique. Employers combine structured evidence with experience, observation and judgement. Intuition can prompt a useful question, but the decision should be supported by concrete examples from the candidate’s work.
I hope this account helps you choose a strong project manager and organise an interview that reveals real capability rather than rehearsed answers.
