How a Product Manager Works With Ad Operations Across a Campaign's Life

In a product manager interview at Rakuten, the interviewer asks what your interactions with the ad operations team look like. Explain what ad operations is responsible for, the points where your work as a PM and theirs meet, and what each side needs from the other at those points. Ground the answer in an example of working with an operations team. ```hint Follow one campaign end to end Picture a single campaign from the day it is sold to the day its final delivery report goes to the advertiser. Mark every step where ad operations relies on something your product team built, or learns something your product team needs to hear. ``` ### Clarifying Questions - Do you want to hear about my past roles, or about how I would work with ad operations in this one? - Would I own a product that carries ads, such as a video player, an app or a marketplace page, or the internal ad platform that ad operations works in every day? - Is the inventory sold mostly through direct insertion orders, through programmatic deals and auctions, or both? - Are the ads served into video streams with scheduled ad breaks, or as display placements on pages and in apps? ### What a Strong Answer Covers - An accurate picture of what ad operations owns day to day, beyond "setting up campaigns". - Concrete touchpoints between product and ad operations across a campaign's life, with what each side gives and needs at each one. - How ad operations requests are taken in and weighed against the roadmap, and the working rhythm that keeps both teams informed of changes. - How tensions between advertiser commitments and the viewer or shopper experience get resolved. - A specific example told as situation, task, action and a measurable result. ### Follow-up Questions - Ad operations asks for a manual override so one large advertiser can exceed the frequency cap to finish its campaign. How do you respond? - An advertiser's third-party ad server reports far fewer impressions than your ad server. Who leads the investigation, and what do you check first? - Which metrics would show you that the tools your team ships are making ad operations faster and more accurate?