Went through Lilly's PM loop in late 2025 for a director-level digital product role. Coming from B2C SaaS into pharma was a bit of a translation exercise. Sharing what I learned.
Lilly's PM interviews are not the classic PM meta-framework grind. They're not asking you to estimate the number of piano tuners in Chicago or design an app for the elderly. The questions are more grounded and domain-aware.
What I actually got asked:
Product sense: Describe a product you've worked on where you had to balance speed to market against regulatory or compliance constraints. How did you make the call?
Strategy: How would you prioritize a roadmap when one stakeholder is a commercial team with quarterly revenue targets and another is a clinical research team with multi-year timelines? Neither is wrong, both are real.
Metrics: How would you define success for a patient-facing digital health product? What does a good day-7 retention metric mean vs. a bad one in that context?
Behavioral: Tell me about a time you had to kill a feature you believed in because the data didn't support it.
The behavioral questions follow Lilly's values rubric (integrity, excellence, respect, inclusion, innovation) same as for engineering roles.
What I'd prep: read up on Lilly's digital health strategy and their recent launches. They've been building out Connected Care and have acquired a few digital therapeutics assets. If you can reference their actual strategy rather than generic 'healthcare is important' platitudes, you stand out fast. Know what a digital companion diagnostic is.
Comp for director-level PM in Indy 2026: base $165-180k, bonus 20%, RSUs with 3-year vest. Good not FAANG.