How to find and hire your next product manager
Published
The bad news first: It's not easy to find a product manager who fits your team.
These majestic unicorns create unforgettable customer experiences. You drive products from idea to market, collaborating with teams from engineering, marketing, sales and key stakeholders.
With strengths and weaknesses in so many areas, a strong product manager is not only difficult to find, but also difficult to define. That's why many teams find it difficult to find the perfect cast.
In this guide, you'll learn everything you need to hire a product manager with less stress, including:
- 5 Essential Skills to Watch for (and Red Flags to Watch Out for)
- How to write a job ad that appeals to the ideal person
- What to ask at interviews
- How to attract the best candidates for your mission
Let's start our journey with a brainstorming session to steer your candidate search in the right direction.
First, define exactly what your company expects from a product manager
Those : blossom.co.jpp
One of the best hiring practices for remote companies is determining exactly what they want in a new employee before post a job advertisement.
In general, a product manager has a strong sense of product, a high level of respect and understanding of technology, and strong business acumen.
They are in the gray area between actual product development and marketing and sales, so candidates with a degree in computer science, psychology or business administration are equally qualified for this role.
According to a survey, 88% of product managers started their careers in another field, more than any other discipline[ * ].
So your first step is to answer this question:
Does your candidate need a computer science degree or an MBA?
An applicant's specific education and work experience can give you an indication of their strengths and weaknesses. You need to weigh these against your team's shortcomings to find the best fit for your team.
For example:
Look for a background in computer science and you will find product managers who work well with your technical team. You quickly grasp the technical details, understand how to write product specifications, and commit to realistic builds and deadlines. They also simplify complicated jargon for non-technical employees and customers.
Look for a business background and you'll find candidates who excel in market research, user needs, customer empathy, growth strategies and more. Their high-level forecasting and attention to the numbers ensure budgets are met and your product remains competitive.
So think about what Her Business needs help.
If you have a great marketing team, you probably don't need a new employee here. You can hire a product manager with technical experience to create a more diverse product team.
However, if 95% of your small startup's employees have computer science degrees, you might welcome someone with proven business experience and fresh marketing ideas.
Do you need shipping experience?
Those : fullscale.io
It's best to hire a product manager who has previous experience shipping a product. This person will have a thorough understanding of what it takes to take an idea from concept to market.
Since past performance can be one of the best indicators of future success in this situation, consider asking applicants to provide a link to their digital remote job portfolio.
This will give you a sense of what each applicant brings to the table while also weeding out applicants who lack this experience. Consider awarding bonus points to applicants who have been involved in delivering a product or service that you actually like.
Next, pay attention to these 5 must-have skills
Once you've determined the education and work experience you're looking for, try to focus on the skills and personality traits your new product manager should possess.
Consider these five essential skills:
1. Intelligence: Curiosity, creativity and complex problem solving
Ken Norton, a former product manager at Google and Yahoo, says you should hire the smartest person who applies [ * ].
For Ken, an intelligent but inexperienced PM is better than an average but experienced one because the role requires quick thinking and smart decisions. With so many moving parts, unexpected challenges often arise, requiring a constant stream of creative solutions and workarounds.
Additionally, product managers tend not to be satisfied with simple answers. They are rarely “satisfied” with the first idea and continue to search for it right to find a solution that is satisfactory to all parties involved and requires intelligence capabilities at the highest level.
2. Innate product instincts
Some candidates have an innate sense of what separates a good product from a bad product. This is not easy to teach and requires expert knowledge of user experiences, product design, market conditions and more.
3. Compelling, clear communication
Product managers must explain, inside and outside the company, how a product meets the needs of its users. You must champion the product and communicate ideas between different departments, stakeholders and customers. The right product manager can even help improve communication within your team.
4. Intuitive leadership and charisma
Product managers must inspire their employees to follow their leadership, but often lack direct authority. Like the VP of Engineering or the VP of Sales, many product managers are above them in the company hierarchy.
So the best product managers lead through charisma and have the natural ability to generate enthusiasm, loyalty and influence across all departments. People just instinctively want to help them succeed.
5. Empathy
Empathy and the ability to consider multiple viewpoints simultaneously. Product managers have their hands in almost every aspect of bringing a product to market. So you have to develop products that meet the goals and needs of everyone involved.
For example, understanding what your engineering team needs from your marketing team and vice versa helps everyone involved work together more productively.
Finally, determine what you Do not do it.
It can be difficult to spot red flags in applicants who seem perfect on paper. So be sure to note warning signs during the conversation, such as: E.g.:
Being too comfortable with “close enough” or “good enough.” While you want updates and deliveries to happen as quickly as possible, that shouldn't come at the expense of quality. Any product manager who delivers less than what your team is capable of is not worth hiring.
Lack of enthusiasm for the less fun aspects of the role You should be able to make these situations productive instead of moaning about them. You should be able to put these situations in a productive light instead of moaning about them.
unwillingness to try new procedures . Situations change quickly, and your product manager must find and apply new tactics, tools, or techniques to deal with them. How willing is one to abandon proven methods and use unknown methods?
Outlining these aspects of the role in advance will make it much easier for you to find and attract the best product manager for your team.
How to find and hire the perfect product manager
Those : devsquad.com
You shouldn't leave filling a product manager position solely to your hiring team or your preferred recruiter.
Instead, interview a handful of employees who will interact with your new product manager on a daily basis. Find out what skills and abilities they consider essential. Then let their opinion guide you:
1. Write a hard-selling product manager job ad
In our guide on How to Write a Sales-Stimulating Job Post, we've shared our top tips for writing job ads that attract top candidates, attract stacks of applications, and lead to fantastic hires.
We've explained why a job posting is NOT a job description, how to tell your company's story without boring readers, and why alienating language that contains gender and racial bias has no place in your company. inclusive hiring practices.
In addition to the tips you'll find in this guide, consider adding a product overview to your product manager job posting. Applicants should understand which phase of product development/lifecycle they will be working in and how success will be measured against critical milestones/timeframes.
2. Place your product manager job ad where top talent will actually see it
In our post-pandemic society, many in-demand professionals are choosing a job solely based on whether they can work remotely. And tons of top companies are now allowing their employees to work from home all the time.
If candidates see remote work as an incentive and your company has all the benefits of remote-friendliness, why not open your search to candidates from all over the world?
We Work Remotely is the largest remote work community in the world. With more than 3 million visitors, our job board is the premier place to find and list incredible remote jobs. Post your Product Manager job ad here and you will have the best remote candidates applying and interviewing.
3. Hold your first round of virtual meetings and calls
To weed out unqualified applicants or those who don't meet your requirements, consider using one of the best applicant tracking systems for remote companies. These will route applicants who meet all criteria to a separate folder for you to consider.
After you have selected a few applicants with impressive resumes, you should assign someone from HR to conduct the initial interviews.
Here you should assess the personality and suitability for the company culture and find out whether the applicant is serious about the position/industry. Address expectations, daily tasks, and your work from home policies.
You should also ask candidates to rate these product manager-specific interests in order of importance:
- Have a sense of goals/missions
- Have an impact on the industry
- have autonomy
- Connect with users and inspire them
- gain recognition
- Collaborate successfully with teams
- Financial results
- Learning/development in their career
You will use this ranking list later.
4. Ask the right questions in your team conversations
After the selection round, grab your top candidates and schedule another virtual interview with the employees they will work with on a regular basis. Share these tips for how to have successful long distance conversations to get everyone on the same page.
Above all, encourage your interview team to prepare and ask questions! They want to see how a candidate handles resistance and competing, sometimes even opposing, ideas. You should provide your team with impressive, intelligent answers.
If you need a little inspiration, use this 20 Questions to Ask Product Managers at Interviews :
- Why did you decide to switch from [previous field] to product management?
- What was the most important lesson you learned when moving from [former field] to product management?
- What is the biggest advantage of having a [blank] background? What is the biggest disadvantage?
- What aspects of product management do you enjoy the least? How do you deal with them?
- Are you more interested in working on our product/service, for our company or specifically in this industry?
- What makes a well-designed product?
- How can you improve a bestseller?
- What is one of the best/worst ideas you've ever had?
- How do you decide what not to build?
- How do you know what to cut when you're behind?
- How do you know that a product is on the right track?
- Is consensus always necessary?
- Describe the difference between management and leadership.
- How do you gain respect in engineering, marketing, sales, etc.?
- Describe your ideal employees as people who like/do X but not Y.
- Describe what a “difficult” colleague means to you.
- Tell us about a situation where your teams disagreed; what was the result?
- What's your secret to meeting deadlines?
- Do you lead departmental teams differently, and if so, how?
- How do you deal with mistakes you and your team make?
Only the best of the best should be invited to your final and decisive round of interviews.
5. Prepare the top 3 candidates for a presentation
While some companies do take-home jobs, you could lose a potentially promising candidate if they're not interested in doing "free" work for your company.
A better approach is to ask applicants to create a presentation for a group of eight to ten employees with whom they will work.
Make sure you outline the details of the presentation, e.g. E.g. how long it should be (around 15 to 20 slides, less than an hour, etc.).
On the topic: If your company offers a product/service, ask your applicant to:
- Identification of the company's strengths and weaknesses
- Talk about what they would improve
- Discuss your ideas for testing/measuring success
If you don't have a product on the market, ask your candidate to select a current, breakthrough product or service and describe it in their presentation:
- Why they think it's well designed
- How it impacts the market and the lives of its customers
- What problems await you in the next 2/5 years
- How they would solve these problems
This way, your team can see how each candidate in a group thinks and communicates. Do they present their ideas clearly and excite people? Have you correctly identified problem areas that your team is currently working on?
6. Don't miss out on your best candidate
If there is a candidate who stands out from the rest, you have to assume that another company will be vying for them. Don't let them escape!
Stay in constant contact with your candidates after interviews and presentation rounds so they're never in the dark about where they stand and what's in the pipeline. Let him know if he is your first choice or among the top three. Explain how the hiring process works and when they can expect new information and answers.
For some candidates, the job and benefits of working at your company are the deciding factor in staying with you. Others could be poached by your competitors if they receive a better offer.
Do you still remember the list of interests you presented to applicants when you first met them? This is where you will use them.
If your best candidate says they prioritize autonomy and professional development over things like recognition, take this opportunity to explain how they will do those same things when working on your team.
A company that promises to fulfill their desires may be enough to make them a coveted catch while waiting for your offer letter and an invitation to your virtual onboarding process.
Now you are absolutely ready to hire a product manager
We warned you that finding and hiring a product manager would be challenging. But if you follow our tips, the effort will be worth it when you find the perfect fit.
Product managers know every aspect of developing your product or service inside and out. Some even call her “the CEO of your product.” With so much at stake, now is not the time for shortcuts or rash actions.
Post your product manager job ad on Remote Scout and get 5x more attention and twice as many tweets - giving you access to the best remote talent and You'll speed up your hiring process and go-to-market at the same time.
