It’s happening!

It’s time to expand your team.

You finally managed to convince your management and secure the budget to bring on a new product manager. Yay!

This is a great opportunity for your team, but it also poses risks. Finding a good product manager is no easy feat.

But as always, I’m here to help you navigate this process effectively.

Overview of the Hiring Process

Like any good hiring process, if you want to achieve great results, you must design the process for success.

In every hiring process I’ve been part of (except for my early startup days), I designed the process together with HR. I’m guessing your company is not much different. So, for the sake of this post (and likely in reality), you’ll be the hiring manager, and the HR representative will be your partner in the process.

Here’s the process I recommend. If any stage is unclear, don’t worry – I’ll break down each one below:

1. Candidate profile & job post (owner: you)
2. Screening of CVs (owner: HR)
3. A short phone interview (owner: you)
4. On-site/Zoom product interview (owner: you)
5. Home assignment (owner: you)
6. Spec review meeting (owner: you)
7. HR interview (owner: HR)
8. Executive/VP short interview (owner: HR)
9. References (owner: you/HR/both)

It can be a lengthy process. Let’s go through the steps one by one.

Candidate Profile and Job Posting

Start by listing the ‘must-have’ qualities – both personal traits and professional skills.

To me, a good product manager is someone who must possess the following qualities:

1. Great communication skills – since 90% of the job involves communication (see my post about it here), you need someone who can express themselves clearly, both verbally and in writing.
2. A ‘value-hunter’ – the best PMs relentlessly seek to deliver real impact for both users and the company. They understand that asking “why” is essential to uncovering pain points and finding true value – even if only subconsciously.

Of course, you can add a ton of other qualities. The list is really endless, but in my opinion, those are the two essential ones.

I also add one non-negotiable requirement: fluency in English. This is something you can’t teach on the job.

At the end of the day, you’ll build a profile of the ideal candidate, and that’s the first step in designing the hiring process.

This is also when you should consider whether you want someone more junior or more senior, and how much experience you’re after.

[I won’t delve into the considerations of each here, though it’s an important discussion to have. First with yourself, and then with HR. I’ll try to devote a post to this in the future.]

Lastly, consider what this person’s day-to-day will look like, and what you expect them to deliver after the first month, 90 days, and beyond.

If you plan to post the role publicly (e.g., LinkedIn), you should work on the job posting. This should include:

• Who you are (briefly)
• What you’re looking for (in one sentence)
• Qualifications
• What this person will do
• Why they should work with you (your “marketing brief” about the company, culture, etc.)

The job post is for you first, before it’s for the candidate. Writing it forces you to clarify your vision for the role and the person who should fill it.

Once you’ve done this, you’ll gain one more important thing – clarity about what your expectations should be, and what the candidate’s reality will look like when they start working with you.

Yes, many candidates won’t read the job post carefully and will submit their resumes even if they’re not a good fit. Nevertheless, it serves as an initial filter for some decent fellows who realize the role isn’t for them.

Note about headhunters:

If you’re working solely with a headhunter and not posting the job, you might wonder if this step is needed. Good question. Even if the job post never gets published, I recommend writing it anyway. It helps you distill your thoughts and makes it much easier to communicate with the headhunter.

Screening of CVs

Product management jobs are in high demand, so expect to be flooded with CVs (especially if you posted on LinkedIn). Most will not be a good fit. Some will be ridiculously disconnected from reality.

That’s why you should provide HR with some very basic – but effective – criteria on what to look for. Examples:

• If the person hasn’t worked at least two years as a product manager, reject them.
• If the CV isn’t written well, reject it – communication is a key skill for product managers, as I’ve already noted.

And so on.

At the end of the day, your aim is to get 5–10 CVs at most to pass this stage each week. The first week is going to be intense (again, if you posted on LinkedIn or used general hiring agencies), but it’ll slow down afterwards.

If this screening process isn’t conducted properly, too many candidates may pass this stage, and you may end up spending way too many hours interviewing. You don’t want that. If you see too many CVs getting through, mentor HR on how to raise the bar intelligently.

The Short Phone Interview

This is your first opportunity to engage with the candidate. I recommend a 15–20 minute phone conversation for this. You can learn plenty about a person in that time frame.

A general recommended outline:

1. Introduce yourself (less than one minute).
2. Ask the candidate to introduce themselves. Ask them to do it in less than two minutes (again, checking communication skills and ability to focus on what matters). You won’t believe how many fail at this.
3. Ask if they’ve visited your company’s website and have a general idea of what you do. If the candidate hasn’t visited the website, you can disqualify them – they’re not serious enough. If they can’t describe what you do at a high level, you can also disqualify them (unless your website does a poor job explaining it, or your product is unusually hard to grasp).
4. Explain what you actually do (1–2 minutes).
5. Ask 1–2 questions about relevant past experience. Goal: see if the person actually did product management work (many did “product operations” or some other BS, but not product management). You won’t be able to tell if they’re lying at this stage, but you can challenge them later (in the full interview) about that. (3–5 minutes)
6. Ask them why they’re leaving their current workplace and what they’re looking for. This is another opportunity to set expectations and check for initial fit. (1 minute)
7. Ask for their salary expectations and share any specific requirements your company has (for example – three days in the office). Another chance to check for initial fit. (1 minute)
8. Ask if they have any questions. (1–3 minutes)

Thank them for their time and let them know you’ll follow up.

So, you’ve heard the person speak, gotten an impression of how they communicate, and asked some filtering questions. If they pass these small tests, it’s worth meeting them in person.

In the second post in this series we’ll dive into the more juicy details of the face-to-face interview, the home assignment and the rest of the process.

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