Product management is undeniably one of the pivotal roles in any business setup, holding the potential to either catapult your product’s success or lead it down the path of failure. Product managers are crucial to the success of your product and, eventually, your business in multiple ways. They set the course for your product’s vision, stand in as the voice for user needs, and, most importantly, deliver the results you desire.
The skill set needed for a product manager can oscillate broadly, hinging on factors such as the industry, the team’s structure, your company’s specifics, and where your product currently stands in its lifecycle. It’s no wonder, then, that hiring for this role isn’t as easy as one would think.
But fear not! To help you select the best candidate for the position, we’ve compiled some tried-and-tested practices. Follow these top six strategies to ensure you hire the right product manager for your business.
1. Their Qualifications Matter
In today’s business landscape, hiring a competent product manager has become more crucial than ever. A product manager’s qualifications can significantly influence their ability to steer your product in the right direction, navigate through challenges, and deliver results that align with your business goals.
A solid educational background in business, marketing, computer science, or related fields is often required for this position. Increasingly, businesses now recognize the value of advanced degrees like an MBA or more specialized qualifications such as a Master’s in Product Management. These degrees provide a deeper understanding of strategic decision-making, market analysis, product development, and customer experience – all vital skills for a product manager.
In light of the shift towards digital learning and remote work environments, candidates who’ve pursued advanced qualifications, such as an online masters in product management can bring additional skills to the table. These candidates not only bring valuable insights and a broadened skill set but also demonstrate comfort with online collaboration tools and virtual environments, an increasingly vital aspect of modern product management.
2. Understand the needs of the role.
Despite the qualifications, successful recruitment lies in understanding the specific needs of the role within your business context. One of the prevalent pitfalls you might encounter is a failure to comprehend the type of product manager your business needs.
Depending on your unique business situation, you might need a product manager with stronger technical acumen or superior design skills. Maybe you require someone with a solid entrepreneurial background or a knack for driving growth via marketing or business development initiatives. Possibly, you’re looking for a blend of these.
Before you move on to the interviewing process, make sure you have a crystal clear understanding of what the product manager’s responsibilities will be and the skills they’ll need to excel at the job. This upfront clarity not only streamlines the hiring process but also ensures you have the right person leading your product’s journey to success.
3. Choose the right interviewers.
Selecting the right interviewers is your key to success. You want to assemble a panel that can thoroughly evaluate the skills your future product manager needs. Think about the teams your product manager will collaborate with most frequently. While the usual suspects are engineering and design teams, don’t overlook other crucial collaborators like legal, marketing, business development, or analytics. Having individuals who will be working closely with the product manager on your interview panel is a strategic move toward hiring an efficient product manager.
4. Make your questions accessible.
The secret to a successful interview is crafting accessible questions. It means using relatable scenarios that most people are familiar with. For instance, buying a product online or using a smartphone can be used as context to assess product knowledge. Alternatively, you can ask candidates about the products they use daily, discussing those to gauge their understanding.
Why is this important? This approach helps mitigate unconscious bias, which can unknowingly penalize candidates without certain specific experiences. You wouldn’t want to ask about redesigning baby bottles unless you’re sure the candidate has experience with young children. Similarly, using an iPhone as a hypothetical product wouldn’t be appropriate for assessing candidates who are Android users.
The crux here is not to let such inadvertent questions act as stumbling blocks, eliminating someone who could be an ideal fit as a product manager for your business. The goal of the interview is to evaluate the candidate’s fit for the role and not their familiarity with random contexts. Your questions should be as inclusive as possible to ensure you’re not missing out on a potential perfect fit.
5. Start broad, then dig deep.
Your interviewing strategy should adopt a two-step approach: start broad, then dig deeper. You can begin the interview with wide-ranging, open-ended questions. In such scenarios where there’s no clear right or wrong answer, you can observe how a candidate thinks spontaneously, their structuring of thoughts, and their capacity for creativity and in-depth thinking.
Based on the candidate’s responses, you can decide which direction you want to steer the conversation in for a more detailed analysis of specific skills. For example, if you’ve asked the candidate to describe designing a product for the general population, their answer could lead you to explore how they’d tailor the product for a specific user demographic relevant to your business. This technique ensures a balanced evaluation of their general aptitude and specific skills relevant to your business.
6. Don’t underestimate cultural fit.
You may have come across situations where despite hiring a highly qualified product manager, things don’t pan out as expected. Often, the missing link is the alignment with the product vision.
The most successful employees bring the right skills to the table, coupled with a passion for your product, users, and the company at large. Therefore, prioritize finding product managers who show deep interest and care for your business.
Assessing passion during an interview can be a tough nut to crack. One approach you could adopt is to ensure unanimous agreement across your panel of interviewers. If, at the end of the interview, all interviewers are not on the same page with a solid “yes” for the candidate, it’s worth reconsidering. Remember, it’s always better to take time to find the right fit than rushing and risking a hire that doesn’t align with your vision.
Conclusion
While your product is probably the foundation of your business, an efficient product manager ensures the foundation does not crumble. This article has outlined some critical factors to consider when hiring a product manager, from sufficient qualifications to the right skill set and a passion for your product and the company’s success. Ultimately, as the innovator of your product or owner of your company, you know best who is the right fit and who isn’t. Good Luck!
Also Read: A Case for Hiring Remote and Putting Together a Global Remote Workforce
