How to pick a Product Manager you can Trust ?

recently conducted a workshop on “Product Management for Startups”. who is a Product Manager at & has previously worked with Jabong, and , shared his insights on how early stage startups should go about hiring a Product Manager. HelloMeets Lakshay Pandey team hike Zomato Paytm **This blog will be helpful for startup founders looking to hire a PM & for aspiring PMs. Before we go ahead with discussing the hiring process, lets understand who a Product Manager is. — Product managers are considered to be people with strong technical background, UX experts and also having excellent Statistical and Data Analysis skills. For a more detailed explanation you can read the following: By — Business Designer and Columnist >>So you want to manage a product? Rohini Vibha @IDEO @Inc Some companies even describe them as Mini CEOs in the job description!! On the basis of ground realities, the role of a PM comprises of the following: Understanding the user needs and complaints Understanding constraints and need to be able to build in the given constraints Logging, viewing and utilising data Keeping maniac focus on the priority and ignoring the noise Helping coordinate between functions of different departments like Operations Team, Marketing team, Tech team etc. Helping move the product forward by keeping a constant check on the feedback of users and working of different departments The important question that a Startup founder needs to answer is — When do I really need to hire a product manager? In the early stages of a startup, founders usually juggle the role of a Product Manager. Also — maximum startups have fewer funds because of which they do not want to hire a separate person to manage their product. So the need to hire the first product manager comes up when the team/product is large enough to need dedicated focus. As a founder, some questions to ask yourself before you hire a Product Manager are — Am I unable to keep track of the details now? Am I the bottle neck for the product being built? Am I caught up with one particular aspect of the business? After answering the above questions the Main considerations while hiring your first Product Manager are- 1. Technical/Domain expertise We usually quantify based on engineering background Need to judge what is the main pain point for your product While nice to have but technical knowledge for product management is not a boundation in most products 2. Internal or External For your first hire, there is always a choice between internal transfer or external hire Internal transfers guarantee the respect of the team and cohesion with the founders External hires bring in a new view point and experience 3. Tactical & Strategic or Delivery oriented Do you need a Product Manager to own the product or a product manager to just handle launch and release? For the second case, it is better hiring Engineering Managers or Project Managers Be aware of different skill sets and treat candidates accordingly Suggested Reads: Hiring Your First Product Manager -Steven Sinofsky When should you hire your first PM? -Ken Norton Finding your Product Manager As there are different kinds of Designers (UI/Creative/UX) or Engineers(Backend/mobile/frontend), there are different types of PMs. But they are not based on domain knowledge or product manifestation, rather they are classified by suitability of scale. Product Manager Types: — Ken Norton (Google Ventures Partner), defines them as — : accountable, thorough, and detailed. Great for places needing process and order Gold : push product teams to think bigger, to try crazy new ideas, and to be even more Orange : Invaluable for keeping their finger on the pulse of a team, flagging discord, and playing peacekeeper Blue : The engines that keep product teams grounded in reality, building and inventing clever systems Green — Sachin Rekhi (ex Linkedin Head of Product), defines types as : People best at taking an existing stable product and pushing out a cohesive wholesome roadmap Builders : Great for specific scenarios with a focus on a single north star metric and improving that metric Tuners : People best at fast paced building and evaluating. Great at validating ideas with experiments and finding a product market fit. Innovators Hiring A Product Manager If you are a startup, most likely things are a mess and a new person has to come in, take control, clean the mess and drive the company forward. So you have to think about how you will enable them to do that. Interviewing a Product Manager is about open-ended skills. This requires some preparation by the interviewer. Keep in mind the main tasks of a Product Manager, don’t look for coding background and marketing plans. **For perspective on how much preparation is enough, you can read the book — by (ex HR head of Google). ‘Work Rules’ Laszlo Bock BASIC DO’S ANS DONT’S OF FOR INTERVIEWING A PRODUCT MANAGER DOs • Introduce you and the Company • Respect Time • Build Context • Understand profile of Candidate • Understand how they handle conflicts in different teams • Discuss a use case — not generic questions, walk through on solving cases • Look for technical understanding, not an engineering degree • Look for jack of all trades DONTs • Get into domain specific questions • Start proving the candidate wrong, counter-productive for all • Make it an engineering interview • Make it a marketing interview • Make it a data science interview You can also read: — How to Hire a Product Manager by Ken Norton — How To Ace Your Product Management Interview by Sachin Rekhi Wait a minute !! Lakshay also gave some Tips for aspiring Product Managers — Since there is no formal education for a Product Manager, make your own Read everything that enhances your knowledge — there are varied thoughts on the internet on building products Try to judge, assimilate and experiment Learn to resolve conflicts amicably without resentment Document everything. It’s a pain but the pros outweigh the cons You are not the mini-CEO. It’s a farce to entice you The business people seem evil, but they just might not be Build a connection with your engineers — they will help you out more than you help them Some helpful books for Founders and aspiring PM’s: The Hard thing about Hard things, Ben Horrowitz Zero to One, Peter Thiel Every Jeff Bezos Letter to share holders Thinking Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman The Everything Store, Brad Stone Creativity Inc., Ed Catmull Managing Humans, Michael Lopp Some of our upcoming events at HelloMeets : Content Marketing Workshop — 11th June — Bengaluru Design Thinking in Product Development — 17th June — Bengaluru UX Design Bootcamp — 17th June — Delhi Blog credits: , Event Coordinator, Edited by: , Marketing, Naman Goel HelloMeets Ayushi Mohindra HelloMeets