Hey all, we just closed $60M from a top VC to build out our product team but our hiring machine is a bit stuck. Anyone have experience or guidance on how to hire PMs and product engineers? Currently using Angelslist, linkedin, etc. but I feel like we could be more effective. On the flip side, if youâre interested in making a switch in to product (looking for creative, deeply analytical people- doesnât matter if youâve got product experience and donât need to have technical skills for PM role) hit me up
Find somebody good and have them bring friends
Looking on Blind isnât a bad idea. LinkedIn really does exist for this purpose though, so itâs less the medium you use and more who you choose to pursue. Look for people who might coming off of an extended break. Tons of younger talent out there that worked for FAANG or other big companies, then took a year or so off. Theyâll be fresh and ready to get back to it, and probably have a good perspective. Consider people from consultancies and agencies. Theyâre often used to more chaos and frenetic pace, and are accustomed to doing a lot of creative thinking. Possibly target higher-level UX designers, who often take on more product management type work.
Really appreciate that insight. Seems like a lot of companies are really zeroed in on people with product experience / background, when in fact there are a lot of backgrounds that have great skills minus the bad habits. Thanks!
Exactly. You get it! And thatâs awesome. If I was open to moving to NYC Iâd consider joining, I just like Seattle too much :-) Big companies usually do require more specialized people, but I find that specific industry and domain expertise doesnât matter nearly as much as assumed. Thatâs like...crap for algorithms and lazy recruiters to use. âProductâ is soooo broad. Where youâll struggle is making sense of someoneâs LinkedIn. Many of the best people arenât looking, and thus they donât put a lot of effort in keeping their LI updated. They may not be writing Medium posts or commenting on them. Other people who might be good fits also might be sifted out by filters and unconscious bias. I would advise also looking at people with some liberal arts grounding. People who studied philosophy, history, literature, classic languages, and who work in tech can bring a ton of deep and varied thinking to complex scenarios. Interesting people tend to have interesting interests. Itâs harder to discover, but people who are involved in their community and do things outside the office probably have a lot to offer, too.
How is TC?
Yeah, share the comp band
Howâs comp
Interested, DM.
DMd
Why do you need your director of PM to have a CS degree?
Poach people from MyFitnessPal. They are part of under armour and it doesn't seem to be working out well for them. The turned what used to be a half-decent app into a Nascar car with a bunch of ads slapped onto it
Appreciate that insight. For your previous question, weâve got a complicated data architecture and lot of opportunity to better use ML / AI, hence preference for CS degree
DMd