Steps For a Successful Product Manager Hiring Process

Introduction

Hiring a Product Manager is a big decision for any company. It requires careful consideration, particularly as it relates to bringing on another person to help lead your product strategy. Many companies struggle through this process and make costly mistakes when doing so. In fact, about 75 percent of new hires fail in their first 18 months with an organization, according to the Harvard Business Review.

Writing a Great Product Manager Job Description

The product manager job description is the first thing potential candidates will see when they read your job posting, so it's important to get it right. A great product manager job description will attract the best candidates and help you find a great fit for your company.

Here are some tips for writing a winning product manager job description:

• Keep it simple, but don't be boring—A good rule of thumb is to keep things short and maintain an engaging tone throughout the document. You can accomplish this by including plenty of white space on each page and using bullet points in lieu of paragraphs whenever possible. If you want to add more detail about what you want from your candidate or what their day-to-day responsibilities would be, use an appendix at the end of your document instead of adding extra text into the body of your bullet points. This way candidates can just read over those sections if they're interested but won't have any trouble finding them in case they need more information!
• Use examples from actual products—One way we do this at SimpleTech is by listing some famous apps that were created by our team members (like Spotify) along with some features they helped create (like playlist management). It really helps show off why working here would be such an exciting opportunity!

Finding Candidates

• Use job boards. Job boards like LinkedIn and Indeed are great places to find talent, especially if you're looking for a specific candidate with a certain skill set.
• Use referrals. You might have an internal employee who knows of someone who’s looking for work in your field; see if they’d be willing to refer that person for an interview with your company.
• Use social media networks such as Facebook and Twitter (or even Instagram). If you're hiring locally, it's likely that many candidates are already familiar with your brand—and may already follow it on social media sites like these!
• Check out job sites dedicated solely to finding top-tier talent through online advertisements and postings (for example: [Link]). This can be an effective way of getting the word out about openings at any time without having to wait around until one opens up naturally."

Reviewing Candidate Resumes

• Review candidate resumes for relevant experience.
• Look for relevant skills.
• Check education criteria to see if they have a degree from an accredited university or college and what their major was in school.
• See if they have any relevant industry experience that can help you with your product or business plan, such as working with similar products and companies.

Create Precise and Concise Questions for Your Interviews

It’s important to have a clear understanding of the purpose of your interview. You should already know who you want to hire and why, but it’s crucial that you also know what questions will help you find out if they’re the best person for the job.

To do this, ask yourself the following:

• What are my goals for this hiring process? (Clarify with your manager if necessary)
• What is it that I need to find out from each candidate?
• What questions can I ask them so that I can get an accurate idea of their skills and fit with my team?

It is important to avoid asking about things like “How will you handle X situation?” or “What motivates/inspires/drives YOU in YOUR career?” These types of questions are poor indicators of how someone will perform on any given day in the office. Instead, focus more on asking specific things such as: Can you provide examples from previous projects where X happened and how did YOU react/respond/manage it (i.e., role-play)? Also, try coming up with scenarios yourself and asking candidates what they would do in those situations (this is a great way to find out if someone has thought through issues before).

Conducting a Phone Interview

A phone interview is a good way to screen candidates before an onsite interview. It's also a good way to assess candidates' communication skills and soft skills, which are often hard to tell through a resume or application.

In the phone interview, you'll want to ask questions that test whether the candidate:

• Can speak in-depth about their prior projects and accomplishments (for example, "Tell me about your most recent project at [company]" or "What was your favorite project at [company]?")
• Has a positive attitude ("If you were stuck on an island with only one person from each of three companies, what would they be?")

Conducting On-Site Interviews for the Best Candidates

On-site interviews are the best way to assess a candidate's skills. While you may be tempted to have a phone interview or use video conferencing software, conducting on-site interviews will help ensure that you get a complete picture of each candidate and can better determine if they're qualified for the job.

It's important to conduct interviews in quiet areas where there won't be distractions. For example, conducting an interview in an open office area would make it difficult for both parties involved because of their surroundings. Additionally, if possible, try to conduct these interviews during normal business hours so that your candidates are not rushed or put under undue stress when talking with you—this only hurts their chances of getting hired!

When asking questions during an on-site interview make sure they're open-ended instead of closed-ended ones (i.e., ask how rather than tell what). Open-ended questions will allow candidates' brains room to think creatively while still gathering useful information from them at the same time and allowing them space for self-expression which allows us as employers to see how someone thinks and communicates so we can hire someone who fits into our culture well

Making an Offer and Hiring the Candidate

Making an offer and hiring the candidate

If you have done all of this, congratulations! You now have a good candidate. But before you make an offer, there is one more thing to consider: cultural fit. Does your candidate fit into your company culture? If so, great! If not, it may be time for some soul-searching and rethinking on your end.

It's okay if not every person fits perfectly into all aspects of your company—in fact, it's probably better that way—but there should be at least some overlap between the candidate's values and those held by others in their department or team. If they don't see eye-to-eye with anyone else on staff (or even just one person), then chances are they'll clash with others too. This can cause tension among employees during work hours as well as socializing outside of work hours; furthermore, when these clashes happen repeatedly over time without resolution or discussion between parties involved in conflict resolution efforts like mediation sessions with HR professionals who specialize in such matters (if available).

Conclusion

So there you go—that’s our process for hiring the best product managers. We hope you’ve found it informative and useful, and that it helps you to find your own very best candidates. The key takeaway here is that the hiring process needs to be tailored to your company; no two companies are going to do things exactly the same way. What matters is that we’re all looking for the same thing: someone who can help us make products we love, and deliver them in a way that makes customers happy!