What if hiring a candidate would be a product itself?
We know hiring good employees is not an easy task and (ok, most of the) companies are trying to work on the hiring process by introducing more people and steps to the interview process or trying to use know-how from big & successful companies.
Throughout my job search, I found that less than 5% of hiring managers that I talked to have any idea of why exactly they need a PM and how will they measure his/her success a year from now.
This results in not being able to communicate and agree on expectations and therefore frustration on both sides and most likely missed opportunities.
I’ve seen cases where the PM was told to lead a team that manages integrations with a goal to maximize the number of on-time delivered integrations but apparently was expected to turn around the team and minimize the cost of integration per merchant.
And he found it right before the end of the probation period. Nice situation, isn’t it?
After some research, I thought: If hiring the right candidate is a product itself, why can’t we use existing product artifacts to improve the situation and create an aligned and thought-through process?
What if imagine a year after a person is hired and look backward at what happened?
Yes, I’m going for the “amazon press release” style for position brief in a year after s/he started and worked backward.
Hiring Working Backward Method
Start with a year after you fulfilled the position. What did s/he improve? What KPI affected? How did s/he help to shape your culture? What do peers and stakeholders think and talk about him/her?
What were his/her responsibilities and expectations?
The core thing here is to have a verifiable, testable and to some degree attributable success
This really helps to understand WHY you need a PM here
- Solve these customer pain points (at least a high level e.g. improve conversion)
- Achieve these KPI
- Deliver these features / products/ projects
- Most importantly: Change *this* customer behavior
What has this person achieved?
- What was/is the purpose of his product?
- What customer problem has s/he solved?
- How did he know that these problems were the most important ones?
- What business benefit has been achieved?
- Where did he have an impact? (note that EVERYWHERE is for fairytales)
- What has helped him/her to achieve this in the realities of your organization?
- Was it possible to achieve this without him? If yes, how?
- [Optional] What instruments / tools helped him?
Which skills have helped him/her to achieve this?
This helps recruiters and interviewers to understand what kind of profile you’re looking for
- General Cognitive abilities
- Experience in X
- Knowledge in Y
- Skills in e.g Design
- Personal traits (e.g Growth vs technical )
- Specialisation vs generalization
Note: Please try to avoid cliches like “Great communication skills” — it’s not so easy to confirm/verify if you a)actually need it and b) the candidate doesn't have it
Why did he join our company?
This is how recruiters will convince a candidate to join.
- Because we provided a better pay
- Because he could learn from our industry -> Look for people outside of this industry, but rather with generic
- Higher position -> Look for people who are 1 level below. E.g. if you’re looking for a Head of Product look for promising Principal/ Lead/ Senior Product Managers
- Learning -> What will he learn at your company that can’t learn from others?
- Because of the culture / organizational setup->What exactly do you’ve in your culture that s/he needs?
- More autonomy
- Better location
- Better work-life balance
- Being Remote friendly
- Because of corporate — personal values alignment. Not everyone likes e.g. Amazon or consulting cultures.
Note: if you’re looking for an experienced PM in this industry on the same level that he is now and in similar cultures the only argument that you have is money.
If you can’t offer higher pay, make sure that you offer something that is / will be significant for a long time for the candidate.
What stakeholders think and talk about him/her?
It will help to select the right personality type.
- What is the perception of the PM from stakeholders? Is s/he that can build alignment or he is the one that will break through problems aggressively?
- Is s/he a hustler type or genuinely likable person?
How organization helped him to achieve success?
The impact will be quite limited without organizational support. Providing a laptop, desk and corporate account is often time not enough
- Freedom in X,
- Budget for Y,
- Pre-approval of Z and etc
- Provided training
- Listened to his ideas
- Eased processes A & B
- Manager spent X hours per week
- Peers/ Stakeholders spend X hours per week/ month
What was the Candidate’s Experience that helped us to hire him/her?
If you really want to hire great candidates, ensure that your process doesn’t kick them out.
- 3 stages interview process include:
- Call with X. Checking for A,B , C
- Call with Y. Checking if a candidate is D and has experience in E, F
- [Most hated] Assignment/ call with Z. Checking if a candidate knows G, H , I
Checkpoints
- [ ] Budget was confirmed for 12 month of his salary (market avg + 20% )?
- [ ] Management did spend quality time onboarding, coaching, and guiding the employee
Hire the right people and give them the right tools, processes, freedoms, and reasons to stay and prosper.