PITA 052

Written By randy silver
The beautiful product nerds at PITA 052

Topic 1: Tips for interviewing/ recruiting PMs? 

  • Look for PMs that have done things on the side - they understand how business actually works. Getting clients through the door, money flow, etc. (Though that has issues for people who don’t have the time for that.)

  • Use scenarios in the interview. Pick something that they’d have to do in the job that’s a bit tough; turn up the volume on it, and ask them to walk you through their approach. IMPORTANT: send it to them in advance. You’re not just testing their ability to bullshit/vamp. Also ask them to give concrete examples of what they’ve done in this space.

  • Really define the needs of the role in advance - know what you’re looking for. Do this with the hiring team and the people they’ll be working with.

  • Two questions I like to ask:

    • How do you make your team(s) better?

    • And how do you get better at your job/practice? (regardless of what the answer is, just to show that this is something they actively consider)

  • Look at using AI for some scripts - to get ideas for questions. Use it to analyse your ad. To review CVs, potentially. To identify gaps.

    • On AI: Raises a good point about any of the questions/case studies you share ahead of time, people could get a good answer from GPT, but you could ask your GPT to come up with in-person follow up questions that would allow to you uncover if it’s their actual answer or from an LLM.

  • See Hiring Product Managers - Kate Leto

  • Be very clear about what you want - PROJECT or PRODUCT manager, and what the organisation expects, and why the org needs a(another) PM.

  • And be clear (and consistently clear throughout) where the org is at with candidates.

Topic 2: Product slicing / teams definition, tips tricks, what to avoid 

  • There’s no RIGHT way to set the team topology for every org. Define the issues that the org has, and create a model that addresses the ones that are holding you back. Know that you’ll reorg again some day.

  • Know that the teams will need to coordinate so that there are common elements/components/experiences across a user’s experience.

  • Avoid a model where you have multiple teams going to the same users, asking about different  problems. You could end up looking disjointed or unfocused - or contradict yourselves.

  • Read Team Topologies.

  • Avoid a model that’s overly specialised - I was in an org where there were 10 PMs, but none of us had a real understanding of the product from end-to-end. I had to interview all my peers to understand how it worked.

  • I often come back to this article from Roman Pichler Feature Teams vs Component Teams 

  • Do some customer journey mapping


Topic 3: Product consulting dealbreakers / red flags

  • As a consultant, you only see part of the picture. What’s stopping them from following through on your work may be external factors.

  • Examine: Is now the right time to be doing this for the org?

  • Sometimes this sort of stuff is done as a punt, to see if they’re “ready”. Or to be contradictory for the sake of self validation.

  • When consulting, your sample size is small. When something doesn’t work, you may need to iterate… but you also need to understand when something is an outlier.

Topic 4: getting hired in this job market / transitioning from product consulting back to pure product management 

  • Work your network. Explain why you’re looking for non-consulting role.

  • Focus on the 2 or 3 things that you’re really good at and make you special, that will make you stand out.

  • Cast a wide net - be open to things.

  • Review your CV and really be critical of it: justify every word and the value it brings.

  • Make sure that you’re focused on the role, when you land an interview. You’re not selling YOU, you’re selling YOU in that role.

  • Practise your story, especially when it’s a bit tangled.

randy silver
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PITA 051