Recruiting Product Managers — Series A vs. Scaleup
Recruiting product talent is a highly nuanced role for any organization. Different skills and experiences are required for each stage of business or for each problem the business is trying to solve. Add to that every opportunity the business is trying to realize as well.
Our experience has taught us that recruiting product talent for a Series A funded tech startup is very different from recruiting for a scaleup — and here’s why:
1) Product Market Fit
Most Series A funded startups don’t have Product-Market Fit. For that reason, the experiences required in making a strategic product hire are often different from that of someone hiring for a scaleup.
Early-stage tech startups often require a profile of a candidate capable of working on the discovery phase of product development. This means digging deep to understand the market opportunity, including the monetization opportunity, the competitive landscape, and the personas the business is targeting.
To do this successfully requires a level of natural curiosity. Curiosity is often ranked as one of the top traits leaders interview for; this and a track record of working in ambiguous environments where you are trying to get to an MVP.
By contrast, a scaleup has a product in market and is often interested in iterative improvements to experience, optimization for conversion or growth, development of integration strategies, or hiring more people to improve capacity restraints from having had small teams originally. These are both essential yet different types of candidates.
2) Resource Constraints
Can anyone say “full-stack?” One of the most common differences when recruiting Product Managers for a startup versus a scaleup is that everyone is required to do more. Resource constraints typically exist across all functions, and product is no exception.
This typically means a Product Manager is operating as a full-stack Product Manager, taking on the role of both a Product Manager and a Product Owner. Another common way Founders sometimes describe this model is “end to end” product management; taking something from ideation into the market. This is a critical experience Founders need to qualify for when attempting to hire a Product Manager within a Series A environment.
Suppose it’s a Founder’s desire to hire product talent from organizations with a successful product brand. In that case, those organizations will have already moved away from a full-stack model to a scaled-up model, having separated the role of PM and PO.
Our experience has taught us that while some Product Managers at established brands are interested in building startups, many are not. They admit the time it takes, the endurance, the resource constraints, and the risk associated with these situations are not ones they are prepared to take on.
Understanding this nuanced difference is key to ensuring Founders focus their time and attention on attracting the right product talent to fit within their growth stage.
3) Growth & Learning Mindset
The third difference between recruiting Product Managers for startups vs. scaleups is recruiting for, what we like to call, a growth mindset. A growth mindset is a belief that your efforts and those of other people will lead to success in business. It does not matter if this path is an uphill battle or a downhill sprint — a growth mindset encourages you to overcome obstacles and view setbacks as opportunities.
This is an essential quality for early-stage Product Managers to have, given the understanding of failing fast and bouncing right back. In Carol Dwek’s book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, she points out that having a growth mindset is essential for success.
There are many blogs and content out there that teach leaders how to achieve this, but as the Product leader within a Series A organization, this trait should be ingrained in their product practice.
By comparison, in a scaleup product organization where products are established, successful, and the cornerstone of a company, there is little likelihood of a significant change. Without these massive iterations and substantial product changes, a growth mindset, while valuable, is not as critical for a candidate to be successful.
While the industry, years of experience, team management, etc., may look similar in Product Manager profiles, there are these three unique and critical differences to hone in on when looking to hire for a Series A organization.
Are you looking to grow your Product Management team? Book a call with our team to discuss your hiring needs.
