Are you bothering to hire a good product manager?

It's been a while since I started recruiting a start-up, and of course it's certainly quite different from starting a big company. At Yahoo! Search, it feels as if we're always hiring. Every week, I have to do 5-8 interviews. It's like an endless resume, interview, and hiring agreement. But now I'm no longer hiring manager. At work, we also recruit only a few product managers. Although the company is always hiring, I'm often a member of the interview team. In large companies, the first thing you can notice is that the division of labor between the teams is meticulous. But in startups, everyone wants to do more or less, so what you need is to be a master. More importantly, the future is unpredictable, so you have to hire adaptable people. Maybe you think you're looking for someone to do a particular job, but maybe not a few months later. And this is not the same way as a big company hires, because usually when you're hiring, you know in your head who you're looking for, and you're less likely to change. Most people who Yahoo! can recruit may not be suitable for startups. And I remember that some of the conversations we had previously recruited were almost the same - "Well, I'm not sure they are perfect candidates, but they all seem fit for the job, so get it. This may be useful in large companies, but in startups, this is the idea of ​​finding a death.

My career started as an engineer and quickly moved into the high-rise engineering management queue. During this period, I probably hired hundreds of engineers. I learned a great deal of hiring-related knowledge, mostly from mistakes. When I turned to being a product manager, I could employ some hiring experience to hire technicians, but I learned a whole new lesson. Last week, a friend told me that he needed to hire a product manager and would like to hear my advice. I realized that there was not a lot of good information about interviewing product managers telling him (in general, there was not a wealth of good advice on product management). More crucially, the product manager you should look for, no matter what your environment - is not a startup or a big company. So I want to put together some of the lessons I learned together.

Product management is a job that a team can function properly even if it is missing (at least for some time). Without an engineer, nothing can be done. No sales staff, nothing to sell. Without a designer, your product will look like junk. But in a world without product managers, everyone can simply fill the gap and continue with their lives. Remember that - as a product manager, you are not a necessity. Now, in the long run, a good product manager can really make or break, but you have to prove it. Product management also incorporates many other elements of the job - engineering, design, marketing, sales, business development. The discipline of product management is full of weird, abandoned people who are totally unsuitable for the rest of the world. Take me, I like the technical aspects of the challenge, in addition to writing code. I like to solve the problem, but hate being criticized by others. I want to participate in tactical decision-making, I want to have a product. The market is very innovative for me, but I know I do not want to go too far from technology. Engineers respect me, but also know my heart is elsewhere, they all think I am too "market-oriented" people. People like me are naturally attracted to product management.

1. Only hiring smart people

What should I do when looking for a PM? More importantly, be smart. I would rather have a ghost soul of the inexperienced PM, but his intelligence to more than intellectual average and have many years of experience. Product management fundamentally determines your way out, takes one step ahead of your competitors, and can print you yourself in the hearts of your colleagues and clients. I often ask candidates to analyze a range of questions to measure their intelligence and their ability to solve problems. As a general rule, I asked questions always asking if I think the candidate is smarter than me. For some reason most of the people I know hate doing. They think it is an insult to the candidate. I think the right candidate will relish the challenge. In fact, this is the first test - when they react, I say, "I want to ask a few theoretical questions, that's not working?" The best of a group often jumps out of their chairs with excited expressions . Super-smart people sometimes question themselves with these questions.

2. Strong technical background

Some managers I know insist that only hiring a computer science degree as product manager. I am not snobbish, but I also tend to like people with a technical background, which may be related to my literary background. A solid technical background gives the product manager two key skills - the ability to associate with the engineer and the ability to manage the technical details driving product development. Of course, this is also related to the product - a product manager who comes into contact with the underlying development API is certainly more technical than a product manager who is responsible for front-end personal website design needs to know. But the basic principle is still applicable - product managers with technical backgrounds are more successful when communicating product needs to engineers and explaining complex technical details to non-technical peers and customers. Having said that, there are still some pitfalls you need to avoid. The most important thing is that a product manager who used to be an engineer must recognize that he is just a former engineer. Surprisingly, a product manager from an engineer would eventually fail if he still tried to control technical decisions and achieve details. For this reason, I like to recruit people who have a technical background and who have become product managers in their last job. They have gone through that challenging period of adaptation, and they can also see resumes to see how they adapt. I'm too lazy to ask questions during the interview to evaluate technical skills. This specific technical direction is related, and if you are looking for an engineer, there are hundreds of websites that can give you good advice. Instead, here are some good questions that can assess a product manager's adaptability to this role and his ability to work with an engineer:

Why did you decide to switch from engineer to product manager?

What do you think is the biggest advantage of technical background?

What is the biggest disadvantage?

What is the biggest lesson you've got in transitioning to product manager?

What do you hope you learned while working as an engineer?

How do you get the respect of an engineer team?

3. "Superman ability" product instinct and creativity

This section is subjective and difficult to describe but extremely important. I'm a specific crowd Product Instinct is a loyal supporter of the notion of innateness. These people know what kind of product is a good product. They may not always be right, but their instincts will always take them in the right direction. They tend to be strong proponents of a certain point of view, which sometimes annoy their colleagues. I am fortunate to have worked with many of these people and that is a very important exercise for the product manager. That feeling can only mean that can not be articulated. For product management, there are many small but complicated decisions involved in a highly variable environment like the Internet. Of course, there can also be big ideas and decisions. However, it is these small decisions that tell you whether the product manager is going to be good or not. When other people in the same group have not figured it out and they make their own suggestions, others immediately realize that you have "superhuman abilities." It is indeed a challenge to judge the instinct of such a product in an interview. But this is also done. One of the things I often do is observe them in one-hour interviews with all of the following interview tasks:

Separately repeat some of my own views of my product - if you are a good product manager, you will consider many things that affect the product. Perhaps the appearance of the product is not good, too few functions or the product structure itself needs to be pointed out defects. These are things you should think of to make up for. I've been waiting for a moment, that moment made me smile, nod, or even could not help but say: "Right right - those you say are very crazy things for us."

Show me something new about our products to me - these new things might have been product improvements I never thought possible, my idea of ​​a competitor or a neglected one. When I got this information from a candidate, I knew two things: first, they had the courage to judge; second, they were smarter than me. And these two things exactly what I need the product manager should have.

Guide me to new or interesting things - people with good product instincts tend to be aware of better products before others. If I am interviewing a first-rate candidate, I tend to walk away with new discoveries or new ideas.

Here are some good questions about judging your product intuition:

Say good things you recently encountered. Where do you like him? [By the way, when the interviewer asked me to name one of my products, I really wanted to be crazy. I have experienced a painful time in Yahoo!, hiring, they often say that the best product encountered recently is Yahoo!, it is really painful to die. ]

What makes [in this product] a success? [I usually choose a popular product, such as the iPod or eBay, which are easy-to-get customers in overcrowded markets. ]

What do you dislike about my product? How can you improve it?

What kind of problems will we encounter in a year? Two years? Ten years?

How do you determine the design of a product is good?

What is one of the best ideas you come up with?

The worst one?

How do you decide when to take a shortcut to get a product to market?

What are your lessons in interactive interface design?

How do you decide what should not be done?

What is your biggest product error?

What are you most concerned about the product manager, and why?

Do you think you are innovative?

Leadership is winning

Product managers are often the leaders in their organization. But often they do not directly lead the rights of others. This means they must win the authority and leadership through influence. Leadership and interpersonal skills are a decisive factor for a product manager. With hundreds of books on leadership, I'm not going to turn this article into an article on this topic (most of these books are nonsense.) I found that background checks are the most effective way to measure leadership, especially Investigations involving peers and individual participants working together. But do not mention these to candidates. But here are a few questions I used in the past:

Consensus is always a good thing?

What is the difference between management and leadership?

What kind of people do you like to work with?

What types of people do you think are hard to work with?

Tell me a team is not cohesive situation. What did you think was happening and what did you learn from it?

How do you get a team to give you a timetable?

What did you do to lose confidence in you?

Will you be different if you manage different positions? If so, what's the difference?

What can you learn from that?

Who will be responsible for the final product on the line?

Has your team disappointed you and made you have to assume responsibility?

What happened to your tolerance for wrongdoing this past year?

Do you like good news or bad news?

What is your recruitment method?

5. The ability to guide diverse perspectives

To become a product manager need to wear more than a hat. I often joked that the product manager most of the working time is not calling in the room - customers, engineers, sales, executives, marketing people. This means you need the ability to do other people's work, but you do not have to be smart enough. Good product managers know how to lead diversified perspectives. Product managers often play the role of devil. They have a tendency to be dissatisfied with simple answers. In a conversation they may tell you that this need seems technically infeasible, and ask how much it means for a salesperson. There is an easy way to evaluate a candidate's ability by thinking of a multi-dimensional question - many people meet during the interview. I often insist that at least on behalf of engineering, design, marketing is considered a potential product manager. This list can be added depending on specific roles - pre-sales, engineering, support, developer relations, business development, law or the customer themselves. In the end I will be satisfied with the person I work for. Notice I do not need to be satisfied with everyone. A carefully selected person can meet a key point on the line. This does not mean that everyone should be commended for their job - it is difficult to reach a consensus in the interview process for many candidates, so give due consideration to feedback. But no one can tell if the product manager understands the sales process like a salesperson. I also strongly recommend that you give a detailed explanation to the candidate. For example: "I want you to understand the problems that people face in guiding the development and how we do it on the actual site. They will support you." Here are some detailed questions that I used to use (these are just examples, it's easy to replace function names):

How did you learn to work with sales?

What is the best way to communicate with customers?

What makes marketing work?

How do you know that the design is on the right track?

How a product manager to support business development?

What did you learn about management?

What is the best way to work with executives?

Give me a person who has already made something

The last feature may be the easiest to evaluate. Unless I recruit junior positions, I usually hire managers who have done actual product. Here "product" refers to the entire process from concept design to product operation from start to finish. There is nothing better than having done a successful product before, but more about one's ability to make good products. Past performance signals future success. More importantly, it's tangible in a bunch of invisible features that need to be evaluated. When verification is required, I always make sure to talk to the important colleagues in the candidate's previous project, especially the manager of the project manager, their engineer, sales or market peers. (Incidentally, there is a reason for the above ordering of these rules.) As I mentioned in the first paragraph above, I would prefer to choose a project manager who, though without successful experience, is very clever, and will not choose one though Experienced but mediocre people).

Explanation: I wrote this article in 2005, when I was still at JotSpot, and in 2006, Google bought JotSpot. Since then, I have had the opportunity to work with some extraordinary project managers and have been interviewed by over 200 project managers. I'm pretty sure my point of view has changed, but these years have only given me further confirmation of these features of great project managers. I occasionally go to update this article, but every time I decided to keep it the way it was. (Ken, Feb 2013)