A Guide to Hiring the Right Fit and Finding the Right Fit Role
Hey PMs
Last week, I had the fortune of giving a talk on competitive analysis at Berkeley Skydeck. The audience was roughly 30 startups who are part of the current cohort. I covered the reasons for doing competitive analysis, what it is, and how to do it.
Here is the recording of that presentation if you are interested.
Archteypes of Product Managers
Ever wonder why some product managers excel in certain areas while others shine elsewhere? It’s because product managers come in different shades, each with their unique strengths and skills.
Imagine these types as different characters in a story, each playing a special role. A character who is taking down bad guys requires a set of skill sets that is different from someone who is a conniving politician. (Both played by Robert Downey Jr.)
The same happens in organizations. At various stages of a company, you need different sets of skills.
A product manager is a very unique role in the organization. Metaphors have been used to describe them. They are the “CEO” of their product. They are the “connective tissue”. They are the epicenter of Business, technology and UX
None of them help to define what the job really entails. It makes it difficult to hire the right person or assign someone in an existing product organization.
To make matters worse, product manager titles are all over the place – Product manager, product owner, technical product manager, principal product manager, program manager etc.
The reality is that product managers come in multiple flavors, and that’s by design. The key roles a product manager plays varies by situation. A startup with an unknown sales model will need a different set of skills than if the sales model is known and the team is executing. A new product line will need a specific set of skills than a steady state product.
When I started in my previous startup as employee #2, we had no idea who are customers would be. Who do we design the product for? So I had to first explore and find the right customer segment. Later we found product market fit and were relentlessly executing. So less exploring but more organizing the needs of customers that were flowing in.
In the next company, I launched a brand new product. That required a lot of collaboration across the company to get the product out in the market as this was a first new product in the company outside of the core. A slightly different skill set.
In large organizations with new and legacy product lines, a mix of skills is needed. You need someone to be tactical and make sure incomings requests are triaged properly, bugs getting resolved and so on. Another set of skills.
When we hire product managers or if we have to re-organize our teams to product areas, it is helpful to have a framework for defining the archetypes of the role.
I found this interesting framework by Jason Shen.
Vertical Axes – Head and Heart (i.e. analyzing vs collaborating)
Horizontal Axes – Forest and Tree (i.e. big picture vs tactical)
There are 4 main archetypes of product managers.
Explorer
Advocate
Organizer
Technician
Explorers venture in the unknown. They thrive in ambiguity. They are looking for solutions and sometimes they are looking for even the customer segments. Explorers are great for startups. They are also well suited for new product lines. Explorers can also be good problem solvers. Say you are having adoption issues in your new product, explorers can dig into the root causes and find solutions. They are great for large companies who are trying to solve a particular problem in addition to startups.
How to vet explorers? Ask them about industry trends. How will they get products to market? How do they connect dots from market to customers to pain points to value and revenue.
Advocates are great communicators and collaborators. They are also well suited for new product lines that require collaboration across multiple stakeholders. Companies with large number of stakeholders, customers, partners can benefit from advocates. With their strong collaboration skills they can achieve alignment and get buy in.
How to vet advocates ? Ask how they obtain stakeholder alignment. How did they launch products. What do they do differently to get stakeholder alignment and buy in?
Organizers are great with process. They are good to learn the nuances of scale in large organizations. Imagine working in a large organization with 10,000s customers and partners and multiple engineers. These teams get a large stream of inputs from support, customers and internal stakeholders. Being organized is very critical for this environment, otherwise things fall though the crack and erodes trust in the product team.
How to vet organizers? Ask how they manage customer requests, support tickets and internal stakeholders feedback. What processes and rituals have they put in place.
Technicians are good with data and understanding technical details. Mosts PMs often come from technical background and are most comfortable in this space. API products that work with developers and ISVs would need a technician as a PM who is better able to understand the audience needs. Technicians are also good with data and can be useful where data analysis is critical, e.g. in B2C companies.
How to vet technicians? Ask about technical trends. How they use new technology or data to grow their product.
For your next role
If you are a product manager, then assess where you fit in these archetypes. Then compare the situation of the product you are managing. Is there a match? If you are a frustrated product manager, chances are that the reasons lie within this mismatch.
You don’t have to fit into just one of the archetypes. You can be strong in one area or in multiple areas. It just helps to understand where you fit and where you want to be. Be self critical and truly understand where your strengths and experiences are. You will have better chances of success in your current or new roles.
If you are a big picture type of a person, then perhaps you should consider a role that requires more product strategy or visioning. These roles tend to have a lot more unknowns. A startup is a good example of such roles or even in companies who want to build new products.
If you are a tactical person who like process, then you might be better suited to join a large company with 1000s of customers. The big picture has been taken care of and now it’s all about execution. You will be dealing with large number of items such as support tickets, incoming customer requests, stakeholder inputs etc. Putting a structure in place to manage the influx is going to be important.
For hiring the right PM
If you are hiring for a product manager, ask yourself what stage your company or product is in and what the needs of the roles are. Then determine what type of product manager you should hire. Same applies if you are trying to assign a PM to a new product area or to an existing product in your company.
For example, if your company is working on software for self driving transportation or AI applications, then you are probably looking for an explorer because the technology is nascent and a lot of issues are still to be resolved.
If your product is 20 years old and over 10,000 customers use your product, then you are probably looking for someone who can organize and prioritize incoming requests.
By understanding the specific skills and traits associated with each archetype, you gain a strategic advantage in the hiring process. Whether your product demands a visionary leader, a detail-oriented executor, or a versatile problem-solver, matching the archetype to the task will help you build a great product team.
I am available for coaching and advisory for B2B product teams and startups. Here are some things I can help.
Align business strategy to product strategy with revenue growth
Assess your product processes and recommend areas of improvement
Design product analytics for growth
Let’s start with a free 30 min intro call.
