Hire Product Manager to Boost Your Product Growth: Tips and Best Practice

Hire Product Manager to Boost Your Product Growth: Tips and Best Practice

In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, the role of a product manager has become crucial for driving the success of your solutions across various industries. If you need quick proof your business needs a PM, how’s this: about 52% of their time is assigned to unplanned problem-solving.

This means whenever an error or inconsistency occurs, these specialists can take care of them before they damage your reputation. We at ProCoders have seen dozens of companies ask “How to hire a product manager?” after failed attempts to operate without one. 

Here, we talk about the importance of PMs and provide a step-by-step guide on finding and selecting the perfect product manager for your business, while examining the costs involved in the hiring process. 

Why Hire Product Managers: What Values Can They Contribute To Your Product?

Product managers for hire are essential for organizations that want to develop successful solutions and maintain a competitive edge in the market. They take part in planning and review, handle data to ensure a better decision-making process, manage talent, and have a deep knowledge of the market.

Main Functions of Product Managers

• Strategy and vision.
  You should hire a product manager to conduct market research, identify customer needs, and develop roadmaps to guide the development process.
• Management on all levels.
  Recruit a product manager to liaise with stakeholders, such as engineering, design, marketing, and sales teams, to ensure that the solution is developed and delivered on time and within budget.
• Prioritization and decision-making.
  Product managers are responsible for prioritizing features and functionality, and balancing the needs of customers and the company. They make data-driven decisions to prioritize development efforts, ensuring that resources are allocated effectively.

Performance measurement and analysis.
Product managers establish KPIs to measure the success of the project and track its progress against the defined objectives.

Values Product Managers Contribute to a Product:

The values you get by finding a product manager include a better solution-market fit as the PM does research of the market before executing the development. Your solution will also reach the audience more quickly due to a smooth communication between the teams that take part in its creation.

Not to mention the improvement in decision-making quality and speed, which increases and maintains project relevance. This, in its turn, leads to another value – enhanced customer satisfaction.

Finally, you get a higher return on investment through effective prioritization, resource allocation, and performance measurement.

But what skills and experience creates a perfect product management specialist for hire? Gladly, ProCoders knows the answer to that too.

Skills and Experience a Technical Product Manager Should Have to Fit Your Project

When hiring a good technical product manager for your project, it’s essential to look for:

• Technical expertise – software development, data science, hardware, or other relevant domains, depending on your project’s requirements.
• Industry knowledge – this knowledge helps them understand customer needs, regulatory requirements, and industry trends, enabling them to make informed decisions during development.
• Product management experience – defining product strategy, creating roadmaps, prioritizing features, and working with cross-functional teams.
• Agile methodologies – familiarity with Scrum or Kanban is often essential.
• Data-driven decision making – hire technical product managers who are comfortable working with analytics tools and interpreting data from various sources, such as user feedback, market research, and solution performance metrics.
• User experience (UX) and design thinking – to be able to work with designers to create projects that are both functional and enjoyable to use. 
• Communication – we at ProCoders find this skill especially important, based on our 8-year experience of working with outsourcing vs. outstaffing models. TPMs need to work closely with various stakeholders, such as engineers, designers, marketing, and sales teams, which is impossible without decent communication.

Find a product manager with all of those, and you’re going to release a successful project.

How Do Early-Stage Product Managers in Startups Differ? 

Early-stage product managers in startups often operate in a more dynamic and resource-constrained environment compared to their counterparts in established organizations. Here’s how to differentiate one:

Skill Sets

• Generalist skills – management, marketing, sales, customer support, and even basic technical skills.
• Strong problem-solving skills – excellent problem solvers, able to identify and prioritize the most critical issues and come up with creative solutions under resource constraints.
• Lean methodologies – Lean Startup and Minimum Viable Product (MVP) development, which are crucial for early-stage product managers.

Mindsets

Startup product managers should possess an entrepreneurial mindset, with a strong focus on innovation, risk-taking, and a willingness to experiment. A growth mindset is also essential as it allows for continuously learning and adapting to new information and improving skills as the company evolves.

Contributions

Early-stage managers play a crucial role in discovering and validating product-market fit, helping the startup refine its value proposition and target customer segments.

They are often responsible for developing the initial MVP, working closely with the engineering and design teams to create a product that can be tested and validated with real users. PMs may also be heavily involved in customer development, engaging directly with potential buyers to gather feedback.

Future Positioning in a Product Team

Once the startup matures and moves beyond the early stages, the product management specialists can transition into various roles within the product team, depending on their skills, interests, and the company’s needs:

• Senior product manager
• Team lead or director
• Specialized roles (technical and data-driven product management or UX-focused roles)

In summary, early-stage product managers in startups differ from their counterparts in established organizations due to their versatile skill set, entrepreneurial mindset, and adaptability. 

But how to hire a good product manager? Let’s find out in our step-by-step!

Step-by-Step Guide on How to Find and Select Product Manager With 100% Requirements Matching

By following a step-by-step process prepared by ProCoders, you can hire product management specialists easier and more accurately. 

Step 1. Define your requirements 

Start by creating a detailed list of the skills, experience, and qualifications you’re looking for in a product manager. This should include both hard skills, such as technical expertise and industry knowledge, and soft skills, such as communication and leadership abilities.

Step 2. Develop a job description

Create a comprehensive job description that outlines the responsibilities, qualifications, and expectations for the product manager role. Be sure to include any unique aspects of your company, such as corporate culture or specific project requirements. 

Step 3. Advertise the position

Post the job description on relevant job boards, social media platforms, and your company website. Additionally, consider reaching out to your professional network and industry groups to find potential candidates.

Step 4. Review applications

As you receive applications, screen each applicant’s resume and cover letter against your list of requirements from step 1. Create a shortlist of candidates who appear to meet your criteria.

Step 5. Conduct initial phone screenings

Before proceeding with in-person interviews, conduct phone screenings with the shortlisted candidates to gauge their interest in the position, communication skills, and overall fit with your organization. This will help you further narrow down your list.

Step 6. In-person interviews

Schedule in-person interviews with the remaining candidates. During the interview process, assess each person’s technical expertise, problem-solving abilities, and interpersonal skills. Use behavioral and situational interview questions to understand how candidates have performed in previous roles and how they might handle challenges in your company.

Pro tip: If you want to enhance the pool of candidates further and save money, consider working with your PM remotely. Thus, you don’t need in-person interviews – that’s what Zoom, Skype, and Google Meet are for.

Step 7. Practical assessments

To further evaluate a candidate’s skills and capabilities, consider assigning a practical assessment or case study. This can help you see their ability to think critically, prioritize tasks, and make decisions based on data and customer feedback.

Step 8. Reference checks

Once you’ve identified a top candidate, conduct reference checks to validate their skills, experience, and work ethic. Speak with previous managers, colleagues, or clients to gain a better understanding of their strengths and weaknesses.

Step 9. Make an offer

If the reference checks are positive, extend an offer to the candidate, outlining the terms and conditions of their employment, including salary, benefits, and any other relevant details.

Step 10. Onboard the new hire

After the candidate has accepted the offer, ensure a smooth onboarding process by introducing them to the team, providing necessary resources and training, and setting expectations for their role within the organization.

To make this part easier, you can turn to ProCoders. We have excellent PMs on board, ready to take up your project at any stage.

Now, let’s discuss one of the most frequently asked questions about finding a PM – what’s it going to cost you?

How Much Does It Cost to Recruit a Good Product Manager?

The cost of recruiting a good product manager can be divided into two main components: their salary and HR costs.

Product Manager Salary

The salaries can vary widely depending on factors such as location, industry, company size, and the individual’s experience and qualifications. As of April, 2023, the average salary for a product manager in the United States with 7-9 years of experience is around $95,000 per year. We at ProCoders choose to work with TOP talent from Central Europe for a reason. The salary expectations there are lower than those in the US due to lower cost of living. For example, in Croatia, a monthly salary is HRK17,000 (7-9 years of experience, about $2,700).

In Estonia, you’re expected to pay €5,408 a month (about $5,900). In Albania, it’s ALL110,000 ($1,062).

In addition to the base salary, product managers may also receive bonuses, stock options, or other benefits, which should be factored into the overall cost. When you choose staff augmentation, though, you don’t have to pay the benefits, that’s why this option is so popular.

Costs of Hiring:

HR costs consist of job advertising to get the attention of as many candidates as possible and recruitment agency fees if you choose to work with them. Depending on the platforms you choose, this cost can range from free to several hundred dollars per listing. And the recruiters’ fees can range from 15% to 30% of the candidate’s annual salary.

Not to mention you’re going to spend a lot of time and labor on reviewing applications, conducting interviews, and onboarding new hires.

ProCoders has rescued a lot of companies from a loop of looking for the right manager and ending up pausing the project, missing deadlines, etc. The perk of working with us is that we already have staff available for your project. They are professionals that have passed our 4-stage selection process.

We save costs, time, and, honestly, the mental stability of our customers.

So, how to hire a decent product manager and avoid large spending?

What Does Your Business Gain by Hiring Product Managers with ProCoders?

By finding product managers through ProCoders, your business gains a multitude of benefits that elevate your product development process and drive success.

How? Well, first of all, our product managers come with a wealth of industry knowledge and experience, ensuring your project benefits from their proven track record in successfully managing products from concept to launch.

We value communication, among other skills, so rest assured our PMs will never leave you without an important update. Besides, they will put your customers at the forefront, conducting thorough market research, gathering user feedback, and incorporating these insights into your product development process.

By hiring a product manager from ProCoders, you benefit from their commitment to ongoing optimization, as they continually analyze product performance and suggest improvements to enhance user satisfaction and drive growth.

So, are you ready to hire IT product managers? Turn to ProCoders!

Conclusion

In conclusion, product managers play a pivotal role in steering a project’s success by bridging the gap between customers, stakeholders, and development teams. 

We at ProCoders understand that a product manager is a position often deemed in-house-only for businesses where project values are in the process of creation.

However, hiring someone in-house may be a costly and time-consuming task. That’s why we’re striving to bring outstaffing to the same level of deep understanding of your product, its functionality and values.

The step-by-step guide and insights provided in this article can help businesses navigate the hiring process more efficiently, ensuring they find the right talent to drive their products forward.