Product Manager Recruitment

A product manager job description will usually cover discovery, roadmapping, prioritisation and stakeholder management. Most of the briefs we see include some version of those responsibilities.

What often matters more is the situation the person is joining. A product manager stepping into a team with a clear direction and established ways of working is taking on a very different role from someone joining a business that is still working out what the product should be, who it is for, or how the function needs to operate. The title may be the same, but the search for the right talent is not.

That has always been where we start. As specialist product manager recruiters, we have filled permanent, contract and interim roles since 2010, from a growing company's first product hire to senior positions in established product management teams.

How we recruit product managers

Every product manager search starts with the brief. We look past the title to what the business needs, what the person will own, and whether they are building something new or taking an established function forward. Most of the search is then direct. Many of the product managers we place were not looking when we first approached them, and would never have seen an advert.

When we assess product managers, asking how they prioritise usually produces a method. We learn more from a decision that did not work out, and what they did once they realised. It shows whether someone can hold a view, let it go, and say no to a stakeholder while keeping the relationship intact. We consider bias at each stage, and every candidate gets clear communication, proper preparation and honest feedback.

That approach lets us move quickly when it counts. Simply Business had already lost two weeks to a stalled project. We arranged interviews within 48 hours and had a product manager in place a week after the brief. Trustpilot had spent several months looking for a senior growth product hire before we refined the search and approached the right people directly.

Planning to hire a product manager? We can help you work through scope, level and salary before the search begins. Send us a brief or talk to one of the product team. Product managers can also view our product manager jobs, although many of the positions we fill are never advertised.