The true cost of product team hiring is massive

When you load in the persons salary, your time, your teams time, fees, and the time it takes for someone to get onboarded and start being productive, the figure gets big very quickly (some estimate in the region of £200k).

BUT the average life span for a first hire PM in a startup is under 12 months 🤯

This is mainly due to a mismatch between what the business needs and the skills and experience of the candidate.

5 of my favourite hacks for improving hiring outcomes are:

• Write down what outcomes you need your new hire to drive after 12–24 months in the role

• Socialise and test those outcomes with colleagues and peers

• Use the document to define skills and behaviours to test for during interviews, and have a standardised scoring mechanism

• Involve people the new hire will be working with in the hiring process

• Always ask follow up questions, and check that candidates have anecdotes from their own experience to back up theory

By clearly defining what you want the person to achieve before you start the hiring process, you stand a much better chance of making the right hire first time.