Do you have a trait driven hiring model for finding the right product manager for your team?

I was dissatisfied with my hiring.  I needed to change my approach.  After speaking with a friend in HR (McKesson, circa 2005) it became obvious to me I didn’t have a firm “idea” of what I was looking for in a product manager.  Also, around that time McKesson trained its managers on a behavioral interview approach, which I still use today. (I’ll share a behavioral interview approach in another post).

Armed with this new skill I’ve greatly improved my hiring of product leaders into my teams.  What I propose works for product managers, directors, and VP’s.  To this day I use behavioral questions along with a mental model I cooked up.

My trait model is called SINFA.  An abbreviation for:

• Skills
• Industry Experience
• Natural Aptitudes
• Fit
• Attitude

The first couple traits are hard skill sets, the last couple are soft skill sets.  I define each as follows:

• Skills – Is the candidate able to be a storyteller of the product management methodology.  Have they practiced the art/science of product management?  What do they think product management is?  Truthfully, I worry less about this skill set then you might imagine.  We can coach product management methodologies.  Or, get training at 280 Group, or Pragmatic.
• Industry experience – Does the candidate have applicable experience in your industry, or facet of your industry?  I’ve been in healthcare most of my career.  Healthcare is a HUGE category.  Examples of facets from this category are:
  • Pharmacy
  • EHR/EMR
  • Financial
  • Risk Adjustment Medical Advantage
  • Hospital
  • Payer
  • Provider

The list can go on, and on.  But you’d expect that for a $4+ trillion sized market (US).  There are opportunities for overlap in some areas.  Likely true for your industry too.  Look for them in the candidate.

• Natural Aptitudes – while interviewing can you envision the candidate standing in front of the teams pitching the next sprint?  Do they speak fast, medium, or slow?  Are they good at telling their story?  Can they explain something complex they’ve worked on simply? What’s the last three books they read for fun?
• Fit – another soft skill assessment.  I’ll leverage some behavioral questions for this characteristic (different post).  Product typically owns very little but must influence a lot.  “We in product get what we influence, not what we own.” Don’t hire people just like you. That is not what fit means. Would you like to have a coffee, eat lunch, talk sports, or professionally argue with this candidate? A co-worker once told me in a big important meeting, “…no Rob, you’re wrong about that.” (Hi Marion 🙂 ). That to me is fit. That to me is progress.
• Attitude – What’s the attitude of the candidate?  I had an HR recruiter tell me once he frequently encounters arrogant candidates when interviewing for director and above roles.  Those candidates didn’t make it past his screening calls.  My assessment is that stuffs going to break.  How is this candidate going to be when sitting next to you when things break at 2AM?  I measure the candidate against folks I’ve worked with who have remained cool under fire when the site went down.  Thank you, Claire, Q, Sri, Ed, and Max, for being those examples I compare candidates against.

So, product leader what’s your model?  Use mine.  Cook up your own.  But have a trait driven mental model when hiring. Refine it. Build questions around it. Be mostly consistent so you get repeatable results.

Stay curious!

Rob