Startup Hunting: Key features a Product Manager needs to look for in a company’s setup
Current startup talent acquisition trend continues to witness growing demand for skilled Product Managers (PMs) able to shape a winning product — one that 10Xs revenue and delivers great UX (User Experience). Although most openings originate from startups located in the US, other advanced economies actively look for PMs too, notably: Israel, Singapore, and Scandinavia.
Role in Product is financially rewarding, as people pursuing this role are among highly paid experts. Depending on location, salaries for PMs start around $45k/year and can go up to $150k/year (based on Payscale estimates). Openings listed on Torre, Angelist, and Weworkremotely position most jobs around $75k/year.
For a job that’s high-stress, rewards can run high for a skilled PM. But despite what’s promised in the job description or interview, it is worth looking up the company and weigh-in on the role whether it is setup for success or going to become one of those stints you don’t want on your resume.
I’ve spelled out here quintessentially important things to look for in a company:
1. Product built so far
At what stage is their product? Is it: a mockup, building database components, a fleshed out product trying to diversify, a train wreck that needs to go back to the drawing board, or nearing the end of its lifecycle? Knowledge of the product stage and lifecycle is a valuable insight that can be compared to areas where you excel. Don’t expect to be paid a lot for a new startup intending to pitch a mockup to raise capital.
2. Contributions by the previous PM
Are you their first Product hire or did other PMs leave their mark before you? Worth finding out about the previous individual’s contributions and reason(s) for their departure. That may very well tell you where you need to pick up from, not to mention dos and donts. Generally, it’s hard to find smooth transitions in fast paced companies. Whereas longevity in a role requires you to tread carefully before becoming someone’s lesson learnt as a first hire.
3. Product Market-fit and technology gap
Before applying, you want to understand the problem the company is trying to solve. Questions you can ask are: Does the problem really exist or is it being artificially created? Is there a valuable market segment in the target audience? What kind of product will solve the problem? Are you motivated to build a product that solves the problem? How likely will an alternative technology or solution provider close the technology gap with the company’s product? You better put your thinking cap on over here and pick up a Product or Marketing book. Plenty more questions where those came from.
4. Size of dev/design team
Product Managers provide leadership through cross-functional collation of data and team coordination. Spending nights coding individual files is the job of a developer; making designs in one of Adobe’s software is a designer’s job; your job is to play Lego with the company’s resources that makes the job of the sales and marketing team easier. Bandwidth of the development and design team in respect therefore becomes important for you to plan the product road-map; prioritize the turn around time to launch features and control version release.
5. Any specialists on the dev/design team
Performing a laser cutting task with a saw isn’t going to help you meet deadlines or build features that you want. Your desired features are limited by the skillset of engineers and designers on the company’s payroll. Thinking about replicating the features of another company’s product? Well it pays to know if there are specialists in the company. And by specialists I don’t mean run-of-the-mill tech/IT roles with several years of experience, but experts such as: Data Architects, UX Researchers, Pre-sales Engineers, DevOps Engineers, UI Designers etc. They’re going to make all the difference in the world by enabling your ideas.
6. Team setup of CSM, AM, Sales/BD, and Marketing
Getting the right data from user experience is the basis of all your user stories for CI/CD (Continuous Improvement/Development). You need to know if the company has the right workflow between Marketing-Sales-CSM teams by looking up if there are people occupying roles in those teams. Those team members can capture data for you from their station visible to the client. If there’s a Social Media Manager missing, you’re going to lose data from social media campaigns; missing Customer Success Managers won’t be able to provide you sentiment analysis (NPS and other customer satisfaction scores). Besides the data volume and frequency, POV tells you the company’s blind-spots, if any.
7. Who calls the shots
There’s always an Alpha who runs the show in the company and calls the shots. New Product hires are very unlikely to get the company’s steering wheel, until they have been a part for 3 or more years, and considered integral to the company’s future. Co-founders are the likeliest to be at the company’s steering wheel — it can be the COO, someone in Sales, someone in Operations, or whoever the CEO listens to. This sort of information can be learnt during interviews, or you can put 2 + 2 together by reading the company’s blogs. No point swimming upstream with that person.
8. Key clients
Pretty common for many new startups to bumper sticker a Forbes company logo on their website even if a single person has used their product. Client information is kept private, so you’re likely to learn this information during interview. The piece you’re looking for is about whale clients: deal size, LTV, NPS and core feedback. If you’re good at using your brain as a simulator and interpolating data points, it’s not going to be hard to get into action in the first week. There’s no such thing as warm-up time.
9. What about Stock Options, Equity, 401s, Shares?
Besides cash, any percentage listed on the job description or what you’re promised does not bear value in the short term. As a Product Manager, there’s a high chance you won’t be in the role longer than a year, 2 years if you’re lucky, and anything beyond that is based on the value you’ve created for the company (see point 2). No one remembers Stock Options, Equity, or shares once you’ve parted ways, so what are you going to do about it?
Hopefully these points help Product Managers out there find a good match. These points are not per se a one size fit all, and likely there’s always someone out there with an appetite for a Martian Sandwich.
This post has been published on www.productschool.com communities.
