What real world experience and skillset do your product org look for in potential candidates?

There are a couple of things that make some candidates stand out from the rest:

• User-focused: The most successful product managers are those that think deeply about people and want to understand them to build great products. Product managers should have contact with end users in some capacity at least once a week, and that's what I prefer to see in candidates for roles in my team. What user contact means will depend on whether they are experienced product managers or new to the role. Almost every role out there has someone that consumes the work you produce. Think about how you interact with them on a day-to-day basis. Are you gathering feedback to make their lives easier? What changes have you made recently to adjust to their needs? 
• Ability to learn: As a PM, you will be constantly challenged to learn about new markets, technology, and customer problems. I like to see interest and self-motivation for learning. Think about the last time you had to learn about a new space or skill. What was your motivation? How did you go about prioritizing what you had to learn? What resources did you use to gain skills/knowledge?
• Creative problem-solving: Great product managers are resourceful, creative, and explore all avenues to solve customer problems. I like to ask about the last great product challenge that a candidate solved. Bonus points if the solution included cross-functional collaboration and coming up with solutions that were not software. 

- Soft skills such as communication, teamwork, adaptability, and a willingness to learn are also important for any product organization.

- Work with Engineering on a day to day basis to help build a product by clarifying requirements (which are gathered from various data sources)

- Additionally skills such as clear prioritization, OKR and goal setting and a good understanding of metrics are crucial

- Good UI/UX skills, ability to talk to customers and help articulate their customer challenges to their teams

- Gather stakeholder feedback and craft a vision/strategy based on various data points (including above ones)

- Ability to work with Sales and Marketing in addition to UI/UX, engineering to help define success of their product

Problem solving capability, Communication skills, Empathy - User and Product, Learning curiosity, Passion to impact and comfortable with failure are some soft skills we evaluate when we hire for the team apart from the necessary skills and relevant experience for the role

We look for candidates who have relevant experience to fintech or know how to operate in highly regulated industries.

To assess hard skills, we do a collaborative exercise where the candidate presents on a product they love and how they would improve it. This gives us a chance to see how they think about product - particularly how they define and measure problems and solutions. It’s a chance for us to see how you collaborate and what it would be like to work with you on a future initiative.

Depending on the role, we may also look for other hard skills or relevant experience as well - platform roles might require more experience with backend, while mobile roles we might look for somebody who has mobile specific experience. 

We also value candidates who are passionate about product management, the problems we are solving in particular, and the customers we are solving them for.

This might not be the answer you're looking for, but the top first thing that comes to mind is grit. To me, the ability for someone to overcome obstacles and achieve their goals despite hardship is extremely impressive and way more valuable than any prior work experience on a resumé. So when hiring, I look for PMs who:

• were part of a team at a tough time in the company's trajectory and learning how/if they overcame it

• successfully launched new initiatives or products because that's full of obstacles

• convinced their team to invest in an area that other folks were skeptical about and championed it through

An alternative answer would be a "driver" mindset. We look for product managers who take full ownership of their product areas and do whatever is necessary to drive success, even if it's pushing back on stakeholders or taking risks. We value PMs who want to be part of the difficult journey as much as they want to be part of the success.

While this is not meant to be an exhaustive list, here are some aspects of experience and skillset that fall between table stakes and highly desired category:

1. Good presentation and communication skills

2. Self driven individual

3. Leadership skills

4. Examples of making an impact on the business, overall business acumen

5. Examples of decision making and rationale of making those decisions

6. Critical and logical thinking ability

7. Grit and resiliency

8. Domain knowledge

9. Examples of stakeholder management and execution track record

10. Self awareness and approach to handling failure/setbacks