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

- 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 ...Read More

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 obsta ...Read More

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 ever ...Read More

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: Good presentation and communication skills Self driven individual Leadership skills Examples of making an impact on the business, overall business acumen Examples of decision making and rationale of making those decisions Critical and logical thinking ability Grit and resiliency Domain knowledge Examples of stakeholder management and execu ...Read More

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. Depe ...Read More