What skills do you look for when hiring a Product Ops Manager?

Ideally, I would like to hire a Senior Product Manager/Designer/Marketer etc. who is looking to take their skills and do something new/different with their career.

I say this because these roles nurture things like:

• Design Thinking
• Using data to build and test hypotheses 
• Ability to break big things into simple, lovable, complete solutions where we can ship small and learn along the way
• Desire and track record to deliver outcomes 
• Appreciates process, but understands that not every problem needs a new process 

I’m actively hiring for several Product Operations roles, including for Associate Product Operations Managers, so you can check out the specific job descriptions on our career page! Beyond what we’ve posted, here are some of the things I share with our interviewer panel.

Associate Product Operations Managers & Product Operations Managers

What I look for:

• Solves problems -- effectively fixes an issue in the short term and adapts processes to address its root cause in the long term.
• Strong collaborator -- will be working shoulder-to-shoulder with Product Managers, Engineers and Product Designers. Additionally, they will also collaborate and communicate with other internal stakeholders across Oscar.
• Loves to execute -- derives satisfaction from completing tasks, because a component of the role is “keeping-the-lights-on” for their pods.
• Technical -- grasps concepts quickly, asks good questions, and has an ability to dive into data and systems to troubleshoot issues (will need to use SQL skills on the job, but it’s not a requirement coming in).
• Flexible -- we are still refining the operating model between Product Ops, Product Managers, Engineers and Product Designers. I am looking for people who will be comfortable if we tweak their roles & responsibilities as we get feedback from pods.
• Self-sufficient – there is very little day-to-day oversight of this role, based on the way we are embedded with pods. Therefore, I look for people who can manage their work independently, but enjoy working cross-functionally to accomplish greater goals as a team.

Other traits I like to see in these (and my more senior positions) include:

• Open to feedback -- gather feedback early and often about what's working and where we need to course correct.
• Empathetic -- quickly understands different points of view and competing priorities; can balance these tensions and find a productive outcome.
• Continuously improves processes -- never satisfied with the status quo and always looks out for opportunities to make processes better.
• Manages change -- can effectively implement process changes of all sizes, accounting for reluctance or push-back.
• Hates “process for the sake of process” – always on the lookout for the “minimum viable process.” Can identify where processes will increase efficiency or where processes are required (e.g. to ensure compliance), but does everything they can to avoid increasing overhead and bureaucracy.
• Embraces ambiguity – the only constant is change; people who are successful in this role embrace that ambiguity and are energized by it.

Great communication and intellectual honestly are of the main traits I look for. 

It's pretty important to be extremely resourceful and confident in one's ability to make a lot with a little and to influence teams to buy into your mission enough that they want to contribute / jump in. 

I also get really excited when I meet people who have had experience in both product and GTM organizations and have a competence in translating across teams / tying both worlds together. It's pretty rare, but I see it being more and more critical.