When Should You Hire A Product Manager?

Q: When should you hire your first product manager?

"Yesterday".

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Of course, you could say I'm biased. But in my mind, a role that solely exists to navigate a venture to product-market fit with limited resources is worth every penny.

Now, I do realize that designated PMs aren't hired that early.

In the start, it's the CEO/co-founder that plays that role themselves. They only start looking for a PM when the product has shown promise, there's some funding runway available & there's verifiable traction.

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However, times are changing fast.

Customers are inundated with choices. Providers can no longer come up with a me-too product & expect to win at scale. The bar is at an all time high & margin of error is low, especially in the product-led world.

It's like a talent show. Your product has 2 minutes to land an impression to clear the audition. Fail to impress? You're out. Thus, every granular detail counts.

And when the CEO runs thin on product bandwidth (so many business aspects to balance), that's where a PM comes in.

I'm not alone in my view by the way.

Bill Campbell, the coach of greats like Larry Page, Sergey Brin & role model of Marty Cagan also alludes to this.

He was asked: "So let’s just say you have a first round draft pick; after the founder and CEO, who would be the first draft pick?"

Bill responded:

"Some people call it Product Management, but somebody who can really understand the dynamics of what goes on in a marketplace, apply technology to that marketplace, see how the technology can work, and continue to advise brilliant scientists so they can adapt their products to make sure customers are happy."

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Here are other situations & red flags that indicate you need to hire a PM fast:

• You're expanding into a new vertical where you don't have domain expertise
• The person driving product decisions (usually the CEO) is no longer available for hashing out the details
• There are way too many inputs from customers & sales and very limited resources
• You're operating in a red-ocean market where competitive threats, tech evolution & price wars are intense

Now, PMs are often seen as a massive expense.

But engineering is expensive too. And building the wrong things without necessary due diligence & validation can translate to heavy sunk costs (& tech debt).

Finally, know that a "Product Manager" doesn't come in one flavor.

A lean startup certainly doesn't want an order-placer to begin with.

They need a full-stack PM who can hustle, adapt, own a large field of duties (from research to design to sprints) & drive progress via collaboration. Thus, adjust your JD accordingly.

In the end, invest in product management early. It pays off.