▲Takeaway12:30
"Best Talent" and "Best for This Role" Are Different Questions
A successful hire is about who is best for this specific role at this specific time, not who is the best talent in the market. Early in her career Lauren chased impressive executives to prove herself, but landing a whale doesn't mean that person can move the needle for the company today. The two questions are very different and conflating them dooms a search.
- Ask who is best for THIS role at THIS time, not who is best in the market
- Landing an impressive name is not the same as making an impact
- The best talent in the world may not be the best talent for your company right now
“I would say the general advice is who is going to be best for this specific role at this specific time not necessarily who is…”
#hiring#recruiting#product-leaders
▲Takeaway18:30
Head of Product vs VP vs CPO: When Titles Actually Matter
Startups are increasingly title-agnostic, with "head of" roles common up through C/D stage and VP/CPO titles appearing later at D and E. Unless it's a siloed company with multiple VPs, head of product, VP of product, and CPO generally mean the same thing depending on stage. Early-stage founders should start with head of product to avoid ever having to demote someone as the company scales.
- Startups are more title-agnostic than in the past; "head of" roles dominate early
- VP/director/CPO titles appear more at D and E stage
- Head, VP, and CPO of product often mean the same thing depending on stage
- Start early-stage roles as head of product so you never have to demote
“if you're coming into a company and they say this is the head of product the VP of product or the CPO that all means…”
#titles#hiring#startups#product-leaders
▲Takeaway22:00
Keep a Pulse on the Market Before You Need to Hire
Whether or not you're actively hiring, you should always keep a pulse on the market so you know what good looks like. Founders should proactively meet great people with no agenda, get them involved in advising or the product before a specific need arises. Reaching out with genuinely no agenda makes people feel flattered and often eager to help.
- Always know which companies are thriving and which individuals are building great things
- Meet and involve great people before you have a specific opening
- A "no agenda" approach makes people feel flattered rather than poached
- Executives across the board are often glad for a conversation outside their day-to-day
“regardless of whether or not you're hiring you should always be keeping a pulse on the market that is the most important thing”
“by simply saying No Agenda I'm not trying to hire you tomorrow I just want to know great people and to be totally honest people…”
#networking#hiring#relationship-building#founders
▲Takeaway37:30
For PMs: Build Breadth, Don't Collect Logos
Product people aiming for leadership should prioritize breadth, touching many different components rather than specializing in one, unless they deliberately want to be a specialist. At the same time, logo collecting is a known red flag: recruiters are trained to spot candidates who jump from place to place without giving opportunities a full chance. But staying too long out of loyalty to a fault, past when the writing is on the wall, is its own trap.
- Touch many components (platform, consumer, tools) to grow into a product leadership role
- Specializing is fine if that's the deliberate goal
- Logo collecting is a red flag; recruiters spot serial jumpers immediately
- Being loyal to a fault and staying too long is also a mistake
“it's so critical especially if someone has an end goal of wanting to step into a product leadership role to have been able to have…”
“logo collecting is never something that you you know want to be known for and the first thing you're taught like entry level recruiting 101…”
#career-advice#product-managers#breadth#resume
▲Takeaway43:00
Leave Every Company Better Than You Found It
The tech world is tiny and people are constantly calling each other for references, so no matter how fired up you were leaving, it's critical to leave a place better than you found it. If a recruiter calls ten people from your org and none can speak to what you did, no news is not good news. You want a meaningful impact that others can point to.
- Tech is small; people back-channel constantly regardless of how you leave
- Leave every place better than you found it, seamlessly
- If ten colleagues can't name your impact, that silence counts against you
- Impact must be visible to others, not just something you're privately proud of
“no matter how fired up you were leaving a company or what went sideways it is so critical that you try to leave the place…”
“if I call 10 people that were a part of the same organization as someone during a given period of time and they can't speak…”
#career-advice#impact#references#reputation
▲Takeaway57:30
What Recruiters Get Wrong: Forgetting They're Human Beings
Recruiters earn their reputation by forgetting that candidates are human beings with lives, families, and ambitions outside their careers. Transactional recruiting, like pushing crypto roles on someone who said they never want one, or hitting up a candidate right before a vesting date they told you about, is tone-deaf. Start with a relationship, take notes, and remember that once you lose a candidate's trust it's impossible to get back.
- Treat candidates as humans with lives and ambitions outside work
- Transactional outreach and ignoring what people told you is tone-deaf
- Take notes so you don't push crypto roles on someone who rejected them
- Once you lose a candidate's trust, it's impossible to get it back
“there's naturally people that forget that these are human beings that we're dealing with every single day that have lives have families have careers or…”
“once you lose trust in a candidate it's impossible to get it back”
#recruiting#relationship-building#trust#long-game