Hiring a good product manager is hard to do. Think about how lucky your company is to have you! Augmenting your team with additional product management talent is a tough task because evaluating product managers is more of an art than a science. Beyond crafting the right product manager interview questions, you need to find your candidates first. Their unique role in the organization requires such a diverse skill set. Candidates from many backgrounds could all end up being a perfect fit, so there’s no single place from which to source them.
Relying on traditional, general job sites might get you a ton of reach, but quantity does not equal quality when it comes to hiring a product manager. So many ill-suited candidates apply, not understanding what the job is or confusing it with similarly titled but very different roles in other industries.
Watch our webinar, Hiring and Growing a Successful Product Team, to see what product leaders look for when hiring new team members:
Therefore you need to be selective while casting a wide net and then scrutinize your haul for the cream of the crop. So, where are the best places to post your open position?
8 Job Sites for Hiring a Product Manager
The classifieds are a relic of the past, as job searches have gone digital. With no automatic go-to for job seekers, hiring managers must diversify their advertising outlets.
Once you’ve crafted the perfect PM job description, it’s time to get it in front of some eyeballs. Here are our top eight spots to discover the most qualified candidates:
Product Manager HQ
If the name doesn’t explain it all already, the best reason to post here to hire product managers is that you’re attracting applicants that are committed to pursuing or advancing their career in product management. Job seekers aren’t ending up here by accident. Between their resources and Slack community, Product Manager HQ is a dedicated resource for 26,000+ professionals that love this unique profession and career trajectory.
Mind the Product
This bastion of thought leadership in the product management space and purveyor of ProductTank meetups and workshops around the globe also features a lively job board. With a well-known brand in the PM space, job hunting product managers have a decent chance of running across your listing there.
LinkedIn has already replaced your Rolodex, so why not let it replace your “help wanted” ads as well? The best aspect of posting a job on this massive networking site is that interested candidates can do their homework and see who they know that’s connected to your company. Having easy access to information about your company, associated employees, and even proof of company culture all on one platform can speed up the decision time for many applicants, making it easier for them to determine if it’s a great fit before applying. As a hiring manager, you’ll also be able to work back channels and see if you know anyone with the inside scoop on promising applicants.
Glassdoor
Job hunters are always looking for avenues to find out what they’re getting into if they consider a job with a new company. Glassdoor’s employee reviews and salary data make it a go-to resource for the research-loving candidate. Post your job on Glassdoor to catch the eye of folks who want to seek an opportunity to join the fun and promise at your company.
ProductHired
A job posting on ProductHired will only reach product professionals instead of the unqualified riffraff applying to every job under the sun. With its tailored job alerts, potential PMs are notified when a job matching their criteria becomes available. This more granular filtering and the proactive alert system should lead to better fits knocking on your digital door.
Women in Product
Worried that your office might be a little too bro-happy? Want to appeal to female candidates that value a workplace that treats both genders equally? Women in Product is a great avenue for reaching female product professionals looking for a new challenge. With 17,000+ subscribers to their weekly newsletter, it’s a big-time visibility opportunity for firms that value diversity amongst their ranks.
SimplyHired
Sometimes you just need to put your job on a job board. With SimplyHired, you can post it on more than a hundred of them from a single interface. Their one-stop shop makes it an efficient vehicle for posting your PM openings far and wide.
Product School
Product School is better known for its training and product management certification programs. But all those newly minted PMs need to put their new credentials to work and find a new job, so their job board is a great place to start.
Hiring Product Managers Without Job Sites
Job boards will net your resumes and applications, but they’re not the only way to connect with potential new hires. While you might find some diamonds in the rough, there will be many digital stacks of applications to sift through.
Once you find promising possibilities, you still need to interview and do plenty of vetting before adding someone in such a crucial role. But many other avenues for recruiting talent will net you strong applicants that have an added bonus of personal connections or initial conversations to flesh out their profile.
Meet and greet
Just like it’s essential to get out of the office when you’re managing a product, IRL interactions also have value when trying to hire product managers. Attending conferences, meetups, and other events where product managers gather is a great way to make connections and network with potential talent.
Many of these events further facilitate matchmaking between hiring managers and candidates. It might be a physical job board, tables for companies that are hiring or stickers on your badge.
You can go the extra mile and offer to speak or present at the event, maybe even on a product management career-related topic. Highlight the cool things your company is working on and show off your sparkling personality and witty repartee.
Even if you’re only attending, don’t forget to use social media to let folks know you’re there. Leverage that hashtag and let others following along know you’re onsite and looking for talent.
Work your network
Product management is a small world, so let everyone know you’re on the lookout for fresh candidates. Start with your team of product managers and ask if they liked working with anyone in the past that might be open to a new opportunity.
Beyond your own company, reach out to former colleagues and coworkers that you respect and ask around. Even if they can’t think of anyone off the top of their heads, it might eventually lead to a promising connection down the line.
Moreover, if you don’t mind getting inundated with inquiries, use your social media outlets to spread the word. If you’ve got a big public following, you might be opening up Pandora’s box, but there could be some keepers in there. Plus, you could always join a few more communities to increase your reach.
Take a chance on a mentee
A fully qualified candidate is sometimes too hard to find. If so, then you might need to take on more of a “project.” If you’re willing to put in the hours and effort to serve as a mentor as well as a manager, then bringing on someone without product management experience is another avenue to explore.
If they’ve got decent people and communication skills along with some technical acumen, a newbie to the profession could be the answer. Your hire could be a new grad, a current coworker looking to give product management a try, or an engineer ready to trade in coding for roadmapping. If you have the patience and energy, you can coach them up on the key responsibilities of being a PM and build your team organically.
Picking a Winner
Now, you’ve used the methods above to fill your pool of applicants. It’s time to sort through the masses and find your future PM choice:
- You’ll need to decide just how technical your new product manager must be.
- Is it OK if they’re remote?
- Are they going to be compatible with your all-star product management team?
And, of course, there’s all that interviewing. Ready to put this into practice? 
