Startup Roles

Hiring guide · Updated 2026-07-16

How to hire a Head of Product

The first product hire replaces the founder's intuition with a discipline the team can rely on. Bring them in too early and they slow shipping. Bring them in at the right moment and they turn a chaotic backlog into a compounding roadmap.

Short answer

Hire a Head of Product once you have more than one product surface and a founder who can no longer sit in every customer call. Expect £120k–£160k / $180k–$230k base plus 0.4%–1.0% equity at seed, a four-stage loop built around a real roadmap teardown, and a 60-day expectation of one shipped bet — not a strategy deck.

Also searched as: First product hire · VP Product · Founding PM · Head of Product startup · First product manager.

Draft this JD in 60 secondsCopy the JD template

When to hire

  • You have 5+ engineers and shipping decisions have started to collide.
  • You are in-market with real customers giving you conflicting feedback.
  • The founder is spending more than half their time on product mechanics.

What they own

  • Own the product roadmap and quarterly planning.
  • Run discovery: customer calls, opportunity trees, prioritisation frameworks.
  • Partner with engineering on scope and sequencing.
  • Ship the first version of product operations: specs, launch process, release notes.
  • Hire the next PMs as scope demands.

Must-haves

  • Shipped a product at a company between $2m and $50m ARR.
  • Comfortable writing PRDs, running discovery, and doing hands-on analytics.
  • Track record of killing bad ideas, not just shipping.

Nice-to-haves

  • Design or engineering background before PM.
  • Prior founder or founding-team experience.

Red flags

  • Wants a large PM team on day one.
  • Cannot describe the last feature they killed.
  • Frames every problem as a process problem.

Where to source

  • PMs at portfolio companies one stage ahead.
  • Group PMs at scaled startups who want scope.
  • Warm intros from other founders who have hired their first PM.

Interview loop

  1. Founder chat on the current product state and biggest debts.
  2. Product review: they audit your product live for 45 minutes.
  3. Prioritisation exercise on your real backlog.
  4. References from an engineer, designer, and manager.

Compensation bands (2026)

MarketBaseEquity
UK seed£110k–£140k0.5%–1.0%
UK Series A£140k–£180k0.3%–0.75%
US seed$170k–$210k0.5%–1.25%
US Series A$210k–$260k0.3%–0.75%

Copy-paste JD template

**Head of Product at [Company]**

[Company] is [context]. We are hiring our first Head of Product to own the roadmap and give the team a shared discipline.

**What you will own**
- Product roadmap, quarterly planning, and prioritisation.
- Discovery: customer calls, opportunity trees, opportunity scoring.
- Product operations: PRDs, launch process, release notes.

**About you**
- Shipped a product at a company between $2m and $50m ARR.
- Comfortable writing PRDs, running discovery, and doing your own analytics.
- Have killed features, not just shipped them.

**Comp**
[Base] + [equity]. Direct partnership with the founder on product bets.
See the full JD template page

Frequently asked questions

Founding PM or Head of Product — what's the difference?
The founding PM is an IC who ships alongside the founder. The Head of Product owns discipline and hires PMs under them. Titles matter for signalling to the candidate pool — pick the one that matches the scope you can actually give.

Start your Head of Product search on Startup Roles

Draft the JD, calibrate on your top five candidates, and get a real shortlist inside a day. 5% success fee only on a successful hire.

Start now

Other role guides