How to hire a Head of Product

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

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

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

• 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.

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.

**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.