The Louder Than Ten Digital PM and Producer hiring guide

What to look for in stellar PM candidates

When you’re hiring, focus less on how many years of experience your PM candidates have and in what industry, and more on their openness and ability to learn, grow, adapt, and demonstrate expertise in people management and workflows. Veterans in PM may be great at client management, but they also pick up bad habits like a ‘my way or highway’ mentality and they might not be as open to adjusting processes. On the other hand, inexperienced PMs may lack confidence and the ability to set clear boundaries and expectations that keep projects healthy and profitable. We’ve trained technical writers, developers, marketers and seen them all become successful PMs because they wanted to learn how. It’s more about a curious and adaptive mind and an itch for new information.

We also believe anyone who has worked in the service industry (baristas, bartenders, teachers) are better candidates than stodgy or task-oriented folks who don’t understand that the real job they have is to support the people doing the work on the project, not just the actual pieces of the project themselves. A process can’t come before a person. Candidates who put process before people grind people up in those processes. Instead, look for candidates who get buy-in and alignment around process.

Emotional intelligence

You want candidates to understand different kinds of people and how they think and work. They can have tough conversations with your team and client decision makers. They demonstrate how to say no and have a justifiable reason or business case and they can align decision makers around a common goal. They are accountable for their behaviour. They’re accountable to their team.

• Watch for ‘I’ vs ‘we’ language (we indicated collective thinking vs siloed credit taking)
• They take actions that bind the team together and will not throw anyone under the bus
• They embrace discomfort and help everyone else work through discomfort
• They create a supportive, safe environment for the people around them

Integrity

Great candidates are confident and have an opinion: they don’t just mimic what you want them to say. They are willing to question your processes and ensure that your company and processes are a fit for them, too. They inquire about the way you treat the team and the way you work, and if you’ll go to bat for them when they stand up for a decision they believe in.

• They don’t back down just because something intimidates them; they will seek to understand it, engage with it, or question it
• They embrace change and the uncertainty that comes with it
• They don’t hold back—they are proactive and communicate risks up front with ease

Critical thinking

They love to solve complex problems. They love to learn. They carry no ego and no sense of entitlement. They ask why a lot.

They like systems and processes. They think big but see and love small details. They like to understand how to put things together and how to take them apart. They love to tinker. Their curiosity drives their intent. They see how systems drive the story of how their team and clients get work done. If they don’t like systems, process, big pictures, or details, they won’t like this job.

• Ask them to describe how they would explain a complex PM task or feature to someone who had never done it before (e.g., how would you explain how to prioritize tasks on a project?)
• They can demonstrate that they have made improvements and reduced inefficiencies in broken or limping systems
• They make tweaks and question process when it hurts people and projects
• They help decision makers prioritize effectively
• They remove barriers and blockers that prevent the team from doing good work

Intuitive communication

They listen, read, write, and communicate well—really well. And you check their work before they send it (aka no spelling mistakes). Professional communication is key in this job. They’re aware of and sensitive to others’ needs and adapt their communication style and approach to fit the needs of all decision makers.

• They bump communication up to more intimate methods as the topic and tone become more serious (aka a video or in-person meeting is a more sensitive way to deliver bad news than an email)
• They focus on the big picture for Director style communicators and drill down to the details for Thinkers. They engage Relators and effectively manage Socializers
• They internalize valuable scripts to get buy-in and alignment

Candor

They are fun and genuine and others say they have a candid sense of humour. They give everyone an equal voice at the table and strive to be a champion for their team. They commit to honesty even when it’s difficult. They know how to manage client and team expectations. They can manage up with grace and affinity.

• They celebrate wins and create blameless environments around failures
• They communicate effortlessly and control the channels through which they give and receive information

Just a quick note here: unless formally trained, many PMs (even senior-level candidates) may struggle with some of these questions. We have a high bar that we set for the apprentices we train, and we expect them to be able to answer all of these comfortably.

Scope

Have them describe how they handled an out-of-scope project (did they reduce scope, prioritize effectively, reset expectations?). Pay attention to how they pay attention to detail.

Communication

Let them talk about how they dealt with a difficult personality on the team or with a client (did they get alignment, work toward a positive outcome, build a better relationship, save the project?)

Project plans

Have them detail a complex project and how they tackled the project plan (are they including buffers and internal reviews? Are they anticipating delays? Are they prioritizing effectively?)

Estimation

Get them to describe their estimating process for a complex app (watch to see if they include the team, do they work towards confidence on estimates, do they include risk analysis)

Red flags and risks

Get them to describe common red flags on projects and how they’ve mitigated them in the past (watch to see if they recognize how risk can be positive or negative and how they use red flags as an opportunity for team education and preventing scope creep)

Profitability

Have them talk about how a one week delay impacts the profitability of your project (cost of delay, blocking new projects from starting, not being able to collect from client, or launch setbacks)

Stakeholder management

Get them to respond to a difficult email and reset expectations (watch for tone and clarity and the ability to be a lovable hardass)

Alignment

Ask them why they love being a PM (look for more words about people than projects)

Emotional intelligence

Ask them to describe how they supported a teammate in a past job (look for examples of mentorship, education, bolstering, and expert communication)

Candor

Ask them what they would do if a teammate was a new dad and was consistently coming in late to meetings

Critical thinking

Ask them how they would handle a situation where they knew the team didn’t have the skills for the project (watch for empathy and blameless communication; opportunities for growth)

Scheduling

Ask them to describe how they would create a more productive team schedule (look for things like time blocking, agile approaches, focused productivity aka no meetings, retrospectives etc.)

Learning

Ask them how they hone their craft (note the commitments they make to regular improvement and have them describe how they carve out space for their team to learn)