We were recently engaged by a client to conduct a search for a Senior Product Manager. Our client is a startup of approximately 40 full-time employees, and had recently secured a large round of investment. They are a B2B SaaS solution for enterprises to make better decisions through data.
This organization was in need of their first Senior Product Manager to work under their CPO. They were looking for a candidate who had the strategic experience to really understand and add value to the product, who could be hands-on and comfortable working with the engineering and marketing teams to execute on the launch of new features and products. They also needed a candidate who was comfortable in client-facing environments to gather requirements and do pre-selling.
Our client needed to hire quickly, and we presented only 4 highly qualified candidates for consideration:
The White-boarding Wizard: Base salary of $125K.
- A Senior PM with deep subject matter expertise in financial applications and banking.
- Track record of releasing successful products that leveraged AI, machine learning, and big data.
- Took several products from idea to successful release.
- Work history included time as an independent contractor, as well as a dev shop, which fine-tuned their white-boarding and customer facing skills.
The SaaS Superstar: Base salary of $125K, with a variable bonus ranging from $15 – 20K annually.
- Experienced working on B2B SaaS for complex fintech products.
- SaaS strategist who leveraged strong interpersonal and client communications skills to deeply understand the user experience and build the roadmap.
- Subject matter expert, experienced with both the software and client needs.
The Startup Strategist: Base salary of $80K, plus bonus and stock options.
- Product strategist ideating net new product opportunities for a fintech startup.
- Track-record of effective collaboration with engineering and other stakeholders within the organization.
- Successful contributions to raising capital for the organization, and excellent presentation/client-facing skills.
The Hire: Base salary of $100K.
- Experienced identifying business opportunities, ideating new products, and then building and launching them in the market.
- Able to consistently and quickly communicate the value proposition of a product to clients and other external stakeholders.
- Deep subject matter expertise in the banking and fintech space.
- Was a part of the team that pitched to banks to raise money for their organization.
To attract the candidate they hired, our client offered $110K, options, and 4 weeks of vacation.
As you can see, compensation for these candidates varies significantly, based on the depth of their expertise, their release experience, and the verticals they’ve worked in.
Are you getting ready to hire a Product Manager? We’ve created a free checklist to help you refine your requirements, plan the interview process, and get aligned on competitive compensation.
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For organizations and job seekers alike, it can be challenging to understand what a particular position should pay. Often, it’s a calculation between salary surveys that lack all context, what a person has earned in the past, and ad hoc conversations with others in the field.
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