If you are reading this post I assume that you are wondering if you should hire the Product Manager for your startup. You should. And the fact you are reading this is a sign of good intuition.
Let me give you 4 reasons why you have to ASAP Hire the Product Manager if you really think about success. For the case of this article assume that you already got some early adopters and you are thinking right now about going all in.
The Product Manager will help you build the product that clients really need.
Customers are the most important factor at this stage. As you aim to reach an early majority there is a lot of marketing, gathering feedback, and implementing improvements in front of you. It requires time for talking with your clients, getting in their shoes, and truly understanding their needs (and what problems our product is solving in detail). This is, by all means, a very time-consuming task. Without a dedicated Product Manager you might not have enough time for all the actions. The risk is that you might build a product that will not match client needs. And without matching client needs there is almost no chance of growing.
Hire the Product Manager and she will make the product grow faster by making good decisions
You as a CEO and Product Manager can (because of limited time) make decisions based on your intuition or by heart. For instance, you might put more effort into implementing a feature that an early adopter requested over a feature that new adopters need. The Product Manager will be focused only on the product so he will have enough time to reconsider every decision and validate it with data. A good Product Manager like me will prepare a set of KPIs and metrics (OMTM and North Star included). He will work on them with both you and the stakeholders. He will implement a real data-driven approach to hack the growth.
The Product Manager will save your money spend on the product team
It might feel opposite since he is another man to hire, but in fact, with a good Product Manager, you can spend less money to develop the same feature. It is common knowledge that unclear requirements, communication problems, and lack of constant cooperation between the development team and Product Manager will sooner or later lead to problems. One of them is developing features that won’t meet your expectations and in the result forces you to waste money on changing them. Dedicated Product Manager minimizes the risk of such a thing, as he is more responsive and has time to collaborate with the team on a daily basis.
Hire the Product Manager and he will prevent you from losing business opportunities
Now when the product is entering the phase of rapid growth you need the comfort of focusing on CEO duties. When you cooperate with the development team you should be available for answering questions. Even more, participating in meetings and ceremonies with the team is mandatory. Fulfilling both roles might put you into a conflict between your CEO duties and Product Manager responsibilities. With not enough time for both, you might have to lose new business opportunities you won’t lose with a dedicated Product Manager.
Conclusion
Summarizing Hite the Product Manager who will be dedicated to this particular product. It is for sure a good move since he will:
- Build a product that your clients really need.
- Hack growth to reach the early majority faster.
- Saves money spent on the development.
- Allow you to focus on emerging business opportunities.