Kate Leto - Product EQ: The secret sauce to hiring (& keeping) great product people (Turing Fest 2019)

@kleto PRODUCT EQ The Secret Sauce to Hiring Great Product
People @KLeto #ProductEQ

@kleto Have you heard? Success equals: 85% soft skills 15%
hard skills 15% 85%

@kleto https://www.stamptopia.com/p I am a NERD

@kleto Charles Riborg Mann

@kleto A little historical context Engineering at the time was:
• Becoming recognised as a reputable profession, similar to law & medicine • Increasing popularity, with growth in number calling themselves engineers • Leading innovation in industry, forcing ethical questions of value vs. cost • Lacking a “valid deﬁnition of what constitutes success in engineering?”

@kleto What factors determine success? 3 key groups: • Engineers
• Universities — what curriculum were they teaching? • Hiring companies — were their engineering hires a success or failure?

@kleto Prioritise Asked 30,000 engineers to prioritise criteria for job
success: • Technique • Judgement • Efficiency • Character • Knowledge • Understanding of men

@kleto Prioritise ...and the results: • Character – 94.5% •
Judgement • Efficiency • Understanding of men • Knowledge • Technique (yep, last)

@kleto “It will become more and more essential that schools
of engineering pay greater attention to the effort of their work on the personal development of students.” – CHARLES R. MANN

@kleto FLASH FORWARD 101 YEARS

@kleto Success = IQ + X 1920 “Social Intelligence” (Thorndike)
1918 “Character & Judgement” 1959 “Soft Skills” (US Army) 1983 Emotional Intelligence Theory (Gardner) early ‘90s Emotional Intelligence Extended (Mayer & Salovey) 1995 EQ (Goleman) 2020 WEF

@kleto Recognise, understand and manage our own emotions Recognise, understand
and inﬂuence the emotions of others Quick interlude: Emotional Intelligence

@kleto PRODUCT IS: • Recognised as reputable, Ivy League business
schools are getting in on the act and graduates are turning from banking and consulting to Product • Popular profession, interest in the search term on Google has doubled in 5 years, and over 13 million people on Linkedin self-identify as a Product person globally • Leading innovation in various industries that are forcing ethical questions of the role of our products and businesses in society • Iterating on deﬁnition of what constitutes success in product management? 9 Surprising Facts about Product Management, aifocus blog 2019 Today’s product community

@kleto

@kleto Roadmap EQ

@kleto Product Management success... 10% techni que 50% tools 50%
EQ 90% tools 10% EQ ...today ...tomorrow

@kleto Intervention #1: Hiring into your Teams

@kleto Hiring mistakes are expensive • Turnover costs range from
120-200% of annual salary • New employee performance takes 13 months to reach maximum efficiency • #1 reason people leave is because of “mis-ﬁt,” not lack of skills or education The EQ Interview

@kleto Look for Fit Person-Organisation Fit Theory ORGANISATION Characteristics: •
Culture/Climate • Values • Goals • Norms FIT PERSON Characteristics: • Personality • Values • Goals • Attitudes

@kleto 3 Things to do to hire for Product EQ

@kleto 1 Build a role that matters

@kleto Must-haves: Prove yourself! E-COMMERCE PRODUCT MANAGER • Proven work
experience in B2C product management • Proven track record of managing all aspects of a successful product throughout its lifecycle • Proven ability to develop product and marketing strategies and effectively communicate recommendations to executive management • Solid technical background with understanding and/or hands-on experience in software development and web technologies 1: ROLE Nice-to-haves E-COMMERCE PRODUCT MANAGER • Comfortable with ambiguity remaining unfazed when having to work out how to do things you’ve never been exposed to before. • You’re a natural born leader, people want to work with you • You’re anti-fragile, you bounce back after failure and have an appetite for delivering and learning fast • Self-starter: a driven, motivated individual who identiﬁes opportunities, is prepared to get their hands dirty (digs into details, pushes things over the line).

@kleto https://pixabay.com

@kleto PURPOSE: Why does this role exist? Role Canvas Accountabilities:
What outcomes is the role responsible for? Tools & Techniques JTBD on tasks, responsibilities Behaviours Behaviours: Key elements of Emotional Intelligence @Kate Leto

@kleto 2 Broaden your interview techniques

@kleto Which do you think has more advertising potential in
Boston, a ﬂower shop or a funeral home? –GOOGLE

@kleto "Design an evacuation plan for the building.” – GOOGLE

@kleto 2: INTERVIEW START Asking behavioral interview questions

@kleto Tell me about about a time when you suggested
something that someone disagreed. What did you say? How did you handle the situation? The EQ Interview Conﬂict resolution 2: INTERVIEW

@kleto Have you ever encountered someone at work who was
unreasonable? What did you say? The EQ Interview Conﬂict resolution 2: INTERVIEW

@kleto Actually LISTEN to the response! What is the narrative
that the candidate is sharing? 2: INTERVIEW

@kleto •Learn about EQ •Assess in candidates •Ensure FIT

@kleto 3 Hiring doesn’t stop at the offer

@kleto https://blog.usejournal.com Traditional Product hiring process 3: LEARNING

@kleto • Plan for 6 & 12 month Fit retros
• Evaluate role that you created • Was it the “right” Fit? • Incentivise good hiring decisions - Hiring Batting Average (HBA) Orchestrate long-term learning 3: LEARNING

@kleto Building the role Interviewing for EQ Learning from each
hire Hire for EQ

@kleto The real secret sauce to hiring for Product EQ
comes from you.

@kleto This is just the start of the conversation... Product
EQ blog: https://medium.com/product-eq Twitter: @Kleto Much more to come …

@kleto Thank you!

Kate Leto - Product EQ: The secret sauce to hiring (& keeping) great product people (Turing Fest 2019)

Kate Leto - Product EQ: The secret sauce to hiring (& keeping) great product people (Turing Fest 2019)

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