If you want to hire a user interface designer you get to see their portfolio and you will immediately see the quality of their work.

If you want to hire a software engineer, you can see their code and see what it is that they can produce.

But when it comes to hiring product managers for software businesses, it's not quite as straightforward.

When you look at the role of a product manager you see that they identify someone else's needs and turn them over to others to…

The great American comedian Jerry Seinfeld is quoted as saying that “According to most studies, people’s number one fear is public speaking. Number two is death. Death is number two. This means to the average person, if you go to a funeral, you’re better off in the casket than doing the eulogy.”

We can all understand this feeling as we’ve all felt the fear of having to stand up and talk in front of others…

Scenario:

You are in the process of hiring for a role that has a lot of technical skills requirements, however, the team is very collaborative and communicates a lot on how they will work together to achieve a specific result.  

Question:

What tests can you put together that will illustrate the candidate's soft skills in this area?

It's a…

I’ve hired a lot of people in my time. From cashiers and ushers when I managed cinemas, through client service managers when working in digital agencies, through to software engineers, data analysts, and marketing managers when working in software startups.

Some of the hires were successful and some less so, but one thing the most successful ones had in common was the ability to communicate. They were capable of talking to their colleagues, or to customers or partners about the needs…