The Search Statistics
- Number of days to the first round of resumes: 6
- Number of candidates considered: 12
- Number of candidates interviewed: 9
- Number of business days to complete the search: 27
The Search
Coconut Software’s growth over the past 12 months unlocked the opportunity to add a new leader to the business. It was now critical for the company to hire their first Product Leader, reporting to one of the Co-Founders.
The Client
Coconut Software provides an enterprise B2B SaaS solution for customer engagement. With a focus on the financial services industry, Coconut Software enables clients such as RBC, CapitalOne and VanCity to manage complex customer appointments, whether in person or digitally, efficiently and safely. Headquartered in Saskatoon, with an office in Toronto and some distributed employees across Canada, they currently have 62 employees and are expected to grow to 80 by the end of the year.
Search Requirements
The successful hire needed to be a product leader, who had deep experience in enterprise B2B SaaS, and had shipped product that was in market. Leadership experience of product best practices and previously applying them to a start-up, at their stage, was also required. The ideal candidate needed to balance strategic abilities with tactical execution. We were asked to apply a “location agnostic” strategy; therefore, we sourced candidates in Ontario, Calgary, and Vancouver.
The Hire
This hire had over 18 years of employment experience, 8 of which were in Product Management for enterprise B2B SaaS, and is an active member of the Toronto product management community as a mentor and instructor. This hire was selected for their empathetic approach to delivering value to customers. Their ability to shift a business from being purely “sales driven” to one which seeks to apply product value and growth across all customers also instilled confidence.
“We were really impressed with the caliber of candidates Martyn brought forward. As soon as we thought we had ‘the one’, the next candidate was even better.”