Quartermaster - Martyn Bassett Associates

Following a successful test-market release, Quartermaster was ready to invest and hire a Senior Product Manager.

The Search Statistics

Number of days to the first round of resumes: 11
Number of candidates considered: 15
Number of candidates interviewed: 14
Number of business days to complete the search: 92

The Search

Following the release of Quartermaster’s mobile app to a test-market neighbourhood in Toronto, the company was ready to invest in the hire of a Senior Product Manager to focus on the consumer experience side of the marketplace product.

The goal of this hire was to ensure homeowners have a good experience with the product while also identifying features that align with the company’s business goals and bring value to the user experience. Additionally, the company wanted this hire to create a scalable and repeatable process for managing the product and acquiring homeowners through productled initiatives.

Before engaging our firm, Quartermaster had tried to hire for this role. The efforts of a contingency recruiting firm had yielded a small number of candidates, but the quality had not been satisfactory. Our firm was selected for our experience completing “difficult to find” product management searches.

Consumer experience-focused Product Managers are the most challenging persona of candidate to recruit for in the Canadian market as Canada is primarily a B2B SaaS market. This makes competition for B2C/DTC talent fierce.

The Client

Our client is a Canadian startup whose marketplace product helps homeowners find local, highly recommended home and property service providers. Currently, in a test market with active users, Quartermaster has ambitious goals and the funding to support their next level of product growth.

Search Requirements

The critical requirement for this search centered on experience managing products used by consumers at scale.

The ideal candidate would have additional experience managing a marketplace product. Valuable experience included working for a product-led organization that applied ‘best of’ product practices, including data-driven decision making.

Preference was given to those who empathized with the problems Quartermaster is solving for and who understood the unique needs of managing a household.

The Hire

This hire had 10 years of employment experience, all of which were working for digital-first tech companies whose products and experiences focussed on engaging consumer users. Their last 4 years were spent with their most recent employer, where they accomplished significant product launches and growth. A Product Manager for an elite team of PMs working on the consumer experience side of a B2B2C product.

Capable of working with user data to identify opportunities to reimagine or iterate on the experience to achieve a specific outcome. Experience launching new features while working in agile teams, partnering closely with Designers and Engineers Focused on user retention and engagement. Product experiences included gamification, which was attractive to our client.

“Out of the gate, the quality of candidates was excellent. We were delighted with the level of talent we were able to meet and the dedication brought to this search.”

–– Steve Aitken, CPO

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