We're usually available to start ASAP, meaning 3-10 business days from the moment our contract is signed. In some cases, it was the next day.

We bill for time and material. Our day rate depends on the seniority of the client-facing representative, contract length (3+ months), allocation (2-4 days/week), volume, and complexity. We're happy to extend an offer once we understand the scope of work and your needs better. Schedule a call to help us prepare an offer for you.

ASAP Availability: Hiring a full-time employee takes 3-9 months from publishing the job to their first day at your company. We manage our “bus factor” and ensure service continuation without losing knowledge or momentum, even if our representatives become unavailable on short notice (e.g., COVID-19).

Flexibility without liability: A full-time employee comes with a lot of responsibility and liability. We're a service provider, and our services have 4 weeks' notice to allow for a smooth handover if your plans change. Unlike layoffs, there's no team morale impact, as we always aim to exit on a high note and leave things in order. Many of our clients have returned at a later date thanks to this approach.
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Mitigate Opportunity cost: A development team in Europe costs €500,000-€1,000,000/year with overhead. Try a back-of-napkin calculation with the opportunity cost from not launching a critical initiative the right way or having them spend time on low-value initiatives. Although more difficult to quantify, decreased team morale and communication breakdown can also happen when a Product Manager is missing for too long.

Talented and ambitious Product Managers join us to accelerate their careers and see behind the curtain of Europe’s best product companies, instead of potentially stagnating in one company or sector and working on only one product. With us, they work on a wide range of B2C and B2B products across many industries and with different company sizes (from series A+ to publicly listed). We support companies through hyper-growth, downturns, and all of life’s challenges.

Product Managers also join to work closely with and learn from other high-caliber individuals. At Product People, we focus on hiring for skills rather than solely based on CVs or past experience. We have an extensive hiring process, which you can learn about in our candidate interview guide. Our team members have comprehensive 360 feedback cycles every 3 months - not only on client work but also with internal initiatives. With a strong internal growth mentality, we actively develop and promote our people.

We take vacations seriously and also allow our PMs to recharge via paid sabbaticals and optional 4-day work weeks. Nevertheless, we take measures to provide uninterrupted service to our clients. All of our PMs are accompanied by an Associate PM, which is complimentary for the client. This person acts as a backup to limit the “bus factor” and can step up to cover short vacations and sick leave. If the leading PM plans a longer leave, we onboard and train another PM of the same level or higher to keep the momentum. Any time invested in handovers is complimentary to the client; we will make sure that the client's team doesn't experience any overhead.

At Product People, we aim to minimize the new PM onboarding overhead for the companies by hiring the best Product Managers and training them to serve as interim PMs. This is achieved by implementing two core elements in our organization: a rigorous hiring process and weekly internal training.

 Firstly, the PMs at Product People are all full-time employees of the company and have gone through a 5-step recruiting process. We do not necessarily care about the years of PM experience as long as candidates show great product sense, strong communication skills, and mental flexibility. We test product management skills and knowledge, as well as soft skills.
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‍Secondly, we train our PMs on a portfolio of the best PM practices and how to successfully onboard to a new product and team. These two approaches help our PMs to adapt quickly in an interim role, creating impact within the first two weeks. This may involve dealing with demotivated teams and difficult stakeholders; our team is able to assess and delicately maneuver the cultural landscape. As all of our PMs have worked in multiple industries, they are not afraid of dealing with new topics and can always lean on the rest of the Product People team for advice and guidance.

1. Interim Product Manager (or Product Leader)
Parental leave or extended sick leave covers usually range between 3 and 9 months. We also bridge the gap with permanent positions, while you’re searching for the right fit; this can vary from 3 to 12 months, depending on the role. We recommend a two-week overlap with your departing PM for a smooth handover and to minimize knowledge loss.

We can also tackle important and urgent initiatives that your product team doesn't have the capacity for driving, product discovery, and/or delivery to meet a deadline, we can create a measurable impact in 3 months.

2. Product Coach or Consultant (or Program Manager/Product Ops)
As a coach for your product management team members, we appraise their respective skill sets and set up personal development plans. We can also help streamline product operations and grow product thinking in your company, whether during hyper-growth or at scale. Read more about the coaching options we offer.

3. Product Discovery
Discover the next impactful initiative or product using market and user research to create a clear business model. We can help run a low or no-code MVP pilot; discover, ideate, align your team, and kick off with a set budget or timeline in mind. We support your team with iterative processes to develop better products.

Yes, we are happy to fill in Product Leadership roles (CPO, Director of Product, VP Product, Head of Product, Lead PM) on an interim basis to support your company leaders taking leave (parental, sabbatical, health-related) or while you are recruiting. Our Group PMs and Senior PMs have 6-10 years in Product Management, as well as extensive experience in coaching and mentoring junior PMs. They can also support your organization in defining a PM leveling structure, PM development plans, hiring, and onboarding strategy. You leverage their expertise, as well as that of Product People, based on hundreds of PM interviews we have conducted and over fifty PMs we have trained internally.

We can help upskill your team through structured workshops, Product Management boot camps, and individual coaching programs. For topics or activities, we don't cover, we have trusted partners and courses to which we can refer you.