Coaching: Sustain · Core
Improve how PMs are hired and onboarded
Fair, structured hiring and a good first few months shape the product team for years. Use the career framework to hire and onboard consistently.
About 3-8 daysEvergreenLast reviewed 5 November 2026
Who this applies to
- Skills it builds
- Leadership and coaching
- PM types
- All
- Product types
- All
- Starting points
- All
- Ways of working
- All
- Experience
- Intermediate (1 to 4 years)Experienced (5+ years)
- Size of organisation
- All
Steps, by experience
Beginner (under 1 year)
- Base the job description on the career framework.
- Use the same questions and scoring for every candidate.
- Train interviewers on the questions and scoring.
- Write an onboarding plan for the first 90 days.
- Ask new joiners what helped and what was missing.
Intermediate (1 to 4 years)
- Use a work sample that reflects the real job.
- Check the process for bias.
- Pair new joiners with a buddy.
Experienced (5+ years)
- Set hiring standards across the product organisation.
- Track hiring quality and new-joiner success.
- Build a pipeline of future product leaders.
Who can do this
Owner: Product manager
Can be delegated to
- People / HR partner: Run the hiring process and onboarding logistics
Reviewed by: People / HR partner
Tool examples
- Google Docs
- Keep a shared interview scorecard.
- Confluence
- Publish the 90-day onboarding plan.
Definition of done
- Structured questions and scoring in use
- Interviewers trained
- 90-day onboarding plan published
Common pitfalls
- Unstructured chats
- Brainteaser questions
- No onboarding plan