Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

Some good questions, you won't get answers to all:

What's your runway? Are you profitable? What is your yearly revenue?

What's the biggest problem you're facing right now? What could kill you in the short-term? What's your plan for this year?

How does your Product team work with your Software Engineering team? Do you have x-functional teams? Do you do semi-regular retrospectives?

What's the background of your leadership team? Eg. has your Head of Product worked as a PM at a FAANG? What's the best thing and the worst thing about working with the CEO/CTO?



> Eg. has your Head of Product worked as a PM at a FAANG?

The worst heads of product I've had could all answer yes. None of the best could.

Do you actually seek this out?


I had the opposite experience. The best Product culture / PMs I've worked with was at FB by a wide margin.


Those points aren't necessarily in disagreement. I've known a lot of people who thought they were ready for the next level or two steps up but weren't. So they went from an A+ IC somewhere solid to a C- "director" at a startup as soon as they got the chance.

(disclosure: former PM, current Head of Product, have almost certainly made this class of mistake)


What's Eng team and HoP?


First one is going to have to be engineering.


Head of Product?




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: