Startup hiring guides
How to hire a project manager for startups
Project managers hold organizations together, especially for early-stage startups where you’re rapidly growing, throwing processes together and dealing with general startup-related chaos.
It goes without saying that it’s crucial to make the right hire for this linchpin role. The right person can help streamline your operations and ensure your projects are on track. If you need help hiring a project manager, Dover has you covered.
Introduction
In this guide, we’ll walk you through everything you need to know about hiring a project manager for your startup. From understanding the role to sourcing and interviewing candidates, we’ll take you through every step. Let’s dive in.
Understanding the role
A project manager does much more than just oversee tasks. In an early-stage startup, a PM wears many hats, ensuring that business goals are aligned with project outcomes while also navigating limited resources and rapid growth.
PMs in early-stage startups need to be hands-on and adaptable, as they’ll play a huge role in setting up processes, managing cross-functional teams and ensuring every budget stays on track and on budget.
To better understand the role of a PM, here are some key responsibilities they’ll take on:
Planning and prioritization: A PM develops project plans and timelines, They also help decide how to allocate resources for the project.
Stakeholder communication: Project managers act as a bridge between teams, founders and external stakeholders.
Process building: PMs build project management workflows and processes from scratch and then refine them over time.
Problem-solving: PMs help solve unexpected roadblocks and challenges that pop up during a project.
Overall coordination: PMs see a project through from start to finish.
Reporting and analytics: PMs define project success metrics and put together reports to analyze and improve for future projects.
Understanding the role of a project manager can help you outline your needs for the role when you start sourcing candidates.
What to look for in a project manager
Hiring the right project manager means finding someone with the right mix of technical skills, soft skills and adaptability.
Some essential qualities to prioritize include:
Strong organization skills: A project manager needs to juggle multiple tasks, deadlines and priorities without losing focus. Make sure you find someone who can thrive in a dynamic environment while keeping everything in line.
Leadership: A PM needs to coordinate cross-functional teams and keep everyone focused on the project. They should know how to motivate, mediate conflict and encourage collaboration.
Adaptability: In startups, plans inevitably change. A PM should be able to think on their feet and come up with creative solutions for challenges and obstacles.
Familiarity with project management tools and frameworks: Tools like Asana, Trello, Jira and Slack should be in any PM skill set. They’ll need to use these tools to streamline workflows and improve productivity. They should also have knowledge of frameworks like Agile, Scrum, etc.
Ability to Thrive in Ambiguity: Startups often operate with limited structure and rapidly changing priorities. Your project manager should be comfortable navigating uncertainty and coming up with new processes on the fly.
Resourcefulness: Startups have big plans but limited budgets and small teams. Look for someone who can maximize productivity while working with fewer resources.
Experience with startups: Finally, it’s nice to have someone who has experience with early-stage startups. This means they understand the environment they’re jumping into and how to hit the ground running.
Planning & preparation
Before you begin the hiring process, take some time to outline the scope and responsibilities of the project manager role. This preparation phase helps your hiring team align on what makes an ideal candidate.
Here are some questions to ask during the planning phase:
What types of projects will the PM oversee?
Are they setting up new project management processes or refining existing ones?
Are there any project bottlenecks or challenges they’ll be jumping in to help with immediately?
What technical skills and PM platform knowledge should they have?
What PM methodologies should they be familiar with? (Agile, Scrum, Waterfall, etc.)
What metrics will be used to measure their success?
What are the teams and departments the PM will be working with?
What experience level should they have?
What is the budget for this position?
Crafting the perfect job description
Once you’ve spent sufficient time planning for the PM hiring process, it’s time to craft your job description. A great job description will attract top project managers while also filtering out unqualified candidates. It’s your first impression to potential candidates, and it’s a great opportunity to get buy-in for the role.
For startups, it’s always a great tactic to explain the ground-floor nature of the role. Project managers are often go-getters, and the chance to develop new processes for a growing company can be exciting. Highlighting the growth opportunities and creativity allowed in the role can help you get interest from top talent.
Some other key elements to include in your job description include:
Role overview: Provide a clear and concise explanation of the role. This is where those questions from earlier come in handy.
Responsibilities: List key duties you expect a PM to take on, like project planning, team coordination, reporting, etc.
Qualifications: List required skills and experience, such as knowledge of PM tools like Asana and frameworks like Agile.
Expectations: Outline your performance expectations for the role. For instance, you want new streamlined processes in place within three months of hiring.
Perks and benefits: Highlight perks like equity, remote work and other benefits that would attract top candidates.
Culture fit: Highlight your mission and values to attract candidates who share your vision.
If you need help with your job description, try Dover’s free ATS. We help you auto-generate quality job descriptions that bring in the best candidates for your startup.
Sourcing & evaluating candidates
Once you have your job description ready to go, it’s time to start sourcing your candidates. You have a few avenues for sourcing, but some of the most common are job boards, referrals and hiring help from recruiters. Eventually, you’ll get a pool of qualified applicants that fit the role.
With a great job description and the right sourcing strategy, you shouldn’t have trouble getting plenty of applications. But, evaluating these applications and finding the best candidates to talk to can take some time. You need to review the applications, find the right fit and reach out to start scheduling interviews.
Dover can help with both sourcing and evaluation. Our free ATS generates your job descriptions and posts them to top job boards to bring candidates in. You can also use our Recruiting Partners marketplace to get freelance hiring help. Once you get your applications, use our AI-assisted resume scoring to make it easy to find the best people for the project manager role.
Interviewing candidates
Once you’ve narrowed down your applicants to the best of the bunch, it’s time to dive deeper into their skills and assess their potential fit for your startup.
Here’s a quick step-by-step for your project manager interviews:
Pre-screening: Start with a quick phone call or video interview to confirm basic qualifications. This can help you gauge their interest in the role and if they’d be a good fit.
Technical assessment: This is when you can gauge their understanding of project management tools, frameworks and methodologies. Test their technical knowledge and see how they’ve applied it in real-world projects. An example question might be: “Can you walk us through a project you managed using Agile or Scrum? What challenges did you face, and how did you overcome them?”
Scenario-based questions: Ask questions to assess their soft skills like communication and conflict resolution. These questions also test their ability to think on their feet. An example question might be: How would you handle and resolve a conflict between two teams?”
Team fit interview: Have team leads and relevant C-suite team members talk to the candidate to see if they’re a good fit for your team and your startup culture.
Remember to keep the interview process as streamlined as possible while still assessing their skills. Three interview rounds is a good number, as you can screen them, evaluate their abilities and determine if they’re a good fit for the company.
Track candidates from application to offer with Dover’s free ATS
No matter what role you’re hiring, it can be overwhelming to manage candidates throughout the hiring process. That’s where our free ATS can help. With applicant tracking from application to offer, automated workflows and AI-assisted resume scoring, you can find your next great project manager in a fraction of the time.
Hire top talent fast with Dover!
Even if you have a great hiring process in place, it can take time and specialized knowledge to hire a good project manager. Many startups simply don’t have the resources to spend days or weeks on recruiting.
Dover’s Recruiting Partners marketplace is your solution. You can connect with experienced freelance startup recruiters who can source top talent, conduct interviews, negotiate and handle anything else you need related to hiring. They also work hourly instead of long-term contracts, making them ideal for startup budgets and hiring volume. Connect with a recruiter in our marketplace today.
Interviewing candidates
