Lauren Ipsen

Lauren Ipsen is an executive recruiter specialising in product leadership placements. At the time of this recording she was at General Catalyst. She focuses on CPO, VP of Product, and Head of Product searches for venture-backed companies.

In the wiki

• Lauren Ipsen on Hiring Product Leaders, the 90-Day Plan, and Product Archetypes — do not hire the biggest name, 90-day plan interview method, product leader archetypes, back-channel reference checks, staying warm with the market

Key concepts

• Stage fit over status: matching a product leader’s experience to the company’s current phase is more important than hiring a well-known name
• Three product leader archetypes: platform leaders (infrastructure/developer experience), core leaders (primary product), specialist leaders (domain-specific surfaces)
• 90-day plan interview: evaluates how a candidate handles inherent uncertainty, not whether the plan is correct
• Back-channel references: informal conversations with colleagues who were not offered as formal references; generate signal that formal references will not