Celebrating my 2 years at Productboard – and all that we’ve set up. ??

I’m celebrating my 2nd year at Productboard in a month ?? – and reminiscing, because oh what a ride! It all started with an unexpected message from one curly-haired, energetic human, one Terka Machackova. When I received a message from Terka I had no idea Productboard existed and was skeptical about making a change. That said, I was really impressed by her message so I was curious to see what was behind the curtains (so to speak) and we agreed to meet. I was sold in the first minute, when Terka started talking about Productboard and its mission. It was the best interview process I have ever experienced. 

I spent one day in the office with Lu and Terka to better understand what the job would be about and got to experience the office vibe. Part of that, was a very nice lunch with colleagues from different departments. Yes, lunch in a restaurant – like in the good old days! And, even more unusually, I met with the founders; Hubert and Daniel. I will never forget when I tried the Zoom link in order to be prepared for a call with Hubert, and accidentally jumped in his call with a customer/investor instead! You should have seen my very red face :D but… I still MADE IT and received my offer. Terka is the most creative person I know, which you can see even from my offer email (below). What lovely personal touch.

How we work as a talent team

Talent scout ??recruiter ??recruiting coordinator. That is our trio. We implemented this structure at Productboard a year ago and it’s working well. As a recruiter, I work with the hiring manager and design a hiring process, aligning on a successful profile. Adelka’s written a great article about her cooperation with hiring managers if you’re interested. Since our process is founded on a very active approach, and we reach out to candidates, I cannot imagine my life without the help of a talent scout. Which brings me to my wonderful colleague Nico. 

Nico can find a needle in a haystack, and is our sourcing star now – he can check 556677 profiles in an hour and find the right talent! He also tests various ways of attracting our candidates, perfecting our methodology. However, he’ll be moving to the Sales team soon, and since we can’t clone him, we’re searching for a new colleague to join our team as Talent Scout! Could that be you? 

And after that part of the process, our Lenicka, the recruiting coordinator, takes over! She makes sure that we treat every candidate as THE candidate. Each person’s experience matters to us and Lenka communicates with our candidates regularly, so they know exactly what to expect from our hiring process (and when). 

This is Stephen, our Senior Director of Product/Design who relocated from France. (Lenka likes to offer our candidates lots of respect, a smile, and a small gift.)

We’ve grown so much – and haven’t stopped.

Our trio caught fire recruiting for the design, product, operations, and business team – basically everything except engineering! That’s Adelka’s “turf” and she’s doing a tremendous job scaling Productboard’s Engineering team. In fact, she’s looking for another pair of hands, or one more recruiter, to help her bring more engineers on board. Check out her 6 reasons as to why you should join us! 

And, if you’re not convinced, know that (globally) we hired 130+ colleagues last year! It really wouldn’t have been possible without Klára, áňa and Kamil from the internal People ops team, who take care of onboarding, and our one and only Jirka, who is in charge of employer branding and building meaningful communities. 

And, if that’s not enough, we’re still growing...we’ll be welcoming Simca as a recruiting coordinator and Va?ek who will help us with hiring for the product team. BTW, we’re also searching for a European Talent lead! It’s an incredible opportunity to lead our team – and we can’t wait for the perfect candidate to arrive. If you know anyone that matches the part, go ahead and direct them to the link above. 

How we work on a daily basis.

The talent team meets weekly, starting with a Monday sync. Mondays aren’t our favourite days so we try to make it interactive. The leader of the meeting changes each time, and we always prepare a fun activity so that we don’t only discuss work ??. During the week we also have regular meetings with hiring managers and the finance team. In addition, we also want to be in touch with our internal People ops team so we scheduled a joint Coffee & People Ops meeting on a monthly basis where we discuss various topics like mental health, diversity etc. 

And since we have colleagues in North America, we celebrate our wins and talk about updates/priorities during our Global People Ops All Hands, and also have a recruiting review meeting with leadership. And, I almost forgot! On a company level, we host an international retreat each year so that we can celebrate what we’ve achieved together as a company, face-to-face. We weren’t able to meet last year (because Covid) but our amazing Workplace Experience team prepared an awesome online event ?? Productboard virtual pub.

Curious about what tools we use? Take a look below:

• Greenhouse ??
• Amazing Hiring 
• Mixmax, Gem, Loom 
• Slack, Notion, Eventbrite, LinkedIn Recruiter, CultureAmp, Bamboo

Producboard has given me the opportunity to work with hugely inspiring people, who are passionate about the work they do. I never have the feeling that I am the smartest one in the room. I think it is a privilege to be part of such a unique culture. ?? According to Forbes, Productboard is the best startup in Czechia and now armed with $72M in Series C from @Tiger_Global, @indexventures, @kleinerperkins, @Sequoia, @BessemerVP, we’re on a mission to create the first dedicated product management platform ??. 

Productboard is also planning to open an office in Dublin, so there are more challenges to come. Coronavirus has not stopped us! If anything, Productboard has been flexible and resilient at the same time, supporting us in finding our way through this tough time. I actually moved to a cottage in the middle of nowhere – there are only 10 inhabitants, one ranch, and one pub! And I visit the office once a week to be in touch with civilization and my beloved ones, but I cannot wait for the moment when we all meet in person! Hopefully, it will happen soon and we can feel the great atmosphere of being together. That can’t be described, you have to experience it; and I hope one day you will.  

Thank you Productboard for a life changing opportunity! ??

I’m leaving you with a few unforgettable moments below, since a picture speaks a thousand words. 

The People Ops Team when I started ??

The People Ops team on our offsite in Portugal in 2020

Celebrating series C in the office ??

????Visiting our office in San Francisco 

A People Ops offsite – volunteering in Farma ?těstí

Lenicka and Nico, my partners in crime in La Bodeguita del Medio.

Yes, our team love latino ??

Chilling on the roof with the whole Productboard team ??

Another offsite, this time with the product and design team ??

Maya, our newest colleague in the office ??

????Conference Recfest in London