#39: Are Product Managers Better As Freelancers?
Tim increases organic reach by 500%, 64% of top talent increasingly choose to work independently
🚀 Important Updates
BTG Released their 2021 Top Independent Skills Report. Some great stats from it below:
> 64% of professionals at the top of their industry are increasingly choosing to work independently.
> 32% of CEOs say they are extremely concerned that the availability of key skills is a threat to their business’s growth prospects.
👀 Look Out For
The Senate is expected to vote any day now on the US Infrastructure Bill. This bill might be a Trojan Horse to pass the PRO Act, legislation threatening to force over 60m Americans to lose their freelance business overnight.
😍 Freelancer-Leader Highlight: Tim Haldorsson of Lunar Strategy hiring Sandra Vukovic for Content Management and Social Media.
According to Tim, “Over the 6 months that Sandra has been working as freelance content editor and social media manager the organic reach has increased 500% on Google and the interactions on social media from around 10 daily visitors to the website to 50-60 daily visitors. This has increased the weekly inbound leads from 1-2 to 4-8 leads in the form of email sign ups from guides Sandra created and social media posts.” Holy 💩
Todays Topic TL;DR:
Every leader needs a trusted freelance product manager.
Every product manager should be freelancing, whether full time or on the side.
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Rise Of The Freelance Product Manager
The transition from full time employees to freelancers isn’t the same for every type of role.
Some roles are ideal like journalists. Others seem difficult like bookkeeping. Then others seem difficult yet are ideal - like product management.
I’ve been fortunate to experience all sides of the coin here. I started as a freelance product manager, then joined Microsoft as a PM and was promoted to Lead Growth PM after building the Microsoft 365 freelance toolkit.
What I’ve learned is that the ideal environment for a product manager is freelancing, both for the freelancer and the business.
But don’t take my word at face value - let’s discuss.
What is a product manager?
Product Managers lead the creation of products or features. We could list multiple comprehensive definitions, but if you’re building a house, product managers are general contractors.
The difference with today’s typical product manager and the house analogy is uncertainty. There’s endless possibilities to accomplish a goal OR endless ways to build a product. A good product manager thrives in uncertainty, converting uncertainty into business value by taking ideas from ideation to development to scale without taking too long or wasting too much money.
Take my time building the Microsoft 365 freelance toolkit.
The goal was “how might our customers use Microsoft 365 to hire freelancers up to $100m”. The app possibilities were huge. The certainty was low (we had insights but no prior execution). As a product manager I owned the process from ideation (figuring out what they need), to product development (figuring out how they need to use it), to go-to-market, to scale.
So for you leaders: product managers take challenging problems or projects with high uncertainty and own execution.
Why Are Product Managers Better As Freelancers?
Short Answer: A good product manager makes more money freelancing (and makes the business more money) than as a full time employee.
Long Answer: Incentives are better aligned in a freelance contract than a full time contract.
The contract is project and outcome focused.
Promotion is earned through quantified success metrics, not internal politics.
And the working relationship has inherent advantages.
Wider scope in what you can create since they have a network of fellow remote freelancers.
Faster since they commit to a project cost rather than a salary. You’ll be surprised how fast an MVP gets built (we’re talking days not weeks) when payment is outcome based.
Higher Quality since it’s their own business and their business runs off referrals and follow up work.
Exponentially better outcomes since you’ll keep working with the freelancers you trust.
At times my trusted freelancers get working in minutes. How? Because Freelancers are NOT headcount. They’re trusted partners you’ll work with for the rest of your life. Whether leading a startup, a large company, or a side project, you can always count on your trusted freelancers to drive a massive impact.
How To Hire Your First Product Manager
Hiring freelancers is still the Wild Wild West.
How do you find the right person? What’s the right price? What if they ghost? What if they steal your idea? Hiring freelancers can feel like a mine field.
Try this before you hire.
Step 1: Start with a reference.
Step 2: Let the expert be the expert (hint…not you). Explicitly state your idea or challenge, then let the PM ask the right questions to shape the project plan.
Step 3: Before spending any $$$, make sure there’s a comparable. Ideally a comparable that the freelancer has done prior.
Step 4: Start small. If you don’t have a spec, don’t commit to a full project. Start with a discovery session, or creating the spec.
Then when you start working together, try this.
Weekly progress update email
Up to date sprint board
You’re off and running!!
Need help finding the perfect PM?
Reply directly or apply for white-glove help.