We take ownership of the search from brief to shortlist. You do not get a CV pile. You get the few people we believe are genuinely worth your time, with the evidence to understand why.
NO CV PILES • TOP 3 RECOMMENDATIONS • HUMAN JUDGEMENT
£399
founding / month
7.5%
founding success fee
2
searches active
FIT CARD 03
NOT RECOMMENDED
VP Product — Platform track
Illustrative Fit Card · anonymised example
Platform thinking
2.1
Hiring calibration
1.4
Board translation
3.6
Shipping cadence
2.8
Strong builder. Wrong fit for this brief.
The point of a Fit Card is not to make every candidate look good. It makes the trade-offs visible before you spend interview time.
EVIDENCE • SAME RUBRIC • HUMAN REVIEW2.4/4
FIT CARD • EXAMPLE OUTPUTTL-FIT-03
Example output — not a client record
The cost isn't the recruiter fee. It's making the wrong Product hire.
Always-on Product Talent capability
Market map
talent intelligence
Fit Cards
evidence over CVs
Hiring system
repeatable infrastructure
The subscription keeps the Product talent layer running between hires. When you hire through Talent Layer, the applicable success fee applies to the outcome.
WHY IT MATTERS 01
Every new role does not need a new recruiter. Your Product talent market, scorecards and candidate intelligence should compound.
WHY IT MATTERS 02
Automate the work around judgement. Keep the hiring decision human.
◐
01
Product-first hiring
We work on Product roles, from PM and Senior PM through Product leadership and selected specialist roles. The rubric changes with the role, not the principle.
◑
02
Evidence over CVs
A CV is a starting point. Fit Cards make the evidence, trade-offs, signals and risks visible against the same agreed hiring bar.
◒
03
Always-on capability
Talent intelligence, candidate rediscovery, market mapping, role support and hiring infrastructure continue between searches. You do not start from zero every time.
FIT LAB — INTERACTIVE EXAMPLE
We score fit like product review, not vibe.
The exact rubric changes with the role. The principle does not: define the bar, gather evidence, make trade-offs visible and keep the decision human.
PRODUCT JUDGEMENT
3.6 / 5.0
Makes clear product trade-offs and can explain why the decision matters.
Strong signal.
SIGNAL
Specific evidence
NOISE
Generic language
VERDICT
Progress
FIT CARD — ILLUSTRATIVE
Product leader — example track
Product judgement
3.6
Customer understanding
3.2
Execution
3.4
Leadership
2.8
JUDGEMENT
A Fit Card makes the evidence and remaining questions visible before the team spends more interview time.
SPEC DOCUMENT — THE STARTING POINT
We write the hiring spec you wish you had at the start.
Not a JD. A decision document. The hiring bar, scorecard, failure modes and what good looks like. You agree the bar before we spend time finding people.
Role-specific outcomes, operating context, constraints and evidence that would change the decision.
02 — SCORECARD
01 PRODUCT JUDGEMENT/4.0
02 CUSTOMER UNDERSTANDING/4.0
03 EXECUTION/4.0
04 LEADERSHIP/4.0
05 CONTEXT FIT/4.0
03 — DECISION RULES
What must be true, what can be coached, what is a hard no, and which evidence is still missing.
ARTIFACTS — WHAT THE LAYER BUILDS
Not a CV drop. A hiring system.
◈
01
Role Spec
A clear hiring bar, scorecard, failure modes and outcomes. The source of truth for the search.
◎
02
Fit Cards
Candidates evaluated against the same rubric. Evidence, signals, risks and judgement instead of polished CV summaries.
⬢
03
Talent Intelligence
Market maps, candidate pools, rediscovery and hiring signals that compound instead of disappearing after one search.
⬣
04
Hiring Memory
Interview structure, decision notes and learnings retained so the next Product hire starts from a stronger system.
COMPARE
What changes when Product hiring becomes a system.
The point is not to remove the hiring decision from you. It is to remove the work that should not consume your time before that decision.
TRADITIONAL SEARCH
IN-HOUSE
TALENTLAYER
FOUNDER TIME
CV filtering + interviews
Recruiter capacity + interviews
Interviews + the hiring decision
SEARCH OWNERSHIP
Search assignment
Internal recruiter workflow
Talent Layer owns the work around the decision
SPECIALISATION
Role-by-role
Depends on the recruiter
Product only
SOURCING
Search-led
Manager network + job boards
Market mapping + agentic sourcing + human judgement
ASSESSMENT
CV + interview impression
Internal rubric
Fit Cards against the agreed bar
CANDIDATE OUTPUT
Shortlist / CVs
Recruiter-filtered list
Few evidence-backed recommendations
TALENT MEMORY
Mostly search-specific
Internal but fragmented
Pools, rediscovery and hiring intelligence compound
HIRING INFRASTRUCTURE
Rebuilt per search
Built internally
Always-on Product Talent layer
COMMERCIAL MODEL
Usually success fee / retained
Salary + overhead
One-off search or Partner model
CAPACITY
Agency team dependent
Recruiter capacity dependent
Unlimited Product hiring · 2 searches active
FILTERS — WHO TALENT LAYER IS FOR
The layer works best when Product hiring matters.
You hire Product more than once
You do not want every PM, Senior PM or Product leader search to begin with a blank page. The system should compound.
GOOD FIT
You care about the hiring bar
You want structured evidence, Fit Cards and clear trade-offs, not a stack of CVs followed by a gut-feel decision.
GOOD FIT
You want leverage, not another recruiter
You want agents to handle repetitive research and operations while humans stay accountable for judgement, conversations and the final decision.
GOOD FIT
Not every role belongs in Talent Layer. We focus on Product hiring and will say when we are not the right fit.
PROCESS — WE OWN THE WORK
You make the hiring decision. We do the work around it.
From brief to shortlist, Talent Layer owns the research, sourcing, filtering and hiring operations. Your time is reserved for the conversations and decisions that require you.
01 — BRIEF
You give us the hiring problem. We turn it into a clear Product hiring spec: outcomes, context, scorecard, failure modes and decision rules.
YOUR BRIEF · OUR SPEC
02 — BUILD THE SEARCH
We own the market work: continuously mapping relevant Product talent, activating pools, researching signals and sourcing against the agreed bar.
MARKET · TALENT · SOURCING
03 — FILTER
Candidates move through structured evidence and Fit Cards. Agents handle repeatable research; humans own judgement, calibration and candidate conversations.
EVIDENCE · FIT CARDS · JUDGEMENT
04 — YOU DECIDE
We bring you the few people worth your time and support interview coordination, decision support and close. You spend your time on the hiring decision, not the filtering work.
TOP CANDIDATES · DECIDE · CLOSE
PRICING — TWO WAYS TO WORK TOGETHER
One critical hire, or your Product Talent function.
Need one Product hire? Run a standalone search. Building a team? Make Talent Layer your always-on Product Talent function. Founding partners lock in their founding economics.
ONE-OFF PRODUCT SEARCH
20%
SUCCESS FEE · NO SUBSCRIPTION
For a specific Product hiring requirement. We take ownership of the search, calibrate the brief, map the market and bring you a tightly qualified shortlist rather than a CV pile.
Your fractional Product Talent function. We continuously build and maintain your talent pipeline, map the market, rediscover candidates and support the hiring system even between roles.
Use Search. No subscription. Conventional success-fee economics with a Product-only specialist process.
Build a team
Use Partner. The subscription keeps the Product Talent layer running before, during and between searches.
Less founder time
We own the work around the decision. You spend your time interviewing the few people worth meeting, not sorting CVs.
FAQ
Straight answers.
A fractional Product Talent function for startups and scaleups. We keep the Product hiring layer running across role definition, talent intelligence, sourcing, assessment and hiring operations, with humans accountable for judgement and the final decision.
FOUNDING PARTNERS · £399/MONTH + 7.5%
Stop starting every Product search from zero.
Tell us what you are hiring now and what Product hiring looks like over the next year. We will tell you where Talent Layer fits, what we would build first and whether the founding offer is right for you.