TalentLayer runs senior product searches for founders who still own the roadmap. We write the hiring thesis first, then score candidates against it.
Retained fees are 10–12% of CTC. Project work starts at 5–7%. Full pricing
The cost of a miss
Fully loaded, a bad senior product hire often costs £180k+ once you count base, equity, recruiting, onboarding, and a year of product bets pointed the wrong way.
Roadmap velocity drops while you unwind it. Your best engineers wait for direction. Most founders take another 6–9 months before they re-open the search — pride and board optics delay the call.
Every serious candidate takes hours you do not have. The role stays open because you cannot run search and run the company at once.
Without a clear Spec you hire for polish and pedigree. The scorecard becomes a list of nice-to-haves no single person can satisfy.
Someone left. Engineering is covering product. The board is asking. Offers go out before the evaluation criteria do.
Two polite calls with people the candidate chose. You learn almost nothing about how they handle ambiguity, founders, or a stalled roadmap.
Fit Lab
Every credible candidate gets a Fit Card against your Spec. You see stage match, shipping record, founder chemistry, and compensation realism — with evidence attached.
A 0→1 operator dropped into a 40-engineer org will drown. A process builder in a 12-person startup will suffocate. We score the match between their pattern and your actual constraints — team size, funding stage, and the decisions this hire will own.
Built product from 4→28 people in a regulated environment. Two prior companies in adjacent verticals. References describe clarity under ambiguity and a habit of owning scope rather than waiting for it.
Have they shipped the right things at this stage — or only shipped at scale? We look for prioritisation under constraint, kill decisions, and activation or retention movement, not feature volume or brand-name logos.
Led the pivot from SMB to mid-market. Cut the roadmap by roughly 40% and improved activation over two quarters. Prior team: “ruthless about what does not ship.”
Will they work with you under pressure? We test for how they handle founder involvement, board noise, and disagreement — without politics or disappearing into process.
Three references described “protects the team from noise.” Previous founder: “best product hire I made.” Flag: prefers high autonomy; needs an explicit operating cadence with a hands-on CEO.
Do expectations match your band and equity story? We surface mismatches before you burn interview cycles — and before offer stage becomes a surprise.
Targeting £150–170k base + 0.8–1.5% depending on stage. Candidate band sits inside range if process moves in weeks. Also exploring one later-stage role above band.
How we work
Retained mandates usually run 6–12 weeks from signed brief to accepted offer. Partners own the hard calls; you get artifacts your team can use, not a CV dump.
Structured intake with founders and stakeholders. We name the decisions this hire will own, the constraints they operate inside, and 12–18 month success criteria.
We map the market and score every credible candidate on the four Fit Lab dimensions. You receive Fit Cards you can debate in ten minutes.
Deep references become a Reference Dossier. We design the interview process and hand you the Interview Kit with rubrics. Partners debrief every round.
Offer framing and negotiation support. After start, structured check-ins at 30 / 60 / 90 days catch misalignment while it is still cheap to fix.
Scope, decision rights, constraints, and success criteria for the first 12–18 months.
One page per candidate: four scores, evidence, risks, recommendation.
Structured, attributable references from people who have seen the work.
Exercises, questions, and scoring rubrics tied to your Spec.
Offer design, compensation realism, negotiation through signed acceptance.
Check-ins with the new leader and stakeholders. Included on retained.
Where we sit
Traditional retained search often runs 25–35% of CTC. We specialise in one function, charge less, and leave you with scored artifacts.
Artifacts
Candidates get a sanitized brief from your company and produce a short work sample: prioritisation, trade-offs, stakeholder communication. Every interviewer scores against the same rubric.
After start date we run structured check-ins with the new leader and key stakeholders.
Pricing
Fee scales with the role. A Head of Product at Series A is a different hire than a CPO at Series C.
End-to-end: Spec, Fit Cards, dossiers, interview design, partner involvement through close and the 90-day loop.
Same evidence layer — Spec, Fit Cards, Dossier — without full retained close support. Useful when you have internal capacity.
Fit check
FAQ
A short brief is enough. We reply within two business days, including when we are the wrong firm for the work.
Advance to final round. Strong stage match and shipping record. Chemistry is workable if decision rights and operating cadence are agreed before offer.