Nobel Product, the way you already know us
Nobel Recruitment is a recruitment agency for SaaS. At Nobel, we do SaaS recruitment with a noble purpose with our community-led approach to recruitment. You probably know that Nobel focuses on Go-To-Market teams at SaaS companies, and we therefore only work with the commercial individuals of SaaS companies, namely Sales, Marketing, CS and Pre-Sales. However, given the recent trends in the SaaS industry, we’re excited to broaden our horizons and expanding our service offering. Read more to find out how exactly we plan to do that!
Product-Led Growth (PLG) is trending
An ongoing trend and big discussion point in SaaS has been PLG, or Product-Led Growth. Companies such as Slack, Miro, Calendly and Notion are great examples of SaaS companies that pioneered the PLG approach. Moving away from the classic “Book a demo” to leave space for the freemium model, free trials and quick onboardings. Less marketing, less Sales influence, but more organic growth through word of mouth. In the current market downturn where Sales teams are cut back and Marketing budgets are slashed, PLG can be an attractive alternative to executives and boards to the usual Sales-led growth. The benefits of PLG are multiple: higher chances of attracting LTV customers, increased revenue per employee (less Sales/Marketing people needed for profit).
Many SaaS companies are therefore looking to transition to PLG, instead of the classic Sales cycle. To be able to do this, the Product needs to be at the core of the focus. And how exactly is that done? By having excellent in-house Product Managers (PM) and Product Leadership. A great Product Leadership will be able to help with the shift towards PLG, by focusing on the product offering and it’s users. Now you might ask, where and how do I find these excellent Product Managers and Leaders? Keep reading!
New service offering: Nobel Product
Making use of Nobel’s excellent network in the SaaS industry, we have been talking to CEOs behind the scenes to discuss their challenges around PLG, to better understand their experiences with hiring a product team. After many frank conversations around this topic, it was clear that hiring the right Product team to implement a PLG strategy was a recurring challenge faced by Founders in many different SaaS companies. This was a clear opportunity for us at Nobel to expand our recruitment services, since many of our existing clients are moving towards PLG. Since Nobel’s focus has always been on commercial teams, we did not (yet) have the necessary expertise to hire for Product. That’s why we’re excited to have Laurens Taylor-Clarke join Nobel in taking the lead of Nobel Product. Laurens has experience on both sides as an agency recruiter but also heading up TA function internally.
When asked about why he wanted to set up a business in this space Laurens said: “My own experiences of juggling tech requirements and product roles in an internal environment was super challenging. When tasked with not only scaling an engineering department by 15 hires a quarter but also building a product team I felt overwhelmed. But when I went out to the market to get help externally I was surprised to find it there wasn’t any specialists who could help. So to quote Marty Cagan, ‘fall in love with the problem, not the solution’ I decided to fall in love with helping businesses find great product professionals.”
Laurens is joined by Daniel Hall, a highly experienced recruiter who has a proven track record of delivering great results and managing teams. Danny is highly skilled at building and managing communities, and has experience with recruiting for tech roles in different industries. That is why we’re excited to join forces with Laurens and Danny, who will bring their vast combined experience and knowledge into Nobel Product’s service offering. Not only will we be doing recruitment for the GTM-teams, but also for Product teams. We’re therefore excited to announce Nobel Product!
Wondering why you should work with us?
Product teams play a crucial role in supporting a company’s strategic objectives, making it a high-impact role with potential for significant return on investment. As a result, recruiting the right people for these teams can be a challenging and time-consuming process. Internal recruiters may face various obstacles such as navigating complex job profiles, managing internal pressure, and dealing with lengthy and exhausting conversations. Outsourcing the search to Nobel Product can not only improve your chances of success but also elevate your teams to focus their time more efficiently on other hiring demands or projects.
Also hiring the right Product person is essential for businesses looking to develop and grow their products successfully. In particular, there are three scenarios where this becomes critical. Firstly, when the complexity of a product increases, businesses need to hire a full-time “head of product” with the expertise to manage the product effectively. Secondly, CEOs need to recognise when to give up their role as the primary product visionary and focus on other critical areas of the business. Lastly, companies should avoid hiring junior Product professionals and instead seek experienced candidates to ensure effective product development and growth. By prioritising the hiring of the right Product person, businesses can position themselves for success in an increasingly competitive market.
Finally, trust is a critical asset for Product Managers in their work, and the same holds true for recruiters like us at Nobel Product. We recognise the importance of building trust with our community, which is why we organise events and maintain dedicated slack channels to foster engagement and provide value, such as peer-to-peer support. By establishing trust within our community, we create an environment where passive job candidates can confidentially share their career aspirations with us without the need for public announcements.
So are you ready to position your business for success in product development and growth? Feel free to reach out for a free consultation with us.
Nobel Commercial and Nobel Product
Moving forward, Nobel Recruitment remains as one entity, with two divisions: Nobel Commercial and Nobel Product. Nobel commercial will continue being our main service offering as you know it: community-led recruitment for Sales, Marketing, CS and Pre-Sales. Nobel Product is being launched at small-scale and will be focused on recruitment on the Product space. Laurens will focus on Product Executives & Leadership and is already working on VP-level Product roles, whereas Danny will be focused on Individual Contributor level Product Managers & Owners. Here at Nobel we are excited for this expansion and for the future at Nobel!
