Less than a month to recruit my Head of Product
- Structuring the product team and defining key profiles
- Selecting the best candidates for entry
- Participation in technical interviews (peer assessment)
- Validation of recruitment conditions
Stellar and Timeleft work together to select the right product team.
In this assignment, Matthieu Pozza, CPO at Stellar, supported Maxime Barbier, CEO of Timeleft, in structuring his Product organization and recruiting his 1st Head or Product. The objective: to define the right recruitment process and select the right candidates to select the best profile in the shortest possible time.
Pitch
Timeleft has set itself a mission: to combat loneliness by creating dinners between strangers. Launched by Maxime Barbier, the scale-up has already attracted over 1.5M participants and 2M subscribers. Its model: single tickets (€15) or subscriptions (€20/month) entitle participants to weekly dinners. In 2024, Timeleft secured a €7M Series A round led by an American VC, while 50% of its business is already generated in the US.
Your growth doesn't rely solely on Marketing and Sales.
A product that doesn't deliver on its promises is doomed to failure, even with the best marketing and sales people:
#1 A fragile product organization
The departure of the VP Product and the presence of junior profiles left a strategic vacuum. The roadmap was steered by the CEO, resulting in unclear prioritization and overstretched teams.
Steering Structured products
Stellar has introduced structured product governance, clarifying responsibilities between the CEO and the product team.
#2 Candidates evaluated by feel
With no evaluation criteria or framework, Product recruitment relied too much on intuition, leading to casting errors.
Structured assessment process
Stellar has structured the recruitment process with skills grids and a clear case study to select the best profiles.
#3 Recruiting by default
Without a clear vision, the urgency of hypergrowth led to the recruitment of available rather than suitable profiles.
Clear definition of product role and business priorities
Definition of priority skills for the role that have an impact on the business: Delivery, Design, Leadership...
How Stellar helped Garantme
Successful strategic recruitment and a growth-oriented organization
Stellar's support enabled Timeleft to define its Product organization and secure the recruitment of its Head of Product in a context of hypergrowth.
- Product organization strengthened: key profiles recruited and governance clarified.
- Better prioritized roadmap: product decisions now guided by data rather than impulse.
- Candidate evaluation: an objective process using skills grids and a precise benchmark.
- Product role clarified: no longer a search for the five-legged sheep, but a definition of needs aligned with business objectives.
Testimonial
"What I really appreciated was Stellar's ability to challenge my intuitions with concrete data: salary benchmarks, skills matrices, detailed profile analysis. It saved me an incredible amount of time and avoided costly recruitment mistakes."
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