POSITION PLACED: Product Manager

Executive summary

Digité is the leading provider of collaborative enterprise application software for process and portfolio management. Digité has been leveraging engineering resources in India very effectively – it has a large development center in Mumbai and another growing engineering center in Bangalore. To utilise the offshore model even more effectively, Digité decided to establish a product marketing and management team out of India. Digité required a Product Manager to head this team for its India development center. Product management is not a skill that is easily available in India and the position would require someone willing to relocate to India. AnuPartha successfully completed this search in less than 2 months.

About Digité

Digité is the leading provider of collaborative enterprise application software for process and portfolio management. The Digité solution empowers enterprises with the power to control and execute projects and initiatives. Over 20,000 users are using Digité worldwide. Digité is a Silicon Valley startup promoted by a group of serial entrepreneurs.

Background

Digité has been leveraging engineering resources in India very effectively – it has a large development center in Mumbai and another growing engineering center in Bangalore. To use the offshore model even more effectively, Digité decided to base a large part of its product marketing and product management teams out of India. Digité required a Product Manager for its India development center, This search was completed in less than 2 months.

The Search Challenge – AnuPartha’s Perspective

Anu Parthasarathy

“Product marketing is not a widely available skill set in India. As a result, the search needed to focus on candidates experienced in product management in a US startup, and willing to relocate to India. I had to tap into not just my own rolodex, but that of my contacts as well, to get a set of good candidates for this position.”

Client's Feedback

A V Sridhar, President and CEO, Digité Inc.

“The search was conducted very efficiently and quickly – I spoke with Anu about the requirements, she quickly responded with a set of candidates, and we took a decision – all within a month. The offer was made to the candidate soon after, and he joined us in India. So to me, the highlight of this assignment was its efficiency – I didn’t have to think about it too much or spend time on it.

This was not a routine search requirement – we needed a product marketing person – not too easy a profile to find in India and good candidates here may not have wanted to relocate to India. Anu did a great job of selling Digité, and that was critical in getting good candidates interested in us and excited about being a part of the Digité team.

If I had not gone with Anu’s company, we may have tried to do it ourselves – and that would either not have worked or may have taken too much time – we do not have the required network of cross border contacts.

We could have used some of the larger recruiters also, but while their services may have been strong for CXO level searches of large enterprises, I am not sure of their capabilities in the technology start-up world, especially for a product management position.

I know that posting on job search sites is also an option – but that’s like waiting for the apple to fall – there is no predictability, and it is highly inefficient. AnuPartha was perfect for our needs – Anu has an excellent network, a good understanding of the Indian market, and works in my time zone.”