VP Product placement

Q&A with Stuart Cochran: BridgeU

Introduction to BridgeU

BridgeU connects universities with international schools in 140 countries to drive better higher education and career outcomes for students.

BridgeU believe that talent is equally distributed across the globe, but opportunity is not. They take pride in helping students discover and explore the best pathways available to them – wherever those opportunities may be. And we empower secondary schools and universities, with software and solutions designed to help them meet the challenges of a changing world.

What was your recruitment challenge?

At the end of 2022, BridgeU had several key positions within the business to recruit for. We were looking for a VP Product to lead our product team of 6, as well as recruiting for a VP Engineering for our engineering team of 30.

The product team had previously been led by a Head of Product, but as they decided to move on and with a growing product team, we made an important decision to hire at the next level up, diverting our recruitment efforts towards a candidate with the skill set and leadership abilities of a VP Product

We had a couple of recruitment challenges to consider. With our Head of Product leaving the business, we were conscious that we didn’t want a huge gap in leadership for the team. As we were also searching for a VP Engineering, we found ourselves in two leadership recruitment processes at the same time, presenting an even greater time challenge for us internally.

We wanted to take the opportunity to try and bring in these two new leaders into the business at the same time. We could then be efficient and effective when onboarding the new hires, when introducing them to the teams and getting them up to speed with business strategy.

For these reasons, we decided to use a specialist product management executive search agency, and approached Doug at Intelligent People to help us.

What made you approach / work with Intelligent People?

As we were embarking on an executive search, we felt as a business that it was important to use a specialist product management recruiter who already knew the market. We needed help to assess the talent pool, not only considering active candidates, but also engaging ‘passive’ candidates – those candidates that may only be interested in the opportunity once they had discovered more about the business including who we are, what we do, and why we do it. We knew to get the right person for the team, our search would involve competitor research, market mapping and headhunting potential product candidates.

We had previously worked with Intelligent People for recruiting product management candidates into our business. In fact, Doug had helped us initially with our contingent search for a Head of Product, and we had felt he had done a great job for us then too. In particular, Intelligent People were able to seamlessly help us with all the practicalities that come along with hiring: sourcing, initial screening, interfacing with candidates, arranging interviews, feedback and so on.

What services did Intelligent People provide?

We partnered with Intelligent People to do a retained product executive search. This was different to our previous contingent search, involving more in-depth and upfront discussions with Doug to formulate a recruitment strategy.

We discussed the profile of the ideal candidate, including the skills, experience and previous companies they may have worked at. I also wanted to ensure our search was inclusive, attracting a range of people with different backgrounds and perspectives, including opening the search to include candidates across both the B2B and B2C industries.

As a result of these conversations, Doug was able to research the market to provide a target list of companies for our VP Product headhunt and start proactive outreach. By taking this approach, we were also able to get a sense of how successful we were going to be in finding our ideal candidate, and if our salary and benefits package was in the right ballpark to secure them.

What was the outcome?

We were able to hire an excellent VP Product, and although they have only been in the position for a month or so, we are very pleased with how everything is progressing. We were also able to hire the VP Engineering at the same time using another specialist agency.

Would you recommend Intelligent People?

Overall, I’d highly recommend Intelligent People for both contingent and retained executive searches within product. Both experiences I’ve had with the business, for a Head of Product and VP Product roles, have been extremely positive. The recruitment team were able to provide a good range of strong candidates for each search. The communication from Doug and his team has been highly effective and has helped to drive the results we’ve needed for the business.