The Complete Decision Guide: Should Your Startup Hire a Product Advisor?

Building a great product is no easy task. From finding PM fit to GTM strategies to keeping your core user base happy over the long term, there’s a ton to consider.

And that’s just building the product. It doesn’t even touch the day-to-day activities necessary to run a business.

If you’re trying to juggle this balancing act on your own as a founder, you’ve probably felt the stress far more than once. And you’re probably wondering if there’s a way to ease some of the product responsibilities off of your plate. But maybe you’re on the fence about bringing on a full-time product hire. After all, if it’s your first product hire, where do you start? And if you need a product leader instead of a manager, there’s a significant cost to consider.

Fortunately, you do have another option: product advisors.

Read on for the complete guide to this new approach to the world of product.

What is a product advisor?

In the simplest terms, a product advisor is someone in the product world (either in a product manager or more senior role) who consults with founders to help improve their products.

Whether you call it “fractional product talent,” “freelance product talent,” “product consulting,” or “product advising,” it’s essentially all the same role.

But unlike fractional and freelance marketers, the concept of a fractional product manager or product advisor is relatively new. You’ll also see various debates in the PM world as to whether product management work can be done on a part time or contract basis.

So, the field isn’t quite as well established as other fractional talent fields, but it’s certainly on the rise.

It’s the exact same principle as a marketing consultant, simply known under a different name. One might even say “fractional” is the rebranded version of “consultant.”

Why Would a Founder Need a Product Advisor?

As a founder, you have a few different reasons you might consult with a product advisor. Namely:

• You don’t have an established product function yet (i.e. you’re managing the product as a founder and don’t have previous product experience)
• You have an informal product function established (i.e. a single product manager), but you don’t have a senior product leader
• You’re on the fence about hiring senior product leadership
• You’re heading the product function as a founder with product experience and want a second opinion

In each case, a product advisor can help. You’ll simply have to look for an advisor in a specific role.

In the first case, you’ll likely want a mid-level to early-senior product manager as your product advisor. These PMs are used to being in the weeds with product and can help execute on projects. However, they’re also senior enough that they can help you establish team processes as time goes on.

In the second, you likely have product managers already, but need a product leader as an advisor. They will help shape the team and tackle larger scale goals like product vision and strategy. Ultimately, they’ll help turn your product function from an informal one into a formal one.

In the third, a product advisor who’s a senior product leader can show you the possible ROI of hiring a senior product leader. Consulting with this type of advisor means you’ll know what to expect when it comes to making a full-time hire. And plus, if you hire an advisor as a fractional role first, there’s a good chance you may be able to work out a full-time role if you’ve found the advisor’s help invaluable.

And finally, the last case depends on whether you need execution or strategy and vision help. If you have the strategy and vision down but are struggling to get processes in place to make your product teams run smoothly, a senior PM who isn’t a Head of Product may be a good choice. If you want to know how to improve how your product trios work together, a mid-level or senior PM may be your best bet. And finally, if you need coaching on how you can lead the product function better, a Head of Product or Chief Product Officer will be your best choice for an advisor.

How to Find Good Product Advisors

So if any of the above cases sound like you, you’re probably curious about how to hire a product advisor.
Despite the newness of the field, there are several resources available you can use to find product advisors. It simply depends on if you want more of a consultant approach (the “done for you” approach) or the mentoring approach (the “done with you” approach).

Finding a Product Advisor: The “Done for You” Approach

If you’re looking for more of a consultant-style role, there are three different options you can take to find an advisor:

Your Network

Reach out to your network, both in-person and online. Especially for folks in the tech space, it’s highly likely one of your connections knows a product manager who may be interested in consulting PM work.

This kind of work is also more common for fractional Heads of Product’s or Chief Product Officers, so if you’re searching for those roles, you may have an easier time finding possibilities.

Do keep in mind that because this is a newer field, it’s unlikely you’ll see PMs advertising consulting services. Most likely, you’ll have to chat with potential consultants, then outline your project needs to see if the PM is interested.

Product Consulting Firms

It may come as a surprise, but yes, there are product consulting firms. Unlike finding a business consulting firm, you may need to search a bit more carefully for your options. But they’re certainly out there.

As always, especially considering this is a newer niche, we recommend doing your typical homework on whether you’re within the consulting firm’s ICP, if their process is a good fit for your project, and confirming expectations on how hands-on or hands-off you’d like to be while working with the firm.

And, of course, make sure to thoroughly vet the firm before agreeing to a contract.

GrowthExpert

Now, if you’d like to save yourself some legwork, you have another option that will require less searching: GrowthExpert.

At GrowthExpert, you get the same strict double-vetting process we apply here at GrowthMentor, but for fractional talent you can hire by hour blocks, monthly retainers, or extended contracts. You can even hire entire plug-and-play growth teams that are ready to roll within 48 hours. And only .5% of our total applicants are accepted into GrowthExpert.

Within our talent pool, we have plenty of award-winning, experienced product folks ready to take on fractional Head of Product or Chief Product Officer roles. As it’s a senior role, rates range from $115-500 per hour if you’d like to hire by hour blocks, or $1000-$6000 per month for monthly retainers.

And did we mention it’s free to post your job?

Getting started is simple. All you have to do is post your job, and if it’s a good fit for our talent pool, we’ll share it with them. Interested experts can request an intro and we’ll introduce both parties. If it’s a good mutual fit, you’ll work with the expert the same way you would any other contractor.

There are no commission, no fees. You can learn more about why in GrowthExpert’s manifesto.

Or, if you’re sold, schedule a call to get matched to the product advisor you need.

Finding a Product Advisor: The “Done with You” Approach

Now, there are times you’d prefer to work side-by-side with a product advisor rather than have them do the work for you. Maybe you’re looking to brush up on your product skills. Maybe you want to understand firsthand how a product person looks at your company.

Either way, you have options for this mentoring product advisor approach:

MentorCruise

• Pricing Model: per session pricing + monthly fee and per session pricing for continuous mentorship, price range varies per expert and session type, starting at $39 for 20 minute intro call.
• Mentor Vetting Process: Not specified. Mentors are referred to as “highly vetted”, but the site does not outline their vetting process.
• Product Focused?: Yes. There are 425 mentors are listed under the “product manager” category.

At MentorCruise, the ecosystem centers heavily on technical mentors (especially specific coding languages) and design mentors. Because of this approach, MentorCruise does have many product mentors available.

But, because you’re paying on a per session basis, MentorCruise is best for mentees who want to work with a single mentor over time.

GrowthMentor

• Price: $99 per month for 3 calls a month, $199 a month for unlimited calls per month, mentors who charge session fees are encouraged to set “startup friendly” prices.
• Mentor Vetting Process: Yes, and you can read all about it.
• Product Focused? Yes. There are 118 mentors listed under product management.

As the name implies, we focus on growth here at GrowthMentor. So our product management mentors tend to come from growth and/or marketing backgrounds. This makes it great for growth-minded founders who want to understand product or non-technical founders who want product knowledge without feeling like they need to learn to speak developer.

But at GrowthMentor, we don’t believe one mentor can solve all your problems like Yoda did for Luke. Instead, we believe in diversity of thought and opinion and that every mentor you talk to gets you a little closer to understanding the complete picture of your business.

Which is exactly why we charge a flat monthly rate rather than on a per-session basis. So you can book as many calls with as many mentors as you’d like without worrying about racking up new bills.

And more than 80% of our mentors offer their services totally free of charge, no extra fees. They’re just here to help a stranger out, for free.

You could chat with mentors like…

Our Product Mentors

Mentoring Style: The sharpshooter. Will listen to your challenge, dissect it, then help you pull together a laser-focused path to smash through any hurdles in your way.

Book A Call With Richmond If:

• You’re a first time founder with product launch jitters.
• You want product management advice from a holistic, whole business perspective.
• You need specific advice regarding achieving and maintaining PM fit.
• You want your mentor to have a no-nonsense but positive attitude and are energized by working with someone who’s relentless about breaking down business barriers.

Mentoring Style: The sage. Will listen carefully to your challenge, then take an evenhanded, collected approach and ask plenty of questions to prod your thinking and open up your mind.

Book A Call With Nick If:

• You know you need to build a product team from the ground up.
• You want your mentor’s product management style to be informed by a wide breadth of industries and business sizes.
• You’re itching to understand the more technical aspects of product management, but aren’t fluent in engineer-speak and need your mentor to act as a translator of sorts.
• You want a down-to-earth mentor who’s been on the engineering, founder, growth, and PM ends of business and uses that depth of experience to provide systematic, targeted advice.

Mentoring Style: The analyst. Will patiently listen to your challenge and provide structured, methodical approaches you can use to overcome it, along with suggesting frameworks you can reuse again and again.

Book A Call With Konstantin If:

• You know you need an in-depth understanding of your users and feel like user research should be more than just “getting feedback.”
• You want to get better at the mindset and decision-making aspects of product management.
• You like the idea of frameworks, but you also hate the idea of being constrained by them and want to learn how to apply them in a flexible way.
• You want your mentor to be super grounded in data and deliberate decision making, but have a friendly, human-touch centered mindset as well.

Mentoring Style: The bootstrapper. Will listen carefully to your challenge and then suggest sensible ways to tackle it that won’t break your budget, your resources, or your team.

Book A Call With David If:

• You want a product management perspective from someone who has successfully managed a number of multi-million dollar products.
• You’re a founder making $100K-$2 mil per year and want to break into the “beyond 1” realm of startups.
• You want your product management processes to be informed by a holistic, growth-geared mindset.
• You want a pragmatic, grounded mentor who is going to approach your session with a sense of lively enthusiasm.

So if you want to get the “done-with-you” perspective from a wide variety of product management mentors, join GrowthMentor.