Why We Founded Talent Keystone
Just as a keystone is the crucial piece that holds an arch together, the right Product Manager and Designer are fundamental to every product's overall success. We saw a gap in how companies approach hiring for these vital roles—so we built Talent Keystone to solve it.
With decades of combined experience across leading tech companies and major financial institutions, we recognized that traditional recruiting approaches weren't serving the unique needs of companies seeking specialized product and design talent.
The problem wasn't just about finding candidates – it was about understanding the nuanced skills, operational processes, and cross-functional leadership capabilities that make product leaders and designers exceptional. While engineering roles can be evaluated through concrete metrics, product and design roles require a deeper understanding of highly nuanced technical capabilities and soft skills.
Three key insights from our experience shaped our philosophy:
Specialization matters: Having led transformational hiring at Meta, Google, TIAA, and VC-backed startups, we learned that successful product and design hires require recruiters who genuinely understand execution and craft while evaluating technical acumen and leadership potential.
Play the long game: Transactional recruiting models focused on quick placements rather than long-term fit consistently fail both companies and candidates. We realized it was essential to focus on finding the right match, regardless of the effort.
Educate while executing: Companies need more than just recruiters – they need strategic partners who can optimize HOW they attract, assess, and close these specialized candidates. By coupling search execution with a consultative advisory approach, we can provide founders and hiring managers the signal they need to make confident hiring decisions while saving them time.
What has this looked like? Our subject matter expertise in product and design hiring, coupled with our proven frameworks, cut time-to-hire by ~50%. We have a proven track record of delivering hires that stay with winning organizations for the long term and can scale their abilities alongside the company's rapid growth trajectory.
emember: In the race for top talent, the difference between good and great hires isn't just about skills – it's about finding people who can transform your organization's future.