Productboard is a product management platform that empowers teams to better understand user needs, prioritize and align on the product roadmap, and engage with their end-users. Founded in 2014, the company has grown from a small startup to a unicorn, with a $1.7 billion valuation. Today, the global company has 500 employees of 40 different nationalities and 6,000 customers worldwide.
Last year, Productboard was recognized with various awards based on over 2,000 employee reviews, including Best CEO for Diversity, Best Leadership, and Best Opportunity for Career Growth. Here are a few initiatives that the company has in place to improve their diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Quick Facts:
- Hiring through a “values fit” lens
- Employee resource groups and a Diversity Council
- Noteworthy employee reviews
- Hiring for remote roles!
Hiring through a “values fit” lens
Like most companies in the tech space, Productboard touts a set of core values at the foundation of their company culture: We seek clarity; We relentlessly improve; We act with empathy; We foster transparency; We work together. How the company uses these values to inform hiring shows an effort to diversify
Productboard says that they hire for “values fit” as opposed to “culture fit.” The latter has become a popular framework for hiring over the past few years. While intentions may be good, this approach to hiring is problematic as it can lead talent acquisition teams to lean into their unconscious biases, only hire people that are like them, and move further away from bringing diverse perspectives to the team.
At Productboard, a candidate's alignment with the company's five core values matters more than their resume and experiences. Their goal is to move away from the culture fit framework and ensure that the new team members connect with the Productboard’s identity, while allowing their differences to add to the company’s culture.
For job seekers researching opportunities, asking how team members reflect core values in everyday work is a good way to understand how seriously companies take their core values in an interview!
Employee Resource Groups
Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) are crucial tools to foster community and belonging, allyship, and accountability. Since 2020, Productboard has launched various ERGs such as: Pride at Productboard, Parents of Productboard, Women at Productboard, and a dedicated Diversity Council. Each group is sponsored by an executive leader.
Noteworthy employee reviews
Comparably is a website dedicated to workplace transparency that has over 2000 employee reviews of Productboard that provide a valuable and nuanced understanding of what it’s like to work on their team— and it sounds pretty good! The company’s Diversity Score is in the top 5% of companies on Comparably with 201-500 employees: diverse employees have rated the company A+ (92/100) across various culture categories.
In particular, we wanted to highlight that:
- 96% of diverse employees would recommend working at Productboard (compared to 0% who wouldn’t recommend it)
- 100% of diverse employees say their work environment is positive
- Diverse employees in sales ranked the Productboard culture highest at 97/100
But based on their hiring philosophy, community initiatives, and employee reviews, we were excited to feature them this week for the Therefore Community as a Buzzworthy company. Therefore would love to see even more transparency on the diversity of Productboard’s team and how the company is working towards meaningful DEI.
Additional resources:
Check out this podcast with Productboard’s Director of Customer Success!
