PERSUIT is the leading enterprise platform for engaging outside counsel. Centralized, streamlined, automated and data-driven.
Marie Phillips, Group Product Manager, shares everything you need to know about working on the PERSUIT Product team!
In This Video
Marie discusses:
- Who is PERSUIT?
- Details on the Product team
- Projects and Challenges
- The interview process
- Why someone should be excited to join the team
Video Transcript
Hi, my name is Marie Phillips. I am a Group Product Manager here at PERSUIT, and I manage the Product Managers and the Product Designers in the Sourcing Portfolio.
PERSUIT exists to empower the legal leaders of the future. We are a truly mission-driven founder organization, and essentially, we’re here to help Fortune 500 companies find the right firm at the right price. At its core, PERSUIT is a procurement platform. We are a pioneer in the space of RFPs, but we offer so much more as we’ve evolved over the nine years of operating. We have expanded into supplier relationship management functionality, and we are a true disruptor of our industry. We’re here to redefine how enterprises buy and manage legal services globally.
We have Product and Design managed through the Product organization, and then we have a separate Engineering organization. Within Product, we have around 27 people, and we have Product Managers all over the globe. At the moment, we’ve got Product Managers based out of Melbourne, Australia, and that’s predominantly where our product is built. But we also have Product Managers and Designers on the West Coast of North America. We have some of our team in New York. And we’re rapidly expanding. Recently, I think we’ve doubled in size over the last year or so, so it’s a pretty exciting place to be.
In my scope, we work on the core end-to-end sourcing workflow, which is everything from when the legal work is initiated within our system, right through to things like RFPs, negotiating the work, reviewing the proposals, and a lot of the AI tools that we use to help make that process a lot easier, right through to when the legal scope is agreed.
The kinds of projects that Product Managers work on here at PERSUIT would be things like matter intake, so being able to create new matters within the system; working on the RFP experience from start to finish, so how can we make drafting an RFP a lot easier; how can we implement things like AI to help reviewing and identifying the best firms and proposals to be a lot easier; and just all of the ways we can reduce friction along that process. Because, traditionally, to create an RFP is a lot of work. So our system is designed to completely redefine what that looks like and make it as easy as possible for both clients and firms.
We really want to hire people that are a strong cultural fit because we have such a great culture. So we take this part really seriously. What that typically looks like, and it can vary, first of all, is a screening call where we’ll get on the phone with our People Team or with one of our Group Product Managers, just to get to know you, understand your situation. Then, maybe if the first screen was with the People Team, we’ll do a session with the Group Product Manager, another get-to-know-you session.
The next stage would be a peer interview. So what we would do is we’d put you in a session with the people you’ll be working with. It’s typically an engineer and a product designer, and they can really just understand who you are as a Product Manager, what you bring to the table, and how you might work together. So it’s a really great opportunity to test both your technical skills and your people skills, and also give them an opportunity to put you through your paces as well.
If you move through to the next round, it would be a task round where we would give you a take-home task. It’s pretty quick, not necessarily easy, but quick, and it is designed to test your real-world product skills. So it would be about demonstrating how you think and also how you present. That would be, I guess, the team would then sit through a presentation where you would deliver that to the same group of peers, which would be the Product Manager, the Product Designer, and the Engineer.
And then if you make it through that, we then set you up with a culture fit interview, which is really about allowing the VP of Product or the Founder to get in touch with you and have a chat about what you’re looking for, what kind of culture you’re seeking, and testing both ways there.
It is such an exciting time to join. We mentioned the growth; I think that’s a pretty exciting thing. But I still consider us a startup, even though we’re probably a scale-up. We have that startup mentality. So whilst we’re growing, we have great people on the ground, we have a great product with a lot of the foundations in place, we are still at a stage where everything that we do really makes an impact. So if you’re a Product Manager working at PERSUIT, you’re typically working on work that is going to win deals. It’s going to help us with our growth targets. It’s not just the kind of work that’s going to go sit in the corner and die. It’s really on the critical path of what we do.
Another really important thing is that we are really embracing AI. So that’s a top-down approach. Our Founder, Jim, has just embraced this technology from very early on. We have some really exciting products around that. For example, AI products within our RFP product, but also we have things like our autonomous legal procurement AI, which is just cutting-edge technology. So I think it’s a really great time if you’re looking to add that AI experience to your resume or bringing that already and wanting to deepen it, because it’s something that we take very seriously. It’s at the forefront of everything that we do.
I think the final part would be just simply the people that you get to surround yourself with. The squads are super autonomous. They have a lot of love for each other. We’re a very kind culture. It’s high performing but also manages to be really kind, and there’s a lot of psychological safety from top to bottom, which I really appreciate.
And then I think the network of people that you’re exposed to in this role. We work with some of the world’s greatest companies, and we work with the legal team from top to bottom in those companies. So if you’re a Product Manager wanting to build your network, especially in the legal space, there is no better opportunity. You’re out there every day talking to just some of the most incredible smart people in that space. So I don’t think there’s a better opportunity than that.
