Case Study

Introduction

FirstPrinciples Talent acquisition agency helps businesses find and hire the right people for their needs. In this case study, we will discuss how we helped Lanteria, an HRMS SaaS company, to find and onboard a project manager for their tool in times of extreme necessity.

Job-Requisition

Lanteria sought a Project Manager well-versed in HRMS domain software development projects. With a minimum of 5 years of experience in managing and successfully delivering projects, the ideal candidate would bring diversity to their expertise.

Problem Statement

Lanteria was experiencing a talent gap, which was hindering their growth. They needed a highly skilled and experienced project manager to lead the development of their HRMS tool, but they were not able to find the right person. They had a functional team in place but it needed the vision, guidance, and experience of someone senior who could help fix the foundational mistakes they had come across. 

The talent requirement of a business’s journey from 1-10 is very different from what they had when during their journey of 0-1. This is where most SaaS companies struggle when they start to scale. In light of the team’s uncertainty at Lanteria, a critical analysis is required to determine the most suitable project management methodology, whether the dynamic Agile framework or the more traditional, sequential Waterfall approach, for their specific needs.

Impact of the Hire

Lanteria is a very lean SaaS company with around 15-20 employees. Their development team has around 5 developers. The team was looking for a highly skilled and experienced project manager with experience in managing SaaS projects in the HRMS domain. The candidate needed to have at least 5 years of experience in managing projects and delivering them successfully.

It took approximately 60 days for FPT to close and onboard this position. At our holding companies, we believe that mid and senior roles should be able to prove their expertise and deliver meaningful results within the first few weeks of onboarding.

After joining, the project manager had a significant impact on Lanteria’s development team. They were able to provide effective project management and leadership that helped improve the quality of their code and the overall efficiency of their team. The project manager also helped Lanteria to deliver various development cycles of their HRMS tool on time and within budget.

Our Suggestion

Since HRMS is a very niche industry, our suggestion was to broaden the search criteria and target project managers with a similar skill set who may not have direct experience in the HRMS domain.

We also suggested and had hands-on involvement with their team in creating a more detailed job description that focused on the skills and experience required for the position, rather than focusing solely on experience in the HRMS domain.

Our Hiring Process

Our hiring process involved the following steps:

• Initial screening to assess the candidate’s skills and experience.
• Culture Index survey to map out congruency between the expectations of Lanteria’s team and prospective candidates.
• Product leaders at FPT and our holding companies conducted a technical interview to evaluate the candidate’s technical skills in project management.
• Our HR team conducted a cultural fit interview to assess the candidate’s fit with Lanteria’s culture.
• SWOT analysis to evaluate the candidate’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
• Reference checks to verify the candidate’s experience and skills.

SWOT Analysis

We conducted a SWOT analysis to evaluate the candidate’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. This analysis helped us to determine the candidate’s fit for the position and identify any potential challenges they may face.

These are the conclusions that we were able to draw from interviewing and screening the selected candidate:

Strengths

• Highly skilled in project management
• Strong experience in managing software development projects
• Proven ability to deliver projects successfully

Weaknesses

• Limited experience in the HRMS domain
• Less experience in managing cross-functional teams

Opportunities

• Ability to learn and grow within the HRMS domain
• Opportunities to expand skill set through exposure to new technologies

Threats

• Competition from other companies for top talent
• Limited availability of highly skilled candidates

Culture Index

We conducted a culture index assessment to ensure that the candidate was a good fit for Lanteria’s culture. This assessment helped us to evaluate the candidate’s personality, values, and work style. The candidate turned out to be an Architect which is an ideal CI profile for roles like this.