Data & Product

Hiring data and product roles

Job titles that mean something different at every company, which is exactly what makes the requirements conversation worth having.

Set up a role → Every role

In common

One problem runs through all of these

Nothing in this sector has a stable definition. "Analyst" spans someone who runs the queries they are given to someone who decides what should be measured; "product manager" covers a delivery coordinator and a strategist; "designer" bundles research and visual craft. So the first useful act on any of these hires is not screening at all — it is establishing which version of the job you are advertising, because the same pile of CVs ranks in almost unrelated orders depending on the answer.

And not

What actually separates candidates, role by role

Then the evidence you need diverges sharply. For a product manager it is what they said no to. For an analyst it is whether they ask what the decision is before querying. For a designer it is the direction they abandoned, which the portfolio format is built to hide. For a data engineer it is whether they have ever deleted a pipeline rather than adding one. Four questions, four disciplines, and none of them answerable from a tool list.

5 roles

Pick the one you are hiring

Data AnalystTwo populations, identical CVs: people who answer questions and people who run queries. Data EngineerThe same eight tools on every CV, and nothing about what any of them were carrying. Product AnalystOne title covering everything from SQL monkey to strategy partner. Product ManagerEvery CV led, drove and owned. Almost none of them say what they killed. UX / UI DesignerThe CV is not the artefact. The portfolio is — and it only ever shows the wins.

Five roles where the title tells you least and the conversation tells you most.

Not on this list?

Describe the role in a sentence. Selene works from your conversation, not from a library — the guide comes back shaped around what you actually said.

Set up a role → Explore the product