đź’ˇ Product Circle â• Chat - What Great Product Hiring Actually Looks Like with Iryna Melnyk
​Welcome to 💡 Product Circle ╠Chat on
đź•— Tuesday 2 June 2026 at 6pm ET Toronto, Canada
​🕗 Wednesday 3 June 2026 at 8am AEST, Australia
​🕗 Wednesday 3 June 2026 at 10am NZST - Christchurch
​Topic: Hiring is a Product: A product leader’s playbook to secure great hires
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Most hiring advice is written for candidates. This chat is for the people running the process.
​As a product leader, Iryna has treated hiring the same way as she treats product work: define the problem clearly, get buy-in early, design the experience intentionally, and measure what matters. When you put in the effort, roles are filled with better-fit candidates, and candidates describe the process as the best interview experience they've had.
​In this talk, she'll share a practical playbook for approaching hiring as a product: from writing the role one-pager and designing the interview process, to briefing your panel, giving real feedback, and running a candidate experience worth being proud of.
​What we'll cover
​✅ The "Product One-Pager" approach to defining a role and getting buy-in before recruiting begins
​✅ Hiring fast and slow. Is taking the risk to hire fast ever worth it?
​✅ How to brief a recruiter (properly) -- the key step most managers overlook
​✅ Curbing bias through a structured approach to interviews and panel debriefs
​✅ Feedback and rejection as an investment in a candidate’s growth and a strong employer brand
​"Experience working in a product trio is a privilege, not a given. What I'm really hiring for is the mindset behind it." — Iryna Melnyk
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Perfect for: Product Managers, Senior PMs, and Product Leaders at any stage of their career — whether you're hiring, looking to move, or just want to understand what hiring managers are really thinking.
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​About Iryna Melnyk
​Iryna Melnyk is a Product Director at Octopus Deploy and Product Management Trainer/Coach based in Christchurch, New Zealand. Iryna is a Product Leader with over a decade of experience across a multitude of product organisations with deep experience in B2B SaaS.
​At Octopus Deploy, Iryna leads several product teams and drives strategic decisions on future investments. As a hiring manager, she has interviewed hundreds of candidates and created new roles that didn't exist before. Iryna constantly refines the recruitment and interview process to ensure the best outcomes for both the company and the candidates.
​She looks beyond just credentials and titles, focusing on authentic experience with complex systems, a genuine cross-functional mindset, and high agency: the ability to bring real product rigour, such as assumption mapping, hypothesis-driven thinking, and true ownership. As a coach and leader, she identifies the non-negotiables a role demands and actively develops everything else, including helping candidates grow through the interview process itself.
​Most candidates express how positive and refreshing the interview process is, and Iryna wants to share her approach with other hiring managers and aspiring leaders.
Zoom Link: See invite
​✨Attend and WIN ✨
​You know we always have something special to giveaway at every chat. This one is no different!
​🏆 1 x lucky live attendee will WIN a FREE 1:1 coaching session with Iryna.
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✨Virtual Networking ✨
​The first hour of the Chat will be recorded. Afterward, stay on for live networking with product and tech peers from around the world—no recording, just meaningful connections.
Mark your calendar and bring your questions for Iryna!
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✨Refer a Friend✨
​Think this is valuable, refer a friend via Luma and earn a discount code to be used at the next Chat. 10% OFF for every referral (got 10 friends? Get a free pass)
✨Huge Speakers Booked✨
​We have great global product speakers booked every second week this year!
​​If you missed our past speakers, catch up on the recordings with Christian Idiodi, Petra Wille, Rich Mironov, Jason Knight, Geoffrey Moore, April Dunford, Bob Moesta and many other Leaders!
​All Product Circle Chat recording will be posted at https://theproductvenn.substack.com/
​thanks,
​Irene
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Irene Liakos
​Product
[email protected]
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