Product Manager Recruitment in Belgium

Archetype recruits product managers for companies in Belgium and the Benelux, particularly when the role faces the market: product range, positioning, pricing, launches and the link with the sales team. Since 1993 our business has been recruiting Sales, Marketing and Management profiles across all sectors, and that is the lens through which we search for and assess your candidates. The assignment runs on a retainer, with fees set before the search starts in a written proposal, and takes 12 weeks on average. A 6-month replacement guarantee applies. Tell us about the role to receive a proposal within 48 to 72 hours.

Which product manager are you looking for?

The title covers different jobs from one company to the next. Before we start a search, we agree with you on the type of role, because the candidate pool and the assessment criteria change. We also tell you on the first call whether your need falls within our specialism.

The full list of tasks and skills is in our product manager job description.

Why use a Sales and Marketing recruitment agency

A product manager spends much of their time with the sales and marketing teams: giving them arguments, collecting what clients say, defending a price, preparing a launch. These are the jobs we have recruited, assessed and trained for 33 years. When a candidate describes how they work with sales, we can tell a story from a practice.

When the role mixes product and marketing, our marketing manager recruitment page shows how we approach the marketing side of the job.

We support clients and candidates before, during and after the hire. Not out of courtesy, by design. The first three months of a sales or management hire shape what happens for the next three years. If onboarding fails, the placement is lost, regardless of how good the sourcing was. That’s why our support doesn’t stop at contract signing. It’s also why our clients come back: they aren’t signing for a recruitment, they’re signing for a long-term partnership.

How we assess a product manager

A product manager is judged on decisions: what they chose to launch, delay or drop, and what those choices produced. At interview, we ask them to walk us through a launch from start to finish and an argument they lost. Every finalist goes through three stages:

• an in-depth interview on their current products: scope, range or roadmap decisions, results after launch;
• a competency analysis against the role scorecard, agreed with you at the start of the assignment;
• the KOAN personality test, which we have used for thirty years, to read what drives them, what blocks them and how they react under pressure, in a team and in the face of change.

For each finalist you receive a structured file: scorecard, interview write-ups and the KOAN reading. If you are hesitating between two candidates you found yourself, the same approach, with a case study built on your situation added, is available outside a search: see our assessment for recruitment.

Our five-step recruitment method

Our recruitment process was rewritten in 2025 and validated by Federgon, of which Archetype is a member.

1. An in-depth briefing: the first call is there to challenge the role. You receive our proposal within 48 to 72 hours, then, before the second call, a summary of the requirement, the role scorecard, the sourcing strategy and an employer branding proposal.
2. A sourcing strategy built for the assignment and run in French, Dutch and English.
3. Structured screening, with the three stages described above.
4. A detailed presentation of each finalist, with their scorecard and interview write-ups.
5. Follow-up before, during and after the hire, with you and with the product manager during their first three months.

Timeline, fees and guarantee

The assignment is signed 12 days on average after the first call, and recruitment takes 12 weeks on average between signing the assignment and the candidate signing. More than 75% of our assignments end in a placement; those that do not are stopped by the client.

We work on a retainer only, never on a success fee: you commit, and we see the assignment through however long it takes. The fee is set before the search starts, in a written proposal. The amount depends on the level of the role, the languages required, the technical complexity of your product and the difficulty of the assignment. If the product manager leaves within 6 months, the replacement guarantee applies.

About Archetype

Archetype is a Belgian family business founded in 1993 by Marc Diamant and now co-managed with Davy Diamant and Steve Diamant. A member of Federgon, it won Talent Business Innovation of the Year 2025 for its ethical and structured use of AI.

Frequently asked questions about product manager recruitment

How do you recruit a product manager?

Start by defining the type of role: market-facing product, software product or product owner. Then write a scorecard with the results expected in the first year, then question candidates on their past decisions: launches, trade-offs, results. That is the approach we follow on every assignment, together with the KOAN test.

What is the difference between a product manager and a product owner?

The product manager decides what to build and why: they own the product vision, its positioning and its results in the market. The product owner, in an agile team, turns those choices into a backlog and sprint priorities. In smaller companies, one person often holds both roles.

How much does a recruitment agency charge to hire a product manager?

At Archetype, the amount depends on the level of the role, the languages required, the technical complexity of your product and the difficulty of the assignment. It is set before the search starts, in a written proposal sent within 48 to 72 hours of the first call. We work on a retainer, without a success fee, with a 6-month replacement guarantee.

How long does it take to hire a product manager?

Allow 12 weeks on average between signing the assignment and the candidate signing, followed by the candidate’s notice period. The assignment itself is signed 12 days on average after the first call.

Do you recruit Dutch-speaking or trilingual product managers?

Yes. We recruit in French, Dutch and English, in Flanders, Brussels, Wallonia and the Netherlands. Language requirements are set at the briefing, because they change the candidate pool.

Product manager recruitment is part of our recruitment service in Belgium.

Recruit a product manager