Hiring guide · 2026 market data
Hiring a full-time head of product costs $250,000 or more a year all-in, plus 0.5 to 1.5 percent equity, and takes a 3 to 6 month search. Fractional product leadership costs $60,000 to $180,000 a year and starts in 2 to 3 weeks. Below roughly $8M ARR, fractional usually wins.
30 minutes. No pitch, no deck.
This is a build-versus-rent decision, and the numbers drive it more than the title does. Full-time buys daily leadership and an internal champion with equity-level commitment. Fractional buys direction at a fraction of the cash cost. Past roughly $15M ARR the full-time column is the right one, and I say that as someone who sells the alternative.
| 2026 | Full-time hireFull-time Permanent head of productPermanent hire | Fractional leaderFractional Part-time, contracted monthlyMonthly contract |
|---|---|---|
| What you get | A permanent executive A permanent head of product with daily leadership and equity-level commitment.Daily leadership, equity-level commitment. | Owned outcomes Decisions made, your PMs led, and the work measured on activation, retention and ARR.Decisions made, PMs led, measured on ARR. |
| Total annual cost | $250,000 or more$250K+ All-in: salary, benefits and employer costs. Plus 0.5 to 1.5 percent equity, typical at Series A or B.All-in, plus 0.5 to 1.5% equity. | $60,000 to $180,000$60K to $180K No equity, no payroll tax, no benefits. My standard engagement sits inside this range at $8,000 a month.No equity, payroll tax or benefits. |
| Time to start | 3 to 6 months The search itself, followed by a 3 month ramp before the role is fully productive.The search, then a 3 month ramp. | 2 to 3 weeks One call to scope the problem, one to test fit with your team, then a written plan.Two calls, then a written plan. |
| Commitment | Permanent Daily leadership and a full-time internal champion. This is the column that wins once the product organization is 8 or more people.Daily leadership and a full-time internal champion. | 3 months, then monthly3 months Fewer hours, and not in every meeting. Direction rather than management span.Fewer hours, not in every meeting. |
| Cost of getting it wrong | A year A mis-hire at this level costs a year. Hard and expensive to reverse.A mis-hire at this level costs a year. | One month of feesOne month 3 month minimum, then monthly. Reversible by design.3 month minimum, then monthly. |
2026 figures. No uplift has been applied to any number on this page. The full-time and fractional ranges are the ones published on this page; my own price is my published engagement terms. Recruiter fees of 20 to 30 percent of first-year base are excluded throughout.
Three routes, and the third one is doing nothing, which is a real choice with a real cost. The right answer moves with ARR and with how many product people you already have.
Route one
Best when Your product organization is 8 or more people and needs daily leadership, product is the company's core differentiator, or you are past roughly $15M ARR where the coordination surface fills a week.
$250,000 or more a year, all-in
A 3 to 6 month search, then a 3 month ramp
Route two
Best when Between $2M and $15M ARR, when product still lives with the founder and the problem is direction rather than management span. A fractional product executive fills the seat without a permanent executive line. A fractional leader can also hold the seat while you search, then run the onboarding. See the interim CPO guide for the bridge case.
$60,000 to $180,000 a year
2 to 3 weeks to start
Route three
Best when The product decisions are not yet queueing behind your calendar. Free on the profit and loss, and expensive everywhere else.
$0 visible
The founder-bottleneck tax on every decision
The title question is the last one to answer, not the first. These five come before it.
You are not ready to hire if you cannot name the one metric product is accountable for this quarter.
Four routes to product leadership, with the cash cost of each. The equity column is the one founders forget, and it is the one that makes a full-time hire hard to reverse.
Updated 2026
| Route | Monthly fee | Annual cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full-time head of product | Not published | $250,000 or more | All-in: salary, benefits and employer costs. Plus 0.5 to 1.5 percent equity, typical at this stage. A mis-hire at this level costs a year. |
| Fractional product leader | $5,000 to $15,000 | $60,000 to $180,000 | The annual range published on this page, spread across twelve months. Ten to twenty senior hours a week. My standard engagement sits inside it at $8,000 a month for 25 hours, 3 month minimum. |
| Founder keeps product | $0 visible | $0 visible | Free on the profit and loss and expensive everywhere else. Every week product decisions queue behind your calendar is a week of delayed learning. See the founder bottleneck. |
| All fractional roles, published floors | $2,000 to $10,000 | Not published | Interquartile range of published monthly retainer floors across every fractional role, median $5,000. Fractional Rates Index, 2026. |
Fractional figures from the Fractional Rates Index, v1.2, covering published prices captured 17 to 21 August 2026 across 1,127 providers and 122 priced tiers from 61 providers. No uplift has been applied to any figure on this page. The full-time and fractional annual ranges are the ones published on this page. Recruiter fees of 20 to 30 percent of first-year base are excluded throughout. All figures are 2026 and are selectable text.
Every figure below is from shipped, measured work in engagements led by Sivan Kadosh as Fractional CPO. None of it is a projection.
102% to 112%
Net revenue retention
$30M ARR Martech SaaS. Strategy-aligned work rose from 35% to 90% and R&D waste fell 30%.
8% to 30%
Mobile trial to paid
TravelTech SaaS. Sign-up time dropped 68% and bounce fell from 58% to 22%.
3.5d to 1.2d
Time to activation
TravelTech SaaS. Onboarding completion rose from 52% to 81% with AI-assisted setup.
Sivan is an excellent product manager, product leader and team member. He cares passionately about delighting customers and is highly capable at all levels from strategic direction to writing detailed documents. I would recommend him 10/10 to any company.
Sivan Kadosh
Fractional CPO for B2B SaaS founders. 18+ years leading product as CPO and VP Product.
If the checklist above says fractional, the fastest way to test it is one working session on your actual roadmap. $8,000 a month for 25 hours, 3 month minimum, starting in 2 to 3 weeks.
Three steps, and the first one costs nothing. If the honest answer is a full-time hire, the fractional versus full-time comparison lays out the trade.
Step 1
30 minutes. You leave with one decision clearer, whether or not we work together.
Step 2
What I own, what I coach, what I hand back, in writing.
Step 3
First 30 days end with a roadmap your team believes. The full engagement is described on the fractional CPO service page.
The build-versus-rent questions founders ask at this stage, cost first. Every figure in the answers carries the same source as the tables above.
A full-time head of product costs $250,000 or more a year all-in, plus 0.5 to 1.5 percent equity typical at this stage. Fractional product leadership costs $60,000 to $180,000 a year, and my standard engagement sits inside that range at $8,000 a month for 25 hours, with a 3 month minimum.
At $2M to $15M ARR, fractional first. You get the decisions and the operating rhythm now, and you hire full-time later with a proven scorecard for the role.
2 to 3 weeks from the first call. A full-time search takes 3 to 6 months, followed by a 3 month ramp before the role is fully productive.
Three signals, and I say this as someone who sells the alternative. Your product organization is 8 or more people and needs daily leadership rather than weekly direction. Product is the company's core differentiator and deserves a full-time internal champion with equity-level commitment. Or you are past roughly $15M ARR, where the coordination surface across sales, customer success, engineering and the board genuinely fills a week.
Titles at this stage matter less than decision ownership. The practical question is whether the person owns product decisions end to end or manages the team executing them, and at $2M to $15M ARR you need the former. If you are weighing the titles, the org design question has not been answered yet. Answer it first, because it changes the job spec and the price.
A product audit, a rebuilt roadmap with explicit bets, and an operating cadence your team runs without me in the room. Day 30 ends with a plan you believe.
Yes. Scorecard, sourcing profile and final interviews. A fractional leader can hold the function during the search and then run the onboarding, which is the highest value handoff in this market.
30 minutes on your actual roadmap. You leave with one decision clearer, and if the honest answer is that you need a full-time head of product or nothing at all, I will tell you that.
Book a Product Strategy Session