UNO REVERSEEE!! Haha cool. Obviously if a person is coming from a non product background, he would not be screen shortlisted by HRs quite easily because already there are N number of product folks in the system. As far as I have observed people have high rate of conversion when they approach founders/product heads by cold emailing/networking and try pitching themself on how good they are, maybe showcase PRDs, portfolio that they have worked on, product observations about the company, any suggestion in improvement of the product, how to be one step ahead with their competitors, etc., would be an intriguing part for the founders to have a call with them and take it forward. Referrals might work, but not at a larger extent if the HR decided to reject post resume screening.