Managing People
On Hiring Well
Effective hiring goes beyond filling positions; it's about building relationships and ensuring a positive experience for every candidate.
Related Articles
Filter by Category
Filter by Author
Back to Latest Articles
Leadership
Mistaking Charismatic Laborers for True Leaders
Charismatic laborers may save the day, but true leaders build a future. Sustainable progress thrives not on heroics, but on empowering teams and creating lasting systems.
Managing People
What Does it Mean to be a Manager in Agile?
A framework I created to explain how managers still have a huge role to play in coaching Agile teams' performance
Leadership
Leadership and Manure
Just as a successful garden requires preparation and the right conditions to thrive, true leadership is about cultivating an environment where innovation and growth can flourish.
Communication
The Problem with the Telephone Game
Cascading communication is like a flawed game of telephone: everybody hears a message, but did they hear the right message?
Self-Management
Putting Down the Whack-A-Mole Mallet
Great leaders don’t just react to exceptions—they redesign systems to prevent them. Progress comes from refining workflows, not just playing whack-a-mole with disruptions.
Leadership
Acknowledging Power Distance
Authentic leadership isn’t just about being genuine—it’s about being humane. Leaders must balance their authority with empathy, bridging the gap between their humanity and the power they hold.
Self-Management
In Case of Bad Days
Save those encouraging notes and emails in a 'For Bad Days' folder. When imposter syndrome hits, pull it out and let those kind words remind you that you are great at what you do.
Productivity
Nobody Will Protect Your Focus For You
How I've learned to protect time for deep thinking and doing
Managing People
If You Want to Build a Ship…
Many leaders view their job as creating thrust behind the organization (read: "sense of urgency"). I don't see it that way.
Managing People
Nine Phrases Every Leader Should Use More Often
Every leader should prioritize the power of language in their interactions. Using phrases that convey vulnerability, openness, and empathy can transform a team's culture.
Leadership
Building Legacies that Endure
Even in the face of disheartening transformations, the connections forged and the values instilled continue to ripple through time, reminding us that our legacies are built in the space between human beings.
Leadership
Get Comfortable with Ambiguity
Great leaders know when to embrace uncertainty outside their teams but prioritize creating clear paths and shared goals within, ensuring everyone moves forward together.
Leadership
This I Believe
Leadership is built on beliefs, lessons, and experiences—big and small—that shape how we guide others. Here’s a collection of truths I hold about leading people, from embracing imperfection to cultivating clarity, empathy, and courage.
Communication
What’s in a Name?
People's names matter, and it's worth taking the time to get them right.
Productivity
Time to Blow Up Your Calendar
Declaring calendar bankruptcy every now and then is a good thing.
Making Great Products
On Attics and Assumptions: The Hidden Cost of Inaction
Buying our first house was a dream come true, but it quickly turned into a costly lesson about ignoring problems. What we thought was an insurmountable expense turned out to be a simple solution, teaching me the importance of recognizing and challenging limiting beliefs.
Leadership
Pee, Poo, and Unintended Consequences
When my son gamed our potty-training system to maximize cartoons, I realized something: measuring the wrong thing drives the wrong behavior. The same is true in software development—if we focus solely on output, we risk missing the outcomes that truly matter.
User Experience
Design Is About Process, Not Heroics
While most people settle for the first workable solution, designers dig deeper, exploring a multitude of ideas and embracing risk. This is their superpower.
Making Great Products
Tension Is To Be Loved
The tension between designers, developers, and product managers often feels like a struggle for dominance—but what if that tension is the key to building great products?
On Hiring Well
One of the things I think I’m pretty good at is hiring. I fill roles faster than the average leader, my hires stick around for the long haul, and they’re often cited as top performers and exemplars of our values.
But that hasn’t always been the case. A few years ago, I went through a phase of bad hires that made me question if I even knew what I was doing.
What I finally realized was that I was treating the hiring process like it was HR’s responsibility and I was just “helping out.” Once I understood that it’s my job as a leader to drive the process and find the right people, everything changed.
Here’s what I do differently now:
➜ Personally screen every resume.
I don’t leave it to HR. I personally review every resume (that isn’t disqualified by factors outside of my control, like location or pay expectations well above my budget), and I give clear feedback to my HR partners within 1 business day. This helps them understand what I’m looking for and leads to better candidates down the line. This has also helped me find some “dark horse” candidates—people with nontraditional backgrounds who wouldn’t have made it to my inbox previously—and those people have been some of my strongest hires.
➜ Insist on ethical and inclusive sourcing.
I insist on seeing a diverse slate of candidates before making any decisions. To do that, I make sure my job postings go beyond LinkedIn. I use organizations and job boards that reach underrepresented groups. I also remove unnecessary barriers—like requiring MBAs (or even college degrees) for roles where they really aren’t needed.
➜ Give feedback quickly and with respect.
If I know on a phone screen that someone isn’t the right fit, I tell them right then. And if they’ve made it onsite or invested significant time with me, I pick up the phone and call them personally to explain why they weren’t selected. In my opinion, the only people who should get an automated rejection are those who’ve only interacted with the applicant tracking system.
➜ Share candidates I can’t hire.
If someone’s great but I can’t hire them, I don’t just let them walk away. I connect them with other people in my network who are also hiring. It’s the right thing to do, and it builds relationships that could pay off later for both sides.
Hiring is about a lot more than filling a seat. It’s an opportunity to demonstrate core values—mine and those of my company. I want every interview to be the start of a relationship, not just a transaction, and I want every candidate to feel like interviewing with me was a positive experience and a good use of their time, even if they didn’t get the job.
Cover photo by Eric Prouzet on Unsplash
