Dave Naffziger’s Blog

There have been more than a few fantastic posts written on hiring by people way smarter than myself. Although the posts are about different roles, they all are must-reads for people growing their teams:

• Joel’s Guerrilla Guide and Phone Screen Guide: Look for people that are smart and get things done.
• Marc Andreesson: How to hire the best people you’ve ever worked with. Look for Drive, Curiosity & Ethics. Be wary of mediocre performers from successful companies.
• Dick Costolo: Best Available Athlete. Hire raw energetic natural talent over experience.
• Eric Sink’s Hazards of Hiring. The best people never stop learning. They are self-aware and they write good code (which you should see). The hiring process is all about increasing the probability that you make a great hire (more input).
• Ken Norton’s How to hire a product manager. Smart people with technical backgrounds that have a ‘spidey sense’ about the product. Not to mention great communicating, natural leaders with experience shipping a product.

Many of the posts stress the importance of finding new hires that are good cultural fits, but few do a good job of explaining how to detect fit. I’ve found this aspect of hiring challenging and incredibly hard to assess consistently across candidates. But perhaps one of the most important components.