Is Your Interview Process Broken?

Introduction:

• In the fast-paced world of startups where every moment matters, hiring the right leaders can completely change the trajectory of your company. This guide provides startup founders and hiring managers a streamlined approach to creating an interview process; that ensures you don’t let a top candidate slip through the cracks. We commonly see the interview process create a breaking point for search processes.

Define Your Needs

• Sounds simple, but 'defining your needs' is often overlooked. Identify the specific needs and problems you want this candidate to solve; starting with the quality of hire outcomes. For example, in the first 12 months of employment what would success look like? Once this has been determined, break it down further into SMART goals. These goals will be highly dependent on the size, stage, ARR, GTM model and domain of the company. Contact us if you want to talk through yours with one of our partners.

Build an Interview Guide

• Once you’ve created your success criteria, build an interview guide of situational-based questions to assess the specific areas you’ve selected. If you want to assess a candidate’s experience generating revenue from $1m ARR to 5m ARR, it’s imperative to ask them what they did, how they did it, and who they did it with. Your executive team will want to be included in this process and you’ll want to ensure they’re aligned, as well. Ask your team to generate their own 'quality of hire' criteria for the role, and match it up with yours prior to interviewing any candidates to ensure alignment.

Define Cultural Fit and Mission Alignment

• Building companies is tough. It’s even harder when everyone is rowing in opposite directions. Define your culture, values and mission, alongside your quality of hire criteria.This should be equally as important and vetted as thoroughly. We’ve completed hundreds of searches at startups and we’ve found adaptability to be one of the key drivers of success in our candidates. The ability to thrive in ambiguity, pivot quickly, and drive results with limited resources.

Conduct Targeted Interviews

• Approach the interviews in the same way you would when meeting an important customer or doing a pitch with high-potential business. Candidates can feel a lack of curiosity and research into their backgrounds.
• Be transparent. If there are challenges you’re facing it’s important to set expectations with candidates during the interview. Misalignment between hiring managers and candidates and overselling the role is a common reason for failed searches.
• Use presentations and take-home exercises sparingly and for finalist candidates only. If the presentation does not help assess the initial 'quality of hire' criteria or to test the candidate's mission alignment, remove it from the process.
• Ask your team to provide thorough feedback quickly. Top candidates will be interviewing at multiple places, regardless of market conditions. If the interviews went well, capitalize on the momentum and initiate next steps.
• How many interviews should there be? This can be tough in an executive process, as the candidate touches lots of different departments and getting alignment from key stakeholders is important. However, we'd recommend that if you must include cross-functional partners, they be grouped together.

Leverage References and Networks

• Gather insights from mutual connections, advisors, investors, and industry peers to validate candidates' experiences, reputation, and potential cultural fit. Conduct reference checks to gain a deeper understanding of candidates' leadership style, decision-making approach, and impact in previous roles.

Make an offer

• Once you’ve made your decision, talk to the candidate about their expectations and what’s important to them in a package. Index towards these important things in the offer. For example, if the candidate has told you that equity is more important to them than cash.
• Talk about compensation with them throughout the interview process to avoid surprises at the end. This is another common failure point in searches that we see. Be transparent about what you’re going to pay based on their experience from the beginning.
• Once the offer is made ensure the candidate knows why you’re hiring them outside of the fact that “you liked them”. Candidates are buying into your mission and putting in years of their career towards building your company. It’s key to highlight what specifically impressed you during the interview process and why they are the person you want.
• A nice touch is to have investors and future team members reach out to congratulate them on the offer and reiterate what they liked about them during the interview process.
• Set an accommodating timeline, but ensure that you’re protected with any other candidates you have in process that you would also potentially hire. Remember, the candidate has been interviewing you at the same time you’ve been interviewing them and should not need longer than 5-7 days to make a decision.

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