A ‘product’ approach to hiring

In our task-orientated work lives, thinking outside the box can sometimes feel like a luxury. But this week, we’re sharing some bright ideas on how hiring can be more like building a product, helping you to eliminate bias and boost retention.

Applying product principles to the way you hire

Hiring is not just about the team you build – it’s about the process itself. We’ve been reading up on Dan Pupius, a former Googler who helped build Maps and Gmail, who’s well worth following on this subject.

This First Round Review piece highlights some of Dan’s insights from his time at Google, where he reportedly felt like he “snuck through their interview process – renowned for being an intensive, multi-stage affair that has since been grafted and replicated throughout tech”.?

Dan later became Head of Engineering at Medium, where according to the article, he “wanted to build a recruiting system that wouldn’t have the same blind spots [as Google]”. Today, he is co-founder of Range, a communications tool, and remains an advocate for applying well-known mechanics of product development to the hiring process.

Here is a summary of Dan’s playbook according to the piece:

• “Every interaction with a candidate must have purpose, yield data you can learn from, and fit into a bigger vision for what you want to accomplish.”
• “You want to document the system you devise somewhere central and shareable. Consider it a living document that can be changed over time as you learn more.”
• “You need a comprehensive definition of the type of person who will succeed at your company specifically. What is unique to your company and your mission?” (Editor’s note: check out our EVP blog!)
• “Agree on the data you won’t be looking at…For example, at Range, Pupius and his co-founders have specified that they won't place any weight on what schools people went to, their grades, previous companies, who they know, etc.”
• “You want to have a sense of the team composition you’re aiming for at any given time.”

There’s lots of useful information in the piece, and it even includes a handy chart which interviewers can use to grade candidates (DNO stands for ‘did not observe’).

When the market gets tough, the tough get tougher

Last week, we looked at how Stripe built a high-performing business based on a culture of hard work, and asked whether Stripe-style productivity is a thing of the past.

Well, it appears that Mark Zuckerberg is taking no prisoners, and two new articles on the Facebook (Meta) CEO – in the New York Times and The Verge – paint a picture of a leader who takes a dim view of post-COVID workplace culture.

As the latter reports on the CEO’s infamous June 30th call with Facebook employees, “Zuckerberg made clear that his company, in its pandemic era of expansion, had become too soft. It was time for a work culture reboot”.

In particular, Zuckerberg has “noticed people making personal appointments in the middle of the day, making it hard for even the CEO to get everyone to attend a meeting”. He also became “visibly frustrated” during the employee Q&A when asked if the extra days introduced during the pandemic – Meta Days – would be retained.

Whatever the rights and wrongs of Zuckerberg’s approach, how businesses react to this new environment of operating under increased intensity – coupled with rising employee expectations – will be crucial in determining which firms ride out this financial Klarnageddon.

A curious Notion

While Zuckerberg had the foresight (to put it generously) to pocket $4 billion in stock last year, not every employee has the luxury of grabbing the fine china from a sinking ship.?

Top marks to Notion, then, who’ve bucked the trend in allowing their staff – not just the execs – to cash in shares, as Gergely Orosz explains (see below).

Trust matters, and we’re living through a period where the likes of Pollen have gone from raising $255 million in equity to missing payroll for employees. But from a hiring perspective, at a time when many candidates are reluctant to accept roles because they don’t believe that the stock is worth the paper it’s written on, Notion can hold their heads high and make credible, attractive offers that candidates can trust. After a Twitter call-out, Gergely also credited Brex, Gusto, MessageBird, SpaceX and others for having a similarly employee-centered approach to stock options.

At this time of plummeting valuations, read our blog on the equity earthquake for some useful tips on how to bag an A-player.

‘The virtue of slowing down’

Finally, there’s a great piece in The Information that demonstrates how companies that have grown sustainably – rather than getting drunk on venture capital spending sprees – appear to be far better placed to ride out the storm.

Recruiting fail

Shall I compare thee to a software developer? There’s a time and a place for poetry, but perhaps not when you’re recruiting for a front-end developer.

Farewell for now

We’ll be back next week with more tales from our digital dungeon. Thanks for reading and keep spreading the word!