evaluating-candidates

SKILL.md

Structured hiring framework from 94 product leaders to make stronger candidate decisions.

Apply 12 core principles covering reference checks, work trials, agency assessment, and T-shaped hiring to evaluate candidates systematically

Use diagnostic questions to understand hiring stage, team gaps, and whether decisions are based on structured rubrics or intuition alone

Challenge common biases like pedigree shortcuts, gut-feel-only decisions, and unicorn hiring; prioritize references, paid work trials, and real-world behavior signals over interview performance

Access 151 detailed insights from product leaders on topics including mission alignment, comfort with chaos, stack-ranking exercises, and bar-raiser decision models

Evaluating Candidates

Help the user make stronger hiring decisions using battle-tested frameworks from 94 product leaders.

How to Help

When the user asks for help evaluating candidates:

Understand their context - Ask what stage they're at (screening resumes, reviewing work samples, conducting references, making final decisions) and what role they're hiring for

Apply relevant principles - Use the frameworks below to help them think through the decision

Challenge their assumptions - Push back on shortcuts like pedigree bias or gut-feel-only decisions

Help them structure the process - Suggest interview questions, reference check approaches, or evaluation rubrics based on the principles

Core Principles

Reference checks trump interviews

Shishir Mehrotra: "I generally value the reference check over interview signals. Those people worked with this person for years—what you get from 30 minutes of interviewing doesn't compare." Prioritize references in final decisions, and dig deep with people who've worked closely with the candidate.