Adam Ward: evaluation

Transcript context

…You have built and are known as someone that can build the most elite, high-talent density teams. Let's start with how people do it wrong. Something you call the funnel of doom. Companies think about recruiting like a funnel. I am going to reach out to 100 people. 20% of those are all high. By definition, that is not the top 20%. That is just the 20 people who you caught on a bad day. The way we all recruit is we kind of weed people out at each stage and we hire the remainder. In your mind like, "Hey, there are 50 people in the world who can do this. Let's go find those 50 people." And you relentlessly pursue and you focus your energy on activating those people, not trying to find them out of the funnel of doom. The mistake that most companies make is they'll say, "Hey, Lenny, who's the best product engineer you know?" That is the worst question you can ask. The better question to ask is, "Hey, Lenny, of all the product engineers you've worked with, who stands out to you as the person who's most collaborative with designers or who can translate a framework into a product better than anyone you've ever seen?" When you're looking for that first recruiting hire, is there anything you think is important to look for?…

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