Decision framework before making any growth hire 👉🏼
It's all about making the choices, the right way.
Welcome to the 61st edition of the GrowthX Newsletter. Every Tuesday & Thursday I write a piece on startups & business growth. Today’s piece is going to 94,400+ operators & leaders from startups like Google, Stripe, Swiggy, Razorpay, CRED & more
Stuff you should know: most leaders struggle to build a growth team.
This issue covers a no bullsh*t way to hire the right growth talent.
Are you struggling to hire for your growth team? 🤯
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Quick back story 🗓
I typically spend few hours every week helping GrowthX founders build their growth teams, be the soundboard especially during rolling offers to leadership growth hires.
Here’s what works from experience of building 100s of growth teams.
1. Proof of work » any degree 📜
One of the biggest mistake first time founders/ leaders do is hire for brand name. This person worked at airbnb, flipkart, Ebay or Google, we should hire him/ her.
You are ruining someone’s career if you are hiring them just because they have that shiny degree or ex-employer.
Action : Always pay attention to proof of work a potential hire has done. Look for how they explain the craft they got business outcomes for. Especially while making key hires, see how they think about observations → insights → experiments → outcomes.
2. Design brilliant assignments 🎯
Someone has done the craft and has proof of work does not mean they are the right fit for your team. So many times you hire a great craft person and they completely tank once they join.
Make sure each hiring manager in your team designs an assignment for every role. From an intern → leadership hire. Especially if you are early stage product and still figuring out your growth levers. I have recently gone ahead and legit paid great potential hires money to do assignment. This speeds up this step.
Action : For every key role your team is currently hiring for, make a freaking assignment. This assignment ‘has to’ (repeat twice) closely resemble what this person is going to do on the growth problem statement.
3. The best hires aren’t applying 🤯
This is just pure data points we have collected at GrowthX over a period of last 2 years and over 100s of growth hires. 90% of the cases the most successful hires are going to be outbound, period. Just make peace with this fact. One of the biggest mistake first time founders/ leaders do is hire for brand name.
You need to reachout to folks who are writing content in your domain. Someone who is passionate about the space or the craft. Writing brings clarity and you would want your growth hires to have clarity about what the hell are they talking about.
Action : Use your social media to reachout to potential hires. Work on your outreach message. Talk about the problem statements you are solving for and why. Great craftsman’s get excited about problem statements & vice versa.
4. Hiring process is everything ⏱
When you have a potential hire in the hiring pipeline, act fast. Most great hires won’t wait around for your reply on next steps. If they are talking to you, they are talking to other folks, period.
Create the process of who is going to be the panelist (and why), who is going to assess what & how. Have a clear process on consecutive rounds of interviews/conversations and make sure you are constantly in touch with the potential hire.
Action : Use a hiring tool with dedicated hiring guides for each role. Make sure all the calendar are set in advance even before beginning the process. Ideally start and complete the process in 5 business days. Make hiring a priority or you won’t be able to hire.
5. Set them for success even before they join
Don’t hire first and then plan for them. That means you haven’t thought through about this specific role.
Design a 30-60-90 day plan for every new growth hire. Make sure they can get a small win in first 90 days of they joining the team. This boosts their confidence plus helps them build equity with cross teams & their peers.
Action : Apart from first 90 day milestone document. Write down list of problem statements this hire will look at plus their up-skilling plan. Make sure you have set the right introductions in early stages of their time at your org so they get all the right context about the user, product & the market.
That’s all for now 💙