Your first ten engineers
The first ten hires are not employees, they are the constitution. Everything you tolerate in them becomes policy for the next hundred.
0-5 · 5-20
The bar: define it, write it down, hold it
A hiring bar that lives in people's heads drifts downward, and not only under pressure. Comfort is the force nobody names. Write the criteria, then give somebody other than the decision-maker standing to invoke them.
5-20 · 20-50 · 50-150 · 150+
Interview loops that predict performance
Most loops measure interview skill. Give each stage exactly one job, and let the highest-weight stage be a structured judgment conversation with the people who'll actually work with the person.
5-20 · 20-50 · 50-150 · 150+
One-on-ones are their meeting
The one-on-one is not where you get updates. It's where a person's growth, frustration, and confusion get a scheduled place to surface, and it only works if you talk for a fifth of it.
0-5 · 5-20 · 20-50 · 50-150 · 150+
Feedback while it still matters
Feedback only does its job while there's still time to act on it. Held past that point, the cost doesn't disappear. It lands on the person who finds out later than they should have.
0-5 · 5-20 · 20-50 · 50-150 · 150+
Coach before you answer
Coaching means asking before telling, because the questions teach more than the answer does. Some moments need a straight answer instead, and the job is knowing which moment you're in.
5-20 · 20-50 · 50-150 · 150+
Sponsorship is what you say when they're not in the room
Coaching changes someone's work while you're in the room. Sponsorship changes what happens to their career when you're not, and it only runs on trust you've actually earned rather than trust you've claimed by title.
5-20 · 20-50 · 50-150 · 150+
Managing out, humanely and quickly
Once the decision is made, days rather than months. But speed only works on top of honesty. The team already knows if you've been having the conversations, and if you haven't, fast just reads as arbitrary.
5-20 · 20-50 · 50-150 · 150+
Onboarding that pays back in 30 days
Time to first meaningful change is the most honest measure of your engineering environment. Onboarding is a stress test you run on yourself, with a fresh pair of eyes attached.
5-20 · 20-50 · 50-150 · 150+