You're about to hire against a guess

The short version: if you’re hiring for a role you’ve never done yourself, you’re probably guessing at what “great” looks like (and hiring against that guess). Use The Calibration Call to replace it with a standard. The longer version 👇

Hey, it’s Andy.

The most expensive hiring mistake happens before the first interview. You write a job description around what you imagine great looks like for the role, and then you spend three months and a bunch of money hiring against a guess.

When you’ve done a job before, you have a standard to compare against. But startup founders and leaders often find themselves hiring for roles they’ve never done. Even if you’ve sold the first $500K in revenue, that means you know what it takes for a founder to sell. It doesn’t mean you know what a great VP of Sales or your first AE looks like.

Almost all hiring advice—interview loops, scorecards, structured questions—is about how to judge candidates. But what are you judging against?

To develop a standard, I recommend you use The Calibration Call: a short research conversation with people who’ve done the role, hired for it, or worked next to someone great at it.

Now, you may have seen Scott Belsky’s tweet last week: “the more people you consult for advice, the more likely you’ll make a bad/average decision.” He’s right, and a Calibration Call is the opposite of what he’s warning about. You’re not asking “who should I hire?” or “what would you do?” You’re asking questions to calibrate what great and failed performance actually look like from people who’ve seen both up close. And then you decide.

This isn’t just my take. In rewriting the page, I worked through 33 sources from academic research, psychology, and operators like Keith Rabois and Brian Armstrong. The sources converge hard: when you’re hiring for a job you’ve never done before, structured conversations with people who have are one of the few reliable ways to get signal on what you’re actually looking for.

→ Read The Calibration Call

Fair warning: it’s about 4,000 words, but it’s packed with concrete tips on (1) getting to the right people, (2) getting access, (3) running the call, and (4) what to weigh from folks’ answers. If that’s more than you’re ready to read, open Agent Mode and paste one prompt into Chat or Claude. It’ll help you plan your calls, draft the outreach, build your question guide, and turn what you hear into a hiring standard. Mischief managed. Management crafted.

Either way, the next time you interview, you’ll be way more confident the person you’re talking to can actually do the job or not.

Cheers,
Andy

P.S. I also shipped Management Craft 0.3.1 today. Check out the release notes.

P.P.S. Know a founder who’s hiring right now? Forward this or share on LinkedIn or X.