Hiring is one of the biggest decisions a leader makes, especially when starting to scale a team. Yet too often interviews drift into vibes about whether someone seems ‘good’, rather than clear signal on whether they can thrive in this role, at this stage of a company’s growth.

I’ve been working with a few startup clients on this recently, and a simple formula has been helping to turn vibes into objective signal:

Signal → Format → Prompt → Good/Great/Poor

Every step in an interview process should either:
1. Clarify signal on candidate fit
2. Make the candidate more excited to join your team

Here’s how it works:

1. Signal
Decide what you care about most at this step. For an ‘impact’ interview that might be how they measure success, prioritise effort, influence strategy, or shape product thinking. Pick 4–5 attributes.

2. Format
Choose the setup that will give you the clearest read, and the people best placed to evaluate it. Q&A works well if the candidate has directly relevant experience, but if you are hiring someone earlier in their career or from a different background, scenario-based sessions, collaborative exercises, or focused case studies can be a better way to get at what matters.

3. Prompt
Think about the questions that will actually draw out the signal you want. Most of the value comes from asking questions that give tangible, objective answers, not just surface-level impressions.

4. Good/Great/Poor
Agreeing on this up front helps panels calibrate. A PM’s idea of good visual design might look very different from a designer’s. Shared definitions create more consistency and fairness.

Most importantly, this shouldn’t feel process-heavy or over-engineered. As a hiring manager, just spending an hour or two putting thought into this upfront will make your life much easier when you get to the debrief stage. And hopefully give candidates a clearer, fairer experience too.

Bonus tip: use your AI of choice alongside your career framework or job description to generate starting points and stay consistent with how you evaluate across the team.

Hope that helps 🙏