How do you make sure the candidate you're interviewing is going to be a high performer?

How do you make sure the candidate you're interviewing is going to be a high performer?

Listen for ownership

Do they blame others for past failures? When you ask them how they get their job done, do they mention a lot of dependencies on other departments? Or do they express a sense of ownership and a 'pull-out-all-the-stops' perspective on their role?

Listen for speed/hustle

Ask them how long it would take to do something. Are they talking about days and weeks? Or are they talking about months? Is their timing aggressive while also taking into account practical realities?

Examine their portfolio of work

If it's a product manager, ask them to produce a PRD and brainstorm on it with you. If it's a designer, ask them to walk you through their portfolio. If it's a marketer, ask them to walk you through a number of their previous campaigns. Is their work fantastic?

Be wary of people who have exclusively worked at large companies or agencies

Unless they express extreme discomfort with the bureaucracy of big legacy companies or the unscalable nature of agency work - these people tend to either work too slowly or be too comfortable with unscalable solutions to business problems.