Hey!

Chris here. Welcome to Blueprint—the newsletter to help you build a winning engineering team.

Today I'm going to save you from making the biggest hiring mistake I see tech companies make: thinking you need a complex interview process to find great engineers.

I spent 20 years learning this the hard way. I've tried every hiring framework, every interview technique, every assessment tool.

Want to know what actually works? 15 minutes.

No, I'm not joking.

Let's get into it👇🏼

📒 DEEP DIVE

How to Actually Hire Great Engineers

Putting engineers through the wringer vs. real-world execution

Most engineering teams are built wrong from the start.

Companies obsess over finding "unicorn" developers, then are stumped when nothing gets shipped. Or, they put candidates through endless interview rounds but still end up with mediocre hires.

But there's a better way.

The Traditional Hiring Process Is Dead

Does this look familiar?

→ Sifting through thousands of resumes

→ Multiple rounds of interviews

→ Take-home assignments

→ Whiteboard coding sessions

→ Churning potential candidates one after the other

If so, take a step back.

Asking candidates to write a Fibonacci sequence on a whiteboard in front of 3 senior engineers is testing for all the wrong things. 

It's artificial pressure—nothing to do with their actual job or how they'll perform in real life.

Think about it: When was the last time your best engineer had to code standing up, with no reference materials, while being watched by multiple people? 

Never. Because that's not how engineering works.

Real engineers work in their element: headphones on, dialed-in environment, with access to their preferred tools.

Testing them in any other context is meaningless.

The 15-Minute Rule

After 20 years, I’ve learned a 15-minute interview is all you need.

No sarcasm, no exaggeration.

In those 15 minutes, I'm looking for something specific: Can this person grow within our organization?

Getting the answer to this question only takes 3 more questions:

1. Can they face customers effectively?

2. Do they show leadership potential?

3. Would people naturally follow them?

Everything else needs to be tested in the real world. No interview question will show you how someone performs under genuine pressure or handles their worst day.

The Real Test: Paid Trial Periods

AKA, where the rubber meets the road: 2 weeks of real work, with real pressure, on real projects.

We pay their rate. They see our culture. We see their craft.

Like test driving a car, both sides get to peek under the hood before committing. No surprises 6 months in. No misaligned expectations.

Who You Should Decide to Hire

You need the best of the best—I'm talking about the top 1% in both communication and execution. Your paid trials should show you this.

It's a rare combination, but it's absolutely critical. Here's why:

When clients hire your company, their biggest fear is receiving mediocre service. And let's be honest—there's a lot of mediocrity out there.

You need people who can:

• Communicate clearly with stakeholders

• Execute and adapt at an elite level 24/7

• Solve complex problems independently

Most importantly, you need people who can grow. Because in tech, what's cutting-edge today is obsolete tomorrow.

The Bottom Line

Traditional hiring processes are failing tech companies. Instead of evaluating how someone actually works, they:

→ Reward memorization over problem-solving

→ Put candidates through artificial pressure with no context

→ Waste countless hours on hypothetical scenarios vs. real-world delivery

My process cuts through all that noise. 

Because here's the simple truth: The best way to know if someone can do the job is to let them do the job. 

You wouldn't hire a chef without tasting their food. So why would you hire an engineer without seeing their work?

Give them a real project. Let them work with your team. See how they think, how they solve problems, and how they handle challenges. 

That's what matters. That’s how you build a killer team. 

🎙 EPISODE OF THE WEEK

Are you starting your business from scratch? Or scaling up without outside funding?

This week's episode of the Build Your Business podcast is about all things bootstrapping.

We cover strategies, challenges, and success stories to grow on your own terms. If you're a founder who wants to build sustainably and stay in control of your business, this one's for you.

Take a listen here.

BEFORE YOU GO…

I get it. Most companies won't have the guts to strip their hiring process down to 15 minutes.

They'll keep doing what everyone else does, then wonder why they can't build the team they want.

But you're not most companies. And now you know you can do better.

Talk soon,

Chris.