The Signals You Screen For When Hiring Someone to Manage a Team

Describe what you look for in candidates when you hire someone to manage a team. ```hint Start from the team Think about what the team will need from its manager in the first year, then let that decide which qualities matter most and how you would test for them. ``` ### Clarifying Questions - Is this a first-line manager of individual contributors, or a manager of other managers? - What kind of team will they lead: product managers, engineers, a cross-functional group, or an operations team? - Is the team new, growing quickly, or established and struggling? - Should I draw on hiring I have done myself, or describe how I would run this search? ### What a Strong Answer Covers - Criteria derived from the team's situation and stage, not a generic list of traits - A distinction between management ability and domain expertise, and how the two are weighed - How each criterion would be assessed in practice: interview questions, exercises, references or past results - Red flags that would rule a candidate out - An example from the speaker's own hiring or panel experience, or an honest account of how they would apply the bar ### Follow-up Questions - Your two finalists are the team's strongest domain expert and an outsider with a stronger record of developing people but less domain depth. Who do you hire, and why? - How would you judge whether someone who has never managed before is ready to? - Six months after the hire, how would you tell whether it was the right call?