Founder MindsetEmerging Pattern

Interview for bias to action by asking candidates about problems they fixed proactively

Q: How many founders have validated "interview for bias to action by asking candidates about problems they fixed proactively"?

2 founders have proven this pattern works. Examples include Vadim (Design Agency), Stephanie Berner (Atlassian).

The best customer-facing hires see problems and fix them without being asked. In interviews, ask for specific examples of problems they noticed and resolved on their own, or broken cross-team workflows they improved.

When to use

When hiring for customer success, support, or any customer-facing role

Don't do this

Hiring people who wait for problems to be assigned to them

2 Founders Who Did This

Design Agencyby Vadim

Hired 5 team members based on whether they could generate ideas independently. Kept running database of designers as backup

Result:Business runs autonomously even when founder is sick, freed him to focus on growth activities like Twitter engagement

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Atlassianby Stephanie Berner

Interviews for bias for action by asking for specific examples of problems candidates fixed proactively or broken cross-team workflows they repaired

Result:Identifies doers who naturally solve problems rather than waiting for direction, critical for early CS team success

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