Jan 31, 2018
MMTL: Along the way, you’ve made a lot of hires, so we’re going to ask you, “How do you make a great hire?” Matt: We follow this principle that we picked up in a book called Traction, by a guy named Gino Wickman. It’s an operating system for businesses called the EOS. We follow their people process, and it works quite well for us. It comes down to three things: Does the person get it, do they want it, and do they have the capacity to do it? If I could unpack that for you, what it means is that when we define a seat or role in the business and we start looking for people to fill that seat, the first thing we look for is, Do they understand the role? Do they get it? Do they understand what it entails, and if they do, then do they want it? Is this something that they think they would have a lot of fun doing? If they have fun, they’ll likely be good at it. Then, do they have the capacity to do it? It’s never a good idea to take somebody who’s never done a job or something even remotely close to that role and put them into it. This likely means that they don’t really have the capacity for it. We’re usually looking for people with a little bit of experience. Capacity is a lot of stuff rolled up in that, but it’s the anchor, right? They need to know and have the ability and the time and the wherewithal to do the job. The whole “get it, want it, have the capacity to do it” thing has been a game-changer for us in just simplifying how to find the right people.