Hiring processes, finding space for side projects, and freedom vs rules 💡
Monday Ideas — Edition #105
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1) 💼 Describe your hiring process in your job post
One of the most overlooked ways to make a job post more effective is to include a precise description of your hiring process.
Describing the process makes the candidate prepare for it and commit to it. And the more the candidate is committed, the more she will be keen to join your company in the end.
A few tips about making this right:
🤏 Make it short — no more than 3-4 steps. You don't need more, and speed always wins deals. More on hiring processes.
⏱️ Include times — provide an expectation of how long each step will take, from replying to the application, to the final hire.
📖 Write a guide — let candidates know what to expect from interviews. Give them the chance to prepare as if they were studying for a test. Make them feel invested in the process.
I wrote a full piece about making good job posts:
2) 🕹️ Finding space to work on side projects
Long before I started the podcast, I was already interviewing people I admire here on Refactoring.
Last year I had an awesome chat with Vic Vijayakumar, Principal Engineer at Segment, dad of three beautiful kids, and… side project master. He runs so many of them, including multiple SaaS tools and a popular podcast.
He told me that finding the right idea is not what usually stops people from starting a project.
People have plenty of ideas.
Instead, the typical conversation is something like: “aaah if I just had the time I would do this”.
So, here are a few things that work for me and Vic, to find more space for our projects:
1) Find your golden hours ✨
My definition of golden hours is some time of the day where you are 1) productive (i.e. not exhausted), and 2) not likely to be interrupted by something else.
For some people this is early in the morning, for others it is at the end of the day, and so on. In some cases you may need to fabricate this time as it doesn’t exist otherwise — e.g. you get up a bit earlier.
2) Do it often ⏲️
Working on a project requires loading some context into your brain. The more often you work on it, the easier the work becomes because you retain such a context.
Conversely, when you work on something only e.g. once a week, I have found it hard to remember what I was even doing — and then I skip one week and the project is lost altogether.
3) Remove friction ⛵
Make it as easy as possible to work on your project. Treat yourself with good DX, avoid chores, and use the tools that you know.
4) Goals or not? 🎯
Some people are motivated by setting goals for their projects, like revenue targets or number of users. Others, instead, avoid doing this because it would feel like work.
Finding the right attitude towards your project is important: you can be more serious or more laid back, and both modes can work based on what triggers your motivation, and what you want to get out of the project itself.
If you are unsure, just experiment a bit. Does creating OKRs for your project get you anxious? Does it give you energy?
You can find plenty of more advice around why & how to start a side project in the full article 👇
3) ⚖️ Freedom vs Rules is a fractal
In his book No Rules Rules, Reed Hastings, ex-CEO of Netflix, argues that modern companies have two main options for how to structure their organizations:
Rules and Process — is how most organizations work, and was born directly out of the industrial revolution. It prizes order over individuals’ freedoms, and it’s best for situations where maintaining consistency and safety is paramount.
Freedom and Responsibility — prizes flexibility over consistency. It allows people to move and adapt quickly, which is best for businesses that rely on innovation.
While both have their merits, for Hastings the success of most modern organizations depends on being relevant and innovative, rather than safe and consistent, so they should pick F&R.
He also makes a famous analogy: the CEO is like the leader of a jazz band—the musicians (employees) need freedom and flexibility, but without the right conditions, the beautiful music turns into a loud mess.
F&R, though, is a destination. To get there, you need to take care of three pillars:
🏅 Talent Density
📣 Candor
🔓 Removing Controls
These pillars unfold throughout the book’s three main chapters, where each chapter goes through all of them, each time in a more advanced way. They work like beginner, intermediate, and expert levels of F&R.
While I love this take, I also believe that F&R vs R&P is a fractal argument that needs to be evaluated at all levels of granularity. It not only calls for different choices in different companies — it calls for different choices in different areas of the same company.
I am a musician myself, and the jazz band analogy struck a chord (pun intended). In a jazz band you would leave your soloists free to create beautiful lines, but you would orchestrate drums and bass with rules & process. That’s because — to use Hastings words — drums are more about safety and consistency, while soloing is more about innovation.
Likewise, even on an elite team, you will benefit from processes on those parts that thrive through safety & consistency. In engineering, think your release pipeline, or your QA process.
When I interviewed Kathryn Koehler, Director of Engineering at Netflix, she told me they do yearly and quarterly planning across the company. That’s process! Below that, teams design initiatives autonomously to achieve goals. That’s freedom!
You can find the full summary and review of No Rules Rules in this recent edition 👇
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I wish you a great week! ☀️
Luca