Building a teamand staying sane

May 15th 2014Alvar Lumberg

1-minute bio

● led a few teams here and there, 4-10 people, mostly distributed○ slow and stable in Swedbank○ fast and furious in TransferWise

● have done around 100 interviews● just an apprentice, but I never stop learning

Getting great people

Great people don’t grow on trees

Great people need to be hunted

Your network is your best friend

Great people are looking for:

1. Cool mission and environment2. Good money 3. New big challenges in their field

Hiring isn’t easy

● Takes a lot of time● Interviewing cannot be outsourced● Tiresome and difficult work

● Always tempting to work on your product instead… but you cannot grow that way

A few interviewing tips

● See if a candidate actually can do

● Involve 3-4 people in positive decisions

● Don’t postpone negative decisions

ABC of people

Great people will start doing your workAverage people will need to be told what to doSub-par people will need constant hand-holding

Hire people who will move your team average to a desired direction

A class people hire A class people,

B class people hire C class people

Keeping great people =keeping people great =

culture

… is not magic… is everything we repeatedly do or don’t do

Culture…

… is contagious… needs nurturing

Hire people to adjust culture, never expect to change people

Culture…

Hire people that can do, want to learn and are not afraid to change

Always keep an eye on culture and weed out unwanted behaviour

Final words