Latest / New Manager Conversations with Fexingo: First 90 Days, Managing Former Peers, and Leadership Basics / How New Managers Can Make Smarter Hiring Decisions in Their First Year
Transcript
- Lucas: You've been a manager for three months. Your best engineer gives notice. Now you have to hire their replacement — and you've never hired anyone before. That's the moment a lot of new managers freeze. Luna: It's terrifying. You don't have a track record of good hires, you don't know what you're looking for yet, and everyone's watching. Lucas: Exactly. And the instinct is often to just clone the person who left — same skills, same background, same personality. But that's a trap. Today I want to talk about one specific framework that helps new managers make smarter hiring decisions, especially in that first year. I call it 'hire for pattern, not promise.' Luna: I like that. Let's break it down. Lucas: So the 'promise' is what a candidate says they can do. Their resume, their enthusiasm, their self-assessment. The 'pattern' is what they've actually done — repeatedly, over time, in different contexts. A new manager, because they lack hiring experience, often overweights promise because it's seductive. The candidate sounds great. Luna: Right. And if you haven't been burned yet, you don't know how often promise doesn't deliver. Lucas: So here's a concrete example. I worked with a new manager at a mid-stage SaaS company — let's call her Priya. She took over a team of five, and three months in, her senior backend engineer left for a bigger role at a FAANG company. Priya's first instinct was to look for someone with the same stack: Python, AWS, PostgreSQL. That's the promise — the tech keywords match. Luna: And what was the pattern she should have been looking for? Lucas: She needed someone who could operate in a high-ambiguity environment. Her team was building a new product feature with shifting requirements. The person who left was great at handling that ambiguity — but his résumé just showed Python and AWS. So Priya reframed the search. She wrote a new job description that didn't just list technologies — it described the problem the person would solve. 'You'll work on a feature where the spec changes weekly. You need to be comfortable shipping code that you know will be rewritten.' That attracts a different pattern of candidate. Luna: So she was hiring for the context, not the clone. Lucas: Exactly. And that's the first move for a new manager: before you even post the job, write down the three biggest challenges the team will face in the next six months. Then hire for someone whose pattern shows they've navigated those challenges before. Not someone who says they're excited about them. Luna: That's a really concrete way to start. But I want to push back on something. A lot of leadership advice tells new managers to 'hire people smarter than you.' That sounds great in theory, but how do you evaluate someone who's smarter than you in an area you don't fully understand? Lucas: It's a real problem. The key is to not evaluate their technical depth directly — you're not the expert. Instead, evaluate their ability to explain. I use a simple test: ask them to teach you something complex in five minutes. If they can make it understandable to someone outside their domain, that's a strong pattern signal. It shows they have real understanding, not just jargon. Luna: That's a good one. Another thing I've seen new managers struggle with is the reference check. They treat it as a formality, but it's actually the best place to find pattern evidence. Lucas: Totally. But you have to do structured reference calls. Don't just ask 'Would you hire them again?' That's useless. Ask for specific stories. 'Tell me about a time they had to deliver something under a tight deadline. What exactly did they do?' You're looking for concrete behaviors, not opinions. Luna: And if you're a new manager, you might not have a network to draw on for comparison. So how do you calibrate your own judgment? Lucas: This is where involving your own manager — the skip-level — is crucial. Priya brought her VP of Engineering into the final round. Not to make the decision, but to ask one question: 'Based on your experience, what pattern do you see in this candidate that I might be missing?' That single question gave her perspective she couldn't have on her own. Luna: That's a smart move. It also builds trust with your own boss — shows you're not trying to go it alone. Lucas: Exactly. And if we're talking about building trust, I think this podcast is a good example of something that only works because of listener support. We keep the show ad-free, and that's made possible by people who contribute at buymeacoffee.com/fexingo. It's a small way to help us keep doing episodes like this one, focused on practical advice rather than sponsored content. Luna: Yeah, it really does make a difference. And it keeps the conversation honest — we're not trying to sell you anything, just share what works. Lucas: Right. So back to hiring. Once you've found a candidate whose pattern matches the team's needs, the next trap is moving too fast. New managers often feel pressure to fill the seat quickly, especially if the team is understaffed. But a bad hire costs way more than a few extra weeks of searching. Luna: What's the typical cost? I've heard numbers like three times salary. Lucas: At least. But for a new manager, the hidden cost is credibility. If you hire someone who doesn't work out, your team loses confidence in your judgment. And rebuilding that takes months. So slow down. Use a structured process: phone screen, take-home task, two rounds of interviews, and a reference call. No shortcuts. Luna: One more thing I think is important: culture add versus culture fit. New managers sometimes look for people who are just like the existing team, which can create groupthink. How do you hire for culture add? Lucas: Great question. I use a two-question test. First: 'What would this person bring to the team that no one else does?' If the answer is something skills-based, that's a culture add. Second: 'Is there a fundamental value this person holds that would clash with our team's core values?' If yes, that's a real fit issue. But if they just have a different communication style or background, that's usually additive. Luna: So you're looking for diversity of thought, not conflict of values. Lucas: Exactly. And new managers often get this wrong because they're afraid of rocking the boat. But a team that's too homogeneous will stagnate. So Priya's final hire was someone who had worked at a much larger company and brought a different approach to system design. That was a culture add — the team had been too insular. Luna: And how did it turn out? Lucas: The hire worked out well. It took about two months for the new person to adjust, but then they started suggesting architectural changes that improved performance by about twenty percent. Priya's team learned a lot. And Priya herself gained confidence — she had made a hiring decision based on pattern, not promise, and it paid off. Luna: That's the kind of win a new manager needs early on. It sets a precedent for future hires. Lucas: Exactly. So to sum up: before you hire, define the three biggest challenges your team faces. Look for candidates whose past behavior — their pattern — shows they've handled those challenges. Use structured reference calls to get concrete stories. Involve your skip-level as a calibration partner. And hire for culture add, not culture fit. Those steps turn a scary first hire into a smart one. Luna: And don't rush. A bad hire sets you back months. A good one propels your team forward. Lucas: Right. And that's the thing — as a new manager, every decision you make sets a pattern for how you'll lead. Starting with hiring is one of the best investments you can make.