Founders spend a lot of energy getting better at interviewing. Better questions, better instincts, better reads on people. Most of that energy is in the wrong place. My view: bad hires are almost always decided before the first interview, on the day someone wrote a job description full of adjectives instead of outcomes.
Why interviews don't catch bad hires
Picture the typical process. A seat opens. Someone dusts off an old job description. It says things like "self-starter," "detail-oriented," and "strong communicator." A few people interview the candidates. They meet afterward and share impressions. The most confident opinion carries the room.
Nobody in that debrief can answer a basic question: what, specifically, is this person supposed to deliver in their first year?
Without that answer, every interviewer is grading against a different test. One cares about polish. One cares about culture. One just liked them. You end up hiring the best interviewer instead of the best person for the seat.
Trace almost any bad hire back to its source and it rarely starts with a bad interview question. It starts with a seat nobody defined.
Step 1: Define the seat in one sentence
Before you post anything, write down the one outcome this role owns. One sentence.
Weak: "Manages our customer success function." Strong: "Owns customer retention and expansion for our mid-market accounts."
The second one tells you what winning looks like. It also tells a candidate whether they want the job. If you can't get it down to one sentence, you may be trying to hire two people into one seat. That's a clarity problem, and no interview will fix it.
Step 2: Build the proof bar
Now write 3 to 5 things this person must deliver in year one. Each one needs a number or a specific deliverable.
"Strong communicator" isn't a proof bar item. "Runs the quarterly business review for our top 20 accounts, starting in month 3" is. "Great with customers" isn't either. "Takes renewal rate from 80% to 90% by Q4" is.
The proof bar also gives you something most founders never have: a way to judge the hire at 90 days and at 12 months against the same standard you hired for. No more arguing about whether someone is "working out."
This is the hardest step and the one founders want to skip. Do it anyway. If the proof bar feels uncomfortable to write, you just found out you didn't know what you were hiring for.
Step 3: Ask for evidence, not opinions
Every interview question should map to a proof bar item. And every question should ask what actually happened, not what someone would do.
"How would you handle a churning account?" invites a good speech. "Tell me about the last account you saved. What was at risk? What did you do? What was the result?" invites evidence.
Then dig. The first answer is the rehearsed one. Ask "What happened next?" and "What would your old boss say about that?" The real story shows up on the second and third follow-up.
One rule matters more than the rest: every interviewer scores independently, in writing, before the group talks. Once the debrief starts, the loudest voice pulls everyone toward it. Independent scores keep the evidence honest.
Step 4: The decision gate
Score each proof bar item from 1 to 5. A 3 means there's credible evidence they've done it. A 5 means repeated evidence, verified independently, at or above what the seat needs.
Then check references against the proof bar. "Did she take renewal rate up? By how much? How long did it take?" You're checking outcomes, the same ones you interviewed for.
Last test: could a candidate actually fail your process? If everybody who makes it to the final round gets an offer, the gate isn't a gate.
What to do this week
- Take your next open seat and write its one-sentence outcome.
- Write 3 proof bar items with numbers.
- Rewrite your interview questions so each one asks for a real past example tied to one of those items.
The Feldman Hiring Scorecard
I built The Feldman Hiring Scorecard to walk you through all four steps. It helps you define the seat, build a proof bar with measurable outcomes, generate evidence-based questions for each item, and score candidates 1 to 5 at the decision gate. Use it before the job post goes live, then share it with everyone on the interview panel so they're all grading the same test.
Open the Feldman Hiring Scorecard →Get the next lesson in your inbox
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Danny Feldman is a 3× founder and the advisor behind Feldman Advisory. He founded and scaled Stellar to $100M in annual revenue across 15 states, raised $55M+ as a founder, and used AI to double revenue before exiting to private equity. Earlier, he recruited and trained 55,000+ sales reps at Cutco and grew a division from 1 to 58 locations. Operator to operator, he now helps founders of $1M–$20M companies get out of the middle of the business, build the leadership team, and raise capital. Book a 30-minute call →