Hiring lens

Read an interesting article yesterday; interview of Doreen Lorenzo, CEO @ Frog Design. She was commenting on characteristics and attributes she looks for when making hiring decisions. The following resonates with me too:

“One of the questions I always ask them is, why don’t you want this job? What are the things that scare you about this job? You learn a lot about a person that way. And if they say, “Well, what scares me about this job is it’s too chaotic,” they’re not going to thrive here. Or if they say to me, “You know, I like to be in charge,” then you’re thinking, this person’s not going to thrive in his group.

You’re really looking for that person who understands the mission. Not that they agree with everything that you say, but they understand the mission. I want to hear someone who says: “I can contribute. I want to be part of this team. I feel like I can add some value and these are the reasons why.” That’s important. You want people who can put in and not take out. ”

I appreciate her approach to digging beneath the tool kit, behind the candidate curtain, to really understand where this person is coming from, what makes them tick.

She mentions that understanding the mission is critical, and in the same article she says “micromanagement is the death of creativity”, this reminds me of a theme in Made To Stick where they describe the Commander’s Intent. This is exactly the message of understanding the mission. In the book they reference Kennedy’s message of putting a man on the moon. The teams understood clearly their mission, but the President didn’t stand over their shoulders and give orders, the teams were empowered to devise the strategy and tactics on their own.

It’s the last line of this snippet, “You want people who can put in and not take out” – great summation and the depth of this goes well beyond the obvious benefit. It talks to your mind set, your personal philosophy of how you engage and manage relationships, your contributions – both creative and critical, to the betterment of the holistic solution.

Finding myself more and more interested in the underpinnings and infrastructure in place at these creative and successful design studios.

I was new here, too

For whatever reasons I’ve been making excuses and holding back on starting this thing. Doesn’t mean I haven’t been having the conversations, dialog, sharing thoughts and challenging assumptions, just haven’t published them in this way.

My background is a varied collection of experiences, roles, conditions, locations, and opportunities realized. I draw from this toolkit everyday to try and make sense of the mysteries and opportunities apparent to me.

I am a:
– musician
– designer
– thinker
– husband
– father

I thought for some time on why I would go deeper with classifying what roles I’ve played for work:

– user experience architect
– interaction designer
– researcher
– analyst
– photograph technician
– motion graphic artist
– digital animator
– quality advocate

But, I’m sure I would miss aspects of who I am, trying to list them, and really what’s the point in listing them. I’m a pretty dynamic kind of guy…adaptable. When I need to lead, I step up – when voices need to be heard, I listen. Where problems exist, I solve them. Where opportunity lies, I pursue.

So what does that make you? Does there have to be a “title” for it? I think it makes you human. Yeah, that’s my new title, I’m sure the Corporation will dig it when I update my business cards:

Mark FelcanSmith
Human
Corporation Company Inc.
Here And There, USA

I like that, it has a…grounding that resonates with me.  If you happen to have this title too, drop me a note about the qualities that you find most useful in this complex and demanding role. Maybe, together, we can help craft a useful “how to be” guide.

I have many interests, some of which I’ll share here – they may be mostly dealing with my day job: leading experience design teams. I don’t think it discounts my past at all, in fact I would hope one of the reasons I’m in this role is because of my past. I guess I didn’t really share that yet – I think it’s a pretty interesting story, I’ve shared it before, and Ima do it again (cue Wesley Willis).

…more later