The A-Player Scorecard
If you are an early-stage startup, you may have two challenges:
You have a limited budget
You have limited brand awareness.
That means you can’t hire or attract A-players.
I stumbled upon the concept of A-player during my time as Head of Sales at Boom.
After the first 12 months of continuous success in rebuilding and scaling the sales org, I struggled to bring the organisation to another level.
We had recently switched from marketplace to SaaS, from on-demand pricing to prepaid. Therefore we needed different personalities and skills in the team.
My friend Ludovico recommended the book Who - Solve your #1 Problem by Geoff Smart and Randy Street.
Another book that completely changed the way I hire and recruit.
Who is an A-Player?
A-players are high-performing, top-talent professionals who consistently deliver excellent results.
In the SaaS industry, an A-player may have a combination of technical and soft skills, such as strong problem-solving abilities, a deep understanding of the technology, excellent communication skills, and the ability to work effectively in a team environment.
They are also typically proactive, self-motivated, and driven to continuously improve their skills and knowledge.
They are often leaders within their organisation and they are seen as role models by their peers.
How to write the Scorecard
It will require some thinking time. Do not rush it.
Get together with your CEO, Founders and relevant department peers and brainstorm the top skills you would like to see in every new hire.
Once the list is completed, write an explanation of each of them in a separate column. Tailor it to your company and teams.
What does it mean resilient for you and your company? Or open to feedback? Think about a specific example for your team and organisation.
Every company has different needs, at different stages. If you are building your team and looking for founding members you need a specific skill set. If scaling from $5M to $10M, you will need a different one.
Understand the stage you are in and what successful skills you need.
How to use the Scorecard
For each role, you are currently hiring have a scorecard ready for the hiring team.
Explain to the recruiter what those skills mean to you and how to ask questions to uncover them.
Share the scorecard with other managers or the interview panel and align them all.
Tailor the interview process to find those skills, ask for example, deep dive and try to dig in until you find what you are looking for.
If you are looking for a team player ask related questions and seek to receive STAR model answers.
The moment I started using scorecards is when my hiring process changed.
If before I was following my guts, now I have a structure.
And sometimes I still follow my instinct but within a proven and reliable framework.
Hope you find it useful.
