01
Write the first 90 days before the job description
Name the product milestone, the existing codebase and the constraints. Will this person ship a first product, stabilize a live service or own integrations? State who reviews technical decisions and what support is available. A solo builder and a specialist joining a technical founder are different hires.
02
Look for ownership, not just familiar frameworks
Ask candidates to walk through something they shipped: the users, their own contribution, a trade-off and what broke afterward. Check how they debug, communicate uncertainty and choose what not to build. A list of technologies is not evidence of end-to-end ownership.
03
Use a small, realistic work sample
Agree on a short, paid exercise using a fictional problem rather than unpaid production work. Discuss the solution together, including tests, security assumptions and maintenance. Apply the same rubric to every candidate and make accommodations where needed.
04
Give the human hire a smaller admin load
AI tools can assist with pull-request review, monitoring and repeatable workflows; they do not replace engineering judgment. Start with limited access, review their output and keep releases and irreversible actions under human approval.