Blog · 5 min read
Evidence outranks impression
The debrief is where hiring decisions are actually made - and where most of them quietly break. A short piece on running the decision table like a decision.
Watch a typical hiring debrief and you will see a ritual of impressions. 'I really liked her.' 'Something felt off.' 'He would fit right in.' Fifteen minutes later there is an offer decision, and nobody can say precisely what it was based on.
Impressions are not worthless - they are data about chemistry, and chemistry is real. The failure is rank: in an undisciplined debrief, impression outranks evidence, and the most confident voice outranks both.
The correction is procedural, not heroic. Every interviewer scores against the same written definition of winning, before hearing anyone else's view. Scores come with evidence attached - what the candidate said or did that supports the number. Disagreement is resolved by returning to the definition, not by seniority.
“A hiring decision you cannot audit is a guess with paperwork.”
This is slower by about twenty minutes and better by a large margin, because it makes the decision auditable. When a hire works out, you know which signals predicted it. When one fails, you can find the exact place your process believed something it should not have.
A hiring decision you cannot audit is a guess with paperwork.
