Hiring Manager Playbook

Practical hiring signal from people
who’ve actually built teams

Interviews with world-class operators, step-by-step playbooks, and tools you can use to run sharper searches, close better talent, and keep your calendar focused on the conversations that matter.

Start with featured interviews Browse playbooks & tools

Built for founders, hiring managers, and in-house recruiting teams who want less noise and more signal in their hiring process.

What you’ll find here

  • Long-form interviews with leaders like Gary Vaynerchuk, Daymond John, and Chris Gardner
  • Role-specific templates for sourcing, outreach, and interviews
  • Frameworks for headcount planning, scorecards, and hiring systems
  • Tools, including HirePilot, that help you operationalize all of it
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Playbooks & templates

Plug-and-play tools for your next hire

Use these guides as starting points for your next role: from defining the role, to sourcing, outreach, interviews, and decision-making.

Over time, these will link to full articles and downloadable resources you can adapt to your own stack.

Playbook

Hiring your first Head of Sales

How to define the mandate, avoid founder clones, and evaluate candidates on more than a logo salad.

  • Scorecard structure
  • Signals to look for in pipeline stories
  • Offer and onboarding considerations
Playbook

Senior marketer vs. content generalist

A framework for deciding whether you need a strategic marketing leader, a content engine, or both.

  • Role definition checklist
  • Interview question angles
  • Common mismatch patterns
Playbook

Hiring operators & chiefs of staff

How to screen for judgment, execution, and the ability to operate inside founder chaos without burning out.

  • Signals in prior roles
  • Scenario-based interview prompts
  • Red flags & anti-patterns
Playbook

Designing an interview loop that respects everyone’s time

A simple structure to keep interviews tight, consistent, and focused on decision-making.

  • Interview loop roles & stages
  • Who asks what, and why
  • Debrief and decision frameworks
Tools & systems

Turn your playbook into a living system

The right tools make it easier to run your hiring process the same way every time— without turning your calendar into a mess of unqualified calls.

HirePilot

Our recruiting CRM/ATS and outreach engine. Campaigns, leads, candidates, deals, and Zapier/Make automations—built for agencies and in-house teams.

Learn more about HirePilot →

Scorecards & interview templates

Role-specific scorecards and interview packs that keep every interviewer aligned on what “great” looks like.

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Outbound & referral playbooks

Campaign frameworks for combining outbound sourcing, warm intros, and referrals into one coherent search lane.