How To Avoid Potential "Blind Spots" When Interviewing
Eben Pagan teaches how to build a proactive interview process that reveals candidate blind spots through relationship building over time. He shares his virtual bench strategy and the power of having diverse people interview candidates to uncover insights you'd miss on your own.
Key Moments
How to Build a Virtual Bench for Proactive Hiring -- A step-by-step process for building relationships with potential hires before you need them, using multiple perspectives to avoid hiring blind spots.
Cross-Department Interview Teams for Comprehensive Evaluation
Use multiple team members from different departments to interview candidates for comprehensive evaluation
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Build a Virtual Bench Through Relationship Interviews
Build a 'virtual bench' by treating interviews as relationship-building processes over time rather than single evaluation events
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Group Debrief Process After Multi-Interviewer Candidate Review
Conduct group debriefs after multiple people interview a candidate to piece together behavioral patterns
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Different Personality Types Catch Blind Spots in Interviews
Different personality types and skill sets will see qualities in candidates that you have no way of perceiving
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Using Email Exchanges to Assess Candidates Pre-Interview
Use email exchanges and advice requests during relationship building. Ask candidates what they'd do in real situations you're facing to see their thinking process.
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Relevant Clips15
- How-To
How to Build a Virtual Bench for Proactive Hiring -- A step-by-step process for building relationships with potential hires before you need them, using multiple perspectives to avoid hiring blind spots.
- Teaching
Build Relationships With Star Candidates Before You Need Them
A proactive approach where you identify potential stars and build relationships with them over time, before you have immediate hiring needs. This reveals their true character and capabilities.
- Teaching
Group Interviews Expose Blind Spots Individual Ones Miss
Look for patterns that emerge when comparing different interviewers' experiences. Group discussions often reveal consistent behaviors like excuse-making that individual interviews might miss.
- Teaching
Pre-Hire Relationship Building Before You Need Them
Start relationship-building conversations with potential stars before you need them. Exchange emails over months, ask for advice on situations, and see how they respond and think.
- Teaching
Using Multiple Interviewers to Reveal Candidate Blind Spots
Different people see qualities you can't perceive. Having trusted friends or team members with varied skill sets interview candidates reveals blind spots and behavioral patterns.
- Teaching▶ 1:17
Using Email Exchanges to Assess Candidates Pre-Interview
Use email exchanges and advice requests during relationship building. Ask candidates what they'd do in real situations you're facing to see their thinking process.
- Teaching▶ 0:13
Build a Virtual Bench Through Relationship Interviews
Build a 'virtual bench' by treating interviews as relationship-building processes over time rather than single evaluation events
- Teaching▶ 1:17
Email Exchanges to Evaluate Candidate Thinking Style
Use email exchanges and advice requests during the relationship building phase to evaluate how candidates think and respond
- Teaching
Moving the Free Line — The Most Valuable Marketing Concept
Have trusted people with different skill sets interview your candidates to reveal blind spots you can't perceive
- Teaching▶ 3:01
Different Personality Types Catch Blind Spots in Interviews
Different personality types and skill sets will see qualities in candidates that you have no way of perceiving
- Teaching▶ 3:39
Cross-Department Interview Teams for Comprehensive Evaluation
Use multiple team members from different departments to interview candidates for comprehensive evaluation
- Teaching▶ 3:33
Group Debrief Process After Multi-Interviewer Candidate Review
Conduct group debriefs after multiple people interview a candidate to piece together behavioral patterns
Show 3 more
- Quotable▶ 3:10
Tandem Topgrading Reveals What Relationship-Building Hides
I'm surprised all the time when we we have our process of getting to know someone over time and then we do we use Brad Smart's system of doing a tandem top grading interview what comes out of these relationship building steps what we learn it's incredible
- Quotable▶ 1:30
Shifting from Interview Mindset to Relationship Building
when I stopped thinking thinking of it as an interview and I started thinking of it as building a relationship that at some point might turn into a work relationship my whole Paradigm changed
- Quotable▶ 3:01
Different Interviewers Perceive Qualities You Cannot See
different people will see different things they will see things that you can't see you have no way of perceiving
Entities Touched
Concepts
Canonical Teachings
Procedural frameworks taught here
Summary
Building Your Virtual Bench Through Relationship Development
Eben introduces the concept of treating interviews as relationship-building processes rather than single evaluation events. He explains how exchanging emails and seeking advice over months reveals candidate qualities that traditional interviews miss, fundamentally changing how you approach talent acquisition.
Leveraging Multiple Perspectives to Eliminate Blind Spots
The core strategy involves having trusted people with different skill sets interview candidates to reveal qualities you cannot perceive. Eben emphasizes how developers, designers, entrepreneurs, and detail-oriented finance people each see different aspects of a candidate's potential and character.
Group Debriefs Reveal Critical Patterns
After multiple people interview a candidate, group discussions often reveal consistent behavioral patterns that individual interviewers might miss. These debriefs can uncover red flags like excuse-making or confirm positive qualities across different interaction styles.
Counterpoint
Claim: “Interviews are single evaluation events to assess candidate qualifications”
Reframe: Interviews are relationship-building processes that unfold over time to reveal true character and capabilities
Eben's paradigm shift from thinking of it as an interview to building relationships that might turn into work relationships changed his entire recruiting process
Claim: “You can effectively evaluate a candidate through your own perspective alone”
Reframe: Different people will see qualities in candidates that you have no way of perceiving
Using friends with different skill sets (developers, designers, entrepreneurs, finance people) as interviewers reveals blind spots and provides dramatic results
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