interview-kit

Interview Kit

When to Use

• Designing a structured interview loop for a specific role and level
• Creating standardized question banks organized by interview round type
• Building scoring rubrics for consistent candidate evaluation across interviewers
• Reducing interviewer bias with process controls and calibration
• Turning a job description into a repeatable evaluation process
• Calibrating interview panels after quarterly hiring outcome reviews

Context Required

• From startup-context: Company stage, team size, engineering culture, current interview process (if any), hiring velocity
• From user: Role title, level (junior/mid/senior/staff), key competencies to evaluate, number of interview rounds the team can support, whether a take-home or live exercise is preferred

Workflow

1. Define competencies — Extract 4-6 core competencies from the job description. Split into technical skills, domain knowledge, collaboration traits, and startup-fit signals. Each competency must be evaluable with observable evidence.
2. Design the interview loop — Map competencies to interview stages with explicit, non-overlapping objectives per round. Typical startup loop: recruiter/founder screen, technical assessment, team interview, values interview. Assign timing and interviewers to each stage.
3. Write structured questions — For each stage, write 3-5 primary questions with follow-up probes. Every question must map to a specific competency. Include "what good looks like" answer guidance so interviewers know what signal they are looking for.
4. Build scorecards — Create a 1-4 rating scale (not 1-5 — it creates a "3 means fine" dead zone). Define behavioral anchors at each level specific to the role. Interviewers must score independently before the debrief.
5. Design take-home or live exercise — If applicable, create a practical assessment that mirrors real work. Time-cap it (2-4 hours max), share the evaluation rubric with the candidate upfront, and always follow up with a live walkthrough.
6. Add anti-bias guardrails — Require structured debrief instructions, independent scoring protocol, and a checklist of common bias traps. Every candidate for the same role gets the same core questions in the same order.
7. Plan calibration cadence — Set quarterly recalibration using hiring outcome data. Review whether loop design still surfaces the right signals based on quality-of-hire metrics.