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Aurelius · Work & Leadership
Knowledge + Guidance

I'm building a product team. Who do I hire first?

You keep making lists. Titles, levels, salary bands. You tell yourself this is hiring work. It is not. It is avoidance dressed as preparation. A team is not a stack of good people. It is a set of problems, divided so each person owns one cleanly. If you cannot say what breaks without a given hire, you are not ready to hire them. Hire now, in confusion, and you'll spend the next year fixing overlap and gaps instead of building. Slow down for one week. Get the shape of the work right. Then go find the people.

◆ How this problem reads on the two dials
GuidanceKnowledge
More coaching
Some to learn
1:1 with AureliusWith others (a Pod)
Mostly you & the coach
A little with peers
This is less about hiring tactics and more about doing the clarifying work no one else will do for you.
How the two dials adapt to you →
What’s really going on

You don't have a hiring problem. You have a clarity problem. You're choosing people before you know the work. Stop looking at candidates. Write down the three problems your product must solve this year. The roles will name themselves. Hire for the work, not the title.

🔒 What you’ll build togetherUnlock by starting
A moveList the three biggest problems your product must solve in the next two quarters.
A moveFor each problem, write one sentence naming who is accountable if it fails.
A moveTurn each accountability into a role — not a title, a set of decisions that person owns.
A moveCheck for overlap: if two roles could own the same decision, the work isn't finished.
A moveOnly then write the job description — built from the role, not from a template.

What changes unlock by starting

  • A short list of real roles, defined by the decisions they own.
  • A faster hiring process, because you know exactly what you're testing for.
  • Fewer costly mis-hires that come from vague job descriptions.
  • A team structure you can explain in one sentence, to anyone.

Related problems

One object, two jobs: a public answer to a real problem, and — the moment you start the chat — Aurelius’s live plan for your version of it.