Four moves for interviewing well when you've never sat on this side of the table, not a general essay on building culture through hiring.
01
Write down what "good" looks like before the first interview
Without a written bar, every interview becomes a gut-feel comparison against whoever you talked to last. Decide in advance what a strong answer to your key questions actually sounds like, so you're scoring against a standard, not a vibe.
02
Ask about the actual work, not hypotheticals
"Walk me through the last time you had to do X" beats "how would you handle X" almost every time. A hypothetical gets you their best guess at the right answer. A real example gets you what they actually did under real conditions.
03
Don't hire the version of yourself
It's an easy trap: a candidate who thinks and communicates like you feels like an obviously good fit. Notice when "I really connected with them" is standing in for evaluating whether they can actually do the job.
04
Check how they handle a wrong answer, not just a right one
Ask a follow-up they clearly haven't prepared for and watch what happens. How someone responds to being stuck: curious and thinking out loud, or defensive and stalling, tells you more than the answer they had ready.