Lately I’ve been running 20-minute structured screens using a three-question rubric in Greenhouse, and it’s doubled my signal on who to advance. On the sourcing side, a Monday Boolean refresh plus two referral pings per req has beaten job ads for me — what’s one probe or exercise you use in the first call that reliably reveals depth without dragging the interview out?
me — what’s one probe or exercise you use in the first call that reliably reveals I ask: “Walk me through the last time something you owned broke in prod — what failed, first move, metric you watched, and the tradeoff on the fix,” and I time it to 90 seconds; clear RCA + a metric = advance, hedging = pass. Pairs well with your 20-minute Greenhouse screen; only caveat, swap in a tiny scenario for fresh grads.
My take: I’d lean toward the simplest next step and see if it changes anything this week — if not, you’ve got a clear case to escalate. What would block you from trying that?
I run a 3‑minute ‘teach‑back’: have them explain one decision they owned, the hard constraint, one option they killed, and the metric that moved — scoring clarity/tradeoffs/ownership surfaces depth fast. Caveat: hard-stop at 3 minutes or strong talkers sprawl; do you see better stage-to-offer when you timebox like that, @OP?