12-to-18-Month P1 Hiring Spec
Hire for the mission of the next stage, then reassess
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 6
- Confidence
- 98%
The 12-to-18-Month P1 Hiring Spec frames a marketing hire around the immediate mission rather than a hypothetical five-year future. Leaders first define the business and marketing outcomes required during the next stage. They then identify the single priority capability—P1—most responsible for delivering those outcomes and write the role specification around it. Candidates are assessed for hands-on ability, relevant aptitude, and the capacity to achieve that mission. The company can hope the person continues to scale, but it does not make indefinite tenure a prerequisite. This reduces the pressure to find a unicorn, prevents months of searching for irrelevant completeness, and makes later reassessment a normal response to changing organizational needs rather than an admission that the original hire failed.
Origin
Extracted from Sumaiya Balbale's Series A and B hiring advice on Marketing Against The Grain.
Core principles
- 01A role should serve a defined period and mission
- 02Near-term objectives matter more than lifetime completeness
- 03One priority capability should dominate the specification
- 04A successful hire may or may not scale into the next stage
How to run it
- 1
Choose the horizon
Use a 12-to-18-month period as the scope for defining the role.
Pro tip Align the horizon with the company's next financing or operating milestone.
Watch out Avoid designing the job for a speculative public-company future.
- 2
Define business outcomes
List the concrete results the company must achieve during that period.
Pro tip Separate outcomes from activities such as launching campaigns.
Watch out A vague mandate creates a vague candidate profile.
- 3
Assign marketing's mission
Describe how marketing must contribute to those business outcomes.
Pro tip Make the mission short enough to repeat during every interview.
Watch out Do not make marketing responsible for constraints it cannot influence.
- 4
Select the P1 capability
Identify the most important skill or operating strength needed to fulfill the mission.
Pro tip Treat other capabilities as supporting requirements.
Watch out Multiple equal priorities turn the specification back into a unicorn profile.
- 5
Evaluate with evidence
Ask candidates to demonstrate how they would address the priority problem and execute in the current environment.
Pro tip Probe what the candidate personally did rather than what their former company achieved.
Watch out Strategy without willingness to execute is a poor early-stage fit.
- 6
Reassess after the stage
Review whether the mission and leader remain appropriate as the company enters a new phase.
Pro tip Discuss the possibility of role evolution before hiring.
Watch out Do not preserve a stale role solely to avoid a difficult conversation.
In the wild
A Series A company needs a repeatable acquisition motion within the next year. It writes the role around designing, testing, and operationalizing that motion instead of requiring prior public-company CMO experience, global brand leadership, and IPO communications.
→ The search targets candidates who can solve the present growth problem.
Common mistakes
Writing a five-year fantasy role
Combining every future requirement produces a profile few candidates possess and fewer can execute in the current environment.
Hiring strategy without execution
A senior thinker who cannot roll up their sleeves can consume a year without creating the needed operating motion.
Treating later replacement as failure
A leader can successfully complete the stage-specific mission without being the right leader for every subsequent stage.
Is it for you?
Best for
Startups hiring a marketing leader to carry the business through a specific scaling phase.
Not ideal for
Stable mature companies recruiting against a well-established and enduring executive remit.
From the transcript
“You're hiring for that period of time, right?”
“It's okay if they can't.”
“go go back to what your objectives are and the mission of the role for the next 12 to 18 months”
From the episode
The Ideal Marketing Strategy For Each Stage of Start-Up Growth with Sequoia's CMO Sumaiya Balbale
Sumaiya Balbale