The Job Scorecard

The Guessing Game

You decide you need to hire someone. The first thing most founders do is open a blank document and start writing a job description. They list some responsibilities. They add a long list of required skills and technologies. They sprinkle in words like “passionate” and “rockstar”. Then they post it and hope the right person applies.

This is a guessing game. You are guessing what you need. Candidates are guessing what the job is really about. It’s a process based on hope not clarity. The result is often a bad hire which is the most expensive mistake a startup can make.

There is a simple fix. Before you write a single word of a public job description you create an internal document first. It’s called a job scorecard. It’s the single best way to clarify what you actually need and who you are looking for.

What is a Scorecard?

A job scorecard is not a job description. It is a simple one page document for you and your team. It defines success for a role before you try to fill it. It has three parts.

1. Mission: A single sentence explaining why the role exists.
2. Outcomes: A short list of what the person must accomplish.
3. Competencies: The skills and traits needed to achieve the outcomes.

That’s it. It forces you to think deeply about the job as a set of results not a list of tasks. This shift in thinking changes everything about how you hire.

The Mission

The mission is the “why”. It is the purpose of the role boiled down to its essence. It is not “write code” or “manage social media”. It is the strategic reason you are spending money and equity on this person.

A good mission statement is short and inspiring. It connects the role to the larger company goal.

For example for a first product manager you might write:

“To translate user problems into a simple product that our first 1000 customers love.”

For a first customer support hire:

“To ensure every user gets a fast helpful answer that makes them a fan of our company.”

This is the north star for the role. When you interview candidates you can ask them how they interpret this mission. Their answer will tell you a lot about how they think.

The Outcomes

This is the most important part of the scorecard. It is where you get brutally specific. What does success look like? What must this person accomplish in their first three six and twelve months for you to be thrilled you hired them?

Outcomes are not tasks. They are measurable results. Avoid vague phrases like “improve marketing” or “contribute to the codebase”. Instead write something you can check off as done.

Here is an example for a first sales hire.

• First 3 Months: Close the first 5 customers sourced from your own efforts. Create a simple repeatable sales script and process document.
• First 6 Months: Build a pipeline of 50 qualified leads. Increase monthly revenue by $10,000.
• First 12 Months: Hire and train a second salesperson. Achieve a predictable sales model that generates $25,000 in new monthly revenue.

These are not guesses. They are expectations. When you talk to a candidate you are not just assessing their past experience. You are having a conversation about whether they can achieve these specific outcomes. You can ask “Walk me through how you would approach closing the first 5 customers”. Their answer is data.

The Competencies

Only after you have defined the mission and outcomes should you think about competencies. Competencies are the skills and personal attributes required to achieve the outcomes. Most founders start here which is a mistake. The skills you need are a function of the job to be done.

Be ruthless. Do not list twenty generic traits. Pick the five to seven that are absolutely critical for this specific role in your specific company. I find it helpful to split them into two groups.

Core Skills: These are the technical or functional abilities needed. For the sales hire example they might be:

• Prospecting and lead generation
• Consultative selling
• Closing deals
• Using a CRM effectively

Cultural Traits: These are about how the person works. They are just as important as core skills. For an early stage startup they might be:

• High agency. They are resourceful and figure things out on their own.
• Scrappiness. They can do a lot with a little.
• User empathy. They genuinely care about solving the customer’s problem.
• Clear written communication.

These competencies become your interview checklist. For each one you should design a question or two that lets you test for it. For “high agency” you could ask “Tell me about a time you had to solve a difficult problem with no guidance or resources”.

Putting It All Together

The scorecard is your internal source of truth. It governs the entire hiring process.

First you use it to write the public job description. The Mission becomes the introductory paragraph. The Outcomes become the “What you will do” section. The Competencies inform the “What we are looking for” section. The job description practically writes itself.

Second you use it in interviews. Every question you ask should map back to a competency. You can share the outcomes with candidates and ask them for their plan to achieve them. This makes the interview a collaborative problem solving session not an interrogation. It gives you a much better signal.

Third you use it to check references. Instead of asking a vague question like “Was she a good employee?” you can be specific. “We need this person to achieve X Y and Z. Have you seen her do something similar?”

Finally you use it for onboarding. The outcomes you defined become the new hire’s 30 60 and 90 day plan. It gives them immediate clarity and a way to measure their own success. You can use this as a starting point for the plan I describe in A Simple Onboarding Plan.

Creating a scorecard takes an hour or two. It feels like a delay when you are desperate to hire. But it is the work that prevents the weeks and months of pain that come from a bad hire. It forces you to get clear on what you need before you talk to anyone. That clarity is what separates good hiring from hopeful guessing.

Try writing one for the next role you need to hire.

— Rishi Banerjee
September 2025