Building the Scratchpad Team: Part 2

Searching for people who might want to join our team began a bit like dipping our toes in water: hesitantly and tentatively. Our team had been operating smoothly at warp speed all summer long. What would it be like to disrupt the known? How would "New Guy" fit in? Would our personalities mesh?

We set up meetings, determined to find out. They were in person, by cell, and through Google Hangouts (or some combination thereof). We knew several of these folks already and were pretty sure we had a handle on their skillsets and backgrounds. But some of our friends had much broader backgrounds than we realized! We were surprised--in a good way--to uncover things we didn't know! And yet, it made decision-making even harder.

Internally, we've had umpteen conversations and debates: pros and cons, strengths and weaknesses, schedules and commitments. We've discovered that our original intentions shouldn’t be cast in stone, so they've evolved, and over a longer period of time than we expected. There's another meeting today to talk to a potential team member; there may be one tomorrow.

By now, we're fully immerged in the process of growing our team and feel like we're swimming in the deep end. We feel some impatience for the process, after all, transitions and unknowns are always uncomfortable, and it would be nice to "check this off" the list.

To help alleviate our distress, Jesse and I decided to reach for some divine wisdom, and pulled out this note from our bag of tricks:

Great reminder. Better to slow down and identify the right needs and skills than rush the process and have regrets. Hiring someone is a one-shot deal, and we need it to get it right. Besides, even though it seems like we're not moving fast enough, I bet that once we look back, it will seem like we accomplished this step in the blink of an eye.