Takeaway 1

Structure means better signal, not a robotic process 🎯

Structured interviewing comes down to three key elements: define what success looks like ahead of time, ask the same questions across candidates, and use a rubric to score answers. When done well, it improves decision quality, reduces bias, and creates a better experience for everyone involved.

Why It Matters:
Structured interviews are twice as predictive as unstructured ones. Candidates who go through them are 35% more satisfied, even when rejected. They also help teams get aligned earlier, preventing drawn-out hiring cycles or mis-hires driven by gut instinct.

Quick Tips

• Start by extracting five to eight competencies from the role. Use the job description, level expectations, and first-year goals to identify what success looks like. These inputs give you a foundation to build structured interview content before meeting with the hiring team.
• Create a rubric with clear scoring anchors. Heather recommends defining what a strong, medium, and weak answer looks like for each question. You do not need a five-point scale. Even a three-tier system helps calibrate feedback and improve clarity.
• Limit to three questions per 30-minute interview. Build in time for follow-ups and a natural flow. Heather advises this cap to prevent rushed conversations and ensure you get quality signal without sacrificing candidate comfort.

Takeaway 2

Influence starts with alignment, not authority 🤝

Structured interviewing often faces resistance. Heather sees three common objections: It takes too much time, it feels stiff, or the person believes they have good judgment with no guardrails. Instead of pushing back, she recommends guiding hiring managers through the process until they arrive at the structure themselves.

Why It Matters:
Buy-in does not come from decks and data alone. Founders, executives, and hiring managers are more likely to adopt structured interviews when they feel involved in shaping them. Heather uses coaching-style questions to help stakeholders realize structure is already what they are looking for. They just need the right container.

Quick Tips

• Turn the hiring manager’s vision into a usable scorecard. During intake, ask what success looks like six months into the role. Use their response to shape interview questions and rubrics. When managers see their own words reflected in the process, they are more likely to follow through.
• Pressure test their approach to evaluation. Ask how they plan to assess the qualities they just named. If the answers are vague or change midstream, use that moment to introduce structure as a way to drive consistency and confidence.
• Pilot with one team and scale from there. Heather recommends treating structure as part of your overall hiring philosophy. If full rollout is not realistic, choose a single function to try it out. Share results and use that momentum to expand to other teams.

Takeaway 3

Structure only works when the team follows through 🛠️

Most teams spend time building structured processes, but not enough time operationalizing them. Heather points out that structure only works if interviewers are engaged, understand their role, and follow through on expectations. Without that, even a well-designed process breaks down in practice.

Why It Matters:
Interviews are only as useful as the quality of the interviewers. When people are unclear on what they are evaluating or how to give feedback, the process becomes noisy and inconsistent. The good news is that interviewers can be trained. When you build shared ownership and reinforce expectations, the entire system becomes more reliable.

Quick Tips

• Run a kickoff meeting with the full slate of interviewers. Before interviews begin, bring the whole panel together to align on competencies, expectations, and process. Heather suggests treating it like a celebration, play music, bring snacks, or open with a team win. Use the moment to build excitement around the role, reinforce each interviewer’s importance, and make the process feel like a shared mission.
• Assign one or two competencies to each interviewer. Give every interviewer a focused area to assess, such as communication, problem-solving, or technical depth. When they know what they are looking for, they are more likely to engage and go deep.
• Use your ATS to send reminders and interview prep. Heather recommends reinforcing structure with pre-interview nudges. Include the interviewer’s assigned competency, the questions they are expected to ask, and a short candidate-facing script to explain how and why the interview is structured.

What Hiring Excellence Means to Heather

For Heather, Hiring Excellence is about building a high-performance organization with efficiency. That means making decisions that drive the right outcomes without wasting time, energy, or signal. A strong hiring process should be intentional, aligned to the business, and designed to optimize both speed and quality.

>> Watch the Clip

Heather's Recruiting Hot Take 🔥

The cover letter isn’t dead, at least not the right kind. Heather makes a sharp distinction between generic “to whom it may concern” letters and personalized narratives that clarify a candidate’s story. When a résumé doesn’t tell the full picture, a thoughtful cover letter can help identify overlooked talent, showcase communication skills, and build confidence that someone can do the job.

>> Watch the Clip

Timestamps

(00:00) Introduction

(00:43) Meet Heather Doshay

(03:02) The flaws of the traditional hiring process

(06:50) The science behind structured interviews and the research supporting them

(12:03) Addressing pushback on structured interviews

(18:52) Coaching hiring managers on structured interview adoption

(26:00) Navigating the emotional side of saying no to candidates

(31:38) Using follow-up questions to improve candidate evaluation

(37:05) Training vs. outsourcing interview training