If you’re hiring for a startup, here’s one thing that can have a huge impact for your team: hiring for high agency. These are the people who move fast, take ownership, and figure stuff out. Even when it’s messy, or there’s no clear path forward, or if there’s a mountain standing in their way. Here’s why that matters and how to interview for it.
What Is High Agency?
High agency is a mindset where people believe they have the power to shape outcomes, not just react to them.
In practice, high-agency employees:
- Take initiative without being asked
- Identify gaps in the business, how to connect the dots, and lead to outsized outcomes
- Break through blockers instead of waiting
- Look for solutions, not problems
- Adapt quickly in fast-changing environments
At a startup, that mindset is pure gold. There isn’t a playbook for how things gets done. Your company doesn’t have layers of process or support. You need people who go on the offensive and build the plane as it’s flying.
Why High Agency Is Critical in Startups
Things break, priorities shift, and resources are limited. You’re typically hiring generalists who don’t operate in silo’s. In that kind of environment, you want people who get things done even when it’s unclear what the path looks like.
A high-agency hire will:
- Launch faster, even with vague direction
- Be comfortable making decisions with imperfect information
- Find failure as a learning opportunity and iterate quickly
- Spot and solve problems before they escalate
- Reduce the burden on founders and managers, freeing you up for high leverage activities
Compare that to someone who operates with the opposite mindset. They get stuck waiting, need constant direction, or default to “this isn’t part of my job.”
What to Look for When Interviewing for High Agency
| Trait | Sample Questions to Test for This |
|---|---|
| Initiative | “Tell me about a time you identified a gap in the business and took it on yourself to fix.” |
| Problem-solving | “Walk me through a time something important broke or went off track. What did you do next?” |
| Ownership | “Describe a time you owned the success or failure of a project end-to-end. What made it work (or not)?” |
| Adaptability | “Share an example of when priorities changed half way through something. How did you adjust your plan and keep moving?” |
| Grit | “Tell me about a time where you faced major blockers or push back in your work. How did you approach and overcome it?” |
Pick the traits that resonate the most with your culture and build the questions into your interview plan. I recommend assigning focus areas to each interviewer so that you are getting a well rounded assessment of the candidate (and not being repetitive in interviews)
Hiring for high agency at an early stage startup can really move the needle. Make it a core part of your interview process and start finding candidates that will be bar raisers for your team.
If you’re looking for help hiring high agency marketers or product management professionals for your team, let’s chat.
About WithAgility
We are the Recruiters for B2B Marketing & Product teams. WithAgility provides executive search, fractional recruiting and talent consulting to the fastest growing technology companies in the world. For help hiring your next leader or scaling your team, contact us today. We look forward to working with you.