Missionaries, not mercenaries

Hire missionaries, not mercenaries — that’s one of the most common hiring tips. Also, one of the most misunderstood.

The idea behind it is that you should hire people who care. Who want to make your product better. Who are willing to confront you whenever any of your decisions makes the product worse. Not somebody who’s in it just for the money. You want the relationship to be deeper than a simple exchange of goods and services. You want to trust they’re on the same mission as you.

It doesn’t mean you’re looking for somebody who’s gonna work long hours with poor pay just because they like the product. You’ll be better off with people who actually know how the world works and make good lifestyle choices.

It doesn’t mean you want zealots, people who will sacrifice everything on the altar of product excellence. Remember that at the end of the day, done is better than perfect.

It doesn’t mean you want followers who are gonna follow your every order. We’re all human and make mistakes, wouldn’t it be better if somebody let you know when you commit them?

Finally, people use it as an argument that they only want permanent employees, no outsiders. It’s a myth that employees are gonna care more about the product. There are some who do and some who don’t. Just like with development studios. We do care.