First hire · Growth

How to hire your first growth marketer.

The first growth hire decides whether your acquisition compounds or burns. Ten questions to calibrate analytical rigor against creativity.

10 questions · rubric-backed · Built for small-team hiring panels
The rubric these map to
40%
Analytical rigor
Experiment design + statistical literacy. Distinguishes signal from coincidence.
15%
Experience relevance
Channels owned, campaigns shipped, numbers moved. Specifics.
20%
Scrappiness + creativity
Finds leverage in unobvious places. Not just paid-ads-and-hope.
15%
Attitude & ownership
Owns the funnel end-to-end. Fixes the leak nobody else sees.
10%
Culture fit
Behavior-based — especially around failed experiments.

The questions.

  1. 01
    culture medium · failed-experiment

    Your last experiment had a null result. What do you do?

    Strong answer
    Documents what was learned even from null. Validates the experiment was well-powered. Doesn't p-hack. Doesn't call it a success.
    Weak answer
    Reruns with different segments until something is 'significant.'
  2. 02
    communication medium · exec

    Explain why the last growth experiment you ran was worth the cost to a non-technical founder.

    Strong answer
    ROI framing. Opportunity cost of inaction. Concrete counterfactual.
    Weak answer
    'It was interesting.'
  3. 03
    growth medium · cac

    Your CAC is $40, your LTV is $50. What do you do?

    Strong answer
    Questions whether these numbers are right. Asks about payback period, not just ratio. Considers unit-level path to $20 CAC or $100 LTV. Doesn't just kill the channel.
    Weak answer
    'Kill the channel.' Or 'we'll figure it out at scale.'
  4. 04
    situational medium · cross-functional

    Engineering won't build your landing page experiment this sprint. What do you do?

    Strong answer
    Understands their constraints. Proposes a no-code or lightweight alternative. Builds trust by being low-friction. Not adversarial.
    Weak answer
    Escalates to management.
  5. 05
    experience baseline · resume-probe

    Your resume says you grew sign-ups by 30%. What was the baseline, and what contributed most?

    Strong answer
    Specific baseline. Specific interventions. Honest about what DIDN'T contribute as expected.
    Weak answer
    All the wins claimed as personal.
  6. 06
    situational medium · short-term

    CEO wants a 20% lift in signups this quarter. What do you do?

    Strong answer
    Distinguishes what's actually achievable in a quarter from what needs longer. Finds highest-leverage levers. Proposes a plan with risk acknowledged.
    Weak answer
    Agrees immediately. Or says it's not possible without offering alternatives.
  7. 07
    growth hard · experiment-design

    You want to test a new onboarding flow. Design the experiment.

    Strong answer
    Power analysis. User-level randomization. Guardrail metrics. Exposure criteria (who counts). Pre-registered success criteria. Sufficient ramp duration.
    Weak answer
    50/50 split. Runs 'until we see something.'
  8. 08
    growth medium · funnel

    Walk me through how you'd diagnose a drop in conversion rate.

    Strong answer
    Segments first — which users, which channels, which time. Correlates with recent changes. Forms hypothesis then tests. Doesn't panic and add more features.
    Weak answer
    Proposes a new landing page without looking at where the drop is.
  9. 09
    growth medium · channel

    You have $100k/month in paid ads. What's your framework for reallocating?

    Strong answer
    LTV/CAC per channel. Saturation curves. Diversification vs consolidation trade-off. Attribution quality. Time-to-signal.
    Weak answer
    'Double down on whatever worked last month.'
  10. 10
    growth medium · seo

    Walk me through how you'd start an SEO program from zero.

    Strong answer
    Keyword research by intent + volume + competition. Content calendar. Technical hygiene first. Measures leading indicators (impressions, rankings) before lagging (traffic).
    Weak answer
    'We'll write blog posts.'
Why stop at ten?

Lucida runs round one for you, and books the shortlist on your calendar.

Adaptive interviews tuned to the role, rubric-backed scoring, and a founder-ready briefing for every candidate who clears the bar. You do the human call.

Try it on your next role → See how Lucida works
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