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The 5-2-1 rule for hiring people who are actually good

Trial five on the same task. Two come back solid. One's a rockstar. Watch the five-minute breakdown, then grab the one-page scorecard to run it yourself.

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What's Inside

Preview of The 5-2-1 Hiring Scorecard: five numbered candidate rows scored across four tick-box columns — followed the brief, quality vs. your bar, turnaround, communication — each column a worst-to-best heat ramp, with a row-total column and a bottom block for your two keepers and what the test cost.

The 5-2-1 Hiring Scorecard

One page. Five candidate rows, four scored columns — followed the brief, quality vs. your bar, turnaround, communication. Tick one box per column (darkest is the worst answer), add the row, and the two lowest totals are your real hires. The bottom block does the cost math and ranks your rockstar. The one rule printed at the foot: every candidate gets the exact same task.

Common Questions

Why five? Isn't that expensive?
Five paid tests at $50–500 each is a known, one-time cost. Hiring one person at a time — waiting weeks to find out they're not it, then starting over — costs you months, and you pay the test money in the end anyway.
I already know how to spot talent.
Maybe. But you can only compare people if they did the same task. Give five people five different briefs and you've got five opinions and no standard. Same task, same scorecard, and the winner is obvious.
This is for junior roles, not what I'm hiring.
It fits content, marketing, sales, ops, agency and PR work — anywhere you need someone genuinely good and can define a test task. It's not built for executive hires.
What do I do with the other four?
Cut them. They didn't pass the test. Keeping a “maybe” on the bench is how you end up back in the one-at-a-time cycle.

Run your next hire through 5-2-1

The five-minute video and the one-page scorecard.

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