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If you've ever been involved in hiring, you've probably heard someone say, "They're a great culture fit."
It's one of the most common compliments a candidate can receive, but it's also one of the least specific. Ask five hiring managers what culture fit means, and you'll likely hear five different answers. For some organizations, it means shared values. For others, it's personality. Sometimes it's simply a feeling that someone would get along well with the team.
While those things certainly have value, they don't always predict whether someone will be successful once they're hired.
In our experience, successful hiring has less to do with personality and much more to do with working style. The strongest teams aren't built by finding people who think alike or share the same interests. They're built by bringing together people whose ways of working complement one another.
No two teams operate exactly the same way.
Some thrive in fast-moving environments where priorities shift daily, quick decisions are expected, and adaptability is essential. Others rely on structured planning, clearly defined processes, and predictable workflows that keep projects moving steadily from start to finish. Neither approach is better than the other, but they do require different strengths from the people working within them.
One of the biggest differences between recruiting and staffing is that the evaluation doesn't stop with the individual. It extends to the environment they'll be joining. Before deciding whether someone is the right candidate, it's worth asking a different question first: What does success actually look like on this team?
Every hiring decision is ultimately a relationship between a person and the environment they're stepping into. If you only evaluate one side of that equation, it's easy to overlook what determines long-term success.
The strongest hiring decisions happen when the way a person works aligns with the way a team works.
When evaluating candidates, it's natural to focus on experience.
Can they use the software? Have they managed projects like this before? Do they have the technical expertise the role requires?
Those questions are important because they establish whether someone is capable of doing the work. What they don't tell you is how that person will approach the work once they're hired.
Two candidates can have nearly identical resumes and produce very different outcomes. One may thrive under constant change while another does their best work with structure and predictability. One naturally communicates early when priorities shift, while another prefers to solve problems independently before bringing others in. Neither approach is inherently right or wrong, but one may be a much better fit for the team they're joining.
That's why experienced staffing teams spend less time asking, "Have they done this before?" and more time asking, "How do they work?"
Hiring is full of first impressions.
A resume catches your attention. A portfolio showcases polished work. A candidate interviews confidently and checks every box on the job description. On paper, it can feel like an easy decision.
The challenge is that hiring decisions rarely succeed or fail because of what was written on a resume. They succeed or fail because of everything the resume couldn't tell you.
Creative work is collaborative by nature. An editor may have worked on an award-winning campaign. A producer may have supported a major product launch. A motion designer may have an impressive reel.
Those accomplishments are valuable, but they also raise an important question.
What part did you actually play?
One of the most valuable conversations during an interview is asking candidates to walk through a project in detail. What were they responsible for? What decisions did they make? What challenges did they encounter? If something changed halfway through the project, how did they respond?
Those conversations reveal far more than a portfolio ever could. They uncover ownership, communication style, judgment, and the ability to solve problems under real-world conditions. Those qualities are often much stronger indicators of long-term success than a list of software proficiencies or recognizable company names.
This is why interviews should feel more like conversations than checklists.
Rather than looking for perfect answers, we're listening for patterns. How does someone think through a problem? How do they communicate when priorities change? Do they seek context before jumping into execution, or do they immediately start solving without fully understanding the challenge?
We're often paying attention to questions like:
These aren't trick questions, and there isn't a single correct answer. The goal is simply to understand how someone naturally approaches their work.
Technical skills can often be taught. Communication, judgment, adaptability, and curiosity are much harder to develop, yet they're often the qualities that determine whether someone becomes a trusted member of the team.
When people think about culture fit, they often picture shared interests, team lunches, or whether everyone gets along. Those things can certainly contribute to a positive workplace, but from a hiring perspective, culture fit should accomplish something much more valuable.
It should reduce friction.
When expectations are aligned, communication feels natural, and people understand how one another works, projects move more efficiently. Managers spend less time untangling misunderstandings, new team members become productive more quickly, and collaboration happens with less effort because everyone understands how work gets done.
The best hiring decisions aren't about finding people who are all the same. They're about building teams that communicate well, solve problems effectively, and complement one another's strengths.
That starts with understanding more than a candidate's experience. It means understanding how they think, how they communicate, and how they contribute to the people around them. Those qualities don't always stand out on a resume, but they're often what determine whether someone simply fills a role or becomes an invaluable part of the team.
