Hiring for Fit, Not Just Function: Why Roles Should Follow People — Not the Other Way Around

Introduction

Let’s be honest. The way we hire hasn’t really changed much in decades. You define a role, write a job description and post it. People apply. You try to match them to that checklist. Some fit. Most don’t. You compromise. And then you wonder six months later why it didn’t work out.

But here’s the reality: we live in a completely different world now. Talent is everywhere. People are multi-skilled, self-taught, remote-ready, and side-hustling. The old approach of squeezing people into predefined job boxes? It’s outdated. Actually, it’s broken.

What companies need today is flexibility — the ability to define who they really need, not just what. And then go find the person who matches that vision, not just the JD.

That’s where Leap comes in. But more on that in a bit.

The Shift: From Job Descriptions to Professional Personas

Let me paint a picture.

You run a fast-scaling SaaS company. Things are chaotic. Customers are coming in faster than your onboarding workflows can handle. Support tickets are exploding. You don’t just need a “Customer Success Manager.” You need someone who:

• Has set up onboarding from scratch
• Can talk APIs with your devs.
• Can calm down an irate customer and write documentation in plain English
• Understands data and ops
• Won’t melt down in a 2-hour cross-functional meeting with sales, product, and tech yelling over each other

Now, tell me: is that in a generic JD you’d find on a job portal?

Exactly.

That’s not a job description. That’s a persona. A real need. A mix of skills, attitude, context, and wiring. That’s what hiring should be about.

“Don’t Hire for Lack of Weakness. Hire for Strength.”

Ben Horowitz said that, and it’s probably one of the most real things ever said about hiring.

Most companies try to find “perfect” candidates — who check every box, who don’t have any red flags. But you know what? Real impact comes from hiring people who can change the game — not those who just don’t mess it up.

• The best hires often come from unexpected backgrounds.
• They may not tick off every requirement.
• But they show up, learn fast, and actually care.

Isn’t that what we’re all looking for?

Real Talk: Hiring Is a Strategy, not a Task

Claire Hughes Johnson, ex-COO of Stripe, once said:

“You don’t hire people for who they are. You hire them for who they can become.”

That hit me.

Because hiring isn’t about immediate performance anymore. It’s about trajectory. About how fast someone will grow, adapt, and contribute to your world.

And here’s the irony — you can’t find that in a resume. You can only uncover it when you match based on context. That’s where persona-based hiring is a game changer.

A Real Case: The Fintech Who Hired Differently

There’s this mid-sized fintech client we worked with. They needed a Head of Product. HR handed over the usual spec — years of experience, fintech background, stakeholder skills, blah blah.

But the founder said, “No, I need someone who understands compliance and can build products people actually want to use. Someone who knows how to turn legal documents into usable UI.”

So, we went deeper. We helped them define a persona:

• Built product in a regulated space
• Could speak engineer and lawyer fluently
• Had design instincts
• Wasn’t obsessed with shiny features — but systems thinking

The person they hired. Not from fintech. She had worked in LegalTech, co-founded a startup focused on financial literacy, and had a background in behavioral science.

Today, she’s crushing it — helping the fintech land big partnerships and build products the compliance team doesn’t hate. They would’ve never found her through a job board.

Leap: Helping Companies Hire for Fit, Not Just Roles

What we’re doing with Leap is simple.

We let companies define the persona they really need — a living, breathing picture of who will succeed in the role, in their culture, with their challenges. And then we help them match with people who fit that. Not just the job description. But the human story behind it.

Because hiring should be a craft. Not a transaction.

Final Thought: Stop Hiring Titles. Start Building Teams.

Hiring is the most important thing a company does. Not fundraising. Not PR. Not product launches. If you get hiring right, everything else gets easier. And if you hire based on who someone is, and who they’re becoming — not just their resume — you won’t just build a company. You’ll build a culture that actually lasts. And if you’re nodding along while reading this, maybe it’s time to rethink how you’re hiring.

Let’s start with one question:

What’s the persona you’re really looking for?

For companies who believe hiring is strategy, not luck, check out Leap. We’re helping teams hire better, smarter, and more human.