What one mis-hire taught me about fit.
By Ejieme Eromosele / November 10, 2025
In my first CS leadership role, I made what I thought was a hiring mistake.
The candidate had the right industry background, strong client-facing experience and used the suite of tech we used. I was confident they would hit the ground running.
But a few months in, something didn’t feel right. The work was getting done, but not with the pace, creativity, or confidence the team needed. Collaboration felt slower. And over time, it became clear that the challenge wasn’t about effort or skill. It was about fit.
At first, I took it personally. I wondered if I had missed something in the interview process. But as I reflected, I realized the issue wasn’t the person. It was the environment I’d placed them in.
Our Customer Success team was still early in its maturity. We were building processes as we went, learning through iteration, and working in a fair amount of ambiguity. What we really needed was someone who could operate comfortably in that kind of unstructured, fast-moving space.
The person I hired, while talented and capable, thrived in stability and well-defined systems. They matched the competency requirements of the role, but not the team dynamic or company stage we were in.
That experience became my wake-up call. Hiring success isn’t just about matching skills to a job description. It’s about alignment across what I call the three dimensions of fit:
Competency and Role Fit: Do they have the skills to perform the job well?
Team Fit: Will they thrive within the maturity, pace and collaboration style of the team?
Company Fit: Are they aligned with where the organization is in its journey - its product, customer type and company values?
When even one of those dimensions is off, performance suffers. Not because someone isn’t capable, but because they’re misaligned with the environment they’re in.
Takeaway: The wrong hire doesn’t always mean the wrong person. Sometimes it’s simply the wrong stage, the wrong team dynamic, or the wrong kind of growth moment. True fit happens when all three dimensions align.
If you’ve ever made a hire that looked great on paper but didn’t quite work out, you’re not alone. The solution is to have a better approach to hire for fit. Doing this will help you fire with clarity on what your team and company really need right now.
Not sure where to start? A great first step is clarifying the core competencies your CS team needs to excel. Curious how I approached it? Download my Individual Contributor CSM Competencies example.
