So I'm sitting in this meeting, watching our new UX designer present to the head of product, and I'm just... quiet. Not because I don't have opinions, but because I can already see what's happening.
It wasn't a disaster or anything. He didn't bomb it. But I'm listening to him go through the exact same stuff we talked about yesterday, like word for word, without any of the changes we agreed on. And then our head of product starts giving him feedback - the same feedback I literally gave him 24 hours ago.
I'm just sitting there thinking, did he not hear me yesterday? Or did he hear me and just... ignore it? It was like watching someone get the same correction twice and pretending the first time never happened.
The thing is, just three days before this, I was actually excited about hiring this guy. Senior designer, solid portfolio, worked with US teams before so he knew how to do remote work. During his interview, he walked us through real projects he'd done, not just made-up test cases. That matters when you're hiring someone to actually lead design.
I'd spent hours onboarding him myself. Showed him our whole workflow - how we prototype with AI first instead of sketching everything out. Went through every design problem we needed to solve. Explained the business case behind our next release. I'm pretty thorough with this stuff, and I can usually tell when someone's not following along.
But over those first few days, nothing was happening. He'd sit in our meetings, nod along, seem engaged. Then the next day, nothing. No progress on what we talked about. No questions if he was stuck. Just... nothing.
Today's presentation proved it. The prototype he showed was identical to what he had yesterday, before I gave him all that feedback. Identical.
So when the meeting ends, I'm thinking, okay, what do I do here? Do I pretend this is normal? Send a polite follow-up email with "suggestions"?
Look, I've been working with Americans for a year now, and they just say what they mean. No dancing around it. But calling someone right after a disappointing meeting still felt risky.
I called him anyway.
I wasn't yelling or anything. But I also wasn't trying to be nice about it. "I wanted you to do well in that meeting. You didn't come prepared, and I'm disappointed because that was your chance to build trust with our head of product."
I told him we hired him with high expectations. "Not to put pressure on you, but because we think you can actually deliver. I know you can do better than what I just saw, and I need to understand what's going wrong here."
Then I pointed out the obvious thing: "The prototype you just presented was exactly the same as yesterday's version. We spent an hour going through feedback and agreeing on next steps. What happened?"
He apologized. Said he just wasn't able to follow through. No excuses, no blaming the tools or the timeline or anything. Just took it.
"Look, I'm giving you another shot tomorrow," I said. "But I want you to see me as someone working with you, not someone who has to babysit your work. I think that's where you'd do your best work anyway. Would you agree?"
He did.
Today I watched him present to the CEO. Completely different person. Prepared, confident, actually addressing the problems we'd talked about. Everyone in the room could feel it. You could see him earning trust in real time.
Here's the weird part - I'm not even proud that I was right to hire him. That's not what feels good about this. It's watching someone take feedback seriously and actually do something with it. Like, immediately. Most people get defensive or make promises they don't keep. He just... did the work.
I think the Americans taught me something about feedback that I didn't expect. When you keep your emotions out of it and just focus on what needs to change, people can actually hear you. I wasn't mad at him as a person. I was just pointing out what wasn't working.
This is just his first week, so who knows what happens next. But that moment when I decided to be direct instead of polite? That created space for him to actually grow. Sometimes the most helpful thing you can do is tell someone exactly where they stand and what needs to change.
The satisfaction isn't in being right about the hire. It's in watching someone realize they can do more than they thought they could.