Hey, it’s Collin. Welcome to Engineering Echelons, a newsletter full of ideas and insights to help engineers excel at management.

Here’s what I’ve got for you this week.

• New and noteworthy news

• A management perspective to consider

• Leadership insights to delve into

• And more…

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Alright, let’s get into it.

Noteworthy Headlines

ABC construction backlog indicator hits four-year low (ENR)

Highlights:

• Backlog fell 0.2 months since December 2025, to a reading of 8 months.

• Backlog has shrunk 0.4 months since January 2025.

Business conditions at architecture firms remained soft to start 2026 (AIA)

Highlights:

• Billings are weak in all regions except the south, which is holding steady.

• Over 50% of firms think negotiating design fees is more challenging now than two years ago.

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Management Perspective

One of the most important jobs of a manager is recruitment. Who you bring on board, when, and how they contribute have major impacts on your team and the organization as a whole. The last thing you want is for someone to slip through who can’t live up to the needs of the team.

That means you need to be effective at sourcing and interviewing candidates.

In mental model parlance, interviews are a map, not the territory. Interviews are intended to be representative of a candidate’s abilities, but they are imperfect.

Always remember: Interviews shed light on how well a candidate can talk about their understanding of the industry, their accomplishments, and how they can contribute to your organization.

Hopefully, there is a tight correlation between a candidate’s ability to speak and do, but talking the talk and walking the walk are two very different things.

One way to get more out of interviews is to develop a bullshit detector. It’s still not perfect, but it improves the efficacy of interviews by removing charlatans from consideration.

Here are four techniques for getting closer to the truth.

→ Go deep on a few threads, not wide on many

Whatever you’re hiring for, there are a handful of skills, character traits, and experiences that really matter. Many interviewers touch on these and move on. Instead, focus on it. When a candidate responds to a strategic question, go deeper. Then deeper still. Ask follow-up after follow-up until you hit the edge of their actual knowledge.

Genuine knowledge has depth, embraces nuance, and understands how concepts are interconnected. Mere familiarity is shallow and runs out of road quickly.

A candidate who can speak fluently at multiple levels of depth is probably a fundamentally different hire than one who gives polished surface-level answers.

→ Find out what the candidate doesn’t want to do

Capability and desire are both required for a successful hire. Most interviews focus almost entirely on the former and neglect the latter, which is how you end up with someone who’s technically qualified but mentally checked out.

Before you describe the role in detail, ask: “What’s something you’re really good at but you’re tired of doing?”

Asking it early, before the candidate knows exactly what you’re looking for, keeps the answer unfiltered. If someone says they’re great at managing construction administration but burned out on it, and the role includes significant amounts of work in construction administration, that’s critical information—and you likely wouldn’t have gotten it from a traditional competency question.

You can use the answer to probe further: is this a temporary feeling, or a more permanent shift? If it’s the former, is there a way to provide variety in the work? If it’s the latter, maybe a different role (or company) is called for.

→ Ask questions they probably didn’t prepare for

Expected questions produce prepared answers. Unexpected questions produce unprepared answers. These latter questions reveal thinking.

Work a few unexpected questions into the conversation and pay attention to how the candidate reacts and reasons through them.

Here are a few examples and what to look for with each.

“Walk me through how you prepared for this interview.”

Although what they did to prepare is important, the point of this question is more concerned with self-awareness, intentionality, and how seriously they treat the recruitment process. A strong candidate will tell you something specific about your company, your team’s challenges, or the role that shows genuine engagement.

“Imagine it’s a year from now and you’ve had a real impact here. What does that look like and how did you make it happen?”

This question surfaces ambition, role clarity, and whether their vision of success is compatible with yours. Vague answers (“I’d have made the team better”) tell you that the candidate might not understand how they can make an impact. Dive in deeper by asking more specific questions (see above).

“Why shouldn’t we hire you?”

This is a better question than, “What’s your biggest weakness?” This question prompts the candidate to change perspectives from the interviewee to the interviewer, which can shake loose some new information. But beware false humility.

→ Talk to people who weren’t on their reference list

Candidate-supplied references are useful but limited. By definition, they’re people the candidate expects to say good things. More meaningful conversations are usually gleaned from people not on that list.

It’s a small world. Everyone knows someone, so someone knows your candidate. Search LinkedIn for shared connections. Think about who in your network might have crossed paths with this person—former colleagues, people at other firms they’ve partnered with, contractors, sales reps, or anyone else who operates in the same space. Reach out to these people and get the full scoop.

No number of interviews will give you what a ten-minute conversation with the right person can.

Management Insights

Bob Iger (CEO of Disney) on leaders balancing performance with support:

“It’s a delicate thing, finding the balance between demanding that your people perform and not instilling a fear of failure in them.”

—

Sir Alex Ferguson (former Manchester United Manager) on managing the downside:

“Part of the pursuit of excellence involves eliminating as many surprises as possible because life is full of the unexpected.”

—

Keith Granet (architecture business consultant) on retaining clients:

“Over the years I have learned one critical lesson: it’s a lot easier to do great work and retain an existing client than to continually search for new clients.”

Management Resource

Management time: who’s got the monkey? (HBR)

This is an old article, but the mindset is still relevant: how managers can be more effective without taking on more responsibilities.

There is a free PDF version here.

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Or…

• Let me know if you’ve found something worth sharing.

• Let me know what challenges you’re having as a manager.

• Let me know what challenges you see other managers having.

Send me an email at [email protected]

Looking forward to hearing from you. See you next time.

Collin

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