Hiring Under Pressure: What Works, What Breaks, and What to Watch For
If you’ve ever had to hire during a sprint, while prepping for a product demo, or in the middle of a “can we fix this by Friday?” conversation…
you already know:
It’s not the ideal moment. But sometimes, it’s the only moment you’ve got.
Growing a tech team under pressure is like building a bridge while crossing it. It’s doable, but it takes clarity, discipline, and help at the right time.
At Lithium, we’ve worked with dozens of teams scaling products (many on Salesforce, others custom-built), and we’ve seen patterns repeat.
Some teams stay solid and even thrive under pressure.
Others burn out, churn hires, and waste weeks trying to recover.
This is not a checklist.
It’s a collection of honest insights, based on what we’ve seen actually happen when teams grow fast… and what makes the difference between a smart hire and a painful one.
1. The fastest hire often becomes the fastest exit
When things get busy (and they always do), the temptation is real:
“Let’s just get someone in.”
“We can figure out culture fit later.”
“We don’t have time for the full process.”
Here’s the catch:
Those rushed hires? They rarely stick.
– They struggle to onboard without proper context.
– They weren’t aligned with how your team works.
– Or they weren’t the right seniority, and need more hand-holding than expected.
Hiring just to put out a fire usually lights a new one.
If you’re hiring under pressure, slow down just enough to check:
Are we hiring to solve today’s chaos, or to support tomorrow’s stability?
2. The best hires don’t just fill a role, they unlock progress
In every tech team, there are bottlenecks.
Sometimes it’s a specific tech skill you’re missing.
Other times, it’s someone who can take ownership so others can finally breathe.
The best hires are those who change the dynamic of the team, not just add another person to the Zoom grid.
They:
– Bring clarity to scattered roadmaps
– Raise the quality bar without killing speed
– Push initiatives forward when others are stuck firefighting
But here’s the twist:
You can’t spot these people if your process is built only for speed.
You need to ask:
– What impact do we really need in the next 3 months?
– What kind of profile brings that, realistically?
– Are we willing to wait one extra week to find it?
3. What usually backfires (and we still see all the time)
Let’s be honest… everyone makes hiring mistakes, even with the best intentions.
But there are three that come up constantly when teams are moving too fast:
a. Over-indexing on hard skills
Yes, technical skills matter.
But if they can’t collaborate, communicate asynchronously, or handle pressure, it’s going to break.
b. Ignoring onboarding
You think the hard part is hiring.
But if no one has time to onboard them, they’ll sink.
Hiring under pressure demands a plan for week 1.
c. Delaying until it’s “critical”
The longer you wait, the fewer options you’ll have.
By the time it feels urgent, you’ve already lost weeks, or team morale.
4. The best teams ask for help early
Here’s the truth:
Even the most capable leaders don’t scale alone.
We’ve seen smart CTOs and Product Leads do this well by:
– Bringing in freelance or nearshore engineers to cover immediate gaps
– Asking a trusted partner to handle sourcing + first interviews
– Creating a shortlist of pre-vetted profiles before they’re needed
This doesn’t mean giving up control.
It means protecting your team’s bandwidth (and their sanity) while still hiring right.
Hiring well under pressure is not about heroics.
It’s about building a system that works when things get hard.
Final thought: Save this for when it gets messy (because it will)
If you’re not hiring right now, amazing.
This is the perfect time to think about how you will hire when things pick up again.
And if you are in the middle of the chaos:
Breathe. Make one smart move. Ask for help if you need it.
You’ve got this.
