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Is culture fit more important, or is fast development more important?
We’ve been studying this matrix—hiring fast developers vs. hiring for extreme culture fit—for years now. And what we’ve found may surprise you.
It’s almost easier to find a culture fit than it is to find a truly fast developer.
The Case for Speed
In general, we encourage teams to hire the fast developer.
More often than not, they will adapt to the culture—even if they don’t fit right away. It’s not always seamless, and there are exceptions. In one case, we let go of a blazing-fast developer because of repeated emotional blowups. In his exit interview, he told us he had PTSD. That was a rare, extreme case.
But eight times out of ten, fast developers do adapt. It can be a little bumpy at first. But once they sink in, you’ve got one of the fastest engines on your team—and in this era of ChatGPT, the fast are getting even faster.
The 20x Developer Is Not a Myth
Yes, 20x developers exist.
We covered this in detail in our previous blog, The 20x Developer Is Real (And It’s Worse Than You Think). Some devs are 10 to 20 times faster than your weakest dev. That’s not just productivity—it’s leverage.
And in today’s world, where junior devs are blindly copying ChatGPT and pasting it into production, your fastest people are using it as a tool, validating the output, finding counterarguments, and building better solutions, faster.
That kind of talent is rare. We’re talking 2–5% hit rate rare. If you get one, don't lose them just because they were a little quiet in a 45-minute Zoom call.
Culture Fit Is Risky Too
Hiring for culture fit feels safer. You think, “Well, they’ll mesh with the team.” But measuring it? Wildly error-prone. Way more subjective than measuring technical speed.
We’ve had cases where the “culture fit” hire didn’t pan out, and the “not-a-fit” candidate turned out to be everyone’s favorite person on the team. One of our best hires ever—quiet, one year of experience, misunderstood in the interview. We almost didn’t hire him. He ended up matching the speed of our top developer (yes, the one we eventually let go).
Turns out, the "quiet ones" sometimes just need a few sprints to show you who they really are.
Want Both? Good Luck
Say you aim for both fast development and culture fit. Combine the probabilities: 2–5% chance of hitting speed, 20–30% chance of hitting culture.
Multiply those, and you’re looking at about a 0.6% hit rate.
That’s 6 in 1,000 interviews.
So if you're dead set on that magical unicorn who’s both fast and immediately fits into your culture, I wish you the best of luck.
We’ve tried that path. We lost out on great people. Some of those “non-fits” went on to become the heartbeat of the team.
Interviewing for Speed
Speed is measurable.
Here’s how: Build a problem. Code it up yourself. Include unit tests. Time how long it takes you. Then wipe your implementation and hand the candidate the tests.
Let them get the tests passing. Give them standard hints at standard intervals. Time their process. Baseline it. You'll see very quickly who thinks through code vs. who stares at the screen.
Your fastest devs will start coding in the first 60 seconds. They won’t need to ask a single question. Everything they need is already in the test case. They learn by doing.
The slow ones? They'll sit there for five minutes. Just like they will on the job.
What’s the Play?
You can build a great culture. And when you do, people will rise to it. They’ll adapt. They’ll echo your values.
That’s the key: Build a culture so good that great developers want to adopt it.
And don’t toss a rocket ship because it looks different on day one.
You don’t have to take our word for it—check out the LinkedIn recommendations from developers I’ve worked with. They often mention the culture I created. But make no mistake—some of them weren’t “culture fits” when they walked through the door.
They are now.
If you are ever looking for a job or expanding your team, connect with Shelly, Yuliia, or Harold on LinkedIn.
Thanks for reading,
CTO Teachings