I stole this framework, and it has genuinely been one of the most helpful hiring and onboarding guides my team uses. Being AI-first means nothing without solving real business problems. It's not enough to just use AI. I know plenty of folks using AI dozens of times a day, 7 days a week, who are still working at a Level 2. Even worse, they have no idea they're stuck as a surface user. You have to use AI for faster experimentation. To shorten the iteration cycle. To improve the actual outcome. Without those three, you're just wasting tokens. Most people I interview are at a 3 (solution-oriented, but not action-oriented). I want everyone to start at a 4 (action-oriented with a sense of technical, user, and business tradeoffs). And when they earn trust, we move up to a level 5 (full ownership of the problem, solution, and continued management of the work). Using AI doesn't replace your critical thinking. It means the work you can pull off now wasn't on the table a year ago, and your job is getting bigger. Save this for your next new hire. Source: this was a framework first introduced to me by Alex (@businessbarista) who was introduced to it by Steph (@stephsmithio). I added the AI parts.

→ View original post on X — @alliekmiller, 2026-04-07 18:01 UTC