Bad Hires 101: Building a PeopleOS That Fixes Underperformance
When someone isn’t delivering, founders get stuck.
Do you coach them and risk dragging it out - or do you exit them and risk getting it wrong?
This is a small, curated founder clinic to diagnose a real underperformance cases and decide what to do next.
Led by ZeShaan (ex-Onfido)
ZeShaan scaled Onfido from 50 → 300 as Director of Talent (to a $650M exit).
He’s seen every version of “this person isn’t working out” — and what actually fixes it.
He’s seen the same failure modes repeat across hiring, onboarding, and management - and the fixes are usually simpler than founders think.
Now he’s running a hands-on session designed to get you to a clear call, fast.
Is It Them? Or Is It Your Systems?
If someone on your team isn’t delivering, you’re usually stuck between two bad options:
keep hoping it improves
or fire them… then spend the next month wondering if you got it wrong
This clinic is for founders who want clarity before they make a decision they can’t undo.
Because here’s the uncomfortable truth: what looks like a “bad hire” is often bad people systems.
And if that’s the case…
you can fix it — without the disruption, cost, and morale hit of firing someone
you can stop reacting in the moment, and start diagnosing what actually broke
you can build a system that makes high performance inevitable — so the same issue doesn’t come back with the next hire
This isn’t about being “nice.” It’s about building for the long-term: a team that performs because the operating environment makes it easy to perform.
What you’ll leave with
By the end of the evening, you’ll know:
✅ Whether your instinct to fire is right — or premature
✅ What actually caused the underperformance (the person vs your system)
✅ Your next move: A short plan for the next 2 weeks
✅ One system change that stops the same issue repeating with the next hire
The Agenda
🔍 Workshop 1: What a PeopleOS is — and how it breaks
Underperformance usually isn’t a “bad person” problem. It’s a PeopleOS problem: the system your team runs on.
In this session, ZeShaan teaches a simple diagnostic framework — the four places a PeopleOS breaks down — so you can pinpoint the real failure instead of guessing.
Scoping — Did you hire into a defined outcome — or into a vague “we need help” bucket?
Assessment — did you evaluate against the role, or mostly on vibes?
Onboarding — did you set them up to win, or throw them in and hope they swim?
Ongoing management — do they get regular feedback, clarity, and checkpoints?
Outcome: you’ll know exactly where to look first — and why the right fix depends on the stage that broke.
🎯 Workshop 2: Diagnose Your Situation
You’ll map your real scenario onto the framework and answer:
where did it go off track?
what did you miss (or never make explicit)?
what’s fixable vs terminal?
Outcome: a one-page case map + your working diagnosis.
💊 Workshop 3: Get the Fix
This is the clinic part.
We rotate through the four stages — Scoping → Assessment → Onboarding → Ongoing Management — using real cases from the room (share as much or as little as you want).
ZeShaan will guide the group through fast, structured diagnosis and turns insight into a concrete next move.
The goal isn’t to “save” everyone.
It’s to make the right call — and build a system where performance problems don’t keep reappearing.
Output of Workshop 3:
By the end of the clinic, you’ll have:
Outcome: a tight set of next steps you can execute immediately
Intimate by design - Max 10 founders.
High trust, high signal, and you’ll get real time on your case.
Bring the situation. Leave with the answer.