Adam Ward
Head of Talent at Cursor; co-founded the recruiting and talent-strategy firm Growth by Design, which Cursor acquired in November 2025.
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What they believe
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The labour market is in a resettlement of talent and of how work gets done.
I really believe we're in this like moment where there's this like resettlement of talent and labor and how work gets done.
youtube.comSaid 9 Aug 2026This on korrents
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Beliefs
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The labour market is in a resettlement of talent and of how work gets done.
I really believe we're in this like moment where there's this like resettlement of talent and labor and how work gets done.
The playbook for building high talent density teams | Adam Ward, Head of Talent at Cursor Said 9 Aug 2026
Demand for narrowly specialised technical people may be waning.
I think maybe the thing that is waning, I would say, is like the specialized technical person.
The playbook for building high talent density teams | Adam Ward, Head of Talent at Cursor Said 9 Aug 2026
The candidates who reply to cold outreach are not the top 20 percent, just the ones caught on a bad day.
20% of those will reply. By definition that is not the top 20% that is just the 20 people who you caught on a bad day for them.
The playbook for building high talent density teams | Adam Ward, Head of Talent at Cursor Said 9 Aug 2026
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Funnel-style recruiting weeds people out at each stage and ends up hiring whoever remains.
the way we all recruit is we kind of weed people out at each stage and we hire the remainder. So, this remainder hiring is the output of the funnel of doom.
The playbook for building high talent density teams | Adam Ward, Head of Talent at Cursor Said 9 Aug 2026
Treating recruiting like a sales funnel has been somewhat detrimental to companies.
I think this connectedness to sales has been somewhat detrimental to companies as they think about doing this in a more strategic way.
The playbook for building high talent density teams | Adam Ward, Head of Talent at Cursor Said 9 Aug 2026
When hiring for the top 1 percent, the most important step is getting clear on what top 1 percent means for the company.
if you think about going after the 1%, the most important step is getting really clear on what 1% means to you.
The playbook for building high talent density teams | Adam Ward, Head of Talent at Cursor Said 9 Aug 2026
A company should define what great looks like for its own role rather than borrow another company's definition.
you you owe it to yourself to kind of identify what does great look like for you and who's going to be successful in this role in this product versus what was successful for someone else
The playbook for building high talent density teams | Adam Ward, Head of Talent at Cursor Said 9 Aug 2026
Asking someone who the best engineer they know is the worst question for finding talent; asking about specific traits works better.
That is the worst question you can ask. The best The better question to ask is, "Hey, Lenny, of all the product engineers you worked with, who stands out to you as the person who's most collaborative with designers?
The playbook for building high talent density teams | Adam Ward, Head of Talent at Cursor Said 9 Aug 2026
The best systems thinkers turn big problems into very small tactics.
The very best systems thinkers take these things and put them into like very small tactics
The playbook for building high talent density teams | Adam Ward, Head of Talent at Cursor Said 9 Aug 2026
Mining employees' networks in repeated one-on-one sessions beats automating it with an AI tool.
You could you could automate that. You could use an AI tool and have some fit walk them through a facilitation of it, but nothing beats you and I sitting down every other week for 6 weeks and diving into people.
The playbook for building high talent density teams | Adam Ward, Head of Talent at Cursor Said 9 Aug 2026
If talent is a founder's top priority, no effort, resourcing or time should stand in the way of it.
if if talent is number one, then there should be no obstacles to in terms of effort or resourcing uh or time put in to get there cuz that is paramount to your success.
The playbook for building high talent density teams | Adam Ward, Head of Talent at Cursor Said 9 Aug 2026
Recruiters should be a confidence engine for hiring managers, not the ones making hiring decisions.
the recruiters goal is really about helping provide confidence to that hiring manager to make the right decision. They're a confidence engine. They're not a decision-making engine.
The playbook for building high talent density teams | Adam Ward, Head of Talent at Cursor Said 9 Aug 2026
The first approach to a candidate matters most, because once someone ignores one message the next ones are easier to ignore.
once someone's ignored one thing, it's much easier for them to ignore the second and third.
The playbook for building high talent density teams | Adam Ward, Head of Talent at Cursor Said 9 Aug 2026
Caring for candidates more than anyone else does is an unfair advantage any recruiting team has.
the more that we can care for our candidates and demonstrate that, I think it's an unfair advantage and it's in all of us.
The playbook for building high talent density teams | Adam Ward, Head of Talent at Cursor Said 9 Aug 2026
The most important interview is the hiring manager's first conversation, not the on-site.
we put so much energy to the onsite interview, which I totally get, but honestly the most important one is that hiring manager first conversation.
The playbook for building high talent density teams | Adam Ward, Head of Talent at Cursor Said 9 Aug 2026
Sharing a meal is one of the most human and levelling things to do with a candidate.
Having a meal with someone is one of the most human and leveling things that you can do.
The playbook for building high talent density teams | Adam Ward, Head of Talent at Cursor Said 9 Aug 2026
Work samples predict success best, yet most companies still rely on across-the-table interviews.
research has shown that work samples are the highest predictor of success at a company. But yet most companies are still spending a lot of time doing one-to-one across the table assessments.
The playbook for building high talent density teams | Adam Ward, Head of Talent at Cursor Said 9 Aug 2026
For many companies, side-by-side real work is hard to beat as a hiring signal.
for a lot of companies, it's hard to think of a better way than you know, doing side-by-side real work to get those signals.
The playbook for building high talent density teams | Adam Ward, Head of Talent at Cursor Said 9 Aug 2026
Recruiting should sell throughout the process rather than at the close.
the goal is to not be selling at the close. We're we're we're trying to sell throughout.
The playbook for building high talent density teams | Adam Ward, Head of Talent at Cursor Said 9 Aug 2026
Chasing the highest offer tends to leave people unexcited about their work within six months.
And I think what you realize six months in is like that just becomes your new level of like comp expect you know, comp life. But you're you're not excited about the people you work with or the work you're doing.
The playbook for building high talent density teams | Adam Ward, Head of Talent at Cursor Said 9 Aug 2026
There are right people for right companies at the right time.
I fundamentally believe there are right people for right companies at the right time.
The playbook for building high talent density teams | Adam Ward, Head of Talent at Cursor Said 9 Aug 2026
A candidate negotiating an offer should make every ask fit one line of logic.
when you think about your offer and if you're negotiating, it has to just fit a line of logic.
The playbook for building high talent density teams | Adam Ward, Head of Talent at Cursor Said 9 Aug 2026
In the AI talent market, time feels like the most fixed and precious resource.
it does feel like the unit of measure that matters the most is the most fixed and finite, which is time.
The playbook for building high talent density teams | Adam Ward, Head of Talent at Cursor Said 9 Aug 2026
Closing a candidate is a team sport.
closing is a team sport.
The playbook for building high talent density teams | Adam Ward, Head of Talent at Cursor Said 9 Aug 2026
Companies win more often on execution than on being first, and execution comes down to having the right talent at the right time.
It's actually execution. And execution comes down to having the right talent at the right time.
The playbook for building high talent density teams | Adam Ward, Head of Talent at Cursor Said 9 Aug 2026
Truly strategic recruiters seem to be in short supply because recruiting has been made somewhat transactional.
I feel like there's a supply and demand crisis around really strategic recruiters because of the somewhat transactional nature we've made recruiting over time.
The playbook for building high talent density teams | Adam Ward, Head of Talent at Cursor Said 9 Aug 2026
There is no such thing as a 10x person on a bad team.
I don't think you can have a 10X person on a bad team. It just like doesn't exist.
The playbook for building high talent density teams | Adam Ward, Head of Talent at Cursor Said 9 Aug 2026
Expecting one first recruiting hire both to fill a backlog of roles and to build the hiring system is generally a mistake.
they try to collapse this into one role, and generally that's a mistake.
The playbook for building high talent density teams | Adam Ward, Head of Talent at Cursor Said 9 Aug 2026
Recruiters do their best work at 90 to 110 percent of capacity.
recruiters are excellent at 90 to 110% capacity and are terrible outside of that.
The playbook for building high talent density teams | Adam Ward, Head of Talent at Cursor Said 9 Aug 2026
Every recruiter should be a talent engineer who builds their own tools.
my warm take is like every recruiter should be a talent engineer.
The playbook for building high talent density teams | Adam Ward, Head of Talent at Cursor Said 9 Aug 2026
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