On references and treating good candidates like they're the scarce, I agree. On "they'll have stream of completed projects", not so much. "A high tide lifts a

On references and treating good candidates like they're the scarce, I agree. On "they'll have stream of completed projects", not so much. "A high tide lifts all boats" and at the same time it does not tell you a lot about the candidate's responsibility in an unsuccessful product. I met enough tech engineer "leaders" that got their job from business people because they were good at talking even if they were pretty bad at everything else. Soft skills are VERY important as a people manager but they cannot come at the expense of business acumen, good product sense, mediocre processes and technical inadequacy. So when something is important for the position and it is easy to test, test it. I agree on looking at reference for other things, harder to test.