If the engineers have a track record/pedigree of previous employment (eg kernel maintainer, ex googler, etc), it can be used as a proxy. Same for open source co

If the engineers have a track record/pedigree of previous employment (eg kernel maintainer, ex googler, etc), it can be used as a proxy. Same for open source contributions. Good scores on the Joel test normally correlate with a mature engineering team IMHO (https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/08/09/the-joel-test-12-steps-to-better-code/ https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/08/09/the-joel-test-12-s...). The reverse may not be true. Just asked the team how they score on the Joel test. Also, if the churn is high something is probably bad. Ask around why the last developers quit. Bear in mind it's very hard to gauge from the outside, even for an engineer.