Many teams want a better candidate experience, yet few build one that reflects the real work and the real product behind it.

Tianna Johnson, founder of People Culture Talent and former talent leader at Notion, Lyft, and GitHub, joins Shannon to share how product-infused hiring creates clarity, excitement, and trust for every candidate. She explains how she introduced product touchpoints at each company, from Notion-built takeaways to real-world Lyft problem-solving to GitHub challenges that sparked early community buzz.

She walks through the results she has seen across teams, including more substantial alignment, deeper conversations in the final stages, higher acceptance rates, and long-term retention for new hires who know the work they are joining.

Key takeaways:

• Define your north star: Clear guidance on what you want to be known for shapes every hiring decision and keeps teams aligned.
• Solving real work problems in interviews: Problem-based prompts drawn from actual product challenges reveal creativity, judgment, and long-term fit.
• Create advocates through experience: Even rejected candidates can become supporters when the process feels human, transparent, and connected to the product.

Timestamps:

(00:00) Introduction

(00:43) Meet Tianna Johnson

(02:38) Why product touch points matter in hiring

(03:57) Defining your north star for talent decisions

(05:00) Mapping the candidate journey for product moments

(06:14) How Notion used product-led takeaways

(06:26) How GitHub created a challenge to spark interest

(10:40) How Lyft built interviews around real product problems

(13:52) Turning unsolved challenges into strong conversations

(16:04) How product-infused hiring shaped brand advocacy

(18:11) How deeper final-stage dialogue improved acceptance

(20:34) Why interviewer energy influences candidate trust

(21:15) The candidate questions that reveal authentic culture

(22:06) Where to connect with Tianna