Hiring for taste
Skills can be taught. Speed can be coached. Taste — the instinct for what's good — is what separates teams that compound from teams that churn.
Most interview processes optimize for capability. Capability matters, but it's a floor, not a ceiling. The trait that actually compounds over a five-year tenure is taste — the ability to look at two acceptable options and consistently pick the one that ages better.
How taste shows up
In design reviews where someone says "yes, but…" and points to something subtle. In product specs that catch the edge case nobody else flagged. In meetings where someone reframes the question so the answer becomes obvious.
Interview for it
Show candidates work — your work, your competitors', the industry's — and ask them what they'd change, what they'd keep, why. The ones with taste will have opinions you hadn't considered. The ones without will repeat what's currently fashionable.
Hire the person who notices what isn't there.