Before you open your first position, check if the market can handle your roles at the pace you need and within the budget you have.
I’ve seen companies:
- Spent 6 months searching for a niche role in a city where there were literally 10 candidates.
- Made 10 offers but hired only 2 people because they didn’t check the competition and they lose at the last stage…
- Planned to build an entire team (6-8 specialists) in 3 months, with one recruiter working from another continent and a salary range below the market average
What do you need to verify in a market mapping?
- Real availability of key roles (Staff Backend, Platform/DevOps, Data, Mobile, Security, EM/TPM etc.)
- Time-to-hire and compensation bands – don’t guess, calculate and validate with the market
- Talent competition- who’s already in this market and what are their plans
- Optimal sequence of first 10 hires based on market realities
My personal process checklist:
- Definition of must-have vs nice-to-have + success KPIs
- Deep dive into data (LinkedIn, job boards, analysis of 20-30 similar companies)
- Validation calls with recruiters and market leaders (unofficial data!)
- Conversion model backwards: how much outreach → how many hires
- Concrete recommendations: salary bands, sourcing plan
Most common mistakes I see:
- Too narrow must-haves (“Kotlin + event-driven + fintech scale”)
- Copying salary bands from job boards without calibrating to the Polish market and your real needs
- Ignoring remote – you’re competing with all of Poland, not just locally
- No leader and technical interviewers at the start – pipeline stuck at the technical stage or final, as there is only one person who can conduct an interview, and his/her calendar is full.
