THE AI-FIRST FIRM · ISSUE 3 · AUG 28, 2026 · ~4 MIN READ
Ask your next hire for their prompts
Real tough one but, our house was sadly destroyed in a fire last week. Most importantly, we're all OK, so please, go hug your loved ones.
I've learned a lot of things I never wanted to this week but I also found out that in moments like these, I'm grateful that the machine here runs pretty well without me, and it did again, so everything carried on while I was somewhere else entirely. This one's short for obvious reasons, but it isn't empty.
TLDR
→ I made every candidate paste in the prompts they actually used
→ Run what you're about to send past 6 people who don't exist
→ The new video, and the mistake I own out loud in it
🔧 Behind the Build: I made every candidate hand over their prompts
We're hiring a Brand & Content Marketing Manager, and a resume round tells you almost nothing about whether somebody can actually make something. So instead of another interview, our AI hire built the exercise as its own thing entirely, 6 sections, unlisted, for the short list of candidates after some (human-led) pre screen calls.
It asks for a point of view, 3 social graphics, a design piece they pick themselves, long-form copy, and a prioritization question with 4 competing deadlines and no clean answer.
There's a section in it called How you made it, and that's one I really care about. It asks which AI tools they used, then asks them to paste their real prompts in rather than describe their prompting, then tells them to be honest about the time. That isn't a gotcha, it's an invitation, and if somebody's using this stuff well I want to watch how they do it.
I filled the whole thing in myself first, with complete nonsense, just to find out what would break. It held, and 8 submissions are in now.
To be clear about what the AI does here, it augments and it doesn't decide. Our team reviews our top candidates for fit because this role is vital and that call stays human. What it adds is a lens.
The section I really care about. Paste one or two real prompts, not a description of prompting.
It can read every submission based on what I personally love and want to see from these people, at 11pm, without getting tired.
BUT, I am reviewing these myself and who knows, they may be reading this right now :)
If you're hiring anybody whose job touches AI, ask them for their prompts. It'll tell you more in 5 minutes than an hour of interview will.
And spoiler alert, they all should touch AI.
Want to sponsor this spot? Just reply.
📋 Worth Taking #003: run your work past 6 people who don't exist
Fantastic idea by Chad Davis, and it's the kind of thing you can steal quickly.
Chad mentioned that he's been spinning up sub-agents that each take on a different role, personality and perspective, then having all of them look at the same thing and report back. His word on the results was AMAZING.
You don't need agents to run the same play. Take the thing you're about to send, a client email, a proposal, a new page on your site, and ask this.
Review this 6 separate times, once as each of these people, somebody with vision sensitivities, somebody with inattentive ADHD, somebody with hyperactive ADHD, somebody who hates new tech, somebody who will judge on every click, and the CEO. Give me each reaction separately, then compile them all and tell me what you'd change.
Chad Davis, running one planning page past 6 different people who don't exist.
Any one of them on its own is just an opinion, and it's the compile at the end that turns all 6 into a list you can actually work from.
▶️ Now Playing
New video went up yesterday, How accounting firms get clients, and there's a stretch in it where I own something I got wrong for years. I'm not going to spoil it though.
You walk away with the 4 moves past your own network, positioning, converting the leads you're already getting, engineering referrals rather than waiting on them, and building a channel that reaches people who've never heard of you.
And a quick shout out to the amazing team at Quanto for being part of this video.
💬 Question For You
What's the one thing you'd ask somebody to show you, that a resume would never tell you?
Reply and tell me, I might feature your answer in the next issue.
See you in two weeks.
Mike
PS - No seriously, please go hug your loved ones.
Mike Libbey is CEO of YBL, a fully virtual Canadian accounting and VCFO firm. On YouTube (@MikeLibbey) he shows the tools he has built and what running a firm actually takes, and he posts every weekday on LinkedIn. He is quietly building TaxPilot for Canadian tax firms on the side. Reply to any issue, he reads them all.