Jessica Xin Dong · Founder, Nonstop Talent
Hiring Risk · 10 August 2026

A company says it needs a Salesforce developer.

Which sounds wonderfully specific.

Until you ask why.

Someone has resigned. They were carrying years of undocumented knowledge. Several legacy integrations depend on them. A deadline cannot move. And nobody is entirely sure what will break when they leave.

Suddenly, “Salesforce developer” isn’t really the problem.

It’s merely the easiest part of the problem to put in a job description.

The actual question is:

What capability is the business about to lose, and what must the next person protect before anything else changes?

This is why hiring briefs can be strangely misleading.

They describe the person the company thinks it needs before anyone has diagnosed the risk the company actually has.

And that distinction matters.

Because you can hire an excellent Salesforce developer and still make a terrible hire.

Not because the person was wrong.

Because the problem was defined incorrectly.

Sometimes the fastest way to fill a role is to stop recruiting for a moment.

Because the expensive question isn’t “Who do we need?”

It’s “What are we about to lose?”

Jessica Xin Dong
Founder of Nonstop Talent. I work with technology leaders on the people decisions behind critical delivery, particularly when the brief, capability or hiring risk isn’t as obvious as it first appears.