Here's a scenario that plays out in small teams constantly.

Two people interview the same candidate. One walks out thinking they're a strong yes. The other isn't sure. They get on a call to debrief and spend 40 minutes talking past each other because they asked completely different questions and evaluated completely different things.

No hire gets made. The candidate — who was actually great — accepts another offer three days later.

An interview guide doesn't just prevent this. It makes the whole process faster, fairer, and a lot less frustrating for everyone involved. Here's how to write one.

What is an interview guide?

An interview guide is a document that sets out everything an interviewer needs to run a consistent, structured evaluation of a candidate for a specific role.

At minimum it includes the questions to ask, the competencies being assessed, and a scoring framework so interviewers know what good looks like. A solid guide also includes a brief intro script, guidance on follow-up probes, and a debrief format for after the interview.

Think of it as the shared playbook for your hiring team. Everyone uses the same one, every time, for every candidate interviewing for that role.

If you're not familiar with why structure matters in the first place, [What Is a Structured Interview?] covers the fundamentals.

What should an interview guide include?

Role context

A one-paragraph summary of the role, the team it sits in, and the two or three things that matter most for success in this position. This primes every interviewer before they start and keeps the evaluation focused on what actually matters.

Competencies being assessed

List the three to five competencies this interview is designed to evaluate. Be specific. "Communication" is vague. "Ability to deliver clear written updates to non-technical stakeholders" is useful. Each competency should map directly to something the role requires.

Interview questions

Four to six questions per interview round, each tied to one of the competencies above. Mix behavioral questions ("Tell me about a time you...") with situational ones ("How would you handle...") depending on the seniority of the role and how much relevant experience you expect candidates to have.

Write the questions out in full. Don't leave interviewers to improvise the wording on the day — even small differences in phrasing can change how candidates interpret and answer a question.

Follow-up probes

For each main question, include one or two follow-up prompts. These help interviewers dig deeper when a candidate gives a surface-level answer. Examples: "What was the specific outcome?", "What would you do differently now?", "How did the team respond?"

Probes keep the interview moving without letting interviewers go completely off-script.

Scoring rubric

For each question, define what a strong answer looks like versus a weak one. This doesn't need to be exhaustive — two or three bullet points per question is enough. The goal is to give interviewers a shared reference point so "a 4 out of 5" means the same thing to everyone on the panel.

Without a rubric, scoring is just gut feel dressed up in numbers.

Debrief format

A short structured section at the end of the guide where each interviewer records their scores per competency, an overall recommendation (strong yes, yes, no, strong no), and a brief written rationale.

This is what the post-interview debrief is based on. When everyone comes with completed scores and written notes, the conversation is faster and the decision is easier to reach.

How to build your first interview guide: step by step

Step 1: Start with the role definition. Before writing a single question, revisit the competencies you defined when you opened the role. If you haven't done this yet, [How to Build a Hiring Process from Scratch] walks through it. Your interview guide is only as good as the clarity you have on what you're actually hiring for.

Step 2: Pick three to five competencies to assess in this round. If you have multiple interview rounds, split the competencies across them so you're not covering the same ground twice. Each round should have a clear focus.

Step 3: Write four to six questions per competency. Aim for behavioral questions for senior hires, a mix of behavioral and situational for junior or career-switching candidates. Keep the language plain and direct — convoluted questions produce convoluted answers.

Step 4: Add follow-up probes. Two per question is plenty. These are prompts, not scripts. Interviewers should use them when they need to go deeper, not read them out verbatim after every answer.

Step 5: Write the scoring rubric. For each question, note two or three elements of a strong answer. Think about what the ideal candidate would say, and what a weak answer would leave out.

Step 6: Add the debrief section. A simple table with competencies, score columns per interviewer, and a recommendation field. One page is enough.

Step 7: Test it on one role before rolling it out. Run the guide with your next hire, debrief the team afterward, and refine. A good interview guide gets better with every use.

Common mistakes to avoid

Too many questions. If your guide has 15 questions for a 45-minute interview, you're not running an interview — you're running a sprint. Fewer questions, more depth.

Questions that aren't tied to competencies. Every question should have a clear reason for being there. If you can't answer "what am I trying to learn from this question," cut it.

Skipping the rubric. The rubric feels like extra work until you're in a debrief where two interviewers scored the same answer a 2 and a 5. Then it feels essential.

Building a guide and never updating it. The first version of any interview guide is a draft. Review it after every hire and improve it. After three or four cycles, you'll have something genuinely predictive.

One guide for every role. Every role has different requirements. A guide built for a sales hire will not work for an engineering hire. Build role-specific guides, not a generic template you paste questions into.

Build yours in minutes

You don't need to start from a blank document. The Oryx Interview Guide Builder walks you through the process step by step — role context, competencies, questions, scoring rubric, and debrief format — and outputs a clean, shareable guide your whole hiring team can use.