Adam Ward
Head of Talent at Cursor; co-founded the recruiting and talent-strategy firm Growth by Design, which Cursor acquired in November 2025.
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Their wordsI really believe we're in this like moment where there's this like resettlement of talent and labor and how work gets done.
↗The playbook for building high talent density teams | Adam Ward, Head of Talent at Cursoryoutube.com 1st of 30 in this recording
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Their wordsI think maybe the thing that is waning, I would say, is like the specialized technical person.
↗The playbook for building high talent density teams | Adam Ward, Head of Talent at Cursoryoutube.com 2nd of 30 in this recording
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Their words20% of those will reply. By definition that is not the top 20% that is just the 20 people who you caught on a bad day for them.
↗The playbook for building high talent density teams | Adam Ward, Head of Talent at Cursoryoutube.com 3rd of 30 in this recording
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Our reading
Funnel-style recruiting weeds people out at each stage and ends up hiring whoever remains.
Their wordsthe way we all recruit is we kind of weed people out at each stage and we hire the remainder. So, this remainder hiring is the output of the funnel of doom.
↗The playbook for building high talent density teams | Adam Ward, Head of Talent at Cursoryoutube.com 4th of 30 in this recording
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Their wordsI think this connectedness to sales has been somewhat detrimental to companies as they think about doing this in a more strategic way.
↗The playbook for building high talent density teams | Adam Ward, Head of Talent at Cursoryoutube.com 5th of 30 in this recording
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Their wordsif you think about going after the 1%, the most important step is getting really clear on what 1% means to you.
↗The playbook for building high talent density teams | Adam Ward, Head of Talent at Cursoryoutube.com 6th of 30 in this recording
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Their wordsyou you owe it to yourself to kind of identify what does great look like for you and who's going to be successful in this role in this product versus what was successful for someone else
↗The playbook for building high talent density teams | Adam Ward, Head of Talent at Cursoryoutube.com 7th of 30 in this recording
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Their wordsThat is the worst question you can ask. The best The better question to ask is, "Hey, Lenny, of all the product engineers you worked with, who stands out to you as the person who's most collaborative with designers?
↗The playbook for building high talent density teams | Adam Ward, Head of Talent at Cursoryoutube.com 8th of 30 in this recording
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Their wordsThe very best systems thinkers take these things and put them into like very small tactics
↗The playbook for building high talent density teams | Adam Ward, Head of Talent at Cursoryoutube.com 9th of 30 in this recording
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Our reading
Mining employees' networks in repeated one-on-one sessions beats automating it with an AI tool.
Their wordsYou could you could automate that. You could use an AI tool and have some fit walk them through a facilitation of it, but nothing beats you and I sitting down every other week for 6 weeks and diving into people.
↗The playbook for building high talent density teams | Adam Ward, Head of Talent at Cursoryoutube.com 10th of 30 in this recording
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Our reading
If talent is a founder's top priority, no effort, resourcing or time should stand in the way of it.
Their wordsif if talent is number one, then there should be no obstacles to in terms of effort or resourcing uh or time put in to get there cuz that is paramount to your success.
↗The playbook for building high talent density teams | Adam Ward, Head of Talent at Cursoryoutube.com 11th of 30 in this recording
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Our reading
Recruiters should be a confidence engine for hiring managers, not the ones making hiring decisions.
Their wordsthe recruiters goal is really about helping provide confidence to that hiring manager to make the right decision. They're a confidence engine. They're not a decision-making engine.
↗The playbook for building high talent density teams | Adam Ward, Head of Talent at Cursoryoutube.com 12th of 30 in this recording
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Their wordsonce someone's ignored one thing, it's much easier for them to ignore the second and third.
↗The playbook for building high talent density teams | Adam Ward, Head of Talent at Cursoryoutube.com 13th of 30 in this recording
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Our reading
Caring for candidates more than anyone else does is an unfair advantage any recruiting team has.
Their wordsthe more that we can care for our candidates and demonstrate that, I think it's an unfair advantage and it's in all of us.
↗The playbook for building high talent density teams | Adam Ward, Head of Talent at Cursoryoutube.com 14th of 30 in this recording
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Our reading
The most important interview is the hiring manager's first conversation, not the on-site.
Their wordswe put so much energy to the onsite interview, which I totally get, but honestly the most important one is that hiring manager first conversation.
↗The playbook for building high talent density teams | Adam Ward, Head of Talent at Cursoryoutube.com 15th of 30 in this recording
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Their wordsHaving a meal with someone is one of the most human and leveling things that you can do.
↗The playbook for building high talent density teams | Adam Ward, Head of Talent at Cursoryoutube.com 16th of 30 in this recording
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Our reading
Work samples predict success best, yet most companies still rely on across-the-table interviews.
Their wordsresearch has shown that work samples are the highest predictor of success at a company. But yet most companies are still spending a lot of time doing one-to-one across the table assessments.
↗The playbook for building high talent density teams | Adam Ward, Head of Talent at Cursoryoutube.com 17th of 30 in this recording
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Their wordsfor a lot of companies, it's hard to think of a better way than you know, doing side-by-side real work to get those signals.
↗The playbook for building high talent density teams | Adam Ward, Head of Talent at Cursoryoutube.com 18th of 30 in this recording
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Their wordsthe goal is to not be selling at the close. We're we're we're trying to sell throughout.
↗The playbook for building high talent density teams | Adam Ward, Head of Talent at Cursoryoutube.com 19th of 30 in this recording
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Our reading
Chasing the highest offer tends to leave people unexcited about their work within six months.
Their wordsAnd I think what you realize six months in is like that just becomes your new level of like comp expect you know, comp life. But you're you're not excited about the people you work with or the work you're doing.
↗The playbook for building high talent density teams | Adam Ward, Head of Talent at Cursoryoutube.com 20th of 30 in this recording
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Their wordsI fundamentally believe there are right people for right companies at the right time.
↗The playbook for building high talent density teams | Adam Ward, Head of Talent at Cursoryoutube.com 21st of 30 in this recording
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Their wordswhen you think about your offer and if you're negotiating, it has to just fit a line of logic.
↗The playbook for building high talent density teams | Adam Ward, Head of Talent at Cursoryoutube.com 22nd of 30 in this recording
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Their wordsit does feel like the unit of measure that matters the most is the most fixed and finite, which is time.
↗The playbook for building high talent density teams | Adam Ward, Head of Talent at Cursoryoutube.com 23rd of 30 in this recording
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Our reading
Their wordsclosing is a team sport.
↗The playbook for building high talent density teams | Adam Ward, Head of Talent at Cursoryoutube.com 24th of 30 in this recording
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Their wordsIt's actually execution. And execution comes down to having the right talent at the right time.
↗The playbook for building high talent density teams | Adam Ward, Head of Talent at Cursoryoutube.com 25th of 30 in this recording
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Their wordsI feel like there's a supply and demand crisis around really strategic recruiters because of the somewhat transactional nature we've made recruiting over time.
↗The playbook for building high talent density teams | Adam Ward, Head of Talent at Cursoryoutube.com 26th of 30 in this recording
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Their wordsI don't think you can have a 10X person on a bad team. It just like doesn't exist.
↗The playbook for building high talent density teams | Adam Ward, Head of Talent at Cursoryoutube.com 27th of 30 in this recording
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Their wordsthey try to collapse this into one role, and generally that's a mistake.
↗The playbook for building high talent density teams | Adam Ward, Head of Talent at Cursoryoutube.com 28th of 30 in this recording
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Their wordsrecruiters are excellent at 90 to 110% capacity and are terrible outside of that.
↗The playbook for building high talent density teams | Adam Ward, Head of Talent at Cursoryoutube.com 29th of 30 in this recording
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Their wordsmy warm take is like every recruiter should be a talent engineer.
↗The playbook for building high talent density teams | Adam Ward, Head of Talent at Cursoryoutube.com 30th of 30 in this recording
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