The North Atlantic Teammate Test
Choose leaders you would trust beside you when everything breaks
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 99%
Watt says his years on North Atlantic fishing boats taught him that difficult conditions reveal qualities that are easy to miss when everything is going well. He turned that experience into a management-team decision test: would he want this person beside him on deck at two in the morning, in a storm, with everything going wrong? The mechanism is a vivid pressure scenario that forces the evaluator to consider dependability, composure, teamwork, and resolve rather than ordinary confidence alone. Used responsibly, the question is a prompt for evidence, not a complete selection system. References, past behaviour, technical ability, ethics, and the actual requirements of the role still need to support the answer.
Origin
Watt developed the test from six years working with his father on North Atlantic fishing boats, where he says exhaustion, danger, and bad weather exposed who could be depended upon.
Core principles
- 01Easy conditions can conceal how someone responds under pressure
- 02Dependability matters most when a team is tired and the situation is deteriorating
- 03A vivid shared test can make an abstract hiring standard easier to apply
- 04Trust under pressure should supplement evidence of competence and conduct
How to run it
- 1
Define the storm
Describe the realistic failure conditions the role may face, such as a missed launch, safety incident, cash constraint, or major customer problem. Keep the scenario relevant to the work.
Pro tip Use a situation the organisation has genuinely experienced.
Watch out Do not romanticise unsafe working conditions or manufactured emergencies.
- 2
Identify needed behaviour
List the observable traits that would help the team through that situation, including judgment, honesty, calm, effort, and cooperation. Separate these from charisma or personal similarity.
Pro tip Write behaviours rather than personality labels.
- 3
Ask the deck question
Imagine working beside the candidate when the situation is deteriorating and everyone is under pressure. Decide whether their demonstrated behaviour would increase or reduce trust.
Watch out A compelling mental image is not evidence by itself.
- 4
Verify the answer
Use references, work history, and realistic scenarios to test the initial judgment. Look specifically for examples of conduct during setbacks.
Pro tip Ask referees what changed in the person's behaviour when plans failed.
- 5
Make the role decision
Combine crisis dependability with competence, values, and role fit. Proceed only when the pressure evidence supports the broader case.
Watch out Do not use the test to favour people who merely resemble the existing leadership team.
In the wild
Watt says he applies a fishing-boat question when building his management team: would he want this person beside him on a North Atlantic deck at two in the morning during a storm, with everything going wrong? A yes usually supports his belief that they can work well together.
→ The hiring judgment explicitly considers trust and teamwork under adversity.
Common mistakes
Hiring the best crisis storyteller
A polished answer to a hypothetical question does not establish how someone has behaved under real pressure.
Confusing intensity with reliability
A person can work extreme hours and still make poor decisions, hide problems, or damage collaboration.
Is it for you?
Best for
Leaders selecting people for consequential roles that involve uncertainty, setbacks, or operational pressure.
Not ideal for
Routine hiring decisions where a dramatic crisis analogy could replace role-specific evidence or encourage similarity bias.
From the transcript
“you only really see what someone's made of when things are difficult”
“would i want to be in the deck of a north atlantic fishing boat at two in the morning in a storm”
From the episode
Brewdog Founder: The Untold Story Of One Britain’s Fastest Growing Companies: James Watt