How Zen Windows Hired an Installation Manager Who Knew Nothing About Windows, and He Became Their Best Hire
Sagan
INTRODUCTION
Justin Brown is the Director of Operations at Zen Windows, a window installation franchisor with 24 locations across 11 franchisees.
He had holes all over his org chart. Sales consultant assistants. Installation managers. Back office coordinators. The usual growing pains of a franchise trying to scale.
Traditional hiring wasn't working. Every time Justin posted a job looking for "5+ years window installation experience," he got expensive candidates who topped out fast or cheaper candidates who couldn't handle the complexity.
Then Justin tried something different.
He stopped hiring for window experience and started hiring for something else entirely: smart, hungry, and coachable.
"I want people who love to learn," Justin said. "I can teach them windows in a few days. What I can't teach is tenacity, adaptability, and drive."
That philosophy led him to hire Patrick, a guy from Costa Rica with zero window experience, as an installation manager.
Within 60 days, Patrick had rebuilt their entire warranty process, questioned inefficient systems, and was exceeding every expectation Justin had set.
This is the story of how Zen Windows broke the traditional hiring playbook—and won.
THE PROBLEM
EXPERIENCE DOESN'T EQUAL PERFORMANCE
Justin's challenge was the same one every growing franchise faces: how do you find people who can actually do the job, not just people who claim they can?
For Zen Windows, traditional hiring created three problems:
Expensive Hires with Low Ceilings Candidates with 10+ years of window experience commanded high salaries. But Justin kept finding that experience didn't correlate with performance. They knew windows, but they couldn't adapt to new systems. They were set in their ways.
Role Misalignment People were getting hired for one thing and ending up doing another. Skills didn't transfer. The person who interviewed great turned out to be terrible at the actual job.
Hiring Bottlenecks Slowing Growth Every open role meant weeks of posting, screening, interviewing, and hoping. Justin was spending more time managing the hiring process than actually running operations.
"I came from a world where you got thrown in the deep end," Justin said. "I went to school for English and ended up troubleshooting locomotives. I've done event marketing, driven semi trucks cross-country, and now I'm running operations for a window franchise. If I can learn anything, so can anyone else, as long as they've got the drive."
THE SOLUTION
HIRE FOR ATTRIBUTES, TRAIN FOR SKILLS
Justin made a philosophical shift. Instead of looking for "window installation experience," he started looking for three things:
Smart - Can they figure things out?
Hungry - Do they want to grow?
Coachable - Will they take feedback and improve?
Through Sagan Passport, Justin found two standout hires who embodied this philosophy:
Ulysses (Nicaragua) - Sales Consultant Assistant
Ulysses wasn't hired for a sales role. He was at a live hiring event for something completely different. But when Justin heard him talk about his love of learning, he knew.
"I asked him: What's the most recent thing you learned that you didn't think you'd ever learn?" Justin said. "He told me he spent hours on YouTube figuring out how a combustion engine works, just because he was curious. He's not even a car guy. That's when I knew."
Justin hired him as a Sales Consultant Assistant at $1,100-$1,200 per month, full-time US business hours.
Within weeks, Ulysses was updating systems, making calls, and learning the sales process. Now Justin is transitioning him into a full sales role.
"If sales doesn't work, I've got a bunch of other things I know he can do," Justin said. "That's the fun part. He's just got unlimited upside."
Patrick (Costa Rica) - Installation Manager
This is the big one.
Patrick had zero background in windows. None. He was originally from the Netherlands, lived in Nicaragua, and had just moved to Costa Rica with his wife.
Justin hired him as an Installation Manager—a critical operational role managing warranties, customer communication, and installation processes.
"I gave him seven days to read the entire playbook," Justin said. "Then on Monday, I threw him in. He looked at me with a straight face and said, 'You got it.' No hesitation."
Patrick spent his first week studying. Then he started executing.
Within 30 days, he was already tackling things Justin had planned for the 90-day mark.
By 60 days, Patrick had:
Rebuilt the warranty claims process
Questioned inefficient systems and fixed them
Reorganized spreadsheets and file structures
Turned the warranty function into a "humming machine"
"This guy came in and just said, 'Why is this process like this? I don't like it,'" Justin said. "I told him to fix it. And he did. He had the access, the autonomy, and the drive. That's all you need."
THE RESULTS
FASTER ONBOARDING, BETTER PERFORMANCE
By hiring for attributes instead of experience, Zen Windows saw immediate improvements:
Faster Onboarding Employees were fully functional within weeks. Patrick hit his 90-day goals by day 30. Ulysses was taking sales calls within his first month.
Higher Performance Ceiling Employees hired for attributes kept growing. They didn't top out. They kept asking for more responsibility, more training, more challenge.
Better Role Fit Because Justin wasn't locked into "this person must have X years doing Y," he could move people into roles where they actually thrived. Ulysses might end up in sales, or operations, or somewhere else entirely, wherever his strengths fit best.
Cost Efficiency Without Sacrificing Quality At $1,100-$1,200 per month for full-time US business hours, Justin was getting A-players at a fraction of US salary costs. Not because they were "cheap labor," but because he was accessing a global talent pool and hiring based on potential, not pedigree.
"Patrick turns on a different personality with customers," Justin said. "He's all business with me—straight to the point, no fluff. But on the phone with a customer? He's charming, professional, exactly what we need. That's the kind of adaptability you can't teach."
THE LESSON
STOP LOOKING FOR EXPERIENCE, START LOOKING FOR DRIVE
Justin's philosophy is simple: Anyone can learn anything if they're smart, hungry, and coachable.
The traditional hiring playbook says: Find someone with 10 years of experience doing exactly what you need them to do.
Justin's playbook says: Find someone who loves to learn, give them a week to study, throw them in the deep end, and see if they swim.
"I keep a running list of things I'm doing that I don't want to do anymore," Justin said. "Then I find someone with the right attributes and train them. If they can't do it, I fire them fast. But if they can? I just keep feeding them more."
That's how you build a team that scales.
Not by finding people who already know everything. But by finding people who are hungry to learn everything.
"I used to focus on industry experience," Justin said. "Now I'm thinking bigger. With the right people, anything is possible."
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