Contrary to the stereotype of the reclusive developer who works in isolation, devs constantly communicate with others. How well they do that can have a bigger impact on your project's success than their technical skills alone. Yet evaluating a dev's communication skills is not as easy as scrolling through a GitHub profile or resume. So, here are some ways how you can quickly assess a developer's communication skills over a short conversation.

Find something that you and the dev disagree on and discuss it.

How does he express himself? Does he crumble and disregard his opinion after realizing it's different than yours? Does he stubbornly cling to it without hearing your side first? A strong communicator can make his opinions with confidence while staying open to new perspectives.

Role play the optimistic timeline scenario.

Ask the dev to pretend that she just realized that the project's scope was larger than she initially expected, and that it'd be impossible to meet the timeline she initially gave. What is her initial response? The best response is to let you know quickly and candidly, so you can adjust scope, reset expectations, and reallocate resources. The worst response would be for the dev to go into hero mode by trying to overcome the problem herself without telling anyone. This might work occasionally, but eventually it won't; You'll find out at the last minute, the dev will be burned out, and everyone else involved will be frustrated that they didn't find out sooner. The difference between a minor setback and complete failure often comes back to a developer's willingness to communicate difficult truths.

Prompt Self-Reflection

Have him explain a previous conflict and how he handled himself. Ask if he'd do anything different next time. Look for signs of candid, empathetic, proactive communication. Not being able to think of an example might be a sign of conflict avoidance, while an inability to self-reflect might reveal an adversarial communicator.