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How we work

A clear, accountable process — start to start date.

No black box. No mystery shortlists. Weekly syncs, shared trackers, structured scorecards and a single point of contact who actually returns your messages.

48h
Kick-off after sign-off
Weekly
Written progress reports
90-day
Replacement guarantee
01

Discover

The first week is calibration. We sit down with you to translate "we need a CTO" into a written scorecard — the outcomes the role must deliver, the must-have and nice-to-have signals, and the cultural traits that have made past hires thrive or fail at your company.

You walk away with a shared brief; we walk away with everything we need to start outreach the same week.

What we deliver

  • 90-minute discovery workshop with hiring manager(s)
  • Written role scorecard with weighted competencies
  • Compensation benchmarking from live market data
  • Named-target list of 20–40 companies / profiles
  • Interview kit: structured questions per competency
Typical duration · 5–7 days
02

Source & Screen

Outreach to the named-target list runs in parallel with active-pool sourcing. Every conversation is logged. We screen against the scorecard — not the JD — so the shortlist is calibrated on the outcomes you actually need, not the keywords on the original spec.

You get a longlist with read-outs, not a CV dump.

What we deliver

  • 50–150 candidates approached (volume scales with seniority)
  • Structured 45-min screens against the scorecard
  • Longlist of 12–18 calibrated candidates with read-outs
  • Weekly funnel report with conversion data
  • Confidential / named-target lists kept current
Typical duration · 2–4 weeks
03

Assess

Shortlisted candidates go through structured interviews aligned to the scorecard, case work where relevant, psychometric assessment on the final two, and 360° references with people who actually managed and worked alongside them — not the names the candidate hand-picked.

You receive a written dossier per finalist. No surprises in the offer stage.

What we deliver

  • 5–7 shortlisted candidates with written dossiers
  • Competency-based interviews + functional case work
  • Psychometric assessment (Hogan / DISC) on finalists
  • 360° references including back-channel checks
  • Side-by-side comparative scoring matrix
Typical duration · 2–3 weeks
04

Close & Onboard

The hardest part of a search isn't the shortlist — it's the close. We negotiate the offer, manage counter-offers, and stay engaged with the candidate from sign-off through Day 90. Hire failures usually happen in the first quarter; we'd rather catch them than count them.

You get a hire who actually joins, stays and ramps.

What we deliver

  • Offer construction with comp benchmarking
  • Counter-offer management & resignation coaching
  • Day-1 onboarding plan agreed with hiring manager
  • 30 / 60 / 90-day check-ins with both sides
  • 90-day replacement guarantee, no questions asked
Typical duration · 2–4 weeks + 90-day support
Service-level commitments

The standards we hold ourselves to.

These aren't aspirations — they're the numbers we report against, every engagement, in writing.

14-day shortlist

From signed brief to first written shortlist — for ~85% of mandates.

Weekly written report

Funnel data + qualitative read-out every Friday — no chasing required.

90-day replacement

If the hire doesn't work out in the first 90 days, we replace — no extra fee.

Same-day response

Partner replies within one business day — always. Often within an hour.

Tools & frameworks

What we run on (and what we'll run inside).

We work inside your stack. ATS, calendar, comms — all yours. We don't ask you to learn ours.

Role scorecards

Outcome-led briefs that replace JDs as our source of truth. Every screening, interview and reference is anchored to them.

Your ATS

Greenhouse, Lever, Workday, Zoho — we work inside your system, not a portal we'd ask you to log in to.

Structured assessment

Hogan, DISC and bespoke case work on finalists. Comparative scoring matrices for hiring panels.

Process FAQs

Questions clients ask before they sign.

It often does — and that's fine. We re-calibrate the scorecard in writing, agree the impact on timeline, and adjust outreach. No surprise change-fees; significant changes are renegotiated transparently.
All candidate data is held under NDA, stored only in your ATS or in our access-controlled drive, and deleted on request. We never share a candidate's profile or status with anyone outside the engagement without explicit consent.
For executive search, we work exclusively — it's how we can commit to a retained model and a calibrated shortlist. For staffing, we're comfortable working alongside other vendors as long as candidate-ownership rules are agreed up front.
Yes. Engagements can be paused with 7 days' notice — we'll deliver everything in motion, pause outreach, and resume when you're ready. RPO retainers can be paused or downsized at the end of any month with 14 days' notice.
It happens — and it almost always means the brief and the search drifted. We recalibrate in a written session with you, agree what's missing, and re-shortlist. There's no penalty for changing direction.
Ready when you are

See the process in action — book a discovery call.

30 minutes. No deck. We'll walk through how we'd run your specific role end-to-end.

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