Field Guide · 8 min read
Define winning before you meet anyone
A practical guide to the intake that decides the hire - what to write down, who signs it, and how to keep it from drifting once the process starts.
The most consequential hour of any search happens before a single candidate exists: the intake. Done well, it produces a written definition of winning that every later step can be tested against. Done badly - or skipped - it guarantees the process will run on opinion.
Start with outcomes, not attributes. Not 'strong leader, great communicator' but 'holds line-two throughput above plan while cutting supervisor turnover in year one.' If the outcome cannot be observed, it cannot be screened for, and it will not survive the process.
Then define tolerance: what this role will absorb without breaking. Every seat has pressure built into it - a surge season, a difficult stakeholder, a legacy system. Name the pressure, and you can test for evidence the candidate has held under it before.
“If the outcome cannot be observed, it cannot be screened for.”
Put standards in writing. What will this person be allowed to let slide, and what must they never let slide? Most mis-hires were visible here in hindsight: the candidate was capable, but tolerated what the company could not afford to tolerate.
Finally, get a signature. The hiring manager signs the definition, and the definition - not the mood of the panel - becomes the standard every interview scores against. When someone wants to change the bar mid-search, they can, but they do it in writing, on purpose, with the trade-off named.
