Field Guides / Intake Design
Write what winning looks like before the search opens.
Most hiring processes fail at intake. Not at the interview. Not at the offer. The failure is the moment a search opens without a written definition of what the hire must produce - and everyone agrees to figure it out as they go.
This template installs the standard before the first resume is reviewed. It anchors every interview, every debrief, and every hiring decision to the same written outcome.
Four components. One document.
The Definition of Winning template produces a single intake document every member of the hiring team holds. Not a job description. Not a wish list. A standard that every interview question can be traced back to.
Outcome statements
Three to five measurable results the hire must produce in their first 90 days - written as outcomes, not activities. The difference between 'manage the sales team' and 'grow territory revenue by 15% in Q1 without adding headcount.'
Behavioral standard
The specific behaviors the role requires under pressure - not personality traits. Written so that every interviewer is testing for the same evidence, not comparing the same impression.
Tolerance protocol
The explicit list of what the process will not allow. Every exception a hiring team makes is a tolerance violation. Writing them down before the search opens is what keeps them from happening mid-search.
30/60/90-day success measures
The three milestones that define whether the hire is performing - written at intake, not invented at the first performance review. The measure you set before the offer is the one the hire can actually be held to.
The failure this prevents.
The mis-hire rarely happens at the offer. It happens at the intake - when the team agrees to start without defining what they are actually looking for. Use the template every time any of the following is true:
- Before any search opens - retained, contingency, or internal
- When an internal recruiter is briefing an agency
- When a hiring leader says 'I’ll know it when I see it'
- After a mis-hire, to anchor the re-search to a standard the first search skipped
- When two interviewers give the same candidate opposite reads
The intake is the beginning.
The definition of winning anchors the search. The Evidence Prompt Library gives your interviewers the questions that test for it. Use both together.
The interview is too late to define winning. The template is the discipline that moves it to the right moment.
23 questions. About ten minutes. A scored read of where your hiring breaks.
