Kickoff Discipline & The Feedback Window
Every mandate begins with a structured kickoff that produces a calibrated target universe, a named client decision owner, and an agreed feedback deadline that the system then enforces.
- Tier
- Foundational
- Build order
- 2nd of 7 for executive search
- Shape of it
- 9 steps
- At launch
- Runs supervised, with you approving what goes out
The problem this solves
The feedback problem in System 3 is almost always created at kickoff, by omission. Nobody agreed how long the client has to respond to a slate. Nobody named which person on the client side owns the decision. Nobody established what happens when that person is travelling.
So when the slate goes out three weeks later and nothing happens, the firm has no standing to chase, because no standard was ever set. Chasing then feels like nagging rather than like holding a client to an agreement they made.
Underneath that, the spec is frequently uncalibrated. The client describes a person who does not exist at the compensation offered, and nobody tests that against the real market before the research budget is spent.
How it works, step by step
Every wait, threshold and branch below is a value we set with you during the build, against your stages and your language. None of it is a default we impose.
- What starts it
Step 1Trigger
Kickoff is a structured event with a required output, not a conversation.
Step 2
Calibration happens before research volume. Three to five real market examples are put in front of the client, and the spec is adjusted against what actually exists at that compensation and location.
Step 3
The target universe is agreed and recorded: companies in scope, companies off-limits, levels, geography.
Step 4
A named client decision owner is recorded, by name and role, along with who deputises when they are away.
Step 5
A feedback window is agreed in writing, typically two to three business days per presented candidate, and it goes into the engagement record.
Step 6
The interview process is mapped: how many stages, who is involved, and their availability over the next six weeks.
Step 7
Compensation, equity, notice periods, relocation and any hard constraints are recorded as search parameters rather than remembered.
Step 8
The kickoff output goes back to the client as a short written confirmation. That document is what makes chasing legitimate later.
Step 9
Any mandate without a completed kickoff cannot move to research status.
How it gets built
Built inside what you already run
- Clockwork
- Invenias
- Thrive
- Loxo
- Bullhorn
- Crelate
- PCRecruiter
- or whatever your office already runs on
Nothing to log into and nothing to license. If a system needs a record your platform does not hold, we add the field to your platform rather than starting a second one beside it.
This is the actual build order, in the phases its own steps fall into. It runs in supervised mode first, with you approving what goes out, until you are happy with the tone.
- 1
Build
Build the kickoff template with the partners. Most firms have a version of this in a consultant's head; the work is making it consistent.
Built inside the software you already run, against your stages and your language.
- 2
Build
Make calibration a required step before research hours are logged.
- 3
Build
Build the client confirmation document, and make it short. A two-page confirmation gets read; a ten-page one does not.
- 4
Build
Record the feedback window as a field, because System 3 depends on it.
- 5
Build
Build the interview availability capture.
- 6
Build
Gate research status behind kickoff completion, and agree with the partners what happens when a client wants to start immediately.
- 7
Prove
Run three mandates supervised.
It runs with a person approving what goes out until you are happy with the tone. Nothing sends unreviewed on day one.
What changes after it goes live
How it runs today
The feedback problem in System 3 is almost always created at kickoff, by omission. Nobody agreed how long the client has to respond to a slate. Nobody named which person on the client side owns the decision. Nobody established what happens when that person is travelling.
After this one is live
Research stops being spent on uncalibrated specs. The firm has a written, client-agreed standard to hold people to when feedback is late, which changes chasing from a favour to a process. And the searches that were always going to fail on compensation fail in week one rather than week seven.
How to measure whether it worked
Your arithmeticRun with your numbers, not ours
Two numbers the firm has: searches abandoned or recalibrated after significant research, valued at hours spent, and average days from slate to first client response. The second is the one that predicts everything in System 3.
We agree the baseline before anything is built, and we do not take credit for things that were going to happen anyway. There is no figure on this page claiming what we have produced for somebody else, because there is no verified figure to publish.
What we will not do
This is from the same delivery document as everything above it. It is on the page because a supplier who has not thought about it will not tell you, and you would find out later.
This trade carries no clinical or insurance regulation, but it handles personal data about senior individuals who have not applied for anything, which is its own serious exposure.
Candidate data.
- Candidates in a search are almost always passive and confidential. Their current employer must not learn they are in a process. Any automation that could reveal a candidacy, including a misdirected message, an over-broad notification or a shared calendar entry, is a career-level harm to a real person.
- No candidate name, current employer or compensation detail in any demonstration, template or marketing asset. Synthetic data only.
- Reference checks are conducted with the candidate's explicit permission and at the point in the process they agreed to, never automatically.
- Records must support deletion and correction requests. Several US states and most other jurisdictions the firm may work in grant those rights, and a search database is exactly the kind of record they apply to.
Client confidentiality.
- Mandate details, compensation ranges, org structures and the fact of a search existing at all are frequently confidential, sometimes contractually.
- Off-limits agreements are contractual obligations, and a breach is a commercial and reputational event. System 5's automated off-limits check is a compliance control, not a convenience.
Messaging.
- Automated outreach to candidates and clients sits inside the TCPA for calls and texts, and inside CAN-SPAM for email. Classify service and marketing separately, honour opt-outs immediately, and keep suppression synchronised across every system.
- Candidate outreach in particular should default to a human sender, because a senior executive who realises they received an automated approach will not engage, and may tell others.
Nothing here is legal advice. Employment law, data protection law and contract terms with clients can each add requirements, and firms working across borders carry more.
Nothing here is legal advice. Rules in this area have moved more than once recently, and every template that states a commercial term or a guarantee goes to your own counsel before it goes live.
Seven systems forexecutive search.
We build one at a time and prove it moved before starting the next. The tiers are the dependency order, not a price list.
Tier 1Foundational
Nothing arrives late or unowned. These come first because everything above them assumes they are true.
- 1Search Status That Reflects RealityThe four statuses. Fastest visible change and it reframes every conversation that follows.
- 2Kickoff Discipline & The Feedback Windowyou are hereKickoff discipline, because it prevents System 3's problem at the only point where prevention is possible.
Tier 2Growth
The recoverable money. These work the pools the foundational systems have made visible for the first time.
Tier 3Flagship
One connected system end to end, plus what the owner reads on a Monday. Only once the pieces are proven individually.
The tiers are the dependency order for executive search, not a price list. Most firms do not start at the first one, because the order is a default and the call is where it gets changed.
A note on sequencing this trade
Sequencing note. Systems 1 and 2 together are the entire pitch for this vertical. A firm that can see which searches are waiting on the client, and that agrees a feedback window at kickoff, has already recovered most of the value in this playbook. Do not lead with the flagship.
Back to the executive search overview for the stage map and where these fit.
Is this the oneyou need first?
Often it is not. On the call we look at what is actually costing you most right now, which is frequently a different system from the one that brought you to this page. If there is nothing worth building yet, we will say so.