LESSON 1 OF 6 · ADVANCED
Design the process before the software
Map the actual recruiting decisions, owners and handoffs before choosing fields or tools. Separate talent relationships from active applications where your system supports that distinction. A system should reduce ambiguity and help people act; it should not create data entry with no decision purpose. Start with a small, explainable workflow.
Draw five stages with entry and exit evidence.
About 2 minutes reading + 12 minutes practice. Take longer when needed.
Apply the method
Begin with the decisions the team needs to make, then define the minimum workflow that supports them. Distinguish a professional relationship from an active candidacy and define how a person enters or leaves each process. Write entry and exit evidence for each stage. Decide who owns the next action and how a handoff is acknowledged. Only after the process is understood should software fields and automations be configured. Pilot a small approved scope before expanding. A system that records everything but cannot show what should happen next is not yet an effective recruiting operation.
A worked application
Fictional example: A two-person recruiting team uses active for everyone it has ever contacted. The review creates separate statuses for researched, conversation agreed, evaluation underway, paused and closed. Each active record must have an owner and next action. The team tests the definitions on one role and finds that conversation agreed needs a clear event date. It fixes that definition before migrating the full database.
Common mistake to avoid
Do not choose software to avoid agreeing on the process. New fields cannot resolve conflicting stage definitions by themselves.
Work through the case
FICTIONAL SCENARIO
A recruiter has 200 contacts labeled active but cannot say who agreed to a conversation. The first repair is a stage definition, not a new subscription.
Make it practical
Draw five stages with entry and exit evidence.
Compare your reasoning with a worked response
Each stage represents something that happened, such as a completed conversation, not a vague feeling of interest.
Takeaway
Use the method to explain your decision, identify what you still need to verify and choose an accountable next step.
Treat the response as a model for reasoning, not the only possible wording. Adapt it to the role, evidence and appropriate organizational guidance.