Quick orientation, so we start in the right place

• How many dedicated sourcers and recruiting operations staff support your hiring teams today? Options: 1-2, 3-5, 6-10, 11-20, 20+
• Tell me about the top three hiring initiatives this year that drive sourcer activity
• In a typical week, roughly what percentage of a sourcer's time is spent on candidate outreach versus search and validation? Options: <20% outreach, 20-35% outreach, 35-50% outreach, 50-70% outreach, >70% outreach
• Which role families (engineering, product, sales, design, etc.) consume the most sourcing effort for you? Options: Engineering, Product, Design, Sales, Marketing, Operations, Customer Success, Other
• When was the last time your team missed a hiring deadline because pipeline arrived late, and what happened?

Where the current process is costing you time and people

• What single recurring sourcing failure would make you stop renewing a sourcing tool? Options: Poor match quality, Stale data, Integration outages, Security/legal concerns, No measurable pipeline improvement, Other
• Walk me through the last role where sourcers failed to deliver a qualified pipeline on time
• How often do stale or duplicate candidate records in your ATS lead to wasted outreach? Options: Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, Rarely
• Who on your team typically discovers data mismatches first, and what steps do they take to resolve them? Options: Sourcer, Recruiter, Recruiting operations, Hiring manager, People analytics, Other
• How much time per week does your team spend cleaning or validating candidate lists? Options: <2 hours, 2-5 hours, 6-10 hours, 11-20 hours, >20 hours
• If these failures persisted during a pilot, would your leader pause or cancel the project? Options: Pause, Cancel, Require fixes and continue, Proceed with reduced scope

Where the talent actually lives, and how fresh that picture is

• If your sourcing results were only as fresh as thirty days, would that meet your hiring targets? Options: Yes, 30 days is fine, No, we need 7-14 days, Prefer real-time updates, Depends on role/market
• Describe your current candidate sources across public web, professional networks, and internal databases
• Which of those sources converts to first interviews most reliably for your team? Options: Internal ATS, Proprietary database, Professional networks, Open web, Referrals, Other
• How often do you reindex or refresh candidate records for priority markets? Options: Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, Ad hoc
• Identify who owns access to each data source and whether any access is likely to be revoked in the next six months
• What would break in your hiring process if one of your primary sources became unavailable during onboarding?

Pipeline signals that actually change decisions

• Name the one pipeline metric that, if it did not move during a pilot, would make you walk away Options: Qualified candidates per role, Time-to-first-interview, Interview-to-offer ratio, Passive candidate engagement rate, Diversity of sourced candidates
• How do you currently measure pipeline velocity from first outreach to first interview?
• How many candidate touches does an average passive candidate receive before yielding a response or conversion? Options: 1-2, 3-5, 6-10, 10+
• Do you track sourcing-stage diversity separately from interview-stage diversity? Options: Yes, consistently, Sometimes, No
• Showing a threefold increase in qualified pipeline during a pilot would trigger which internal approvals and by when? Options: TA leader approval, C-level approval, Procurement review, Finance/budget reallocation, Other
• Point to a single signal whose failure would stop the project immediately

Who signs, who blocks, and who will run the pilot

• List the stakeholders who must greenlight the pilot and the one who can veto it Options: TA leader, Recruiting operations, Legal, IT/security, Finance/procurement, Hiring managers
• Walk me through a recent pilot that moved quickly to contract, what shifted and who pushed it forward?
• On your risk register, which concern most often forces a legal or security pause? Options: Data privacy and processing, Integration security, Contract terms, Vendor reliability, Performance shortfalls, Other
• Name the teams that will need seats and admin access during a pilot Options: Sourcers, Recruiters, Recruiting operations, Hiring managers, People analytics, IT/security, Other
• Would procurement's insistence on a three-month ROI proof cause you to pause the pilot? Options: Yes, pause, No, we can support, Depends on scope, Unsure

Deployment gates we must clear before we commit

• Can your ATS team provide API credentials and test endpoints within four weeks, or would that timeline force a delay? Options: Yes, within 2 weeks, Yes, within 4 weeks, No, needs 4-8 weeks, No, unknown
• List the integration endpoints required for reads, writes, and webhooks from your ATS and other HR systems Options: ATS read, ATS write, Webhooks, Candidate profile sync, Requisition sync, Other
• Identify the person or role who owns API keys and the technical contact for integration
• Do you have sample candidate records and consent flags available for a test load? Options: Yes, full sample and consent flags, Partial samples only, No, will need access, Unsure
• Are there compliance steps, internal approvals, or vendor assessments that typically take longer than two weeks? Options: Legal/data processing agreement, Security assessment, Procurement review, No, timeline is short, Unsure
• Describe the fallback plan your team would execute if an integration gate fails
• Would inability to grant API access within your target window be a deal breaker? Options: Yes, deal breaker, No, we would change scope, Maybe, depends on contingency, Unsure

The other options your team is holding open

• Tell me the single reason your team still prefers the incumbent or an in-house build
• Select which alternatives you have evaluated or are still evaluating for sourcing and market intelligence Options: An incumbent sourcing platform you already pay for, An ATS add-on, In-house build, Managed service or consultancy, Do nothing / keep current process
• For any internal build options, what would have to be true for you to keep investing instead of buying?
• Has anyone on your staff advocated solving this without an outside vendor, and who made that case?
• What condition about your current approach would make you keep it rather than switch to an external platform? Options: Data portability assured, Lower total cost, Sufficient pipeline performance, No integration risk, Other

Acceptance signals, timeline, and next steps

• When a pilot reaches your target, what internal step would immediately accelerate signing? Options: Budget reallocation, TA leader approval, C-level approval, Procurement fast-track, Other
• Provide the measurable deliverables you would require at pilot completion to approve expansion Options: Qualified pipeline per role, Time-to-interview reduction, Diversity uplift, Candidate response rate uplift, Market intelligence briefings
• Please identify the role that will sign acceptance of pilot results and the criteria they will use
• Realistically, what timeline do you need between pilot close and contract signature? Options: Same week, 2 weeks, 4 weeks, 8+ weeks, Depends on procurement
• Assuming the pilot meets your targets, name any internal obstacles that could still block immediate expansion

• Platform Experience Session

• Confirm the current state and its cost
• You confirm the demonstrated ranked-candidate workflow removes the manual Boolean work and increases time available for engagement.
• Provide three open role job descriptions and hiring-priority profiles to use for calibrated sample runs.
• You agree that the matching signals and calibration shown produce candidate lists aligned with your hiring priorities and diversity targets.
• Run your hiring scenario, show ranked candidate flow
• Provide ATS endpoint details and a sample data extract so a live sync and freshness check can be scheduled.
• You identify the remaining evidence (sample runs, ATS sync, success metrics) required to move toward a mutual commit.
• Demonstrate AI matching logic and calibration
• Run calibrated sample searches for the provided roles and deliver ranked candidate lists with matching rationale before the follow-up session.
• Overlay market intelligence against the scenario
• Agree on decision criteria and the success signals (pipeline velocity, engaged passive candidate counts, diversity metrics) that will be used to evaluate calibration results.
• Validation, confirm this maps to your needs

• Platform Experience Session
• Platform Experience Deck
• Solution Brief — Platform Experience

• meeting
• slides
• document

• Platform Provisioning and Tenant Setup
• ATS Integration and Field Mapping
• Candidate Data Ingestion — Open Web
• Candidate Data Ingestion — Professional Networks
• Candidate Data Ingestion — Proprietary Databases
• AI Matching and Ranked Candidate Recommendations
• Talent Mapping and Supply Density Visualization
• Compensation Benchmarking and Pay Bands
• Competitor Hiring Patterns Dashboard
• Contact Enrichment and Outreach Readiness
• Saved Search Streams and Real-Time Alerts
• Model Calibration and Search Tuning (2–4 weeks)
• Data Privacy and Consent Filtering

Platform Provisioning and Tenant Setup

• How many named user seats and sourcer roles do you need provisioned in your tenant at go-live? Options: 1-5, 6-25, 26-100, 100+
• Which authentication method will your organization require for platform access (for example SAML single sign-on, OAuth directory, or email/password)? Options: SAML SSO, OAuth / Directory, Email/password with 2FA, Other
• Who in your organization will be the primary tenant administrator responsible for user provisioning and access controls?
• When do you need the tenant available for initial sourcer training and sandbox testing relative to your hiring initiative start date? Options: Immediately, Within 1 week, 1-2 weeks, 3+ weeks
• Do you have network allowlist or IP restrictions that we must accommodate for platform connectivity to your environment? Options: Yes, No
• Describe any compliance documentation your security team requires for tenant onboarding (for example SOC 2 report, encryption details, data residency notes).

ATS Integration and Field Mapping

• How many ATS instances or account endpoints do you need integrated at go-live? Options: 1, 2-3, 4-10, More than 10
• Which ATS API pattern will you provide for integration (REST API + webhooks, SFTP/CSV exports, or database export)? Options: REST API + webhooks, SFTP / CSV exports, Custom API, Not sure yet
• Who will provide the ATS API credentials and sandbox access for integration testing?
• List the candidate profile and requisition fields you require mapped from your ATS to the platform (for example candidate email, current title, requisition ID, hire status).
• What evidence will validate that your ATS integration is complete and functional (for example successful webhook events, test candidate sync, and verified field mappings)?
• Are there any inbound/outbound sync frequency requirements or rate limits your ATS enforces that will impact live syncing? Options: Real-time (webhooks), Near real-time (every 5-15 mins), Hourly, Daily batch

Candidate Data Ingestion — Open Web

• What public domains or open-web source types should you prioritize for profile crawling (for example corporate bios, conference speaker pages, technical blogs)?
• Specify the freshness SLA you require for open-web profiles to be considered acceptable in your sourcer workflows (for example updated within 6 months, 12 months). Options: Updated within 3 months, Updated within 6 months, Updated within 12 months, No strict freshness requirement
• Estimate the monthly ingest volume for open-web candidate profiles you expect at peak hiring demand. Options: <1,000, 1,000-5,000, 5,000-25,000, 25,000+
• Do you require geographic or role-level filters during open-web ingestion (for example US-based senior engineers, EMEA product managers)? Options: Yes, No
• Specify the acceptance criteria that will confirm open-web ingestion meets scope (for example X profiles per role, freshness SLA in days, deduplication threshold).
• Are there source categories we must exclude from ingestion for legal or brand-safety reasons (for example freelancing sites, resume dumps)? Options: Yes, No

Candidate Data Ingestion — Professional Networks

• Identify which professional networks and the corresponding access scopes you can authorize for profile enrichment and degree-of-connection signals.
• Do you require visibility into connection degree (first, second) and mutual contacts surfaced in the candidate profile card? Options: Yes, No
• How should we handle rate limits or restricted scraping on networks when enriching profiles for sourcer use? Options: Honor rate limits and throttle, Use cached enrichment, Request expanded API scopes, Other
• When do you need professional network data available in the sourcer UI relative to requisition creation? Options: Prior to requisition creation, At job posting, Within 24 hours of posting, No preference
• List the seniority tiers or role bands where professional network coverage should be mandatory (for example Director+, Principal engineers).
• Are there any contractual restrictions on using professional network data for outreach under your vendor agreements? Options: Yes, No, Unknown - need legal review

Candidate Data Ingestion — Proprietary Databases

• Do you have internal databases or purchased talent lists (CSV, API feed, SFTP) that must be ingested into the platform? Options: Yes, No
• Identify the contact who will provide data ownership and legal sign-off for ingesting proprietary databases.
• Provide a sample export or schema for each proprietary data source you want ingested (attach CSV, JSON schema, or diagram).
• List any retention, access, or vendor contractual constraints that limit how proprietary records can be stored, shared, or used.
• How frequently must proprietary datasets be refreshed to meet your sourcer expectations (for example daily, weekly, monthly)? Options: Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Ad hoc
• Do proprietary data records require special tagging or origin labels so sourcers can filter by source or permission status? Options: Yes, No

AI Matching and Ranked Candidate Recommendations

• Please list the hiring workflows in which you want algorithmically ranked candidate recommendations surfaced (for example sourcer discover, active requisitions, strategic pipelining).
• Specify the relative priority you want the ranking model to apply to candidate attributes (for example skill match, mobility likelihood, compensation fit, diversity signals).
• Name the sourcers or sourcer leads who will validate ranked candidate relevance and provide feedback during calibration.
• Indicate whether ranked recommendations should be shown prior to requisition creation or only after a job is posted. Options: Before requisition creation, Only after job posted, Both
• Define the measurable criteria that will confirm AI matching calibration success (for example target precision@10, sourcer relevance rating, and engaged passive candidate uplift).
• Do you require feature explainability on each recommendation (for example which skills or signals drove the match) for sourcer review? Options: Yes, No

Talent Mapping and Supply Density Visualization

• List the geographies and role families you want included in the initial talent maps and supply density visualizations.
• Do you need custom map layers such as competitor office locations, remote-eligible talent pools, or university alumni density? Options: Yes, No
• How should supply density be bucketed for your reports (for example candidates per 10k population, per commuting zone, or absolute counts)? Options: Per 10k population, Per commuting zone, Absolute counts, Custom buckets
• Assign who on your team will own map interpretations and maintain the list of comparator employers for the competitor overlay.
• Note any zip codes or metro areas where supply signals or pay bands must be masked for privacy or legal reasons.
• Would you like interactive map exports for hiring managers (PDF snapshots, embedded links, or CSV summaries)? Options: PDF snapshots, Embedded interactive link, CSV summary, No exports needed

Compensation Benchmarking and Pay Bands

• List the compensation components you want included in benchmarking (for example base salary, bonus, equity, total cash).
• How granular should pay bands be for your needs (for example by level, by city/metro, by team)? Options: By level, By location, By team, All of the above
• Do you have internal job levels or existing pay bands that benchmarking outputs must align to? Options: Yes, No
• Indicate the lead time required for benchmarking reports to be available to hiring managers relative to requisition kickoff (for example same day, 2 business days). Options: Same day, 1 business day, 2 business days, 3+ business days
• Provide any internal comp-policy guidance or target percentile preferences to align external benchmarks to your internal bands (attach policy excerpt if available).
• Should benchmarking include localized total compensation adjustments for cost-of-living or equity valuation differences? Options: Yes, No

Competitor Hiring Patterns Dashboard

• Specify the competitor companies or employer categories you want tracked for hiring-pattern signals in the dashboard.
• How far back should historical hiring trend data go for your comparative analysis (for example 3 months, 6 months, 12 months)? Options: 3 months, 6 months, 12 months, 24 months
• Select whether you require role-level openings, posted job counts, or inferred hiring velocity metrics in the competitor dashboard. Options: Role-level openings, Posted job counts, Inferred hiring velocity, All of the above
• Name the individuals or teams who will review competitor hiring alerts and act on them within recruiting or talent leadership.
• Are there public data sources or subscription feeds you want excluded from the competitor analysis for IP or contractual reasons? Options: Yes, No
• Do you want automated competitor surge alerts routed to hiring managers, sourcers, or TA leadership? Options: Hiring managers, Sourcers, TA leadership, All of the above

Contact Enrichment and Outreach Readiness

• List the contact attributes you require enriched before outreach (for example verified email, phone, current employer, email deliverability score).
• How should consent and do-not-contact status be recorded and surfaced to your sourcers in the profile card? Options: Explicit consent flag, Inferred status with warning, Blocked from outreach, Other
• Indicate whether you require email deliverability monitoring and verified sending domains configured for outreach readiness. Options: Yes, No
• Provide the owners of outreach templates and sequences and attach sample templates you want configured for sourcer use.
• State the timing you want for contact enrichment relative to saved search triggers or candidate flagging (for example immediate enrichment, nightly batch). Options: Immediate, Nightly batch, Weekly, On-demand
• Do you require suppression lists (employees, previously declined candidates) to be enforced during enrichment and outreach? Options: Yes, No

• Subscription Agreement
• Order Form (Commercial Exhibit)
• Master Services Agreement (MSA)
• Statement of Work (SOW)
• Data Processing Agreement (DPA)
• Technical Integration Addendum
• Training & Enablement Schedule
• Acceptance Criteria & Go-Live Certificate

• Go-live health check
• First outcomes review
• Acceptance gate and outcome decision
• Quarterly adoption and outcomes review

• Close resolved tickets and update the issue log with status and resolution dates.
• Agree a timebound corrective action plan to resolve identified gaps prior to the acceptance gate.
• Publish the KPI dashboard snapshot and the underlying data definitions used for measurement.
• Confirm the acceptance gate date and required deliverables as recorded in the Solution Scope.
• Restate acceptance criteria and numeric targets
• Document pass or fail status for each acceptance criterion listed in the Solution Scope and capture the named signatory for the acceptance decision.
• Agree remediation plan and resolution timeline for any failed criteria and schedule a re-test if required.
• Publish the acceptance decision record including outcome data, data sources, and the named signatory.
• Create remediation task list with deadlines for any failed criteria and schedule the acceptance re-test or closure review.
• Schedule the first quarterly adoption and outcomes review following acceptance or re-test completion.
• Trend review for candidate pipeline velocity and market intelligence usage
• Confirm that candidate pipeline velocity and market intelligence usage remain at or move toward the targets recorded in the Solution Scope.
• Agree the prioritized enhancement backlog and commit to delivery quarters for the top items.
• Publish the prioritized enhancement backlog with expected delivery quarters.
• Update the operational runbook with any workflow or configuration changes agreed during the meeting.
• Re-confirm success criteria and owners
• Deployment is validated as complete or a prioritized defect list with resolution dates is produced.
• Sourcer onboarding progress aligns with the timeline established in the Solution Scope.
• Publish the deployment validation checklist with integration test results.
• Create remediation tickets for open blockers with target resolution dates.
• Schedule the first outcomes review within 4 to 8 weeks.
• Open calibration tasks (matching threshold adjustments, sample data refresh, training sessions) with resolution dates.
• Present first data for candidate pipeline velocity and engaged passive candidate count
• Determine whether candidate pipeline velocity and the count of engaged passive candidates are trending toward the numeric targets recorded in the Solution Scope.
• Deployment and integration validation
• Adoption and operational health
• Calibration review and sourcer feedback
• Present outcome data for each acceptance criterion
• Enhancement request and issue backlog review
• Early adoption signals and usage patterns
• Document pass or fail per criterion and capture signatory
• Root-cause diagnosis for any KPI shortfalls
• Blockers and incident triage
• Agree corrective actions and dates
• Confirm next quarter objectives and carryover items
• Agree remediation plan for any failed criteria
• Immediate remediation actions and next steps
• Confirm timeline to acceptance gate
• Handover to ongoing success cadence