Hiring is a design problem
Most hiring funnels are designed for the company's convenience. The best ones are designed for the candidate's decisions.
Talent Partner at Northstar Labs · hiring is a product problem
Ask a hiring team to draw their process and you will get a funnel. Ask a candidate to draw the same process and you will get a maze with a waiting room. The difference is not effort. It is who the process was designed for.
At Northstar we rewrote the loop around four candidate decisions: should I apply, should I keep going, should I accept, and would I recommend this to a friend. Each step now answers one of those questions in plain language.
The work sample replaced the whiteboard. Not because whiteboards are unfair — they can be fine — but because a two-hour work sample produces something the candidate can discuss and the panel can score. Candidates leave with a better story either way.
The rejection email got a rewrite too. It states where the decision was made and what would have changed it. It takes twenty minutes to write and it is the most-read document our team produces.
None of this is charity. Candidates who understand the process prepare better, interview better, and accept faster. Design the maze so the exit is visible and everyone moves faster.
Conversation
2The candidate-decision framing is much better than a funnel. Stealing it for our next loop review.
The rejection email as the most-read document is exactly right. It is the only part of the process every candidate sees.