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The Calibration Method

Both practices run on one method. It exists so the answer does not depend on who happens to be in the room, and so a client can see the reasoning before they commit.

The failure starts in the brief

A role description is written by people who have not held the seat, describing work they have not done, in language borrowed from the last hire. An operating model is designed by people who will not work inside it. Both documents look reasonable. Both are guesses.

The cost arrives later: a leader who is right for the description and wrong for the seat, or a reorganisation that reports well and changes nothing. Calibration is the work of writing the requirement from inside the seat, before anyone is hired or moved.

Three calibrations

01

Calibrate the seat

What the P&L actually requires: the outcomes for year one, the constraints the person inherits, the tradeoffs the business has already made. Written as a brief the decision team signs, not a job description a recruiter posts.

Produces the Seat Brief
02

Calibrate the organisation

The operating model the seat sits inside: team topology, decision rights, planning cadence, and where work currently stalls. Measured against delivery data rather than opinion.

Produces the Operating Read
03

Calibrate the evidence

What proves capability for this seat: shipped work, the decisions behind it, and references from people who reported to them. Scored against the brief before anyone meets the executive.

Produces the Evidence Scorecard

The order matters. A scorecard written after the interviews measures the interviewer, not the candidate.

What the method produces

Two documents do most of the work. Both are written before the expensive part starts. These specimens are redacted; the structure is what the practice actually uses.

The Seat Brief

Specimen · redacted
ClientConfidential · PE-backed healthcare platform, about 900 employees
SeatChief Product Officer
Reports toCEO; sits on the executive leadership team
Year-one outcomesThree statements, each with a number and a date. For example: cut unit cost per enrolled member by 15% by Q4; ship program name to 100% of accounts by Q2.
Inherited constraintsTwo product lines on separate codebases. A hiring freeze until the next funding event. An acquired team that has not been integrated.
Owns these decisionsRoadmap and sequencing · product org design · vendor or build on the AI roadmap · pricing input to the commercial team
Tradeoffs already madePlatform consolidation before net-new features. No CPO-level hire until Q3.
DisqualifiersHas never run a multi-product org. Cannot evidence a platform migration. Needs a team of 60 or more to consider the role.
Signed by the decision team before the search opens. A copy stays with the company.

The Evidence Scorecard

Specimen · redacted
CriterionWeightWhat counts as evidenceThreshold
Shipped at platform scale25Two programs with adoption or revenue numbers, and the decision log behind themOne program above 1M users or $10M revenue
Ran the operating model25Owned planning cadence, team topology and hiring, not only the roadmapAt least 18 months of ownership
Decided under constraint20A written account of what was cut and why, with the tradeoff namedTwo examples, one of them unpopular
Domain transfer15Regulated, multi-carrier or marketplace experienceOne adjacent regulated domain
References that mean something15Two former direct reports, one of them a departureAt least one reference from a report
Scored before the first interview. The client sees the scores, not only the shortlist.

Which practice uses which

Advisory
Calibrates the seat and the organisation. The evidence question is answered by the team already inside the company.
Search
Calibrates the seat and the evidence. The organisation question is answered in the first month of the hire, with the principal still named in the scope.
Both
One engagement can carry all three. That is the case the practice was built for: fix the model and fill the seat that runs it, with one accountable principal.

What it costs you

Your time
Two hours with the decision team at intake. Sixty minutes to sign the brief. Three hours of interview time in a search.
Duration
Brief and scorecard: five to ten working days. Operating Read: four to six weeks.
What you keep
The Seat Brief, the Evidence Scorecard, the Operating Read and the written decision log. They belong to the company.
What we need
Access to delivery data, the current job description if one exists, and one executive who can sign the brief.

What the method does not do

  • It does not replace your judgment. The brief is signed by your decision team; the principal writes it with you, not for you.
  • It does not produce a maturity deck. The output is a brief, a scorecard and a decision log.
  • It does not run without data. If delivery data does not exist, the first deliverable is the instrumentation to produce it.
  • It does not guarantee a hire. It guarantees the requirement is written before anyone is interviewed.

Read how this differs from a search firm or a consultancy in the comparison.

Principal-level engagement.
No intermediaries.

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