Know what you're searching for.
Role Scoping is how Ahoy acts as counsel before a search begins. In two weeks we work out what role the company actually needs, what the real requirements are, what a successful hire looks like, and what candidates for that role are paid in your local market, so the budget is set against realistic numbers before the search starts.
Most searches go wrong before they start.
A search is only as good as the brief behind it. When the people involved describe the same seat differently, or the job description was written for the last person who held it, the search spends weeks looking for someone who doesn't exist, or finds someone who is right for a role the company doesn't have.
The usual result is a slate that looks fine on paper, an interview process that argues about what the role is for, and a hire that doesn't last. Role Scoping answers those questions first, before a single candidate is approached.
Three things you leave with
A short, structured engagement run by a partner who has held seats like this one.
Align: stakeholder alignment
Structured conversations with the owner, executives and decision makers who have a stake in this hire, to agree on what the role has to deliver in its first twelve months. Where views differ, we work them through with everyone involved until the group agrees on what the role needs.
Define: a Success Profile
A one-page Success Profile that sets the standards and goals for the role. It gives the search a clear path to the candidate the company is looking for, and it becomes the requirement set the search is run against.
Map: a pay and talent map
A read on local pay and on candidate availability in the area, so the role, the compensation and the timeline are realistic before the search begins.
Why scope first
Sometimes the seat isn't the one you thought.
A COO search that is really a VP of Operations plus a genuine second in command. A CFO search where the real gap is a controller. Scoping settles that in conversation, not at offer stage.
A brief everyone has signed off on.
The people who will interview candidates agree on what the role has to do, before any candidate is in the room.
A realistic read on the market.
Before the search starts, we confirm what this role pays locally and how deep the talent pool is, so nobody learns the numbers halfway through.
Work that stands on its own.
Scoping is useful whether or not a search follows. What you do next is your call.
How it works
A fixed-scope engagement, delivered in two weeks.
Start small. Nothing is wasted.
Role Scoping can stand alone. If you hire Ahoy for the search within 10 days of receiving the scoping, 100% of the scoping fee is credited toward it. It is an easy first step for a company that is not sure where to start: you get a clear brief and a real read on the market, and if the search makes sense, part of it is already paid for. If it doesn't, you still keep the Success Profile and the pay and talent map.
The Success Profile also carries straight into the search. It becomes the requirement set behind every Compass Report, so the brief doesn't drift. Every candidate is assessed against the same requirements you signed off on.
Not sure what the role really needs?
Tell us about the seat. We'll tell you whether scoping would help.
