1w1i #1: The A-players club

One Week, One Idea: Each week, I delve into strategies for tackling problems that genuinely need solving. Should you find these ideas compelling and wish to collaborate, or if you have feedback to offer, don't hesitate to get in touch!

Episode #1: The Mess of Hiring Top Talent

As Steve Jobs famously said:

The secret of my success is that we have gone to exceptional lengths to hire the best people in the world

Yet, the process of recruiting these top-notch professionals remains one of the most chaotic and inefficient aspects of corporate operations.

Drawing from my experience as VP of Product at Ankorstore, where I built a product team of almost 50 members, I can vouch for the complexities involved in the hiring process. The fundamental steps can be summarized as:

1. Posting job offers on platforms such as LinkedIn or Welcome to the Jungle
2. Engaging the services of headhunters
3. Leveraging your professional network

The success of #3 often hinges on chance—it's neither reliable nor applicable to all roles, given the limitations of personal networks. But conversion rate is usually high, so it still inspired the solution I have in mind.

With 1/, the problem is this:

Your job offer is one among thousands. The likelihood of your dream hire a) visiting a job board, b) sifting through countless offers to stumble upon yours, and c) deciding to apply based on a brief description, is incredibly slim. Top talents are usually employed and have no time or inclination to peruse job boards for hours. Furthermore, they are frequently headhunted on LinkedIn, making the prospect of trawling job boards even less appealing.

Which brings us back to 2/ (headhunters). Which turns out to be the most efficient sourcing channel for senior A-players hires. But...

If we look at LinkedIn and - for instance - search for "Product Managers", we are met with an astounding 200k results, in France only. The sheer volume of potential candidates leads many headhunters to adopt a blanket strategy, sending mass messages to a broad base of individuals.

This approach, unfortunately, fosters a negative cycle. As talents are bombarded with countless unqualified messages, their trust and receptiveness to headhunting diminishes.

Ultimately, the current system becomes counterproductive.

Unearthing the Issue

We utilize the same platforms to unearth everybody: from fresh graduates to exceptional C-levels. However, LinkedIn, fails to differentiate between the 'A-players' and the masses. Making A-players hiring like find a needle in a Haystack.

Problem means opportunity!

During my tenure at Ankorstore, I made several reference calls for potential hires. I often heard commendations such as:

"[Name] was just outstanding. She is in the first 3 persons I’d call if I start another company" - CEO of a 100+m€ start-up

“[Name] is undeniably the best Product Manager I've ever managed. His remarkable adaptability and quick learning ability impressed me the most. Upon my departure, I recommended that he succeed me as the CPO” - CPO of a Bn€ start-up

Wait!

I wish I knew about these glowing recommendations earlier! I would have fast-tracked them through our hiring process (increasing conversion rate) and potentially warranted a more generous compensation package.

And by the way, do you know other superstars like them?

These recommendations are invaluable. The problem is they are not shared... because there is nowhere they can be shared!

But, what if we could share these recommendations on a trusted, large-scale platform? Not like the often-ignored endorsements on LinkedIn, but a space specifically designed to highlight top performers. It would not only provide a significant career boost for these talents but also streamline the hiring process of 'A-players'.

The Vision: A recommendation-only professional network

Now imagine:

• A platform where individuals, starting with C-level executives, can publicly endorse the 'A-players' they've worked with (and have an incentive to do so - I will get back to that)
• Gradually, this would evolve into a professional network akin to LinkedIn, but populated exclusively with recommended top talents.
• Recruiters with prime job opportunities could delve into this network. They could sift through the highest-rated recommendations, which would aid them in directing their recruitment efforts, saving both time and money, while securing superior talent.

• As a result, this would dramatically improve the candidates' hiring experience. While talents would receive more tailored and higher quality offers, both in terms of compensation and relevance. Boosting talents' careers.

Such platform could be very simple. With simple rules:

1. Only recommended members can join
2. The more recommendations, the more visible they are to recruiters
3. Members can only recommend 3 talents every year. To ensure recommendations mean something (vs. Linkedin recommendations)

(By the way, if you have better ideas than #3 to ensure recommendations are meaningful, let me know!)

That's it.

Setting the Flywheel in Motion

New ideas hinge on a host of assumptions that may or may not hold true. Each assumption requiring testing.

In this instance, I guess the critical assumptions are:

1. Recruiters would prefer to use such platform over linkedin, when they need to find A-players.
2. Talents would want to register to an "A-player platform", as they trust they will get better opportunities
3. Talents of the platform would want recommend other talents, and only top talents (not everyone they know, to be nice)

Given the complexity of hiring today, assumption #1 seems a safe bet.

Assumption #2 appears plausible once the platform gains sufficient traction and credibility ("other people I know are there, so I want to be in"), and a significant number of recruiters or opportunities arise to create value for the talents.

The real challenge with #2 lies in the initial stages, where the platform is small, and so offers minimal value. I assume it all depends on how "trustworthy" are the first referrers of the platform:

• If a random coworker I barely know recommends me on an unfamiliar platform, I'm likely to ignore it.
• If my former CEO or boss, whom I respect, invites me to a platform, I'll definitely check it out.

Specifically, a recommendation from a C-level executive at companies like Ankorstore, Qonto, Backmarket, Criteo, ... will be of very high value for recruiters AND could convince talents to try the platform.

So the real question is #3.

1. Are C-level executives willing to recommend the 'A-players' they know to help boost their careers?
2. Can we provide additional incentives to motivate them to do so?

Assumption: since many C-levels main problem is... hiring A-players. Maybe there is a win-win proposition:

• They refer the top three talents with whom they've worked (limited to three to ensure they recommend only the best).
• In exchange, they gain free access to the pool of 'A-players'.

I would be curious to know how this value proposition resonates among C-levels?

Pilot Test Plan

If I were to dedicate my focus to this project, my strategy would be:

1. Start with one professional profile type (e.g., Product).
2. Acquire a meaningful number of recommendations for recruiters.
3. Launch the platform.
4. Gradually expand.

This project could commence as a side project to test the response from C-level executives.

Does anyone want to take the lead to explore this? Let me know!

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I have multiple projects in progress, so leading this one isn't feasible for me. However, I can provide resources and network support to anyone willing to give it a shot!