Week of January 13th, 2025

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First Principles Thinking

Sticking with our commitment to discuss product management principles more closely this year, we wanted to discuss first principles thinking in greater depth for the benefit of the community.

What is First Principles Thinking (FTP)?

First Principles Thinking is a problem-solving approach that breaks complex problems down to their most basic, undeniable truths and builds solutions from the ground up, free of assumptions, analogies, or established practices. It's a valuable approach that helps product managers break down complex problems into fundamental components, question assumptions, and develop innovative solutions

What is the benefit?

First principles thinking offers several advantages including:

• Enhanced problem-solving skills
• Improved decision-making
• Innovative product development
• Effective communication of rationale

What is not First Principles Thinking?

Because of what First Principles Thinking can strive to do, it can often be confused with other forms of thinking and problem-solving. We’ve listed a few below and where the differences are, but we also want to point out that you can use FTP in combination with these as well.

Analogical Thinking

What It Is: Solving problems by drawing comparisons to existing solutions or scenarios.

Why It's Different: First Principles Thinking avoids relying on past solutions or analogies. It focuses on breaking the problem into its fundamental components, not copying or tweaking existing models.

Best Practices

What It Is: Following established methods or industry standards.

Why It's Different: While useful, best practices are built on historical success and assumptions. First Principles Thinking challenges the assumptions underlying these practices and builds new solutions from scratch.

Incremental Improvement

What It Is: Making small, iterative enhancements to existing systems or processes.

Why It's Different: Incremental improvement works within the existing framework, while First Principles Thinking reimagines the framework itself, questioning whether the current structure is necessary or optimal.

Brainstorming

What It Is: Generating a broad range of ideas, often without constraints.

Why It's Different:?Brainstorming can be unfocused or unconstrained, while First Principles Thinking is structured and disciplined. It focuses on breaking down and rebuilding based on fundamental truths.

Systems Thinking

What It Is: Understanding and optimizing the interconnected components of a system.

Why It's Different: Systems thinking focuses on the relationships and interactions within a system. First Principles Thinking zooms in on the system's foundational building blocks, challenging their validity before addressing relationships.

Root Cause Analysis

What It Is: Identifying and addressing the underlying cause of a problem.

Why It's Different: Root cause analysis seeks the source of an issue within an existing framework. First Principles Thinking goes further, questioning whether the framework itself is built on sound assumptions.

Creative Problem-Solving

What It Is: Finding novel solutions to problems, often through lateral thinking or unconventional approaches.

Why It's Different: Creative problem-solving may rely on intuition, analogies, or existing paradigms, while First Principles Thinking is methodical and grounded in foundational truths.

Common Sense

What It Is: Using practical judgment based on shared understanding or conventional wisdom.

Why It's Different: Common sense often relies on societal norms or heuristics, which may be based on flawed assumptions. First Principles Thinking questions even "obvious" truths.

Reductionism

What It Is: Breaking complex systems into smaller components to understand them.

Why It's Different: While similar, First Principles Thinking doesn't just break things down—it seeks the irreducible truths or elements and rebuilds from those, often challenging whether the existing parts are necessary.

Lean Thinking

What It Is: A methodology that emphasizes eliminating waste and maximizing value.

Why It's Different: Lean thinking operates within a process to make it more efficient. First Principles Thinking questions whether the process itself is the right one or even necessary.

By distinguishing these approaches from First Principles Thinking, it's easier to recognize and apply this powerful framework correctly in talent acquisition and beyond. Let me know if you'd like examples of these distinctions applied to your presentation content!

RecOps - The GPT

RecOps - Available in the OpenAI store and free to use.

Articles / Industry News

Articles/Graphics/Podcasts/Posts On Our Radar (sorted by type - Bolded denotes individuals)

• ChandraKumar R Pillai ’s From California to New York: How the AI Regulation Debate is Evolving (article)
• SmartRecruiters’ How AI Agents in Recruitment Make Superhuman Hiring Possible (article)
• Brian Fink’s Your Job Search Is 80% Networking and 20% Applying—And That’s Non-Negotiable (Editor Note: While not connected to RecOps, we felt this warranted inclusion given the importance and also how many RecOps folks are still out there job hunting) (blog)
• Sana Ross’ Stop Training. Start Changing Behavior: How to Design Learning That Actually Works (blog)
• Samy Aumar’s How we transformed Talent Acquisition at Qonto thanks to AI (blog)
• Brainner’s Aligning Candidate Requirements with Hiring Managers: A Collaborative Approach (blog)
• CandorIQ’s Salary Ranges: Design for Competitiveness or Consistency? (guide)
• Ashby’s Balancing Data and Humanity in Hiring with Jose Cong and Shannon Ogborn (podcast)
• Pinpoint and SelectSoftware Reviews’ Talent Talks Episode #16 (podcast)
• CollabWORK’s Community-Powered Hiring: Meeting Top Talent Where They Are with CollabWORK (report)
• Employ’s Recruiting Benchmarks (report)
• Gem’s 2025 Benchmark Report (report)
• TeamTailor’s 2025 Recruitment Trends (report)
• Adam Gordon and Tom Allegretti on Poetry’s Recruiter Enablement channel (video/podcast)

Product News (sorted alphabetically)

• Ashby (AiO) - Feature Upgrade: Save all notes across the app (desktop and mobile) as drafts
• Brainner (Resume Screening) - Integration: Recruitee
• Brighthire (Interview Intelligence) - Passes third-party AI bias audit
• Gem (AiO) - Integration: Merge
• Metaview (Interview Transcription) - Free plan is staying
• Talent Llama (Skill-Based Conversational AI) - Updates to their AI Resume Screening Tools
• TeamOhana (Headcount Planning) - ISO 27001:2022 certified
• TeamTailor (AiO) - New Feature: Onboarding
• SmartRecruiters (ATS) - January 2025 Product Releases

Permanent Articles

• Recruiting Operations: Dictionary & Resources

Events

Week of January 20th

• hireEZ’s Accelerating hiring success with applicant match
• Pillar’s Interviewing "Wrapped": Key Trends & Insights From 100K Interviews
• AssessFirst and Sara Lachiheb-Bernier’s RecOps : Un recrutement plus rapide, plus juste et plus performant.
• Gem’s Recruiting Benchmarks Uncovered with Mike Joyner, Nicole Hirsch, and Ani Sapru
• Datacamp’s US AI Regulations vs. The EU AI Act

Week of January 27th

• Kula’s How to do Recruiting Right in 2025 (Yes, it involves AI) with Lou Adler
• JobSync’s Roundtable: Everything but AI - What's in Store for Enterprise Hiring in 2025 with Gerry Crispin and Chris Hoyt
• TeamTailor’s 2025 Recruitment Trends and Expectations
• Ashby’s 2025 Hiring: Actionable Trends to Shape Your Strategy
• Workday’s 3 Keys to Responsible and Effective AI for Talent Acquisition
• ModernLoop’ Data-Driven Recruiting: How Lattice Scales Hiring with Analytics and Drives Efficiency

Week of February 3rd

• Aylin Abdullah, Glenn Martin & Katrina Collier’s BRAINCAMP: The cognitive HIIT for People & Talent Leaders
• hireEZ’s Unlocking Hidden Talent Through Rediscovery

Week of May 12th

• Ashby’s Ashby One - This in-person conference is for the conference for ambitious Talent & RecOps Teams.

Week of June 2nd

• Talent Collective’s Talentsphere Summit. For an additional 10% off, use the code RECOPS.

Job Search

• Ericsson - EMEA Regional Head of TA Delivery
• Tekion - Senior TA Operations Partner
• GM - Talent Acquisition Project Manager
• Synaptics Incorporated - Talent Acquisition Programs & Operations Manager

Here is the list of previously listed jobs, which may or may not be available.

Additional Resource

• ChartHop's?PeopleOps Job Board
• ATS/Tool-Specific Job Boards
• Denys Dinkevych's?remote job board,?which aggregates jobs from all the major ATS
• Drew Callin’s list of VC and PE job boards for their portfolios (pay attention to the comments too here since there are more)
• Kara Zucker's The Startup Job Board Library
• Steve Levy’s tips for Google job alerts
• TrueUp’s Has a fantastic job board filled with information others don’t like the last time the company did a layoff, application experience based on the ATS, and more.
• Darren Bush’s Get Hired Toolkit

Boolean Strings for Specific ATS Job Search

We’ve consolidated our list of boolean search strings for RecOps professionals to make them more accessible for everyone. Check out the list here. Kaitlyn Elting also built a generator for you if you are worried about your attention to detail.

Thank you to Steve Levy for contributing so many beautiful and Gabi Preston-Phypers for QA help. Follow both of them for excellent boolean and sourcing content.

#YourNextHire?/ People Looking In the RecOps Community

Are you a RecOps professional looking for work? If you have 5 minutes, take the opportunity to complete this quick questionnaire. Not only will you be featured in an upcoming Roundup, it will also help us mention your name when people ask for referrals.

Here is a?Google Sheet View?for a list of people who were previously featured and are still looking.

?? Reminders and Disclaimers ??

• If you’d like to contribute a job, an article (one you found or wrote), or you are a company and have a product update you want featured, contact Jeremy Lyons.
• Please use this form if you or someone you know would like to be featured in our #YourNextHire section. The only condition is you are a RecOps professional.
• Disclaimer #1:?The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and they do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any other agency, organization, employer, or company.?Assumptions made in the analysis do not reflect the position of any entity other than the author.?As critically thinking professionals, these views are always subject to change, revision, and rethinking at any time.?They are not to be held in perpetuity.
• Disclaimer #2: We are sponsor-free. No company below has paid us to advertise their products or share their open jobs. If that changes, we will deliberately call out where we stand to benefit. Additionally, sharing these opportunities and information should not be read as support for these companies or their practices. Regarding jobs, we share these opportunities with the community and only post roles from the company's website. We encourage possible candidates to research each one, as their inclusion does not mean we support the companies or their values.

Until next week, Regulators ??