Scaling fast and scaling with intention are not the same thing.

Maggie Fish, Director of Recruiting at Grafana Labs, joins Shannon to explain how her team built an ideal candidate profile for every role, starting with sales and expanding it across the business. She walks through the deep dive into attrition data and interview feedback that separated what actually predicted a great Grafanista from what just looked good on paper, and why removing bias from the hiring bar mattered more once her team scaled across the US, Europe, and Australia.

Maggie shares how that work led to a guiding principles engine that generates role-specific interview questions, how her team cut the interview process from six stages to five, and how the first hired cohort came through with zero non-regretted attrition.

Key takeaways:

1. Data first, opinions second: Bring interview and performance data into the room before asking hiring managers what they think, or the conversation stalls on gut feel.
2. Test what you value: If a guiding principle actually matters, build it into an interview question, then check with AI note takers that interviewers are getting there.
3. Async beats scripted calls: Letting hiring managers think through what they need before a recruiter call gets everyone further before the conversation even starts.
4. Confidence earns a seat: Speaking up and challenging the status quo, done thoughtfully, builds the kind of trust that gets you pulled into decisions you were not even in the room for.

Timestamps: 

(00:00) Introduction
(00:44) Meet Maggie Fish
(02:21) Scaling with intention versus scaling fast
(04:49) Getting every team aligned to one north star
(08:53) Digging into attrition data to define the ideal account executive
(11:43) Rebuilding the interview process around critical attributes
(15:36) Rolling the ideal candidate profile out beyond sales
(16:24) Building the guiding principles engine
(20:32) Roadblocks to watch for when you start this work
(21:48) Zero non-regretted attrition and other early results
(24:02) The vision for an ICP copilot
(28:02) Where to connect with Maggie

Quality of hire does not end at the offer.

Veronica Salcido, who leads the recruiting, HR, and coaching and L&D org at GrowthAssistant, joins Shannon to unpack how her team turned 50% churn into a 10% retention lift in 6 months. She explains why speed and volume stopped being useful signals once quality became the real cost, and how tracing 80% of failed hires back to durable skills, not hard skills, changed how her team hires, coaches, and measures success.

Veronica walks through the four durable skills her team built into every stage of the journey, why half of a recruiter's KPI is now tied to 90-day quality of hire, and how that accountability turned recruiting from an execution function into a strategic partner to the business.

Key takeaways:

1. Durable skills outlast tools: Character, communication, and critical thinking hold their value for seven to nine years, while tool skills like ChatGPT or Klaviyo fade out in under two.
2. CEO buy in matters: The fastest way to get a hiring framework adopted across an org is making the CEO or founder its first champion.
3. AI can prep coaching: Aggregating performance data ahead of a coaching call helps leaders focus on the one durable skill that actually needs work.
4. Curiosity beats sounding smart: The people who ask questions freely tend to go further than the people busy managing how they appear in the room.

Timestamps: 

(00:00) Introduction
(00:48) Meet Veronica Salcido
(02:01) Why operational rigor matters more than ever
(04:22) Inside the GrowthAssistant model
(08:07) Inheriting speed and volume without quality
(09:55) Tracing 50 percent churn back to durable skills
(13:37) Naming the four durable skills framework
(17:52) Connecting the through line from hire to retention
(19:34) Tying 90 day quality of hire to recruiter KPIs
(24:12) Why shared accountability changes the recruiter's role
(30:09) The results after 6 months and 18 months

(36:40) Where to connect with Veronica

A hiring goal only works when the team believes it is possible.

Liz Woodfield, Head of Talent Acquisition at SentiLink, joins Shannon to share how she built a single north star metric for her recruiting team and used it to drive a 60% increase in hires without adding headcount. She breaks down the framework she leans on for every role, volume, velocity, and calibration, and how weekly dashboards brought a skeptical team and leadership along.

Once the team started hitting their weekly numbers, the results followed. SentiLink hit its first half of the year goal, and Liz has kept the same system in place as the team scales into the second half, adding more layers around competency based hiring along the way.

Key takeaways:

1. Sprint hiring unlocks roles: Breaking a role into a tight weekly plan turned a year old opening into a one week hire.
2. Debriefs surface bias: Talking live catches details that written feedback and Slack threads tend to miss.
3. Hiring is everyone's job: SentiLink's leadership repeats the hiring goal at every all hands so recruiting is not carrying it alone.
4. Interviews should inform onboarding: The insight gathered from candidates can shape a stronger first few months on the job.

Timestamps: 

(00:00) Introduction
(01:00) Meet Liz Woodfield
(02:30) Why every recruiting team needs a north star metric
(03:10) Turning a CEO's gold metric into a team wide goal
(04:04) Setting a bigger hiring goal with the same size team
(06:51) The volume velocity calibration equation behind recruiting success
(08:06) Winning leadership buy in during the uncomfortable early weeks
(09:51) Building weekly dashboards recruiters actually trust
(12:01) Using sprint hiring to close a role open for over a year
(13:40) Application data gathering for results
(15:55) Recruitment goals inspired by revenue goals
(17:51) Running towards the collective but improve individually
(18:50) 7 months in, measuring what the new system delivered
(22:21) What comes next for SentiLink's hiring goals
(24:42) Where to connect with Liz

What if your hiring process was designed to screen people in instead of screen them out?

Jen Ayala, Head of Recruiting at Clay, joins Shannon to discuss why traditional hiring often filters out great talent too early. She shares how Clay replaced resume reviews with project-based evaluations for high volume hiring, giving career transitioners and new graduates a better opportunity to demonstrate their strengths while helping the team hire faster.

Jen also explains how AI supports recruiters without replacing human judgment, why hiring for potential creates stronger teams, and how designing a fair process can improve both candidate experience and hiring outcomes.

Key takeaways:

1. Screen people in, not out: Replace early resume filtering with practical assessments that help candidates demonstrate their strengths.
2. Keep humans involved: Use AI to organize information and speed up evaluations while leaving hiring decisions to recruiters.
3. Hire for potential: Focus on learning ability and unique strengths instead of matching every requirement on a job description.
4. Build together: Partner with hiring managers, recruiters, and cross functional teams to continuously improve hiring processes.

Timestamps: 

(00:00) Introduction
(00:55) Meet Jen Ayala
(02:12) Why traditional hiring screens out great talent
(04:18) Giving candidates projects before resume reviews
(08:35) Eliminating resume screening for high volume hiring
(12:05) Building an AI assisted project evaluation system
(19:12) How recruiters became stronger decision makers
(20:40) Candidate reactions to project based hiring
(24:10) Results from Clay's hiring pilot
(27:46) Where to connect with Jen

Recruiting teams earn influence when they understand what the business is trying to build.

Mike Bettley, VP of Talent Acquisition at StackAdapt, joins Shannon to share how he rebuilt a TA function that was stretched, fragmented, and operating without a clear hiring plan. Before changing systems or metrics, Mike focused on the team’s confidence. He created space for honest feedback, reset expectations, and helped recruiters move from asking for permission to making informed recommendations.

Mike also explains how his team became more involved in workforce planning, compensation conversations, and FP&A partnership as StackAdapt scaled from 170 to 1,800 people. He shares why every intake should start with the business problem, how recruiters can challenge unrealistic profiles, and where AI can support better planning before a role ever reaches TA.

Key takeaways:

1. Start with business needs: Define what the role must accomplish before writing the job description.
2. Context beats pedigree: A great background does not always match the company’s current stage.
3. Alignment prevents drift: Shared definitions help interviewers evaluate candidates against the same bar.
4. Process builds confidence: Strong hiring systems reduce overreliance on back channels and outside validation.

Timestamps: 

(00:00) Introduction

(00:35) Meet Mike Bettley

(01:30) Why recruiter confidence drives business impact

(03:33) Rebuilding a fragmented talent acquisition team

(06:11) Creating trust through vulnerability and transparency

(11:00) Earning hiring manager trust across the organization

(12:00) Shifting from job descriptions to business problems

(15:30) Teaching stakeholders what great TA partnership looks like

(18:30) Fixing operational bottlenecks through TA Ops investment

(21:00) Lessons learned from launching recruiting KPIs

(24:00) Measuring success through consistency and hiring quality

(28:00) Using AI to improve hiring planning and intake processes

(30:05) Where to connect with Mike

Hiring senior leaders on gut feel is a risk most companies cannot afford.

Cristina Navarro, Senior Director of Global Talent Acquisition at Tubi, joins Shannon to discuss why traditional interview formats fail at the executive level and how her team built a structured leadership assessment to close that gap. She explains how the process was co-created with senior leadership, why prompt design matters, and how thorough prep on both sides of the table leads to better decisions.

Cristina also walks through how debrief structure protects against groupthink, how candidate feedback from the process informs onboarding strategy, and why the goal was never to add friction but to give everyone involved more confidence in one of the most consequential hiring decisions a company can make.

Key takeaways:

1. Co-creation drives adoption: When senior leaders help build the assessment, buy-in follows naturally once results come in.
2. Prompt design is the foundation: A role-specific, well-scoped prompt is what separates a meaningful assessment from a generic exercise.
3. Debrief order changes outcomes: Hearing from the most senior voices last protects the room from influence bias before a final decision is made.
4. Recruiting data shapes onboarding: Themes that surface during the assessment can directly inform how a new executive is set up from day one.

Timestamps: 

(00:43) Meet Cristina Navarro

(02:08) Why executive hiring carries more risk than any other level

(03:49) What Tubi does differently in senior leader hiring

(05:20) How the leadership assessment was built and who was involved

(07:14) Preparing both candidates and interviewers for the assessment

(10:25) Why no new faces in the room is an intentional design choice

(11:42) How debriefs are structured to reach a confident hiring decision

(12:55) What candidates say after going through the process

(15:37) Plans to expand the assessment beyond VP-level roles

(17:07) Using recruiting findings to inform executive onboarding

(19:25) Where to connect with Cristina

Hiring managers need better support, not more documents.

Kyle Gatlin, Head of Talent at Arrive, joins Shannon to discuss how his team built an AI hiring agent to guide managers through the recruiting process across 70 countries. Drawing from his background in education and talent operations, Kyle explains why accessibility, structured interviewing, and candidate experience became the foundation of the project.

Kyle shares how his team turned a 15-page hiring philosophy into a scalable internal tool, partnered with engineering and AI leaders to launch it globally, and improved hiring consistency without removing the human side of recruiting. 

This episode also covered why strong recruiting teams should challenge inefficient processes and help hiring managers make more confident decisions.

Key takeaways:

1. Structured hiring creates confidence: Clear interview goals help teams make faster and more accurate decisions.
2. AI improves accessibility: Hiring managers are more likely to ask questions when support feels immediate and judgment-free.
3. Small launches scale faster: Starting with one focused AI use case made adoption easier across the business.
4. Candidate experience reflects operations: Organized internal processes create stronger candidate trust and engagement.

Timestamps: 

(00:00) Meet Kyle Gatlin

(02:00) Why AI agents matter in recruiting

(05:00) Turning recruiting philosophy into an AI tool

(09:20) Building structured interviews and intentional hiring steps

(14:11) Partnering with engineering and AI teams internally

(18:10) How AI supports recruiters instead of replacing them

(21:13) Testing tone, accessibility, and hiring manager adoption

(25:44) Are recruiters spending more time with other activities?

(27:00) Better candidate experiences through process design

(32:34) Where to connect with Kyle

Early hiring gets expensive fast when founders skip alignment.

Cassie Chao Leemans, VP of Talent at Craft Ventures, joins Shannon to share how early-stage teams can make stronger hiring decisions before scale adds complexity. She explains why pedigree can distract founders from what the business actually needs, how unclear expectations create mis-hires, and why every new role should connect back to company goals.

Cassie also shares how to define competencies, build trust in the interview process, and help recruiters move from order-takers to strategic partners.

Key takeaways:

1. Start with business needs: Define what the role must accomplish before writing the job description.
2. Context beats pedigree: A great background does not always match the company’s current stage.
3. Alignment prevents drift: Shared definitions help interviewers evaluate candidates against the same bar.
4. Process builds confidence: Strong hiring systems reduce overreliance on back channels and outside validation.

Timestamps: 

(00:00) Introduction

(00:43) Meet Cassie Chao Leemans

(02:06) Why founder alignment matters early

(06:09) Connecting hiring plans to business goals

(11:09) Preparing recruiting teams before scale hits

(13:29) Why great hiring takes longer than founders expect

(16:41) How hiring needs change as companies grow

(20:38) Defining what success looks like in a role

(25:10) Aligning interviewers on values and competencies

(27:58) What happens when hiring alignment breaks

(33:20) Where to connect with Cassie

Talent and people teams have more shared work than most companies realize.

Asha Beirne, Senior Manager of People Operations and Systems at Rula, joins Shannon to discuss how recruiting and people ops can work together across the employee lifecycle. Drawing from her move from recruiting operations into people operations, Asha shares what talent teams often miss when they do not have visibility into turnover data, engagement scores, onboarding feedback, and workforce trends.

Asha explains how Rula built stronger feedback loops through biweekly meetings, shared data reviews, and clearer guardrails around sensitive information. She also shares how her team improved onboarding communications, raised new hire survey scores, and began using AI to reduce manual work while creating more consistent employee experiences.

Key takeaways:

1. Data improves alignment: People ops insights can help recruiting teams forecast capacity, understand attrition patterns, and support stronger hiring decisions.
2. Guardrails build trust: Aggregate data, clear confidentiality norms, and thoughtful sharing help teams learn without overcorrecting.
3. Onboarding needs continuity: A better handoff from offer acceptance to start date can improve the new hire experience quickly.
4. Relationships come first: Regular conversations between talent and people teams create space to solve issues before they become bigger problems.

Timestamps: 

(00:00) Introduction

(00:43) Meet Asha Beirne

(01:44) Why People and Talent teams need stronger partnerships

(03:00) The People Ops data recruiters should advocate for

(05:29) Using early turnover to improve hiring conversations

(06:37) Forecasting attrition with a fuller People Ops picture

(08:39) Closing the gap between offer acceptance and onboarding

(10:12) Creating a regular operating rhythm between Talent and People Ops

(12:34) Using AI to reduce workload and create space for partnership

(15:33) Balancing compliance, speed, and candidate experience

(17:00) Connecting performance data to quality of hire

(20:41) Where to connect with Asha

Candidate experience is one of the few levers you can fully control in hiring.

Greg Marsh, Head of Recruiting at Sierra, joins Shannon to share how his team scaled from 25 to 600 employees while building a candidate experience that consistently stands out. He explains how Sierra approaches candidate obsession, why small moments like personalization matter more than big gestures, and how recruiting becomes a true partner to the business during rapid growth.

Greg walks through how his team operationalizes these ideas with simple systems, measures impact through candidate feedback, and builds a culture where every interviewer owns the experience. He also shares how AI fits into recruiting today and where human connection still makes the difference.

Key takeaways:

1. Candidate experience wins offers: A strong, consistent experience can outperform higher compensation offers.
2. Small details scale impact: Simple personalization creates meaningful candidate connections at scale.
3. Recruiting is a team sport: Interviewers and hiring managers shape the experience as much as recruiters.
4. Invest early in recruiting: Companies that prioritize recruiting early move faster and hire better.

Timestamps: 

(00:00) Introduction

(00:15) Meet Greg Marsh

(02:18) Why candidate experience matters in a competitive market

(04:00) Applying hospitality principles to recruiting

(05:30) Personalization through small candidate moments

(08:00) Balancing intensity and family in company culture

(12:30) Scaling candidate experience with simple systems

(16:30) Measuring candidate experience and NPS

(18:30) Why great candidates become your best referral source

(20:45) Adapting candidate experience across global teams

(22:43) Where to connect with Greg