Guides
How to find the right people, companies, and code.
Each guide covers one job end to end: the method, the signals worth trusting, the ways they mislead, and the tables and checklists to work from. Written to be used mid-task and revised as the ground shifts. A new one lands every few hours.
Every guide has a plain-Markdown twin at /guides/<slug>.md and the whole library is indexed at /guides/index.md.
Recruiting and sourcing
Finding, qualifying, and reaching the people you want to hire - from role brief to signed offer.
- Playbook16 minWARN Filing to a Ranked Queue of Reachable Displaced CandidatesYou will convert one site-level WARN filing into a ranked queue of named, matched, reachable former employees with a dated reach-by window.
- Framework17 minThe Source-Company Raidability Read: Raid Now, Watch, or DeprioritizeYou will score any source company on vulnerability and extractability from public signals and land a raid-now, watch, or deprioritize verdict with a dated re-check.which companies to source frombest companies to poach talent fromsigns a company's employees will leave
- Playbook17 minSourcing Engineers From Dev Chat Communities Into a Ranked ShortlistAfter reading, you can observe a dev chat community, score active members, resolve pseudonymous handles to lawful contact paths, and hand off a ranked shortlist within the rules.
- Playbook16 minThe IPO Lockup Expiry Sourcing Playbook: Filing to Dated QueueYou will build a dated, ranked queue of recently-public companies and their lockup-covered employees, each person's outreach scheduled to an expiry date read from a cited filing.ipo lockup expiration sourcingrecruiting after ipo lockupwhen to poach startup employees after ipo
- Playbook17 minFrom Patent Filings to a Ranked Inventor ShortlistYou can turn a technology area or competitor patent portfolio into a deduplicated, ranked list of inventors, each resolved to a current employer and a reachability signal.source candidates from patentsfind inventors by patentpatent search for recruiters
- Framework17 minThe Tenure-Pattern Read: Advance, Probe, or Screen OutYou will score a candidate's work history against the right tenure baseline and output a defensible advance, probe, or screen-out verdict with one resolving question per stint.
- Playbook16 minSourcing Return-to-Work Candidates From Public SignalsYou can find return-to-work candidates from public signals, qualify them on skills without penalizing the gap, and deliver a ranked, reach-ready shortlist for one role.how to source career break candidatessourcing return to work professionalsfinding candidates with resume gaps
- Playbook16 minThe Talent Map Playbook: Target Companies to a Named PoolYou can build a talent map for one role family: 20 to 50 tiered companies, named profiled candidates, a documented coverage figure, and a defensible pool estimate with a refresh cadence.how to build a talent maptalent mapping process stepstarget company list for sourcing
- Playbook16 minFrom Conference Agenda to a Ranked Candidate ShortlistYou can take one published speaker agenda and produce a deduplicated, seniority-inferred, ranked shortlist with a resolved contact path per person in one session.
- Reference14 minThe People-Search Query Reference: Patterns, Matches, and MissesYou will pick the right query pattern for any candidate attribute, know exactly who it silently excludes, and translate it across GitHub, LinkedIn, and the open web.boolean search string for recruiterslinkedin x-ray search syntaxgithub user search by language and location
- Playbook17 minSourcing Cleared Candidates From Public Signals Into a Ranked ShortlistYou will turn a cleared-role requirement into a ranked shortlist of likely clearance holders inferred from public signals and screened on what you may lawfully ask.
- Playbook13 minThe Lookalike Shortlist Playbook: One Exemplar to 20-30 Ranked ComparablesYou can decompose one exemplar into separable attributes, run them across GitHub, LinkedIn, and the open web, and produce a ranked shortlist of 20 to 30 that is not just one person cloned.
- Framework17 minThe Remote-Applicant Authenticity Read: Advance, Verify, or RejectYou can score a remote applicant's identity signals and return a defensible Advance, Verify, or Reject verdict before the first live interview, without rejecting thin-but-real engineers.
- Framework17 minThe Openness-Signal Read: Reach Now, Watch, or Skip a Passive CandidateYou will score any passive candidate on dated openness signals and sort them into reach-now, watch, or skip against a cutoff tied to your own reply rate.signs a passive candidate is open to a movewhen to reach out to a passive candidateopen to work signal reliability
- Playbook16 minWorking the Off-Sheet References on a FinalistYou will build a ranked list of off-sheet references, clear the consent and current-employer gate, and run calls that surface a disqualifying signal before the offer goes out.backdoor reference checkback-channel referencesoff-sheet references not listed
- Playbook14 minThe Warm-Intro Path to a Passive Candidate: Map, Rank, AskYou can take one named passive candidate, find the single strongest connector across your team and extended network, and send a permission-based intro request.warm introduction to passive candidatehow to get introduced to a candidatefind who knows a candidate
- Framework16 minThe Boomerang Rehire Score: Pursue Now, Nurture, or PassYou will be able to score any former employee on rehire fit and return-readiness and sort them into pursue-now, nurture, or pass with a written reason.should we rehire a former employeehow to evaluate a boomerang candidatewhen to rehire former employee
- Teardown16 minFinding the Stage That Kills an Outbound Sourcing FunnelYou can isolate the one sourcing stage converting furthest below benchmark and attribute it to data, targeting, message, or speed instead of blaming volume.
- Playbook17 minThe Silver-Medalist Re-Engagement Play: Closed Search to Warm QueueYou will build a ranked, lawful, re-verified queue of past finalists with segment-specific re-approach messages before you post the new role.
- Standard14 minThe Search Brief Standard: When a Role Is SourceableYou can grade any search brief pass or fail against fixed criteria, so two sourcers working from it independently build substantially the same shortlist.
Sales and go-to-market
Building account lists, mapping who actually decides, and finding the moment to reach out.
- Standard15 minThe Lead Acceptance Standard: Accept, Reject, or RecycleYou will grade any routed lead so two reviewers reach the same accept, reject, or recycle verdict and log the same coded reason.
- Teardown17 minReconstructing a New Executive's Mandate Into One Pitch AngleYou can take one newly appointed executive, produce a defensible read of their 90-day mandate from public signals, and commit to one outreach angle backed by two independent signals.
- Teardown14 minDating an Incumbent's Renewal Window From Public SignalsYou can turn one account's scattered public signals into a dated renewal window with a confidence grade, then set the calendar date to open outreach.
- Framework15 minThe New-in-Role Buyer Read: Reach Now, Time It, or PassYou can turn one person's role change into a scored, dated outreach verdict: reach this week, hold for a named week, or pass.
- Framework4 minThe Inbound Hand-Raiser Verdict: Route, Nurture, or DisqualifyYou can enrich a raw demo-request form fill from public signals, score fit and intent separately, and return a logged route, nurture, or disqualify verdict inside five minutes.inbound lead qualification frameworkhow to qualify a demo requestroute or disqualify inbound lead
- Teardown15 minThe Look-Good Account Teardown: Advance, Nurture, or WalkYou can take one account that looks perfect on paper and reach a defensible advance, nurture, or walk verdict in 15 minutes, naming the disqualifier.
- Reference16 minThe Company Trigger-Event Reference: Proof and Shelf LifeAfter reading, you can look up any company trigger event and know what it proves, where to detect it, how many days it stays actionable, and how it misfires.
- Playbook15 minThe First-in-Function Signal: Build a Ranked Greenfield QueueYou will separate a genuine net-new function build from a backfill or dormant reopen, score each account by greenfield strength and window freshness, and ship a ranked queue timed to the new function's first 90 days.first hire in department buying signalnet-new function hiring signalhow to detect first revops hire
- Playbook16 minThe Signup-to-Account Queue: Rolling Scattered PLG Signups Into Ranked PQAsYou will turn a raw signup export into an account-level, ranked PQA queue for AEs, with explicit do-not-touch rules that protect self-serve conversion.
- Framework16 minThe Deal Qualification Score: Commit, Work the Gaps, or WalkYou will grade any open deal across eight checks on one evidence scale and reach a commit, work-the-gaps, or disqualify verdict a manager can audit.how to qualify a sales dealmeddpicc scorecarddeal qualification framework
- Playbook16 minThe Pre-Call Brief: Booked Meeting to Call-Ready Facts in One PageYou can turn a booked meeting into a one-page, source-traced brief in under 15 minutes that answers why-this-account, why-this-person, and why-now.pre-call research checklisthow to prep for a discovery callbuild a pre-call brief
- Framework16 minThe Mobilizer Read: Grading One Contact's Power to Move the DealYou will score any single engaged contact on power, stake, and action, read it as Back, Test, or Look Past, and run the tests that separate a mobilizer from a talker.
- Playbook15 minSourcing a Matched Reference Customer for a Deal in FlightYou can turn a reference request into a ranked shortlist of three to five matched, likely-to-say-yes customers by this afternoon.
- Playbook16 minRe-Opening a Churned Account: From Lost Logo to Ranked Win-Back QueueYou will turn a book of churned logos into a ranked queue where every row carries a current named contact, a reason to return, and a cleared-to-send date.win back churned customerswhich churned customers to re-openre-map churned account new decision maker
- Framework6 minThe Champion-Move Priority Score: Chase Now, Nurture, or PassYou will score any past champion's job change on four dimensions and land on a chase-now, nurture, or pass verdict in under five minutes per contact.
- Playbook17 minMapping an Account's Whitespace Into a Ranked Expansion QueueYou will turn one existing account into a ranked queue of unpenetrated units and regions, each with named, verified buyers to work this quarter.whitespace analysis b2b salesaccount expansion mappingfind buyers in a new division
- Playbook15 minTurning an Assigned Territory Into a Ranked Book You Can WorkYou will audit an inherited account list, remove what does not belong, source the ICP-fit accounts it is missing, and rank the whole book into capped tiers with a touch cadence.
- Playbook16 minSourcing a Competitor's Customers Into a Ranked Displacement ListYou will build, from public evidence alone, a deduplicated and verification-graded list of accounts running a named competitor's product, ranked by switch-readiness and dated to a likely renewal window.how to find companies using a competitor's productcompetitor displacement target listdetect competitor customers from public signals
- Playbook16 minThe Channel-Partner Recruit List: From Ideal Partner Profile to Ranked ShortlistYou will convert an ideal partner profile into a ranked shortlist of candidate firms sourced from public signals, each fit-scored and attached to a verified partnerships contact.how to find channel partnersbuild a partner target listideal partner profile
- Playbook15 minClosed-Lost to a Ranked Reactivation QueueYou will convert a full closed-lost list into a ranked queue where every entry has a coded loss reason, a dated trigger, a verified current contact, and a sequenced first touch.closed-lost reactivation playbookreactivate closed-lost dealshow to win back lost deals
- Standard3 minThe Repo-Signal Qualification Standard: Route, Nurture, or DiscardYou can grade any repo-derived buying signal as Route, Nurture, or Discard against criteria specific enough that two SDRs reach the same verdict.
Investing and deal sourcing
Spotting companies and founders early, and diligencing the team behind a round.
- Standard16 minThe Traction-Claim Corroboration Standard: Corroborated, Partial, or UnsupportedYou can grade any company's headline traction claim as Corroborated, Partial, or Unsupported using external signals two analysts would score the same way.
- Teardown17 minRestating an AI Startup's Gross Margin Before You Price the RoundYou can restate one AI company's gross margin with inference moved to COGS and credits removed, then rule whether the headline survives, compresses, or was propped up.
- Framework16 minThe Founder Commitment Read: All-In, Hedging, or Not YetYou will be able to score a founder's commitment across public signals and return a defensible verdict of All-In, Hedging, or Not Yet Committed.is the founder full timecheck if founder left their jobfounder commitment due diligence
- Teardown16 minPressure-Testing a B2B Startup's ARR Claim Before the Term SheetYou can take a claimed ARR figure for a B2B startup and corroborate it to a defensible range from public signals, or quantify the gap, before you wire.
- Framework17 minThe Open-Source Monetization Read: Fundable, Thin, or Dead-EndYou will score any popular open-source project on readable value-capture dimensions and output a verdict - fundable path, thin, or dead-end - before you take the meeting.
- Framework16 minThe Technical-Founder Build Read: Advance, Probe, or PassYou will score a founder's public repos, papers, and shipped products across five dimensions and reach a defensible advance, probe, or pass call before requesting repo access.
- Playbook17 minSourcing Academic Founders Before They Leave the LabYou will turn a target research field into a ranked watchlist of pre-incorporation academic founders, each tagged with the signal that flagged them and a defensible outreach window.
- Teardown15 minTracing a Claimed Founder Exit to the Real OutcomeYou can take a one-line exit claim and trace it through named public sources to a defensible verdict on the real outcome, the founder's role, and their personal proceeds.
- Framework15 minThe AI Defensibility Read: Durable Moat, Wrapper, or FeatureYou can score an AI target on five public moat dimensions and assign one of three verdicts, each backed by evidence you gathered from the outside.
- Framework17 minThe Co-Investor Syndicate Read: Lean In, Discount, or PassYou can grade a round's existing syndicate across named, scored dimensions and defend a Lean In, Discount, or Pass verdict at IC.how to evaluate co-investors in a roundis the lead investor a good signalwho else is on the cap table
- Framework17 minThe Hiring Pullback Read: Distress, Pivot, or Normal SlowdownYou can score a company's hiring pullback from its public job feed, classify it as distress, pivot, or normal slowdown, and say whether it changes your decision.is a hiring freeze a bad signread a company's hiring slowdownhiring freeze investor signal
- Framework16 minThe Pro-Rata Verdict: Exercise, Waive, or Sell the Follow-OnYou can score a next-round notice on four dimensions and reach an exercise, waive, or sell decision before the 15-to-20-day window closes.
- Playbook17 minSourcing Co-Investors to Fill a Round You Are LeadingYou can turn an open allocation into a tiered, outreach-ready co-investor shortlist matched on stage, check size, thesis, and recent activity, with conflicts flagged and intro paths mapped.find co-investors for a dealbuild a co-investor target listhow to fill out a round with co-investors
- Playbook15 minThe Back-Channel Customer Check: Sourcing a Startup's Real Users Before You WireYou will be able to build a startup's real customer list yourself, reach the right user at each account without the founder, and run a call that surfaces churn.
- Framework16 minThe Co-Founder Durability Read: Backable, Watch, or WalkYou will score a co-founder pair on relationship durability from public evidence and return a Backable, Watch, or Walk verdict with the specific gaps to close in the meeting.
- Playbook17 minDiligencing a Secondary Share Offer Before You WireYou can run a secondary share offer end to end: name who is selling and why, confirm the stake can legally transfer, price it against the last round and share class, and reach a wire-or-walk call.how to vet a secondary share purchasesecondary SPV due diligencepricing a private company secondary
- Playbook15 minSourcing the Off-List References to Call on a FounderYou will turn a founder's public history into a ranked, contactable list of independent references the founder did not hand you.find off-list references for a founderhow to backchannel a founder before investingsourcing founder references vc diligence
- Playbook15 minSourcing Companies Before the Round Is AnnouncedYou will be able to find pre-seed and seed companies weeks before they surface in a funding database, using public pre-announcement signals.deal sourcingfind startups before fundingvc sourcing process
- Teardown15 minTracing a Stacked SAFE Deal to Your Real Converted OwnershipYou will convert one real SAFE-plus-stack deal end to end and read off your actual fully diluted percentage after the pool refresh, not the headline.SAFE stack dilution calculationpost-money SAFE conversion mathoption pool refresh dilution
Engineering and open source
Reading code, repositories, and contribution history as evidence of what someone can do.
- Reference15 minReading a Repository: The Maintainer-Signal ReferenceYou will be able to judge what a GitHub repository and profile actually prove about a person, separating real skill signals from faked, spoofed, or timing-driven noise.
- Playbook16 minSourcing a Deep-Specialty Engineer From Public CodeYou will turn a rare capability into a ranked shortlist of engineers who provably authored the hard subsystem, each row backed by named repos, commits, and pull requests.sourcing niche software engineersfind engineers by github contributionsverify individual contribution github
- Standard7 minThe Public-Evidence Leveling Standard: Senior, Staff, or InsufficientYou can assign a candidate senior, staff, or insufficient public evidence from the same artifacts an independent reviewer would, and defend the call.
- Framework15 minThe Design-Doc and RFC Read: Own It, Scope It, or PassAfter reading, you can find a candidate's public RFCs, ADRs, and design docs, score them across six dimensions, and reach a defensible own-it, scope-it, or pass verdict.evaluate architecture skills from design docsassess system design judgment from RFCsADR evaluation senior engineer
- Playbook16 minThe Developer-Advocate Sourcing Playbook: Teaching to ShortlistYou will take an open developer-advocate req to a ranked shortlist of 15 to 25 named candidates, each scored on credibility and communication from their own artifacts.
- Framework15 minThe Code-Review Behavior Read: Mentor, Gatekeeper, or Rubber-StampYou can score one engineer's public review activity across four named dimensions and reach a Mentor, Gatekeeper, or Rubber-Stamp verdict after discounting AI-written comments.
- Reference15 minThe AI-Engineer Footprint Reference: What Each LLM Artifact ProvesYou will be able to look at any artifact in a candidate's public AI footprint and state what it proves, how it lies, and when it goes stale.how to evaluate AI engineer githubRAG repo vs demo projectAI engineer portfolio signals
- Framework15 minThe Kaggle Profile Read: Applied Skill, Contest Overfit, or NoiseYou will be able to score any Kaggle profile by category, discount the farmed and overfit parts, and call it real skill, contest overfit, or noise.
- Framework17 minThe Vulnerability-Disclosure Read: Deep Skill, Padded, or NoiseYou will be able to score a candidate's public vulnerability-disclosure record and defend a verdict of deep skill, padded, or noise to a hiring panel.
- Framework16 minThe AI-Authorship Discount: Reading Whose Skill a Repo ProvesYou will be able to grade a candidate's public repos on authorship dimensions and output own-skill, AI-assisted, or inflated, with a documented reason each.
- Teardown18 minReproducing a Repo's Headline Benchmark Before You Trust ItYou can take one repo's published speedup claim, attempt to reproduce it end to end on your own hardware, and return a defensible verdict with evidence.reproduce benchmark from github repoverify library performance claimsbenchmark not reproducible readme
- Reference15 minThe Pull-Request Signal Reference: What Code Really ProvesYou will be able to point at any signal in a candidate's public pull request and state what it proves about engineering level and how it can mislead you.evaluate engineer from github pull requestswhat to look for in candidate codejudging seniority from commits
- Framework17 minThe Hugging Face Footprint Read: Real Output, Fork, or NoiseYou can score any Hugging Face profile into strong, thin, or noise by weighting each artifact for what it proves and discounting downloads and likes.
- Playbook14 minRecruiting Design Partners for a Developer Tool From Public SignalsYou will turn a written pain profile into a ranked list of three to six companies and the named engineer inside each who owns that pain, ready to invite.
- Standard6 minThe Maintainer Outreach Acceptability Standard: Send, Revise, or HoldYou will grade any drafted maintainer message against a fixed checklist and return a Send, Revise, or Hold verdict a teammate would reach independently.
- Framework16 minThe MCP Server Trust Score: Connect, Sandbox, or RejectYou can score any MCP server across six trust dimensions, reach a Connect, Sandbox, or Reject verdict, and record the reasoning in a ticket.how to vet an mcp servermcp server security checklistevaluate mcp server before connecting
- Playbook17 minThe Open-Weight Model Selection Playbook: Self-Host, Route, or Stay on APIYou will go from a written task contract to a license-and-hardware-gated shortlist, an eval on your own data, and a defensible self-host, route, or stay-on-API verdict.how to evaluate open-weight LLM before productionself-host LLM model selectionbuild an LLM eval set for a workload
- Reference16 minThe Repository License Reference: Commercial Use and Copyleft TriggersYou can read any LICENSE file and dependency tree and state whether you may ship it commercially, what obligation triggers, and which "open source" claims mislead.can I use this license commerciallyAGPL SaaS source disclosure obligationis BSL open source
- Framework16 minThe Public-Work Interview Verdict: Interview, Screen, or PassYou will score an engineer's public artifacts across weighted dimensions and land on interview, phone-screen, or pass in about 45 minutes.evaluate engineer from github before interviewscreening engineers from public workdecide who to interview without resume
- Framework17 minThe Vendor Reliability Score: Grading an API From Its Incident HistoryYou will convert a candidate vendor's public status page and SLA into a 0-100 reliability score and a build, fallback, or reject verdict.
Market and talent intelligence
Mapping a market, a competitor, or a talent pool, and turning the map into a decision.
- Playbook15 minThe Role Market-Tightness Read: Tight, Balanced, or LooseYou can produce a documented openings-per-qualified-candidate ratio and a tight, balanced, or loose verdict for one role in one metro, and defend every number.
- Framework17 minThe Competitor AI-Maturity Read: Shipping, Piloting, or Marketing-OnlyYou will score any named competitor as Shipping, Piloting, or Marketing-only, citing the specific public artifacts that separate real production use from AI washing.
- Framework16 minThe Adjacent-Pool Substitution Score: Tap, Pilot, or Rule Out a SourceYou can take one scarce skill, map its adjacent pools from public data, and grade each to a defensible tap, pilot, or rule-out verdict.skill adjacency sourcingadjacent talent poolwhere to source a scarce skill
- Playbook14 minTriangulating a Private Company's Headcount Into a Defensible RangeYou can state a named private company's headcount as a defensible range with a confidence level, an industry-corrected scale factor, and a dated source trail.
- Teardown15 minChoosing a Second Engineering Hub by Countable Talent DepthYou will carry two or three cities through a documented count of reachable engineers for your stack and defend a single-city pick with numbers an exec accepts.how to choose a second engineering hubcompare cities engineering talent poolmeasure developer talent depth by city
- Reference16 minThe Competitor Job-Posting Signal Reference: What Each Role ProvesLook up any job-posting element and state what it proves about a competitor's direction, how it misleads, and how long the read holds.what competitor job postings revealreading hiring signals competitive intelligencejob posting signals company strategy
- Teardown16 minReading a Competitor's Next Build From Open Reqs and ExitsYou can take one competitor, pull its live reqs and recent departures, and produce a dated, evidence-cited hypothesis of its next product or market move with a confidence call.
- Playbook16 minThe Competitor Weakness Map: Mining Public Reviews Into Ranked EvidenceYou will produce a ranked competitor weakness map where every theme is coded, sourced to dated verbatims, scored by frequency and severity, and stamped with a refresh trigger.
- Reference15 minThe LCA Disclosure Field Reference: What Each Record ProvesYou will read any employer's LCA records field by field, state what each proves, and name the coverage, wage, and timing biases that make the raw numbers lie.
- Teardown14 minReconciling a Headline Talent-Pool Count to a Defensible NumberYou can take one inflated pool count and walk it down to a defensible addressable figure with a deduction trail a stakeholder can audit line by line.
- Framework15 minThe Role Fillability Read: Hire as Written, Relax One Constraint, or RethinkYou can take a role brief plus public labor signals and hand back a defensible fillability verdict with a demand-to-supply ratio and a time-to-fill band.is this role hard to filltalent supply demand ratio for a rolehow to assess hiring feasibility before opening a req
- Framework16 minThe Competitive Threat Tier: Deep-Monitor, Watch, or Ignore a RivalYou will score any single competitor across five weighted public dimensions and land on a defensible tier and review cadence that a second analyst can reproduce.how to prioritize competitors to trackcompetitive threat scoring frameworkcompetitor tiering model
- Playbook15 minThe Capability Gap Map: Benchmarking a Competitor's Team Skill DepthYou will produce a capability-by-capability gap map scoring a named competitor deeper, at parity, or weaker than your team, each score backed by public evidence and a confidence tag.benchmark competitor engineering team skillsskills gap analysis vs competitorcompetitor talent benchmarking public data
- Playbook16 minEstimating a Competitor's Attrition Rate From Public ProfilesYou will produce a defensible annual attrition rate for a company you do not work at, broken down by function and seniority, and call it against a stated benchmark.how to estimate competitor attritionmeasure company turnover from public profilescalculate attrition rate without talent insights
- Playbook17 minMapping a Competitor's Real Location Footprint, Metro by MetroYou can produce a metro-by-function map of a rival's workforce, corrected for remote-to-HQ inflation and vague regions, with a confidence flag on every cell.
- Playbook17 minThe Outside-In Revenue-per-Employee Read: Leaner, On-Band, or BloatedYou will produce a stage- and industry-adjusted revenue-per-employee band for a private competitor, with a documented headcount correction and a leaner/on-band/bloated verdict.estimate competitor revenue per employeerevenue per employee benchmark by industryestimate private company headcount from public data
- Playbook16 minMapping the Corporate Backers Behind an Open-Source ProjectTurn one project's public contribution graph into a ranked company map, a stated concentration number, and a defensible read on who controls it.map corporate contributors open sourceelephant factor open source projectsingle vendor open source risk
- Framework16 minThe Skill-Demand Trajectory Score: Rising, Plateauing, or FadingYou will score any named skill's demand trajectory from public job-posting data and defend a rising, plateauing, or fading verdict with a stated shelf life.how to tell if a skill is in demandjob posting skill trend analysisemerging skill vs hype
- Playbook17 minBuilding a Defensible Bottom-Up TAM From an ICP DefinitionYou will produce a bottom-up TAM with a defensible account count, MECE ICP filters, an ARPU-derived dollar figure, and a documented cross-check.
Process, data, and compliance
Keeping a search operation clean: data hygiene, lawful sourcing, measurement, and handoffs.
- Standard17 minThe Account Record Acceptance Standard: Golden, Remediate, or RejectYou can grade any new company record Golden, Remediate, or Reject using named fields, valid-range checks, and a 12-month recency line that two operators score the same way.
- Playbook19 minThe AI Screening Evidence Trail: Audit, Notice, Log, RenewYou can assemble the bias audit, public summary, timed notice, offered alternative, and per-decision log that clear an AI screening tool in every jurisdiction your applicants live, and keep it renewed on cycle.
- Playbook16 minThe DROP Deletion Cycle Runbook: Retrieve, Match, Purge, ReportYou can run one full DROP cycle end to end - pull the batch, match, purge or opt out, suppress re-entry, and report a determination for every request inside the mandated windows.how to process DROP deletion requestsdelete act 45 day deletion cyclematch consumer deletion request to records
- Framework18 minThe Legitimate-Interest Read for Cold Outreach: Rely, Mitigate, or NotYou can run the three-part legitimate interest test on one named sourcing purpose, land a defensible verdict, and produce an LIA record that survives an audit or objection.legitimate interest assessment templatelegitimate interest cold emailgdpr legitimate interest recruitment
- Playbook17 minThe Sending-Domain Recovery Runbook: Blocklist Hit to Restored InboxYou will diagnose the exact blocklist and cause, run the recovery sequence in order, decide whether to repair or retire the domain, and declare recovery against real thresholds.recover blacklisted email domainsender reputation recoverydelist from spamhaus
- Reference15 minThe Agent-and-Bot Commit Signal Reference: What Each Marker ProvesYou can scan a mined commit batch and tag each author as human, agent-assisted, or bot using the exact git fields, trailers, and noreply patterns.
- Standard17 minThe AI-Inferred Field Standard: Trust, Flag, or RejectYou can grade any AI-inferred field on a sourced record as Trust, Flag, or Reject using a measured accuracy bar, a provenance log, and a sampling check.
- Standard15 minThe Candidate-Scoring Tool Clearance Standard: Deploy, Restrict, or HoldYou can grade any candidate-scoring tool against a deployment and return a defensible deploy, restrict, or hold verdict with the exact audit, notice, and review steps each jurisdiction requires.is our sourcing tool an AEDTbias audit required candidate ranking toolAI hiring tool compliance checklist
- Reference16 minThe Jurisdiction Reference for Lawful Sourcing and First ContactFor any candidate or prospect's country, you can state whether you may source and send a first message, on what basis, with which required elements and the penalty for getting it wrong.
- Reference17 minThe Retention-Clock Reference: How Long to Keep Each Sourced RecordYou can look up any sourced record by type, lawful basis, and jurisdiction and set a defensible retention period with a named clock-start event.
- Reference14 minThe Database-Health Metric Reference: Formula, Benchmark, Blind SpotAfter reading, you can compute each data-quality metric the same way every time, state its benchmark, and name how a healthy-looking number hides a problem.
- Reference17 minThe Person Match-Key Reference: What Each Identifier Pins DownYou will be able to pick a person match key by its uniqueness, job-change survival, normalization, and named false-merge mode.
- Playbook18 minThe Enrichment Waterfall Playbook: Provider Order and Blended CostYou will be able to order an enrichment cascade by cost per valid result, gate out dead data, protect good records on write-back, and score each source monthly.waterfall enrichment setuporder data providers enrichmentcost per enriched record
- Playbook17 minThe Job-Change Reconciliation Playbook: Moved Contact to Clean RecordYou will process a weekly batch of job changes so each person's new employer, verified email, and owner are correct while old history stays linked and no duplicate is created.contact changed jobs crmjob change deduplication crmreassign contact owner after job change
- Framework6 minThe Email Deliverability Verdict: Send, Verify, or Drop an AddressYou can score any single email address across seven signals and reach a defensible Send, Verify, or Drop verdict, each with its own handling rule.how to score an email address before sendingcatch-all email send or skiprole-based address deliverability risk
- Playbook16 minThe Data-Source Onboarding Playbook: Sample Test to Verified BackfillYou can run a new data feed from a locked sample test through a staged, segment-by-segment backfill with a signed-off match rate, field-ownership map, and dedup rules before cutover.how to onboard a data enrichment vendorbackfill crm without creating duplicatesdata source field mapping golden record
- Standard17 minThe Dial-Ready List Standard: Cleared to Call, Hold, or ScrubYou will be able to grade any phone list as cleared to dial, hold, or scrub again, so two people applying the same DNC, consent, window, and audit rules reach the same verdict.
- Playbook16 minThe Do-Not-Contact Sync: One Suppression List Across Every ToolYou will run a single suppression list that captures every opt-out the same day, propagates it to every sending and sourcing tool, and blocks re-import so an opted-out person is never contacted again.how to sync opt-outs across toolssingle suppression list recruitingdo not contact list across CRM and sequencer
- Standard16 minThe Sourced-Database Fitness Standard: Fit, Remediate, or QuarantineYou will grade any sourced list across six dimensions against fixed numeric thresholds and return one of three verdicts that two graders reach independently.
- Playbook16 minThe Sending Domain Warm-Up Ramp: From First Send to Full VolumeYou can run a week-by-week warm-up ramp with defined daily volumes, per-step increase caps, and the exact spam, bounce, and placement gates that graduate the domain.
- Playbook16 minThe Access-Request Response for a Cold-Sourced ContactYou will be able to answer an access request from a cold-sourced contact correctly: log the clock, disclose where the data came from, redact third parties, and deliver within the statutory deadline.how to respond to a data subject access requestDSAR response process stepsright of access sourced candidate data
Start with the basics
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