When the founder called me, they had three open roles, zero job descriptions, and a hiring "process" that consisted of a WhatsApp chat and gut feeling.

Three weeks later, they made their first structured hire. Here's exactly what we did.

Week 1: Stop everything and audit

The first thing I do is never what people expect. I don't open a laptop and start writing job descriptions. I ask questions.

Who makes the hiring decision - really? What happened with the last person who didn't work out? What does a good first month look like for a new hire?

In this case, the answers were revealing: three different people thought they were the final decision-maker, the last two hires had left within 90 days, and nobody had ever defined what success looked like in the first 30 days on the job.

Before building anything, you need to know what's actually broken.

Week 2: Build the skeleton

Once I understood the company, I built the minimum viable hiring process:

• Job profiles - not just a list of requirements, but a clear definition of what the person needs to achieve in their first 6 months.
• A sourcing plan - where will we find these people, and who inside the company is responsible for what.
• A structured interview loop - three rounds, each testing something specific, with written scoring rubrics so every interviewer is evaluating the same things.
• An offer workflow - who approves, what the numbers look like, and how fast we can move from verbal yes to signed contract.

None of this took long. The skeleton doesn't need to be perfect - it needs to exist.

Week 3: Run a real candidate through it

This is where most consultants stop. I don't.

We put a real candidate through the new process, held a debrief afterward, and identified three things that needed fixing. We fixed them the same day.

By the end of week three, the process had been tested, adjusted, and documented. The team knew how to use it. The first hire was made.

The lesson: A hiring process doesn't need to be elaborate. It needs to be consistent, documented, and actually used. Start there.