SARAH'S STORY — THE HIRING MANAGER

From a wasted meeting
to a strategic decision.

Sarah is VP Engineering at TechStart. Her role brief meetings always go the same way — she explains what she wants, Emma nods, and then submits candidates who are completely wrong. This time, Kyra changed everything before the meeting even started.

S

Sarah Chen

VP Engineering, TechStart

Market Feasibility Before the Brief
Strategic Role Design
Real-time Pipeline Visibility

TUESDAY — BEFORE KYRA

The same meeting. Every time.

😤 Sarah's experience, before Kyra

  • 1.Sarah sends a JD she wrote in 20 minutes
  • 2.Emma schedules a "role brief" meeting
  • 3.Meeting is 45 minutes of Emma asking obvious questions Sarah already answered in the JD
  • 4.Emma submits 4 candidates. 3 are completely wrong.
  • 5.Sarah rejects them. Emma asks why. The cycle repeats.

What Sarah actually needs

  • →"Is this role actually hireable at our budget?"
  • →"Who else is competing for the same people?"
  • →"What would I need to change to hire faster?"
  • →"How are candidates going to see TechStart vs. competitors?"

These are strategy questions. Nobody was answering them before Kyra.

1

THE PREP

Sarah gets the brief before the brief

The day before the role brief meeting, Kyra sends Sarah a Market Feasibility Report. She arrives knowing what the data says — and the conversation is completely different.

K
Kyra — pre-brief report

Hi Sarah,

Your brief with Emma is tomorrow. I've put together a market picture for the Senior DevOps Engineer role so the conversation can focus on decisions rather than data collection.

📊 View your market brief →
2

THE DATA

What the market actually says

Sarah opens the report. For the first time, she's looking at the hiring decision as a market proposition — not a wishlist.

K

MARKET FEASIBILITY REPORT

Senior DevOps Engineer — TechStart Ltd

Generated 14 hours before your role brief. Based on live market data.

Ideal Candidate Profile

Likely Background

4–9 years in DevOps/SRE at FinTech or scale-up. Current role: Senior / Staff / Lead.

Salary Expectations

£95k–£125k. Your cap of £110k covers ~60% of this pool.

Availability

1–3 month notice typical. ~15% passively open to move. Act on strong candidates fast.

Competitor Activity via Adzuna API

Company Salary Remote Posted
Monzo £110–130k Fully Remote 3 days ago
Wise £100–120k Hybrid 2d 5 days ago
Revolut £105–125k + equity Hybrid 3d 1 week ago
TechStart (you) £85–110k Hybrid 2d Not yet live

Key insight

Your top 3 competitors are all offering more money — and Monzo is fully remote. Your Series B story is your strongest differentiator. Lead with growth trajectory, equity upside, and team ownership.

Your EVP — What to Lead With

✓ Strengths to amplify

  • • Series B momentum (£40M, Dec 2024) — growth story
  • • Greenfield infra scope — rare for senior DevOps
  • • Engineering culture rated 4.1★ on Glassdoor
  • • Equity offered — unusual at this stage

⚠ Gaps to address in outreach

  • • Salary below market median — needs clear justification
  • • Brand recognition lower than Monzo/Wise/Revolut
  • • No async-first or flexible hours mention

Overall Market Competitiveness

Based on current salary, location policy, EVP, and competitor activity

67%

Moderate — acts needed

A 10% increase in salary cap would move this to ~81%. Full remote would push it to 90%+.

S

Sarah

Before the meeting

"I've never walked into a hiring brief knowing what I can and can't offer relative to the market. This completely changes what I need to talk to Emma about."

3

THE MEETING

Tactical → Strategic in one shift

The role brief meeting is completely different. Sarah and Emma aren't collecting basic facts. They're making decisions.

BEFORE KYRA — TYPICAL BRIEF

E
"What salary are you thinking?"
S
"Um, maybe 85 to 100? I'm not sure what's market."
E
"And remote? Office? Hybrid?"
S
"I'd prefer 3 days in but could do 2 if needed."

…this continues for 40 more minutes

WITH KYRA — THE BRIEF NOW

E
"Kyra shows your top 3 competitors are paying £110–130k and two are fully remote. Your cap of £110k puts you at 67% competitiveness. What's your ceiling?"
S
"I didn't realise Monzo was fully remote now. We can go to £120k. And we should lead with the Series B and greenfield infra opportunity."
E
"That changes your score to 84%. Do you want me to update the mandate live and flag the equity component too?"
S
"Yes. Add 0.1% options too. Let's go."

Auto-capture: Notes → Mandate

Emma can speak or type notes in the meeting. Kyra integrates them directly into the mandate as they're captured — so there's no post-meeting data entry.

Emma says (voice note):

"Sarah mentioned the candidate needs to be comfortable with on-call, roughly 1 week in 4. Ideally previous FinTech experience."

Kyra adds to mandate:

  • + On-call rotation: 1 in 4 weeks
  • + FinTech background: Nice-to-have
4

THE PIVOT

"If we change this, we double the pool"

During the meeting, Kyra shows Sarah exactly what each change to the role would do to her candidate pool. She can see the consequences of her decisions in real time.

Mandate Optimiser — Live impact view

Adjust parameters to see the effect on your candidate pool

Salary Cap

£110k £120k ✓
Previous pool: 342 candidates New pool: +18% → ~403 candidates

Remote Policy

Hybrid 2d/wk ✓

If you moved to fully remote: +31% pool. If you moved to 3 days in office: -22% pool.

Fully Remote
+31%
Hybrid 2d (current)
Baseline
3 Days In
-22%

Equity Offering

0.1% options added ✓

Equity mention in JD increases application rate from FinTech candidates by estimated +12%.

Updated Competitiveness Score

After all changes applied

67% 84%

Highly Competitive

5

THE MANDATE

Sarah approves. Emma searches.

The meeting ends with an approved, complete Search Mandate — not a promise to "follow up on a few things". Sarah's approval is the green light Emma needs to search with confidence.

SEARCH MANDATE — APPROVAL REQUIRED

Senior DevOps Engineer

TechStart Ltd · Submitted by Emma Wilson

Salary

£85–120k + 0.1% options

Location

Hybrid — 2 days/week

Visa

Yes — sponsored

Competitiveness

84% ✓

Must-haves:

5+ yrs DevOps/SRE Kubernetes (production) Terraform On-call comfortable

Nice-to-haves:

FinTech background Team lead experience

Sarah, does this accurately reflect what you need?

Kyra will notify Emma immediately upon approval

Sarah approved in 1 click

Emma received the go-ahead in real time. Search begins immediately. No more "I'll confirm after I speak to HR."

6

HER VIEW

Sarah's hiring dashboard

Sarah doesn't have to email Emma to find out "where things are." She has a live view of every open role — candidates submitted, pending, interviewed. Total clarity.

Your Open Roles

5 active • Q1 hiring target: 5 engineers

3

Interviews booked

7

Submitted to you

12

Being assessed

Senior DevOps Engineer

Posted today · 84% competitive

9

Assessed

3

Submitted

1

Interviewing

Active

Senior Backend Engineer

Day 8 · 77% competitive

14

Assessed

4

Submitted

2

Interviewing

Active

Engineering Manager

⚠ Awaiting your approval — mandate complete

—

Assessed

—

Submitted

—

Interviewing

Staff Engineer

Day 12 · 91% competitive

18

Assessed

5

Submitted

2

Interviewing

Active
K

A brief that actually
moves things forward.

Sarah now knows what she can offer, what she's competing against, and what tradeoffs she can make. The conversation shifted from "what do you need?" to "here's what the data says — what do you want to do about it?"

67→84%

Competitiveness jump from one 30-min conversation

1 click

To approve the mandate and unblock the search

Live

Pipeline visibility — no more "where are we?" emails

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